Recommendations for a registration board to govern counsellors and psychotherapists is being presented to the Government today, writes Ronan McGreevy
PSYCHOTHERAPISTS AND counsellors should have a minimum of seven years' training before being allowed to practise independently, a report presented to Government today will state.
The Psychological Therapies Forum, which represents 22 different organisations involved in psychotherapy and counselling, said those interested in qualifying for the profession need at least a primary degree and four years of training to a master's level.
That would include 250 hours of personal psychotherapeutic experience, 500-800 hours of theory or methodology, 300-600 hours of supervised clinical practice with clients, and a clinical placement in a mental health or psycho-social setting.
This afternoon the forum will present recommendations for the statutory training and regulation of counselling and psychotherapy to John Moloney, Minister of State at the Department of Health and Children with responsibility for mental health.
Those involved in the submission include the marriage guidance counselling organisation Accord, along with groups affiliated to the Irish Council for Psychotherapy (ICP) and the Irish Institute of Counselling and Hypnotherapy.
The aim is that psychotherapists and counsellors will be included in the next phase of the professions to be considered for regulation under the Health and Social Care Professional Act 2005.
The submission will go before the Health Council that is entrusted with looking at the inclusion of health and care professions to come under State regulation and registration.
The forum is seeking a registration board titled "Psychological Therapists" for counsellors and psychotherapists and has recommended baseline academic qualifications for entry to training, and baseline qualification and experience for registration.
Forum representative Derval Ryan says the current situation where people can set themselves up as therapists and counsellors without recognised qualifications was doing both the public and the profession itself a grave disservice.
"The difficulty is that somebody could put a plate outside their door in the morning and say 'I'm a counsellor' and you might have no training and there are absolutely no sanctions to stop you doing that, and if you are not a member of any organisation, who does the client complain to?" she says.
"For psychotherapy, just for entry to training, we would require a primary degree in human sciences - psychological, education or social - and then for registration as a psychotherapist, we would be looking for a minimum of four years of training in a specific psychotherapy level at master level.
"We're applying a standard which is prevalent in Europe at the moment where the minimum standard is seven years of training, which includes personal therapeutic experience and supervised practice."
The forum represents 5,000 professionals currently affiliated to various organisations.
She says that at present there is a process of self-regulation by a number of professional organisations which lay down for their members strict standards of ongoing education, training and ethics as well as a complaints system to protect the public, but not everybody engaged in the profession is affiliated to such bodies.
"While this works very well for those who are accredited to a professional body, there is no redress for complaints against practitioners who are not members of a professional body," she says.
"It is possible for anybody to call herself or himself a counsellor or psychotherapist, and to set up in practice without the required training and competence and there is no redress board or sanctions for complaints against them and indeed no way to prevent practitioners who have been disciplined by their accrediting body from continuing to practice."
The Health and Social Care Professionals Bill already provides for the statutory registration of 12 other health and social care professions including psychology and social work.
Psychotherapy and counselling services were not included in the original Bill because of the disparate nature of the profession which at the moment has more than 20 registered bodies.
"Essentially, the minister at the time [Tim O'Malley] said that he could not make head or tail of it.
"He said that he could not regulate us until we brought some type of order to it and that is what we have been attempting to do," says Derval Ryan.
The forum was established three years ago to formulate the guidelines which will be presented to John Maloney today.
The groups involved met on 15 occasions between November 2005 and April 2008. The participating organisations in the process spent €150,000 putting the submission together.
The group has formulated four specific recommendations which involve minimum standards, holding practitioners to regulation, taking action when practitioners do not meet standards and protecting the profession and its reputation.
The problems with the absence of regulation were underlined by the experience of clients associated with Roebuck Consulting Ltd, based in south Dublin, who complained that huge sums of money were taken from them for "life mentoring".
The National Association for Pastoral Counselling and Psychotherapy (NAPCP), which is involved in today's submission, revoked the membership of Claire Hoban, one of the counsellors attached to Roebuck, finding that she had "seriously, flagrantly and frequently violated" its ethics code.
However, the centre itself was not a member of the NAPCP and remained open.
Ryan says statutory regulation would ensure that organisations such as Roebuck would face censure.
"There is not a lot we can do to stop cowboys practising without statutory regulation," she says.
Gilford D'Souza, chairman of the Irish Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy, says the imperative to have statutory regulation would protect individuals who, by definition of seeking such services, were potentially vulnerable to exploitation.
"How would you like to visit a GP whose only training is visiting weekend workshops, and imagine if you let that continue in relation to mental and emotional health?
"We need statutory regulation to protect the public from therapists who do not belong to accredited bodies.
"Most responsible therapists would belong to accredited bodies which have codes of ethics, training and a complaints procedure, but it is not necessary to belong to such an organisation to practise.
"Counselling and psychotherapy is a powerful way of working with people in relation to the emotional, mental and psychological wellbeing and health. If it is used irresponsibly, it can damage people, cause distress and cause people to be misled," he says.