Counsellor, psychotherapist, psychologist should all be protected titles?

[daretodenim]

I don't think people realise that they too could set up as one of these things and charge for their services.

It's not enough to say to check for BACP (British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy) membership, because people shouldn't have to verify that their practitioner is actually qualified. Virtually nobody seeks out mental health support when they're feeling good. And the act of seeking help in itself often makes someone additionally vulnerable.

If I have 3 months of lingering stomach pain I go to the GP. I don't have to check through websites of people who call themselves doctors to see if they've had any training, check what that training actually is, and are registered with a body I've never heard of.

AIBU to think that for the mental health/safety of those seeking help, there should be clear naming of professions within mental health and it should be a crime to call yourself and offer services in something you're not. It should also be clear what the competencies of each professional level are - and are not - so people know what they need to look for in the first place, as well as whether their practitioner is being unethical by offering something out with their training.

Yes, I totally agree. Know of someone who calls herself a psychologist when she's actually a nurse who's done a few weekends training in random therapies. I pulled her up on it, she blocked, at that time she was charging over 200 dollars an hour, that was years back so probably charging a lot more now!!

I agree.

$200/hr?! 😱

Psychologist is a protected title.
The other two are not.

I thought Chartered Psychologist was, but not psychologist?

I'd be (very) happy to be wrong though!

Actually we're both wrong.

Protected titles

	Practitioner psychologist
	Registered psychologist
	Clinical psychologist
	Forensic psychologist
	Counselling psychologist
	Health psychologist
	Educational psychologist
	Occupational psychologist
	Sport and exercise psychologist

From www.hcpc-uk.org/about-us/who-we-regulate/the-professions/

So I could set myself up this afternoon as a "psychologist"..and so could anybody reading.

Counsellor - does not always refer to psychology, but it looks like the title ‘ Counselling Psychologist takes care of that.
I think the UK needs to get better at requiring licences to practice in many skills - from Psychologists to Aestheticians, Hairdressers -and all tradesmen.
I have lived in Europe, Middle East and the US and many of those jobs required licensing.

Yes it's awful and the general public cannot be expected to know that 'psychologist' isn't a protected title on its own. The people that claim to be psychologists or generic therapists know exactly what they are doing. I'm a registered practitioner psychologist (forensic) and media "psychologists" are a personal bugbear of mine.

I agree. And nutritionist as well. So many quacks on SM giving nonsense nutritional advice.

Add to that ‘nurse’, ‘accountant’ etc - I agree we should get better in the U.K. at licensing professions…if only so the practitioners have the right insurance!

The BACP is trying to get these titles protected by running a project called SCOPED.
its deeply unpopular amongst counsellors due to its solely being about qualifications rather than experience.
it’s also benefits those counsellors who are well off and can afford degrees/masters etc so it’s swayed more towards middle class white people rather than say a working class ethnic minority person.

I think YABU because anyone can be those things without necessarily having or wanting to get a qualification.

I mean, I could describe myself as a scientist, or historian, or mathmetician. They're not protected titles but people might see me describe myself as one of those and assume I have more knowledge than I do.

It's up to the "buyer" to check the qualifications someone has. I could show them my degree which may lead them to feel the title of "historian" has some merit, but not the others.

Add to that ‘nurse’

Nursing is already a Registered profession. Nurses have to register with the NMC to be allowed to practice and have to regularly undertake mandatory CPD, maintain a portfolio of evidence and pass re-validation to continue to practice. If they fail to keep up with the requirements they will be prevented from practicing.

Absolutely agree - I'm an educational psychologist, so 'child psychologist' is one which irritates me!

I'm sure I've read somewhere that in France, 'psychologist' is the protected title and the descriptor (educational, clinical, forensic, etc.) is down to personal discretion, I wonder if a system like that might work.

YANBU @daretodenim. There was a push during Cameron's government but it came to nothing.

Nursing is a registered profession but the title Nurse is not protected. Thus enabling unqualified staff to call themselves Nurses.

And checking with the BACP isn't 100% reliable. I'm a highly qualified counsellor AND psychotherapist with many years of practice and experience who left the BACP because I refused to fudge an internal audit of my (extensive) CPD. They wanted it in a particular format which I couldn't honestly produce. I was told to rewrite it their way but I wasn't prepared to submit something false so I did not submit and asked them to cancel my membership. Other people who relied on their BACP membership for private practice income jumped through the hoops and produced entirely fictional reports in the BACPs chosen format.

