To think a therapist with a personality disorder is concerning?

Came to say this first part. They basically don’t exist - they are a ‘complicated life, can’t really explain it’ dumping ground when support is unavailable. Usually lead to the person being drugged into submission.

Unfortunately there are a lot of predatory odd people in all "respectable" professions and walks of life.

Mental health is just one of them.

Mental health - one guy I dated briefly is now an NHS consultant. Sent aggressive texts saying he'd been spying on me and I was clearly lying after I didn't agree to a date as was ill.

He also had very odd, grandiose, self centred conversational habits. I can't imagine him actually being helpful to talk to at all.

Former mental health nurse - lot of diagnosed issues and been sectioned multiple times.

Therapist ex-friend - absolutely vile person. Tbf she did get sacked from her job for her aggressive behaviour towards her colleagues.

Lots of people in the "caring" professions are completely vile.

The best people can do is have good intuition and boundaries and do due diligence and "keep yourself to yourself" if you're feeling vulnerable.

There is a dominant narrative that if you're struggling and vulnerable you should seek therapy or help or join groups ASAP.

I personally think for some people having a good "mental self-care" toolkit may be better than getting into the system.

@TherapistKnot a self employed therapist won't have a DBS. They are checks done by an employer. The only person who has the right to see the DBS is the employer.

It's preferable that they are registered with a regulatory body like BACP or NCPS, but to be in private practice , you don't technically have to. But I think if I was looking for a therapist, I would definitely be wanting one that was registered with a regulatory body.

I would also be very careful of assuming that a father gaining residence of a child means that the mother is abusive. Both parents have equal right to be the resident parent, the child can't be in two places at once, if a non resident parent seeks care that is their right to do so and the child will end up with one of them usually (unless 50 50 but whilst it's the starting point it's not that's not that common in practice just due to the practicalities of those arrangements)

Personality disorders as a concept are known to be problematic, they're essentially a grouping of personality traits, usually shaped by childhood experience, that are felt to cause issues. They are not necessarily fixed/permanent and how they affect someone can change over time depending on their maturity and life circumstances. So I wouldn't consider it a barrier to being a therapist.

Any therapist employed by an organisation, such as NHS or CAMHS, would have to go through the required checks of their organisation. It is problematic that it isn't a protected title and anyone can set themselves up independently - however there are bodies that therapists can voluntarily register with, BACP being the main one for those involved in traditional mental health/counselling work, and it's imperative that anyone seeking a therapist does those checks. A client has no right to request a DBS though, and DBSs are checks requested by employers so if someone is fully self employed they have no route to have a DBS anyway!

I highly doubt any therapist would be willing to give you a DBS check of themselves OP… You’d also be shocked by how many healthcare professionals do not have a clean record.

My old therapist was a former drug and alcohol addict. It informed her practice and her record was far from squeaky because of it.

If she is registered with BACP you could make enquiries with them

One of my friends is a therapist and she’s a bloody vile person. Known her years, and she’s done some awful things. Not illegal just not very moral

I’m not saying I would but I’m just saying technically speaking much like criminals it depends on what they did.

Even people with criminal records can work in jobs you wouldn’t think because their crime wouldn’t affect or be able to happen to the service user.

A good example would be hackers being hired by governments because of their skills or burglars that have started their own security companies because they know the weak spots. I know a company that’s in IT that hired someone with a hacking conviction they hired him because of it.

In your example she lost or gave up custody of one of her children but has kept the rest. Whatever she did or didn’t do the law and her other children’s fathers didn’t feel or see fit to remove all the children.

Your personal connection to her whatever that is seems to be feeding the issue more I think.

You can report them. This is the professional body that any half decent therapist should belong to.
www.bacp.co.uk/

One of my friends sisters is a counsellor she has concerning MH problems, lives in a toxic household and has been under MH team and social services for years but still works for one of the ‘big’ MH charities as a counsellor. I do wonder how she manages it tbh

of course, only in England

Some dentists have bad teeth, some cleaners have dirty homes, it doesn’t always follow that you have to be personally perfect in the role you work in.

If her children were removed for say neglect. That’s not an issue that can happen with her clients so technically not relevant.

Now if she was beating them and then was alone with children that would be an issue.

Many people with mental health problems prefer support from people with lived experience. I know two mental health nurses who have had serious mental health problems. Several social workers who were in care as children and a few who were in abusive relationships as adults. Drugs and alcohol services are often staffed by people who have struggled with addiction.