Mentally Ill Therapist

Of course - but there is a difference between having a mental health issue such as mild depression/ anxiety which is well-managed, and being mentally unwell.

Therapists, psychologists and psychiatrists have a duty of care to patients/ clients, and they should have the self awareness to be able to recognise when they are unwell, and to take themselves away from work if that is the case.

This would have been thoroughly drummed into them in their training (assuming the training programme was of a good standard).

If you suspect that somebody is practising in one of these professions when they are mentally unwell and may be putting patients at risk, then it needs to be reported and investigated.

Yes, so, if someone is deemed fit to practice, then that includes being considered to meet that standard. So, OP should either make an official report of a concern about fitness to practice, or leave their 'friend' to progress their career and hopefully find friends who don't talk about them on the internet.

GMC, health board/employer and any relevant training programme criteria

In the case of therapists, psychologists and psychiatrists, this criteria includes being mentally/ emotionally well and resilient enough to handle the job.

Tons of mental health professionals have mental health issues. It's incredibly common. If they are at work, they are well enough to practice.

Of course we shouldn't try to ban people from doing their jobs on the basis of behaviour when they were unwell.

Actually, so long as an individual is fit to practice as per GMC, health board/employer and any relevant training programme criteria, it's not legal to discriminate on the grounds of someone's health.

If the OP has fitness to practice concerns, there are routes to raise those concerns. Otherwise, her friend's career path isn't really any of her business.

Well the truth is that it's not ethical, OP, and someone who is actively suffering from a serious mental illness should not be practicing or working with vulnerable people in this way.

It's obviously different if it is something like mild depression/ anxiety and under control.

But when you are training to be a psychotherapist/ psychologist/ psychiatrist you have to demonstrate that you are of sound mind and mentally resilient enough for the profession and what it entails.

On the other hand, perhaps a person who manages their own chronic health problem successfully enough that they can function at a high professional level could be well placed to support others to manage their health problems too.

Sometimes there isn’t a fix for mental illness. Bipolar disorder can’t be cured. In some cases neither can depression/anxiety. There’s so much we don’t yet understand about the neurobiological factors involved in treatment resistant illness. I have treatment-resistant depression and have never managed to ‘fix’ it despite years of various therapies, drugs, lifestyle changes and even some experimental treatments. I’ve even been offered ECT. I was left feeling like a massive failure, that it was my fault, if only I’d try harder etc. But I came to realise there’s just something wrong with me on a neurobiological level that’s out of my control. The best I can do is learn to manage it and I continue to put myself forward for trials.

For what it’s worth I personally don’t have a lot of faith in counselling. Proper, structured, evidence-based therapy with a clinical psychologist or psychiatrist, yes. Open-ended venting for £50-120ph, not so much. I had a friend who, last time we spoke, had been seeing her counsellor weekly for 7 years. I think it’s unethical.

If a therapist can't fix their anxiety, depression, would you be hopeful that they will help you achieve that?

Omg shocking 😲 that's awful

If someone had MH problems that weren't really well controlled, I'd worry that being a therapist would exacerbate them tbh.

I mean, dear god, imagine going to work every day and hearing people tell you about when they got molested as a kid or getting hospitalised by a partner, or their self-harming when you're already fragile...

There's the danger of thinking 'qualified' = a great Therapist. It doesn't. Its not about the qualifications its about character. The therapists with issues I mentioned upthread are Graduates and accredited CBT/NLP qualified

There does seem to be (anecdotally for me) a large amount of metal health issues amongst mental health practitioners, from nurses all the way up. Like any health condition if they are well managed and don't dump their own issues on patients and patients have no awareness of what conditions their practitioner may have, I'm ok with that. But I've heard some horror stories of MH practitioners who can't do that and end up almost using patients as their own therapy- that's never ok.

Whilst it’s not currently illegal to call oneself a therapist with no training, no professional body will accept an unqualified person as a member. An unqualified person wouldn’t be able to get insurance to practice and would be unable to advertise via reputable channels.

I guess that relies on the qualification, there are so many training organisations who aren’t too lucky about who passes their courses, lots of private providers who will give the benefit of the doubt. I trained with a couple of people I wouldn’t have trusted, but who met the requirements to pass the course. I think instinct is really important, if you have a bad feeling about them, or any red flags, don’t work with them.

