Alliance at the West Midlands Institute of Psychotherapy, 15th June 09

Here's a news note by Guy Gladstone, who accepted the invitation to speak in Birmingham last month on behalf of the Alliance for Counselling and Psychotherapy against State Regulation.

15 members of the West Midlands Institute of Psychotherapy, including most of their council, showed up for their hour and a half Monday evening in-house event to be better informed on SR, for and against. I spoke for half an hour deconstructing the arguments for SR and outlining alternative accountability measures, then invited them in pairs to voice their fears and anxieties in connection with SR before moving to question and answer mode in a seated circle.It emerged that none were explicitly pro SR, some were resigned in the inevitability trance and others found the prospect of not calling themselves psychotherapists inconceivable. Everyone was given a new copy of the Alliance Statement with details of the October Conference, I plugged the petitions and signposted to the Conference to get up to speed with what PNC might entail and some were fired up to investigate further. One turned up with a download of CPJA's rejection of Skills for Health expressing outrage against SfH. Questions generally revealed little prior knowledge re HPC but hearing more about it elicited dismay. Overall a worthwhile visit, a positive reception for the Alliance case, oaktrees grow from acorns ...

e-petition against over-regulation of psychotherapy