Therapy is an unregulated industry in the UK and recent press stories have highlighted examples of bad practice, particularly around young, vulnerable people. At Welldoing we believe we provide a high standard of service by verifying all our members as having met a certain standard of training. This is a process we follow every year, to keep our records up to date. We also ask all our members to review our Welldoing charter. But we also want therapy clients to know which red flags they should look out for.
To protect yourself and to mitigate against harm, it’s important to go into the process of finding a therapist with eyes wide open, looking out for any warning signs of behaviour that exceeds the usual safe practice of psychotherapy, and stays within firm boundaries.
In a feature I wrote for the I-Paper, I listed 11 different things that might be considered as bad behaviour. Briefly they are:
1. They don’t maintain professional boundaries
2. They touch you when you are not expecting it
3. They don’t respect your time
4. They breach confidentiality
5. They advise beyond their expertise
6. They don’t listen to your feedback
7. You’re made to feel judged
8. They encourage you to isolate yourself from loved ones, like family or friends
9. They often comment on your appearance
10. They pressure you to continue sessions
11. They also treat someone you’re close to without due consideration
In writing this newspaper article, I spoke to my Welldoing colleague Alice McGurran, who is a therapist herself. She offered this explanation of what therapy is and is not. “Therapy is a nuanced and varied process that is fundamentally about building a constructive and trusting relationship in which clients can address and alleviate past and present distress. Any suitably trained therapist will have had years of training, personal therapy and supervision, all of which should equip them to manage the serious responsibilities of that relationship.”
“While your relationship with your therapist will ideally feel secure, therapy doesn’t always feel comfortable. It may make you feel anxious; it may involve challenge. On top of this, therapists are human and will naturally make mistakes. I’d encourage clients, if they feel able, to raise any concerns and offer feedback to their therapists, especially if there has been a rupture. How your therapist responds to that feedback is key and the chance to work through relationship obstacles can be therapeutic in itself.”
Simply starting to see a professional won’t always progress as imagined. It can seem to take a long time – maybe especially in today's 'quick fix' culture – for anything much to happen, and you may feel that you are covering the same ground, without getting the solution you had imagined you were aiming for.
However, working with a therapist can be life-changing. At Welldoing I hear that every day, from the clients that use our DIY search and MatchPlus service and also from those who have written about their experiences of therapy. But it can also be harmful in the wrong hands, so please, don’t sweep concerns under the carpet. It’s your mental health, you need to protect it.
You can read the full I-Paper article here.
