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At risk

Written by Christine Allen

Thursday, 15 July 2010

The lack of regulation in the counselling profession is allowing unqualified people to run counselling services in Cork, according to the Irish Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy (IACP). With a total of 530 IACP members operating in the southern region, the IACP has called for regulation to prevent vulnerable clients being put at risk.

Geraldine Burke, Chairperson of the IACP Southern Regional Committee, told the Cork Independent that she was aware of unqualified operators running counselling services in Cork.

"There are people working as counsellors who have not trained or are not accredited with anybody. There is more to the job than just being a good listener. "Counsellors and psychotherapists deal with a range of sensitive issues. A person may be feeling vulnerable when they attend a counsellor or psychotherapist," said Ms Burke, who runs an IACP accredited counselling service in the city.

"It requires a high level of qualification to deal appropriately with sensitive and complex issues, such as anxiety, abuse, addiction, or relationship difficulties," she said. She explained that it takes five to six years to gain accreditation as an IACP registered counsellor or psychotherapist.

"Yet, anyone could do a year or three-week course, buy business cards and hang a sign outside the door, without any qualifications." She said that clients should be wary of counsellors who ask inappropriate questions during sessions.

"People need to ask if their counsellor is accredited too and ask for certificates to prove qualifications. And clients should not be asked about anything which has no relevance to the issues they are dealing with. At all times, boundaries must never be crossed.

"A number of my clients have even discussed their bad experiences with counsellors who we know are not qualified or accredited." However, she said the nature of the service was preventing people from speaking up about dodgy services.

"Vulnerable clients don't want to complain as their sessions are personal and private. This is why we need a regulation of the profession," she said. According to the IACP, anxiety and depression are most frequently occurring reason for people visiting counsellors or psychotherapists.

Naoise Kelly, National Director of IACP, said this week that the Association's accredited members must also fulfil further requirements. "Members of the public may not be aware of the levels of qualification required to be an IACP accredited counsellor or psychotherapist." He said that members also had to complete ongoing professional development to maintain their accreditation.

Comments (7) »

Please note
written by tom flood, February 09, 2012

In the comment below I said: "I find nothing that tells me that the service (more notably in private practice)holds greater emphasis on financial reward."

This should have read:I find nothing that tells me that the service (more notably in private practice)holds nothing other than a greater emphasis on financial reward.

But?
written by tom flood, February 09, 2012

The problem is not about an individual being accredited by an orginisation or other professional body that accredits counsellors. The problem lies in the method by which counsellors achieve and retain that accreditation. This is where the pyramid system appears to take hold in counselling services. Judging by the short response from the IACP, would vindicate my initial belief that financial gain and a closed shop system of control is to the forefront of the system. I can understand and appreciate the need for people to attend refresher courses (this is done in all professions)and courses that enhance the professional standard of a counsellor but handing your ongoing mentor an attendance handshake who in turn hands another mentor a handshake is nothing short of pymarid selling.Having to attend 'If you do' 'But if you don't' in house system courses that look favourably or unfavourably on one's future accreditation, is only short of placing a gun to a counsellors head. In my reseach of the counselling industry, I find nothing that tells me that the service (more notibly in private practice)holds greater emphasis on financial reward. In finalising my comments I must emphasise that not all counsellors provide counselling services purely for reward, unfortunately finding a committed counsellor(espicially in private practice)who holds the interest of the client above the fee her or she charge, is a little like trying to find a needle in a haystack.

continue1
written by tom flood, October 18, 2010

The counsellor then went on to ask the client for €65.00 for the pleasure of getting an invite to speak. Whose interest was addressed by this initial contact? Did the client book a return visit and was the client damaged more by the emphasis placed on finance gain rather that her own personal problems. Is counselling a business first or a service that helps people overcome problems that make them feel hopeless, rejected and insecure?

