Keeping Politics Out Of Therapy

When I transferred files from an old computer some ancient Letters To The Editor of Therapy Today came up and I was reminded that BACP backed Nadine Dorries' abortion counselling bill.

"The Dorries amendment would have stripped non-statutory abortion providers such as Marie Stopes and the British Pregnancy Advisory Service (bpas) from offering counselling to women. This was designed to provide greater opportunities for independent counsellors, some of whom are influenced by pro-life groups, to provide counselling."

By this time Nadine Dorries had already described abortion as 'murder', her position on the issue was and remains abundantly clear. 

Here's the 2016 letter I wrote to Therapy Today about its - lets say unsophisticated - approach. 6 years on BACP might be slightly less simpleminded but any worldliness they may have gained seems to have been focussed on defending inner sanctums rather than offering thoughtful guidance on values beyond sloganeering. 

People who say they want to keep politics out of anything are generally either very well aware that the politics of a situation are noxious, or are unable to manage any debate on the subject, or are far too innocent to train as a therapist.

Nearly 8 years on things have by no means improved.

"In 2011 the BACP backed Nadine Dorries’ Amendment to the Health and Social Care Bill. The Bill sought to remove counselling services from the British Pregnancy Advisory Service and Marie Stopes International, prevent GP’s from commissioning services from both organisations, and remove the role of the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists in guidance on the provision of abortion services. 

What the BACP thought it was supporting was an opportunity for counsellor jobs. Several late night emails between the then BACP media spokesman and the journalist Tim Ireland resulted in some uncomfortable repositioning. After various ‘clarifications’ the BACP had to defend itself against ‘seeking to have its cake and eat it’ and of being ‘stitched up’1.

The BACP has a history of optimism around political initiatives that has not always reflected well on them. Just as it leaped at what looked like opportunities for counsellors in abortion counselling so it grasped on to the ideology of ‘Work Is Good For You” in 2008 and, despite steady opposition from professional organisations and client groups, cannot let go. In the face of decades of existing research 2, 3, 4, 5  and endless anecdotal evidence, or the BACP’s own concern over workplace stress and bullying, it allows its desire for status and government recognition to overwhelm any care it might have for the most vulnerable in our population. 

One of the clarifications that the BACP offered during the Dorries situation was that it:

“believes counselling should be an independent accountable and ethical process free from ideological bias and manipulation…”

ibid

How can that square with allowing members to work with the DWP, knowing that sanctioning people who refuse this ‘counselling’ was part of the current governments’ manifesto? 6

In the most recent BACP e-bulletin Andrew Reeves asserts that the BACP has “a passion for social justice” and that it will be ‘campaigning to make counselling available to everyone, regardless of their circumstances and ability to pay.’ 7

This is doing social justice at people rather than embodying social justice as an organisation. A very basic example might be that while the BACP wants everyone, regardless of income, to access counselling it has not considered that counselling training is available to an increasingly limited group of people, dependent on their circumstances and ability to pay.

The BACP needs to urgently re-evaluate its own organisational ethics. It is painful to become aware that some of our actions have been harmful and destructive. Defending against that knowledge is natural and part of a process of moving towards understanding and change. But stubborn denial that harm has been and continues to be caused becomes malicious. 

The Western world is experiencing extraordinary challenges. As individuals we are being asked more and more often to normalise events, beliefs and values that are far from wholesome and there must come a point when we say ‘No’. As counsellors meeting with rapidly increasing numbers of people facing destitution, despair, homelessness and even death we need clarity and leadership from our professional body. Sadly, I fear the BACP is, at this point demonstrably not able to provide that leadership.

Until the BACP seeks out the knowledge and experience of people affected by the issues it says it wants to address - clients, therapists and others with particular experience - skill and a developed philosophy, rather than assent to the latest political rhetoric, then any assertion of “passion for social justice” will remain meaningless and worse, harmful. 

Faithfully

Clare Slaney"

References

1: Nadine Dorries and the BACP: Mixed Messages 

www.ministryoftruth.me.uk/2011/07/14/nadine-dorries-bacp-mixed-messages/ (accessed November 2016)

2: Cotton, E. 2016 “Another attempt to pathologies the Unemployed” www.blogs.lse.ac.uk/politicsandpolicy/job-coaches-pilot/ (accessed November 2016)

3: Health and Safety Executive “Work related Stress, Anxiety and Depression Statistics in Great Britain 2016”

www.hse.gov.uk/statistics/causdis/stress/stress.pdf 

(accessed November 2016)

4: Johnes, C. “We can’t go on pretending that poverty is solved by getting a job” 2012 www.blogs.lse.ac.uk/politicsandpolicy/poverty-jobs-johnes/ (accessed November 2016)

5: Mental Health and Work. Royal College of Psychiatrists 2008 pp14

https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/212266/hwwb-mental-health-and-work.pdf 

6: www.mind.org.uk/about-us/our-policy-work/our-work-in-parliament/2015-election-what-we-achieved/manifesto-and-issues/mental-health-in-the-manifestos (accessed November 2016)

7:http://email.bacp.co.uk/interface/external_view_email.php?AJ91562883587387009534286463214&varId=&utm_campaign=BACP+E-bulletin+-+November+2016&utm_source=emailCampaign&utm_medium=email&utm_content = (accessed November 2016)