I had to do a few psychology modules as part of the degree I took.
I finished the degree realising a couple of things.
1). A lot of people study psychology to try and resolve some of their own issues. I always hoped I never needed to use their services as some of the people I met were seriously fucking weird.
2). That psychiatrists or counsellors etc try to push whatever worked for them, on to the people they were helping and wouldn't really give anything else the time of day. Just because it worked for them.
3.) Mainly I was put off the psychiatric world of study as from what I saw most understanding we have is just a load of theories, and a lot of these experts disagreed with each other. I was like wth?! None of it makes sense. Nothing is agreed. Therefore diagnosis is tricky.

I get that I only had a small snapshot into this world, but I remember feeling uneasy about it all.

I’m a therapist. I guess I’ve my share of problems - resolved and otherwise. I’m human. It’s true enough that there are some people in the profession who are unsuited to it/doing it for unhealthy reasons. It’s not automatically a bad thing to decide to train as a therapist as a way to help others who have similar problems to your own; what is crucial is being able to distinguish between other people’s problems and your own. Many people are inspired to train after being helped by therapy. Whilst it’s not currently illegal to call oneself a therapist with no training, no professional body will accept an unqualified person as a member. An unqualified person wouldn’t be able to get insurance to practice and would be unable to advertise via reputable channels. Therapy isn’t a glamorous trade, and people are usually attracted to it because they have a sincere vocation. Yes, there are some people who ought not to be there because they are misguided, unscrupulous or unwell. Should you report your friend? You aren’t her client. You don’t have hard evidence she’s doing anything wrong, so no.

My (now ex) best friend is a psychotherapist and one of the most unstable, jealous, messed up people I have ever known. She gets regular therapy herself as part of her job. But I can't imagine someone who has treated people so badly her whole life is the right person to counsel vulnerable people. I certainly wouldn't pay (a fortune) for her to be my therapist.
In fact she went batshit crazy last year and I was worried about her clients tbh.

I think any therapist who uses BPD as a label has no awareness and I wouldn't be going to them.

My cousin is a therapist. Brilliant on paper, and with words and advice. Respected in his field. However he is a staunch woman-hating misogynist who messes up any woman he gets with, and aged 50+ has never been able to maintain a relationship. Gets bored of women and drops them, after killing their self-esteem first. Women tend to be drawn to him, he's handsome and charismatic also talented in other fields.

Due to him and 1 other therapist I know of who is a raging cokehead, and yet another who is a nice enough woman but lives a very small life - almost 40, still lives with parents, LTR 10 years+ and no progression - I am very wary of therapists although I know there must be some great ones. I just don't feel they're supervised enough and that they counsel others so as to not face and deal with their own issues.

Although Im not sure how increased supervision could be achieved anyway. If you do well on courses, pass the exams, have membership of the appropriate associations, look and sound the part then you're good to go.

Therapists all have supervision, and we all assume they have had training in boundaries.

Therapists undergo consistent supervision and therapy themselves as a part of their practice.

In my experience, it's more common for people working in the social care sector to have a history of mental illness than to not have a diagnosis.

People who receive support are often disposed to give back to the community by supporting others, and people trained to support people with mental illness are often more able to recognise signs of illness in themselves.

I’m a MH nurse. Every single MH nurse I’ve ever worked with has had personal, or at least family, experiences of severe mental illness (for me, my brother has severe OCD). For the most part they’re all incredibly caring and capable professionals. There’s already a shortage of us. If you banned anyone with any history there’d be no one left!

@NavyKoala

Peer support workers are fantastic. They get it, totally get it. They are a wonderful addition to any MH multidisciplinary team. They’re not prescribing medication or essentially providing therapy though and I think this is what the OP is referring too.

I think the overall discussion is around individuals suffering from the likes of schizophrenia, and then being able to actively treat other vulnerable patients. It’s been an ethical dilemma within mental health for years to be honest. On paper it ticks the non discrimination box, but in services rightly or wrongly people do see things differently.

I understand that anyone can practise as a counsellor which is pretty scary. I have seen a few different counsellors and some of them shouldn't be allowed out their house. Not even because of a mental health condition - more because they were clearly not the right personality type to be doing that job - and bringing their issues into each interaction was quite apparent to me in one case!

I read an article this week about a diagnosed sociopath working as a therapist. She made some good points about the benefits that actually brought to the role!