It is not my intention to knock the IACP, I just want to find answers to these concerns and open a debate about 'In whose interest do we provide the service'? Doctors and consultants are highly skilled people, yet (as we are beginning to see and experience in our health services)if you are prepared to pay a doctor or consultant for his or her's services in hard cash (outside the health service) then you can avail of their services that will enhance your ability to return to a better health. This can be seen every day of the week when you are given an appointment to see a consultant in a public hospital, the advice and attention is limited, a kind of yellow pack service, yet if you attend the same consultant in lets say the Hermitage Private Clinic, you are give the attention and service by the same consultant just short of fitting your slippers-on so you will not feel the cold of the floor. Doctors and consultants are extremely professional people, they are people we cannot live without and they are people who command a respect that makes them different from us mere mortals, yet their services are driven by the vast sums of money they command and demand in order to save those who cling onto life in desperation. Public health services are being dismantled from within the system by the same people who are supposed to cherish and all human life equally. For the girl I knew who required help from someone, anyone who would listen, her first line of professional contact proved not as professional as she would have thought. Because of her lack of finance she was allowed to creep back into the world of those who are troubled and unseen, she never even got a follow up call of ' how are you, we have not heard from you recently' nothing, simply because business prevailed over concern. Oh she got many calls on the day from the husband and wife counselling team when she initially telephoned for help. When she displayed her inability to meet the €65 charge (she gave them €45) she was quickly dismissed as a non runner for the taking.
This was a 1 in 8 that got away.
17-10-2010

continue
written by tom flood, October 18, 2010

Doctors can provide a counselling service yet they have may not have required a specialised skill in this field of work nor as doctors do they require a supervisor (paid by client) for the rest of their lives in order to practice medicine. Priests see themselves as counsellors, they openly profess their ability to counsel parishioners on a variety of issues, yet nobody questions or criticises the clergy for their non-professional participation in the professional field of counselling and therapy. I would feel more comfortable if the hint of a business interest was removed from the association. In reading the contents of the IACP website I cannot but come to the conclusion that apart from holding a relevant qualification, in order to become part of the association one needs to continue to invest in the financial wellbeing of another member. If regulated, the system will in time (if it has not done already) become a cartel that requires new members to contribute to the financial prosperity of those above them. Providing accreditation based on courses the IACP feel appropriate, courses provided by institution such as NUI Maynooth or TCD, institution with a high tradition of educational standards, yet their courses must meet with the blessing of the IACP, is yet another method of promoting the closed shop process. Something did not feel right many years ago and I still feel the same about the association. Their intentions are sound but the methods by which they promote the professional standards required in order to secure people of a professional competence that will provide their clients with first class counselling and therapy services are lost to the back of the mind thoughts of a business interest over the interest of the clients. I know a girl who required a counselling service, she was at a very sever stage of depression. She contacted a professional counsellor (IACP) member who invited her to her home "just for a chat, a chance to get to know one another, a chance to speak one to one".

the hint of a business interest
written by tom flood, October 18, 2010

Pardon me if I sound a negative note of concern, but some years ago I made an enquiry with the IACP about training to become a counsellor. After receiving all the relevant information by post I carefully went through the information line by line. What was becoming apparent to me was a very subtle and polished-up version of pyramid selling, you know the type where I pay you, you pay him and he pays someone else in order to keep the system in a merry go round of financial gain. While I appreciate the need to maintain standards in professional practice, the need to literally maintain the financial wellbeing of an ongoing supervisor who in turn maintains the wellbeing of yet another supervisor runs shivers through my bones. The urgent desire by the IACP to close loopholes(legislation) that enable individuals to set-up counselling services without the relevant qualifications is somewhat dismissed by a requirement that obliges students or active counsellors for that part to provide a 'A minimum ratio of 1-8 supervision hours to client hours', I then ask the question "If my main goal is to impress the supervisor and I do this with the greatest of skill then what happens if I do not give two monkeys about whatever happens after that supervision"? In other words I can provide a counselling service of One Hundred hours with only twelve hours of supervised counselling to account for. What happens to the poor sods who were forced to listen (or not for that part) to me going on about their problems. When I look at the fees attached to membership of the IACP I find myself being drawn to the conclusion that this is more of a business that uses in an very subtle and indirect way a polished up version pyramid selling that uses the provision of human supervision as the product.

...
written by IACP, July 16, 2010

The Irish Association for Counselling & Psychotherapy (IACP) provide a free online directory of all IACP Accredited Counsellors & Psychotherapists in every county in Ireland. Log on to www.iacp.ie to view the directory or call the IACP National Referral Helpline on 01-272 34 27

Counselling Directory
written by Andy, July 15, 2010

The lack of regulation in the counselling profession is one of the motivations for the development of the www.counsellingdirectory.ie website. This website now has in excess of 700 listings - all individuals listed on the site have to be accreditied with AN organisation which accredits counsellors...

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