Amanda Williamson Reg MBACP (Snr Accred)

Following on from the publishing of mine and a fellow therapist's experience of abuse/attempted abuse in therapy, and due to my public campaigning for the statutory regulation of counselling and psychotherapy, I am regularly contacted by journalists looking to publish articles and documentaries on the lack of regulation. I took a step back from campaigning early last year as I found it an exhausting, futile and thankless task. I also decided to stop assisting journalists researching the topic as I have spent much time doing so which has ended up being ultimately fruitless. Also, I obviously don't get paid for my time either and made the decision to spend my time focusing on my family and my private caseload and making sure that I have enough down time.

A few months ago I was contacted separately by three people asking me to consider chatting to them about a BBC documentary about therapy. I declined on all three counts, then the documentary producer gently persuaded me to have a chat about my interest in the regulation of therapy. He explained that all the messages I had received were in connection with a commissioned documentary that was already being filmed. The producer, Rob Cave, sounded like a decent chap and I agreed to speak to the journalist, Jordan Dunbar. I immediately felt at ease with Jordan and he quickly built trust.

Given my lack of flexibility I found Jordan very accommodating. He came to Exeter to film the interview whilst I was walking the dog. There may yet be a film clip (of Sally dog) on TV at some stage. But for now the interview is part of the File on 4 documentary entitled "The Therapy Business". Inspired by Jordan's experience of unethical therapy, the documentary is pro-therapy and also pro-regulation of counselling and psychotherapy. There are many arguments against regulation but most members of the general public are genuinely perplexed when they find out that there is zero regulation. Instead we have a system of pseudo-regulation run by the quango Professional Standards Authority, called the Accredited Registers. In my opinion this is worse than no regulation as it is extremely confusing and gives an illusion of safety that does not exist. It also implies that a therapist who is newly qualified from a flimsy course with little experience is as competent as an experienced practitioner with more in-depth training and supervised experience.

The documentary includes input from two victims of abusive therapy, Geraint Davies MP who is attempting to put a pro-reg bill through parliament and a BACP representative.

The documentary can be found here.

Regulation of Counselling and Psychotherapy in the UK - Why we need it

Regulation - a client and therapist friendly way forward?