Regulation of counsellors and psychotherapists would protect patients

Readers respond to the recommendation by an independent commission that the profession be regulated

The independent commission established by the professional bodies that represent counsellors and psychotherapists in the UK makes a case for statutory regulation that is long overdue (Report, 2 November). Ella Janneh, who won damages in a civil case against her therapist, is right that most people assume the safeguards already exist, and the commission is right to say that they do not. What happened to her shows what that mistaken assumption can cost.

I write as the chairperson of the Irish Association of Humanistic and Integrative Psychotherapy and as a psychotherapist for more than 20 years. I trained in the UK and have practised in Ireland ever since. In both countries, personal therapy and supervised practice have long been the foundation of training.

Coru, Ireland’s health regulator, has overruled its own counsellors and psychotherapists registration board and published training standards requiring no personal therapy, no clinical supervision and no minimum training duration if it can be believed, despite strong opposition from the main training and accreditation bodies.

Requiring personal therapy and supervision is essential. It helps to screen out those unfit to hold power. Without these standards, abuse survivors risk being failed again. Clients deserve a therapist who has worked through their own pain, rather than bringing it into the room with a vulnerable person. Statutory regulation must safeguard the integrity of the profession and protect the public by placing personal therapy and clinical supervision at its core. A regulated title offers no real protection if the training behind it has been hollowed out. Jacky Grainger Irish Association of Humanistic and Integrative Psychotherapy

At last there is interest in statutory regulation for counsellors and psychotherapists. This is not the first time this idea has been broached. Indeed, the profession previously made great efforts to interest the government in controlling the title. As early as 1991, the UK Council for Psychotherapy was discussing the route to this. The Liberal Democrat peer John Alderdice tried to interest David Cameron’s government, but it was dismissed as not important.

It took me seven years to become a psychotherapist, with personal therapy throughout. We need counsellors and psychotherapists who understand, through their own experience, the emotional difficulty of undertaking therapy, but who also have the intellectual background and ethical integrity to help others to change and move forward with their lives. Lesley Murdin Former director, WPF Therapy

Not all counsellors and psychotherapists want statutory regulation. While many of us share concerns about harmful therapists at work, we also know that legally protecting titles does not eradicate abuse or malpractice – it may even hide abuse behind enhanced professional status. We also need to be cautious of unintended consequences of statutory regulation, which could further restrict access for marginalised groups due to increased costs for training and accreditation.

The current system of therapists accredited by the Professional Standards Authority may be imperfect, but offers potential ways forward that deserve close attention before we rush into the statutory protection of titles. Andy Rogers BACP-registered counsellor and psychotherapist, Basingstoke, Hampshire

Your report on the call for statutory regulation of counsellors and psychotherapists highlights a gap in public protection that should have been addressed years ago.

It’s extraordinary that someone seeking mental healthcare, often at a particularly vulnerable point in their life, cannot necessarily take for granted that the person treating them is appropriately qualified or subject to enforceable professional standards.

As the founder and CEO of an independent mental healthcare organisation, I welcome the call for change from the commission established by the professional bodies, but would argue that regulating individual practitioners is only part of the answer. We also need to examine the ethical conduct of organisations providing mental healthcare, including the transparency of their relationships, whether referrals are always made in patients’ best interests and how conflicts of interest are managed.

Last month, in response to these concerns, we partnered with colleagues across the sector to launch the Independent Mental Healthcare Ethical Practice Charter, establishing shared principles for greater transparency, accountability and ethical practice.

Statutory regulation of practitioners is long overdue, but it should be accompanied by greater scrutiny of the organisations operating within the sector. Maryam Meddin Founder and CEO, the Soke

The case made for statutory regulation of psychotherapists applies equally to sports therapists. People seek sports therapy for injury treatment, pain management and rehabilitation. Yet “sports therapist” is not a legally protected title. Voluntary registers provide some reassurance, but cannot prevent an unregistered, inadequately qualified individual from using the title.

In worst-case scenarios, we have seen individuals struck off from other statutory registers for abusing patients, only to reinvent themselves as “sports therapists” and continue to pose a threat to the public. The Society of Sports Therapists has been seeking statutory regulation for years to ensure that the public can identify who is properly qualified, and for action to be taken against those who present a risk. The Health and Care Professions Council has approved our application on three separate occasions, but the necessary legislative action has still not followed. Significantly, 94% of our members support this change.

It is high time that the government applied the same public protection principle across therapeutic professions and completed the process. Regulation is not a badge of professional status; it is a safeguard for patients and a means of protecting the many responsible practitioners who deserve public confidence. Simon Bowen CEO, the Society of Sports Therapists