Therapy should be an ethical and highly boundaried practice conducted by ethical and boundaried professionals. IMO if you act unethically in one area of your work (said CPD audit reports) in order to maintain your accreditation it opens the door for unethical work in other areas, maybe taking on clients you are not qualified to work with or being loose in other areas of reporting. It's the thin end of the wedge.

The BACP like many other professional bodies seems more interested in box ticking, arse covering and being seen to do the right thing than actually helping therapists provide an excellent service.

I'm a registered nurse and I've worked in various healthcare settings for years. I've never met any unregistered practitioners calling themselves a nurse. That's not to say thar it doesn't happen but I don't think it's common.

Counsellor - does not always refer to psychology, but it looks like the title ‘ Counselling Psychologist takes care of that.

Counselling psychologist is a doctorate level study.

Counsellor is anybody who says they are. There's a lot of space between those two things.

Nursery nurses
Vetinary nurses
Struck off nurses (Kay Shemirani for example)

The BACP is trying to get these titles protected by running a project called SCOPED.
its deeply unpopular amongst counsellors due to its solely being about qualifications rather than experience.
it’s also benefits those counsellors who are well off and can afford degrees/masters etc so it’s swayed more towards middle class white people rather than say a working class ethnic minority person.

Well that doesn't make much of a change to the norm then. The whole area is overstocked with middle class white people (primarily women). That's not suddenly happening because of SCOPED (which I didn't know about).

But the primary goal isn't about practitioners, it's about the people who need them. They're the most important.

I also don't think ethnic minorities or working class people (I'm in one of those categories) - or people in both those categories - would support the idea of substandard training just so they can enter it more easily. That's actually quite insulting. And it may even be that courses became more appealing to a wider diversity of people if the titles they got at the end actually meant something.

Add ‘speech therapist.’

not qualified. Qualified ones use ‘speech and language therapist’ which is a protected title

I have a friend who did a three hour online counselling course and now calls herself a counsellor. Somehow she has got herself a job in a school and sees private patients charging £70 per hour. I feel it's very unfair when fully trained counsellors have undergone years of face to face training at a huge expense. They also have to have their own personal therapy and pay for this. It seems quite scary that people can call themselves a counsellor when actually they haven't been checked out by anyone or had any therapy themselves

I think YABU because anyone can be those things without necessarily having or wanting to get a qualification.

I mean, I could describe myself as a scientist, or historian, or mathmetician. They're not protected titles but people might see me describe myself as one of those and assume I have more knowledge than I do.

It's up to the "buyer" to check the qualifications someone has. I could show them my degree which may lead them to feel the title of "historian" has some merit, but not the others.

I'm not sure the comparison is equal. The damage done to someone's mental health by seeing a practitioner who isn't quite what they claim can be profound. There was a thread recently by someone who disclosed historical sexual abuse to her counsellor and the counsellor actually took steps that were further traumatising. They - and their under-trained supervisor - didn't know what they were doing on that subject. Their area of expertise was elsewhere and their training wasn't great (I checked it out).

Part of having protected titles is that you have standards to uphold and you know what you're not qualified to cover. Have you tried talking to an orthopaedic surgeon about problems with your eyes? S/He'll refer you on, they won't just "give it a go", which is very, very common with some counsellors.

As for checking the qualifications, how are people supposed to know what the awarding bodies are and what each course offers? I did a counselling course for two years. Sounds ok until I tell you it was one day per month, 10 months of the year. So my two year course was actually one month full time. Were my potential clients supposed to check the institution I did it at plus the details of the course and to see what it covered?

As a further example, it's possible to offer EMDR, a trauma therapy that can bring up massive issues in people with previous trauma with only an online course in it. Meanwhile other people do extended courses that are only open to graduates who are currently practising and they do experimental work on each other and are supervised. The technique is easy, managing the individual who has other things come up is highly skilled. The damage potential is huge in unskilled hands. It shouldn't be up to clients who are already often in distress to do a deep dive into types of qualifications, learn the jargon and then compare what the courses actually offer in order to chose a practitioner! I believe their mental health should be as safe as possible when they seek help.