Open letter to Professional Standards authority

Published: 23 Mar 2020

Authored by: Partners for Counselling and Psychotherapy

22nd March 2020

Dear Christine Braithwaite,

This e-mail (which is an open letter and will be published on our website) comes to you from Partners in Counselling and Psychotherapy (PCP). We are a broad front of organisations that are deeply concerned about current directions of travel in accreditation and regulation.

Although newly constituted, you will already know some of our member organisations, such as the National Counselling Society, Counsellors Together UK, the Psychotherapy and Counselling Union, the Alliance for Counselling and Psychotherapy, and the Black, African and Asian Therapy Network.

Our various memberships exceed 19,000 practitioners, most of whom are on PSA ARs. This is our website: https://www.partnersforcounsellingandpsychotherapy.co.uk/

We seek a meeting with you, using on-line or conference call methods. Our group would have three people in it. Here is a list of some of the things we would like to explore:

(1) How we and the PSA can work better together to promote and protect the PSA’s regulatory approach so as to stem the tide of accusations that it is useless because ‘anyone can call themselves a therapist’. For example, PCP would like to contribute to your thinking about a national advertising campaign.

(2) How the PSA might develop guidance for the ARs with regard to the problem of practitioners who are struck off your ARs but remain in practice in a virtually identical manner. PCP has various ideas about the matter.

(3) We would like to raise the question of the PSA’s response to moves that are afoot to produce career pathways for therapists within the NHS that would disadvantage counsellors and psychotherapists on your ARs in favour of clinical psychologists and other practitioners of Cognitive Behavioural Therapy.

We think that a meeting would be mutually advantageous and we look forward to hearing from you.

Best wishes,

Erin Stevens, for Partners for Counselling and Psychotherapy:

Psychotherapists and Counsellors for Social Responsibility
National Counselling Society
Psychotherapy and Counselling Union
Counsellors Together UK
The Alliance for Counselling and Psychotherapy
The Person-Centred Association
The College of Psychoanalysts
The Free Psychotherapy Network
UK Person Centred Experiential
Drop the Disorder
Surviving Work
The Black, African and Asian Therapy Network