I totally agree. I qualified in a related area in which I had to complete a four year degree to get a license. Unregulated this is dangerous. Succesive governments have promised to regulate these areas for years but so far usual lies.

Regulation in psychotherapy and counselling will only be a good thing.
Get rid of the Con-jobs

Youve no idea the pain me and my wife went through because of the state of regulation around this in Ireland. A place called Tabor, I`m not afraid to mention the name because if they want to complain let them and I will happily take them to court. They advertised a degree in Psychoterapy at their “Cabin” in Mullingar which turned out to be a large shed.. It basically was a scam and their so called training consisted of my wife being sucked in a demi-cult where every penny possible was squeezed out of us and the course owner Janette would intimidate and even fail students regardless of their academic performance if they didnt pay for the additional services required to qualify for the degree to the extent Janette even told my wife she had the power to visit people in their dreams and she would visit my wife to let her know why she should take on extra courses that Janette would take payment for.
The most worrying thing is that people who do cough up all the cash to Tabor go on to treat patients with real issues and traumas and the graduates of Tabor treat these people with no real ability or knowledge on how to treat.
In the end it cost us €40k over 3 years and alot of heartache before I managed to get my wife out of the grip of Janette and Tabor. Its a disgrace that these scam artists can get away with this in 2013.

Of course they should be regulated. I heard of a chancer who was counselling an old guy for some trauma and got the ‘patient’ to sign over his house and everything to him and then fled the country.

A much needed policy.

Totally agree- wasn’t there a case a few years ago in Rathgar where a ‘therapist’ was conning unwell people out of thousands? Disgusting.

No-brainer.

Anyone who presents themselves as a medicinal advisor needs to be accredited by a reputable organisation.

Doctors spend an enormous amount of time, money and effort to be able to practice.

Therapists, counsellers and ( worst of the worst ) Alternative medicine practitioners can set up shop with a Mickey Mouse certificate gained from a weekend-long course, or bought over the Internet, or without any qualification at all.

It makes a mockery of medical standards, and means there’s absolutely no established standard of service.

As it is, anyone seeking medicinal help from anyone who is not a registered medicinal doctor should ask for clear details of the service-providers credentials. If the service-provider gets huffy or defensive, drop them.

Buyer beware. Nothing worse than self-proclaimed experts with a thimbleful of knowledge and a sackful of ego.

Regulation is greatly needed at home. Whats more perplexing is the lack of psychotherapy and counselling jobs, matched by the tiny ammount of clinical and counselling psychology places in colleges. Its bordering on impossible to get onto these courses to which twelve places are allocated in a small few universities, you literallybcould tick all the boxes required and not get it in over ten years applying. Who loses out? People with the mental health problems. Have started looking at alternative postgrads because no job means no mortgage being paid.

Totally agree.

Here is a transcript of a letter sent to IACP a few years ago.

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As a user at the *sharp end* of mental health services your organisation does not provide any insight into how mental health professionals – or their representative association – ensure good standards of practice for prospective patients.

My own experience is that quality is NOT a guarantee.

Over 15 years I have been referred to four different therapists with varied results. Two of the people I was recommended to see were next to useless.

Their approaches were so “holistic” and fuzzy as to be totally ineffective. Of course, it may be that I was referred to the wrong type of carer. But if that is so, why did two different GPs fail to make correct suggestions? Is that reflective of experience in general?

Another member of my family has had similar complaints.

He has also attended several therapists and his view is that unless you fit a desired “type” (e.g. “the downtrodden woman”, “the repressed homosexual”) some counsellors are simply not interested.

Their lack of empathy shows itself in a mistrust of the symptoms you describe. Unless you can somehow
manufacture a break-down in front of them, they may not believe you.

What I am saying is that our experience at the sharp end of mental health care delivery is NOT wholly positive. Some carers are out of their depth and patients are being referred to them that they cannot possibly help.

But, of course these unlucky patients may have to spill their guts for 6 weeks (at up to 80 euro a go) before they learn that – “Sorry, I don’t think this is going anywhere”.

Demand for mental health services is increasing whilst the supply of quality professionals remains low. This
implies that industry revenue is growing, i.e. it is getting richer.

The industry should use this extra income to offer a free assessment service to people seeking a mental health intervention. I believe marriage counselling services do the same (www.mrcs.ie) by giving couples a free assessment before they recommend a counsellor.

Such a measure would encourage uptake of services, remove the onus from GPs to make (often ill-informed) referrals, and most importantly ensure patients receive the right type of care.

We at Helplink, http://www.helplink.ie, completely agree that the area of counselling and psychotherapy needs to be regulated. In fact it is surprising that it wasn’t 100% of people thinking that the area of counselling should be regulated by the government.

If you new your GP looking after your physical health was not regulated then simply you wouldn’t go to him/her, in fact it would be dangerous to do so! The same premise should operate with your counsellor, you need to be confident that you are seeing someone who is qualified and regulated properly before they help you to take care of your mental health.

It is shocking the amount of people out there that are messing with people’s minds who are not qualified and frankly these snake oil sales people should be ashamed of themselves and dare I say it brought before the courts.

Helplink’s low cost national counselling service only employs professional accredited or pre-accredited, insured AND also Garda vetted counsellors.

Regulation what a joke! Currently a social worker and registration is €295 but has been reduced to a once off fee of €100 if we vote yes to accept Croke Park 2! Yes, the registration that is meant to protect the public from Social Work bad practice is negotiable! I am skeptical of Government regulation if this is the approach the Government takes!

I remember back in the 70′s watching TV shows where we were introduced here in Ireland to the latest American fads ‘Head shrinks’ otherwise know as Psychotherapists, there was a lot of pressure back then in the 70′s and early 80′s for people who had issues to go visit these guys (It was a burgeoning business back then in Ireland).

The buzz words if you didn’t go to one of these therapists was ‘your old fashioned’ ‘it’s not cool’ or in the case of Men ‘Ah jasus your’e afraid of talkin about your feelins’ that is of course until we discovered our friends, what ever happened to talking to them, nothing of course except that it takes money away from the ‘ex spurt’ P.S. I have the bestest friends eva!!!!

Does that mean that 80% of the existing councillors would be struck off? Some of the doctors were struck off as they are dreadful at their jobs eg Neary. We as a nation prescribe the most anti depressants in Europe so it seems to me that the qualified people who are regulated ie doctors and mental health professionals could be struck off. They cut guidance councillors time and that is more important as the younger the person is the better chance of helping with emotional and mental illness.