I feel incredibly let down by my professional body – an organisation I have been a member of for almost 35 years and where I am a Senior Accredited Counsellor/Psychotherapist and a Fellow. They have indicated that they are likely NOT to be signing up for a revised Memorandum of Understanding on Conversion Therapy which would be extended to include trans and asexuality.
I am so frustrated by their constant inaction and lack of understanding the issues that I am resigning. Here are some of the reasons why:
As LGB and T people are over represented in the therapy-consuming population, due to demonstrably higher levels of mental distress and self harm there is an obvious and urgent need for counsellors to be able to provide skilled therapeutic support.
This is a rapidly changing field in terms of our knowledge about gender and sexual minority groups, language and concepts are continuously shifting especially with regard to trans issues.
There has been fairly recent legislation affecting LGB and T people’s rights, which therapists are likely to be unaware of. BACP has an obligation to ensure that therapists are to be kept up to date on all this.
Consistently research has demonstrated that LGB and T people have felt poorly served by therapists. As BACP is the largest counselling professional body it’s likely to be the case that there will be a great many members who have not responded appropriately.
In case you’re interested: Cordelia Galgut researched lesbians experiences of therapy, Iggi Moon conducted research into therapists attitudes to bisexuality, Tina Livingstone did a similar study but exploring therapists attitudes to trans people. Karen Pollock researched how comfortable suicidal trans people felt about seeking counselling. Bartlett et al did a large study on the response of mental health professionals to clients seeking help to change sexual orientation ALL found appalling attitudes by counselling professionals to gender, sexual and relationship diverse groups.
The MoU v1 items 18 and 19 make it an obligation that members of the signatory bodies i.e. BACP counsellors should be adequately trained to know how to best respond when someone presents with confusion over their sexual orientation or is seeking a reduction in their same sex attraction or a ‘cure’.
“18 Those with a responsibility for training will work to ensure that trainings prepare therapists to sufficient levels of cultural competence so they can work effectively with LGB clients;
19 Training organisations will refer to the British Psychological Society guidelines on working with gender and sexual minority clients when reviewing their curriculum on equality and diversity issues;”
BACP took two years to resolve a case where someone (an undercover journalist investigating gay cure therapy in Britain) sought the help of a BACP Senior Accredited therapist (Lesley Pilkington) and was offered ‘gay cure’ therapy. One of the major obstructions in the complaints process was to be able to find an unbiased/neutral complaints panel. I think BACP were also very scared that Pilkington was being defended by the Christian Legal Centre. BACP subsequently wrote to all members making it clear members were not to engage in reparative therapy, but have done very little to improve the confidence of therapists to know how best to respond to such requests from clients since then.
“14: For organisations with practitioner members, each will review their statements of ethical practice, and consider the need for the publication of a specific ethical statement concerning conversion therapy”
Today, I was informed in a “courtesy call, as a Fellow of BACP and someone very involved in these issues” that BACP don’t want to create an ever growing “list of orientations and conditions” [my emphasis], when the Ethical Framework already has principles which make unprofessional and incompetent practice unethical.
They want to just rely upon their Ethical Framework (and there is a new one out in July) which is based on ethical principles, currently they are: autonomy, trustworthiness, beneficence, non-maleficence, justice and self respect. http://www.bacp.co.uk/ethical_framework/ethics.php to ensure members act appropriately and ethically.
However, how are therapists supposed to be able to deliver competent and ethical therapy without specific training about gender, sexual and relationship diverse clients? For example, without knowledge of the specific mental health needs and socio-cultural contexts in which minority stress and micro aggressions contribute to much higher rates of depression, suicide and self harm, (with bisexuals and gender variant people having significantly poorer mental health than lesbians and gay men). Research into self harm amongst trans people shows that over 40% of trans people have attempted to take their lives or self harmed, about how relationship dynamics are often different amongst LGB people; about working with gender variant young people. There has been a 400% increase in referrals to the child and adolescent Gender Identity Development Unit at the Tavi and many therapists in community settings are working with young people and their families around gender identity issues. We are increasingly hearing stories from trans people about poor understanding of their issues. Including accounts from gender non-conforming young people being encouraged to follow to gender roles appropriate to the sex they were assigned at birth (i.e. boy’s shouldn’t play with dolls or dress in female clothing etc).
