Location-based search membership platform development for the British Psychoanalytic Council

Membership management platform improving access to psychotherapy through a location-based search. We migrated the membership portal from Drupal to WordPress with CRM.

Detail

Client: British Psychoanalytic Council
Location: London, UK
Aftercare: Hosting, support and maintenance

What we did

User experience research
Bespoke WordPress website
Membership portal
CRM integration
Location-based search

The British Psychoanalytic Council (BPC) is the UK’s leading professional association and accredited public register for psychoanalytic psychotherapy.

The BPC’s previous website had become outdated. The design, information architecture and content of the website was not meeting the needs of the BPC members and website users.

The old site was hosted on a version of Drupal that had become unsupported, posing a security risk for the organisation.

Thanks for delivering a new website that’s so easy to navigate and update. We’ve received plenty of positive feedback. It better reflects the BPC’s professional reputation, as well as being easier for our audiences to use. BrightMinded were responsive and reliable to work with and provided creative solutions throughout the whole process.

Richard English Communications Manager, BPC

What we achieved:

A website members love
The BPC members find the new website much easier to use and find the information they need.
Better for the BPC team
The new website allows BPC members to book and pay for events and update their profiles themselves. This saves the team at BPC so much time in admin. They can now focus their time on better serving their members.
Better access to psychotherapy services
The location-based search of the BPC database makes it much easier to find a qualified psychotherapist nearby.

What we did

We undertook user experience research to understand the needs of the various stakeholders. This involved stakeholder interviews and user journey workshops. The Board and Trustees of the BPC were heavily involved in this process.

From this research, we developed a set of personas and re-designed the information architecture of the site to make it easier for users to find the content relevant to them.

Based on this solid grounding of user experience research, we built a brand-new WordPress website and migrated BPC from their Millertech Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system to CiviCRM, which we integrated into their website.

CiviCRM is open-source software, so we were able to write our own custom extensions to extend how it works. This allowed us to tailor the member registration and renewal process to the specific needs of the BPC. We also added custom development to deliver a location-based search feature for finding a therapist near you.

Updated April 2025

Since moving to BrightMinded: Increased membership registrations at BPC

An infographic reflecting data for the British Psychoanalytic Council's memberships since their move to BrightMinded CMS and CRM. 20% increase in membership registrations. Circles in Brightminded red and green brand style dotted around. The data is written in white on top of a darkened image of a woman smiling at her laptop.

It has been a few years since we began working with the wonderful team at BPC. On top of ongoing communications, we recently took the opportunity for a more in-depth catch-up to reflect on how both the internal team and the members have evolved since our collaboration.

We were delighted to receive positive feedback from Laura at BPC, who expressed that the council has seen a nearly 20% increase in membership registrations since BrightMinded came on board and migrated BPC’s old system to our efficient website with integrated CRM, designed to streamline membership operations and reduce manual workloads.

Less manual labour and improved membership retention

An infographic reflecting data for the British Psychoanalytic Council's memberships since their move to BrightMinded CMS and CRM. A quote about 'less manual input needed by the membership officers but the retention rate for those memberships is better.' The white text is on top of a n image of a person cutting wood with their saw. Circles in Brightminded red and green brand style dotted around.

The internal team also highlighted that there is now ‘less manual input needed by [BPC’s] membership officers, but the retention rate for those memberships is better.’ Music to our ears!

As a software partner dedicated to making membership organisations thrive and operate smoothly, we are thrilled to hear their satisfaction with the solution we deliver.

But what did the members have to say?

Members can see the difference…

An infographic reflecting data for the British Psychoanalytic Council's memberships since their move to BrightMinded CMS and CRM. A picture of a man of Asian descent smiling broadly with hands over his head. A members quote in a white rectangle which says the website is so much easier to use and much more professional. Circles in Brightminded red and green brand style dotted around.

It’s not just the BPC team who have noticed the difference, the members have spoken up too. Feedback from users has been overwhelmingly positive, with many commenting that the site is much ‘easier to use than the old clunky’ one and far ‘more professional.’

But we never rest on our laurels, so we’re continuously working on further digital improvements and opportunities to ensure associations we support benefit from state-of-the-art software development, sustainable practices, user-first experiences and latest design and technology integrations.

A big thank you to the BPC team for their ongoing commitment to the community through their great work and for our successful and ever-evolving collaboration.

Keep an eye out for future updates from BrightMinded and BPC.