An appeal for the Fighting Fund from the organisers

Make 2010 the Year that Psychotherapists and Counsellors Reclaim their Profession

Fighting Fund for the Talking Therapies

As you may know, the Government plans to introduce statutory regulation for psychotherapists and counsellors via the Health Professions Council (HPC). The initial consultation concluded that HPC was the wrong regulator, as it applies medical-style models of healthcare management to a field which, for a large part, does not subscribe to these models and values.

The talking therapies have always offered a system of values that is independent of those of the State, and if the current proposals are pushed through by government, it will no longer be possible to practice psychotherapy and psychoanalysis in the way they have been practised for the last 100 years. HPC regulations would effectively destroy psychotherapeutic practice and deprive each individual of their free choice as to which therapist they could consult.

If you’d like to know more about what’s going on, please look at The Maresfield Report which is available at www.psyreg.co.uk and also have a look at the websites www.coregp.org or www.allianceforcandp.org.

We are fighting here for the heart and soul of our profession and for the ability to offer a wide variety of approaches tailored to the individual, rather than imposing mechanistic ‘treatments’ applied to passive recipients, with false promises of public protection. Psychotherapy and counselling involve relationships between people and cannot be reduced to the model of a business transaction or a medical intervention like the prescription of a drug.

We have been lobbying now against HPC for more than a year and several groups have decided to take this further via legal action. We’re organising a fighting fund to instruct a top constitutional law firm with a leading QC to fight these plans. HPC were required to assess the 'regulatory needs' of the field and its own suitability as a regulator, yet they have neglected both of these tasks. Legal challenge will hopefully make a proper consultation on these issues necessary, which would include all stakeholders. While nothing is guaranteed, at the very least we would hope to achieve delay, rethinking and proposals more suited to our profession. The best case scenario is that we can make the Government – especially the NEXT Government – think again about taking forward proposals which have unprecedented levels of objection and opposition from our field.

We are seeking to raise money for this fund from individuals and organisations in our field. If you care about the talking therapies and want to help, please ACT NOW. Any donation, however small, will help. We already have many pledges towards the £200,000 we may need to raise. You can pay by instalments or give us a single sum.

Here are the details:

Transfer is the best method of payment: please send to:

JR Fighting Fund, Lloyds Bank
Sort Code 30-00-04, Account 02101964

or send cheques made out to:

‘JR Fighting Fund’
to Pine Cottage, Thornden Wood Road,
Herne Bay, Kent CT6 7NZ.

Hoping that you’ll be able to support our campaign.

With thanks and best wishes

Christopher Bollas, Julia Carne, Anouchka Grose, Dorothy Hamilton, David Henderson, Darian Leader, Haya Oakley, Susie Orbach, Adam Phillips, Werner Prall, Andrew Samuels (personal capacity), Joe Suart, Jason Wright .