The Psychotherapist and the Professional Complaint: The Shadow Side of Therapy

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This outstanding book is an update on where the mental health professions complaints system is now. Its timely analysis follows in the wake of prior work on reform, which include the attempt in 2001 at the House of Lords to statutorily regulate psychotherapists in the UK. (Alderdice/Casement et al.) -- Professor Ann Casement, LP, Past-Chair UKCP.

The patients word was once easily dismissed against the word of the psychiatrist, doctor or therapist, leaving the patient vulnerable. Recognising this inherent risk in the relationship between clinicians and patients, professional regulations have gradually been established to facilitate patients access to information, support and recourse. However, while most professions also explicitly protect their own members, there are, notably, no systems in place to protect psychotherapists. The current complaint procedure presumes the therapists guilt until proven innocent, rather than the reverse.

The Psychotherapist and the Professional Complaint explores this problem with sensitivity and rigour. In these chapters, the contributors examine ways to address serious conflicts in the psychotherapy relationship and the role of professional bodies in protecting their members while regulating their performance. Acknowledging both strengths and flaws, they outline the historical context and future prospects of the current complaint procedures. This book invites us to think and speak on the controversial subject of complaints, supporting patients, therapists and policymakers alike.

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This outstanding book is an update on where the mental health profession's complaints system is now. Its timely analysis follows in the wake of prior work on reform, which include the attempt in 2001 at the House of Lords to statutorily regulate psychotherapists in the UK. (Alderdice/Casement et al.) Professor Ann Casement LP, Past-Chair UKCP Patients who feel hurt or even abused and exploited by their treatment, need a place to be heard and for appropriate action to follow. Therapists who have been complained about, also need a place where they can be heard. All too often accrediting bodies try to be both a protector and a prosecutor. This engaging and authoritative book draws together thoughtful contributions from barristers, NHS psychiatrists, union members and therapists who have been complained about, and seriously questions whether complaints processes are currently adequate to the task. Professor Sheila the Baroness Hollins, Former President of the Royal college of Psychiatry Former President the British Medical Association This book is not about criminal exploitation and abuse of patients, which requires the law rather than a complaint system. Rather, it is about what happens when something goes wrong in the therapist patient relationship, or some past trauma cannot be resolved or tolerated and how these situations can increasingly lead to a complaint. What happens then A complaint is something many Psychotherapists and counsellors are ill equipped to understand or face. In this book, Psychotherapists, psychiatrists and barristers ask if the system is fit for purpose. It is timely for it to be here with us when so many people now turn to complaints. Dr Pat Frankish, Consultant Clinical Psychologist and Psychotherapist, Former President, British Psychological Society

Author Bio

Adah Sachs is a Psychoanalytic Psychotherapist, previously NHS consultant and psychotherapy lead for the London Borough of Redbridge. She lectures, trains and supervises worldwide on complex trauma, attachment and dissociation, and has authored over 100 conference papers, book chapters and journal articles including three co-edited books. She is a fellow of the International Society for the Study of Trauma and Dissociation (ISSTD). Valerie Sinason is an internationally published poet, writer, child psychotherapist, adult psychoanalyst, and lecturer. She is a former consultant psychotherapist at the Tavistock Clinic, President of the Institute of Psychotherapy and Disability (IPD), Founder and Patron of the Clinic for Dissociative Studies (CDS), and currently serves on the board of the ISSTD.