I think BACP are failing to support their members in learning how best to respond to gender, sexual and relationship diverse clients. The occasional article in the Therapy Today does not count as adequate attention to the training and development needs of it’s members.
It’s my view that BACP has become a large bureaucracy which has failed to use it’s power and resources to address the failures of the counselling profession to improve the quality of therapy for gender, sexuality and relationship diverse clients.
The decision as to whether to re-sign for an revised MoU inclusive of Trans and Asexuality has been referred to the Board of Governors who meet in March. It’s been indicated to me that it’s likely they will feel signing up will not be consistent with BACP’s policy and practice. I seriously doubt the Governors of BACP will be a particularly well informed group of individuals who will have their finger on the pulse regarding trans and asexuality issues so this a great way for the Executive of BACP to pass the buck. I’d be curious to see any briefing papers they have prepared for the Board on the issues involved in whether to sign back up to MoU v2.
I was proud to be made a Fellow of BACP back in 2007 for my “distinguished service to the field” but that award has been pretty hollow given how BACP have rarely sought advice and guidance on what they might need to be doing to meet the needs of their membership with regard to helping counsellors improve the mental health of our communities.
My BACP membership is due for renewal next month, but I will not be renewing and I will instead be taking up membership of a smaller but much more responsive professional body – the National Counselling Society who have indicated that they have voted for an inclusive MoU v.2 and that my status of a Senior Accredited member can be transferred to their organisation and that their Professional Standards Committee would welcome my application for a Fellowship. They are also keen to have have my expertise contribute to the way the organisation might support their members.
Perhaps other disaffected members of BACP might want to consider whether they want to continue their membership!
Dominic Davies
17 Feb 2016
Pink Therapy Blog 
You raise many important and potentially very complex issues Dominic. I admire your stance towards your experience with BACP and the reasons behind it. I guess not all therapists can be qualified enough to deal with every presenting issue. Where are you on meeting the person where they are at, so to speak and working with just that, where they are at, at that moment in their life.
We may be able to turn this yet, Dominic. I’ve been working for 6 years in UKCP to try to get sign up to an informed and inclusive statement on this but it got taken over by those in power but with no knowledge. Expert witnesses have been excluded from the conversation and research eliminated if it is not just about “conversion therapy”. I have a sort of complex PTSD from these events over the years and cannot believe the machinations to continue to distract from the failings in the big organisations in how they train members of their profession and treat members of the public. The most disheartening is the process of clinicians being dictated to by non-clinicians or people with no knowledge of working with Gender and Sexual Minorities. But we are close this time, at least not suffering so much in secret and isolation as before when it was each of us struggling alone in our big organisation. Let’s look at next possible strategies. We need numbers to protest as well.
How different organisations can be. 15 years ago, just a year post-transition, I was appointed the NACHP’s Gender Identity specialist and elected to the council.
Emma Martin (Clinical Psychotherapist retd)
I have found BACP to be rude & ignorant at times. Their attitude to members is dismissive. I was “randomly” audited two years running & on the second occasion did not fill in all the required sections. I got rude correspondence threatening removal from the register & giving very short deadlines. I don’t think they understand what it’s like to do a stressful job. I have now resigned as I gave up work but have had no acknowledgement of my resignation or the issues I raised. Considering they represent therapists their approach is very poor.
THANK YOU Dominic, BACP accreditation alone can be a warning signal for LGBTQIA people!
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Thanks Dominic for voicing a very important point. We are taught that being congruent with are clients are a necessity. We would expect our governing bodies to support all our clients whatever gender or sexual orientation.
