Dispute over new regulations for psychotherapists

The CEO of the regulator for health and social care professions, Claire O'Cleary, has defended new regulations for psychotherapists and counsellors despite criticism from representative groups.

CORU is in the process of bringing regulations into effect for counsellors and psychotherapists that will create baseline standards for both professions to operate in Ireland.

The sector has been calling for regulation for years as it will make it illegal to trade as a psychotherapist or counsellor without meeting specific criteria.

However, after CORU published its standards, psychotherapists began warning that the public will be at risk if the regulations on psychotherapy come into effect as they are.

Speaking on RTÉ's This Week, Ms O'Cleary said she understood their fears, but as it stands there are no legal standards in place for psychotherapists working in Ireland and therefore the public do not have protections currently.

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"There is always the concern there will be poor practice," she said.

"But the reality of it now is that there are counsellors and psychotherapists out there who could be delivering poor practice, who could be giving detrimental advice to vulnerable members of the public, and there is no recourse for that," Ms O'Cleary added.

The Irish Council for Psychotherapists (ICP) said that compared to what it has in place for its members, CORU's regulations for the profession would require fewer training hours, reduced clinical supervision and no requirement for personal therapy of the psychotherapist themselves.

Chair of the ICP's psychoanalytical section Anna Comerford claimed CORU's standards will lead to worse outcomes for patients due to "dumbing down of the training standards".

ICP board member and psychotherapist John O'Connor said they had a "real fear" that in several years' time, when the regulations are in effect, there will be psychotherapists who have only met the minimum requirements and will not be prepared to help ill and suffering people.

"The population of people who need help, will be accessing help that is really insufficient and people who are offering it will be unprepared. It will be difficult on both sides," Mr O'Connor said.

He added: "Whereas now, even though there are rogue operators, there are people who don't meet the criteria out there.

"There is a standard that we've been developing so we can be pretty confident that people who are registered with ICP are able to listen, to give the time and to be professionally competent to deal with the complexity of our work."

However, Ms O'Cleary said that making standards have a mandatory baseline will make the public safer and that having minimum standards in place does not make it the final standard.

"We are establishing statutory standards. So to say that you're diluting down a standard I think isn't accurate and it could be misleading to the public because there is no legally enforceable statutory standard there.

"I acknowledge the concerns some of the professional bodies have around placement hours, that they feel that those placement hours are not enough, and I know concerns have been raised by some of the professional bodies around personal therapy," Ms O'Cleary said.

She added that everyone could benefit from personal therapy, but it did not need to be a requirement for the profession.

"I don't agree with the view that there is only one way to develop a skill, that there's only one way to develop a competency.

"I think that can be demonstrated and we've heard that from the profession themselves," Ms O'Cleary said.

She added: "The reason the then-minister for health, Simon Harris, mandated that CORU regulate these professions [psychotherapy and counselling] was because of some of the investigative journalism through Prime Time during the repeal of the abortion legislation.

"It was discovered that people who were providing counselling and psychotherapy services were giving really poor and detrimental advice to women at a very vulnerable point in their lives.

"There was a real public concern around that and so it was agreed by the government that these professions should be regulated."

She said that there has been an increased emphasis on getting help for mental health issues adding to the impetus to regulate these professions.

ICP CEO Rúaidhrí O'Connor said: "Real lives will be ruined over a period of years by undercooked, undertrained future graduates from psychotherapy training courses versus what's there today."

Complaint filed to European Commission

Earlier this month, the Irish Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy (IACP), which represents more than 7,000 counsellors and psychotherapists, has formally lodged a complaint with the European Commission in relation to the implementation of CORU's new standards for counselling and psychotherapy.

IACP CEO Lisa Malloy said they filed the complaint because they feel the regulations as they stand are a "public safety issue", although the professional body welcomes regulation in general.

"Regulation has to be evidence-based, it has to be proportionate and above all it has to protect the public.

"We have serious concerns about aspects of these standards and that's why we've asked the European Commission to examine the matter," Ms Molloy said.

The IACP is hopeful that the European Commission will support its proportionality assessment complaint before the end of the year and will greenlight an investigation

This would investigate whether new criteria imposed on the profession are necessary and evidence based.

However, CORU does not envisage any changes to the regulation in the near future.

"The direction that we have been given from the Department of Health is to progress the regulation of counselling and psychotherapists because that's what's needed for public protection," Ms O'Cleary said.

She added: "I understand and I acknowledge the fear and the concerns and we're really trying to engage and work with the professional bodies to understand our processes, but I also think that we have vast experience in this.

"We have a system that does protect the public."

The regulation of counselling and psychotherapists will be the 13th and 14th professions that will come under CORU regulation.

"We have over 42,000 health and social care professionals registered. They are working within the health system. We're producing almost 2,000 graduates on an annual basis," she said.

Ms O'Cleary added that she is "absolutely" satisfied that the public will be safe when CORU regulations for counselling and psychotherapists come into effect.