BODIES REPRESENTING PSYCHOTHERAPISTS will tell TDs and Senators today that they are massively opposed to proposed new standards for their profession. 

Representatives from the Irish Council for Psychotherapy (ICP) and the Irish Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy (IACP) will appear before the Oireachtas Health Committee this morning. They will be joined by representatives from the health and social care regulator, Coru.

In the opening statement submitted by the ICP, which represents 2,100 accredited psychotherapists, the body’s ceo Rúaidhrí O’Connor, warns that should standards proposed by Coru be accepted, it will “spell an end to the profession of psychotherapy in Ireland as we know it”.

He also warns that it will “damage Ireland’s standing internationally and, most importantly of all, place the public at great risk”.

Coru put forward new regulations in July, which aim to tackle the issue of fake or ill-trained therapists.

A big concern raised by the bodies representing psychotherapists is that under the proposed standards, new psychotherapists will not have to undergo mandatory personal therapy training sessions themselves.

O’Connor will tell members of the Oireachtas Health Committee today that such therapy is “essential” as it mitigates the risk of therapists “carrying their own unexamined biases and their own unresolved issues into work with deeply vulnerable people”. 

He will tell TDs that while the ICP supports and has long pushed for state regulation of the profession, it must express “urgent concern” that the proposed framework from Corun would “undermine the very standards it purports to protect”. 

Similarly, IACP ceo Lisa Molloy, whose organisation represents more than 6,500 counsellors and psychotherapists across the State, will tell the committee that she “cannot emphasise enough the devastating damage” the proposed standards will have on the availability and quality of mental health services.

She says in her opening statement submitted to the committee: “The impact of these regulations will cause a reduction of practitioners entering the professions and a lowering of training standards at a time when we are seeing a mental health crisis in Ireland, people will not have access to the care they so desperately need.”

In particular, Molloy is critical of the raising of the minimum education standard for psychotherapy from an NFQ Level 8 up to Level 9.

She is also highly critical that the Minister for Health, Jennifer Carroll MacNeill, has not yet completed a mandatory regulatory impact assessment, which is required under legislation.

Molloy calls on the Minister to revoke the standards and criteria that were adopted in July. 

Defending the new standards, Coru ceo, Claire O’Cleary, tells the committee in her opening statement that the standards have been “broadly supported”.

“Transitioning to statutory regulation is a significant change and it is natural that
concerns arise. But CORU has introduced regulation to many professions, and we
bring that experience to this work,” she says.

O’Cleary argues that delaying regulation would leave people in need of the support of counsellors and psychotherapists unprotected for longer.

The committee will get underway at 9.30 am this morning.