I also now belong to another organisation
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This is the manifesto of a posting from OnLine events FaceBook page which might be relevant to the core issue at hand: there is no overarching body to the entire realm of therapy. I am interested in this for the political activism in this mission statement.
Psychotherapy and Counselling Union
“Standing up for therapists and therapy”
A single organisation working to :
– Bring together counsellors, psychotherapists and other practitioners from every corner of the field, including trainees, on an equal basis.
– Campaign for true diversity and equal opportunities in the therapy world, support individuals who are discriminated against
– Campaign to reform IAPT and other “therapy-lite” substitutes, while at the same time supporting IAPT practitioners with gheri grievances
– Campaign against the use of therapy to get people off benefits and/or back to work
– Change the system whereby starting practitioners have to work unpaid, often with very complex issues and without adequate support
– Campaign to defend and extend provision of open-ended therapy which is free at the point of contact, and where the client can choose their practitioner and modality
– Support and defend therapy against attacks from government and media, and against creeping medicalisation
– Establish a policy and research unit to develop solid positions on a wide range of issues
Melissa Apis: Here’s the wording of the missing overleaf:
Subscribe below
Following our Founding Conference on February 6th we are now warmly inviting
supporters, existing and new, to subscribe as Members. Membership of the Union is
open to all therapists and trainee therapists in the UK.
Subscriptions are as follows:
Practicing therapists: £60 per year, or £5 per month
Trainees, retired and unemployed therapists: £12 per year, or £1 per month
Members may also apply to pay the reduced subscription if their circumstances
require it.
If, as an existing Supporter, you would like to claim your original contribution against
your subscription, simply deduct and pay the balance.
Please fill in the form and return it by post or email to the address below. (If you are
already a supporter, just your name, email and payment details will be fine.)
NAME
ADDRESS
EMAIL
PHONE
YOUR PRACTICE (eg private/NHS/other organisation, qualified/trainee,
clients/supervision/training/management)
PAYMENT OF SUBSCRIPTIONS
Amount and date paid:
Please indicate if you are paying monthly/annually (cross one out)
Make your Standing Order payable to: Psychotherapy and Counselling Union
Unity Trust Bank plc, 60-83-01, 20357063; please use your name as reference.
Post or email the form to: PCU, 3 Churchill Road, Norwich, NR3 4PX
pcu.union@gmail.com
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Guess what the BACP news bulletin didn’t tell us all about? There’s a much deeper problem here though, to do with extremely low criteria for qualifying these days. If people don’t learn how to think rigorously, or don’t have the capacity to, no amount of training is going to give them the insights they need.
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Mmm. Many thanks for this. I wasn’t sure which body to join but after reading all the comments I’ve decided for the NCS which was my gut feeling anyway.
There are many reasons to get depressed and anxiety disorder. Thanks for sharing.
I am in Year 3 of a level 5 counselling course and our governing body is National Counselling Society. My colleagues and I have been looking for 100 hour placements and the discrimination from BACP counsellors and providers has been absolutely disgusting. We have been told that action is being taken and times are changing with greater emphasis on being able to offer different approaches to suit the individual needs of the client.
Well said Dominic . the sooner we eradicate the BACP the better in my opinion. I find them elitist in the extreme, after having my membership fees for over 15 years, i came to realise they were not serving me in any shape or form. The advertising leaflets in their magazines was the last straw for me. encouraging members to buy flowers from a certain florist, sign up to a alternative therapy retreat/course. Perhaps i should have sent them a stack of leaflets promoting my practice to send out with the magazine . Wholly unethical the promotion of certain products & therapists. we need to shout from the roof tops BACP IS NOT A GOVERNING BODY
I wrote to the BACP as a matter of courtesy to tell them i would not be continuing with my membership. after 15 years. Their response OK!!!!! says it all
BACP are problematic mainly because they propose a very metropolitan liberal middle class view of the world, they are not inclusive of other cultural viewpoints and I find them rather dogmatic. We need an inclusive ethical framework in counselling.