Professional standards authority conferencE
Safer Care For All Conference
Safer Care For All Conference
Safer Care For All Conference
Gilly Chapell was invited to share the findings of the two year analysis of the industry safety nets and the collabrative solution Rated Therapies self funded to protect the public from the 1 in 20 chance of finding a therapist with an inherent bias towards excerting power and control over their clients.
Gilly Chapell is the Director
Gilly Chapell was invited to share the findings of the two year analysis of the industry safety nets and the collabrative solution Rated Therapies self funded to protect the public from the 1 in 20 chance of finding a therapist with an inherent bias towards excerting power and control over their clients.
Gilly Chapell is the Director of Trauma Informed Ltd, with two trauma clinics, home to students and developing counsellors supporting clients with a history of type one and type two trauma.
Gilly spends her time Studying Neuroscience, writing code, analysing data and writing books ready for publishing. She is currently working on a book called Letting Go of Holding On.
What you can read here is what was shared at the Professional Standards Authority Conference and is a discussion about improving transparency and accountability in the therapeutic industry with the use of research data.
Speaker Gilly Chapell
Safer Care For All Conference
Safer Care For All Conference
Like most of the people here at the conferencet I'm a professional, with an ethical core, and that makes me question things.
I’m here to talk about improving transparency and accountability in the therapeutic industry with the use of research data.
After I experienced what turned out to be really highly unethical and abusive use of my tru
Like most of the people here at the conferencet I'm a professional, with an ethical core, and that makes me question things.
I’m here to talk about improving transparency and accountability in the therapeutic industry with the use of research data.
After I experienced what turned out to be really highly unethical and abusive use of my trust in my own therapy from a local female therapist, I started looking at the safety nets that I believed were protecting clients from harmful therapeutic practices and what I found was some really alarming short comings and some horrific stories.
So I did what any of you would have done in my position, I started asking questions. This led to building a platform with bidirectional feedback loops of data, a Data-Driven Narrative Tool for Real-Time Insights to protect all and improve standards.
I am here to tell you what I discovered and why it is important. It is going to be a hard hitting reality to read. But we have a self-funded collaborative solution and we are ready to widen the audience for feedback and fine tuning and we are really looking forward to hearing your thoughts.
Not a walk in the park
Safer Care For All Conference
Not a walk in the park
The unregulated industry of therapy has been a subject of scrutiny and debate for a long time.
Yet what struck me was the amount of responsibility that lands on an already dysregulated client to monitor and police their own therapy.
So by the time most clients arrive in therapy their prefrontal cortex is already being compromised by their
The unregulated industry of therapy has been a subject of scrutiny and debate for a long time.
Yet what struck me was the amount of responsibility that lands on an already dysregulated client to monitor and police their own therapy.
So by the time most clients arrive in therapy their prefrontal cortex is already being compromised by their threat system. The threat system diverts blood flow from the thinking, logical and decision making part of the brain to allow the body to be prepared to fight, flight or freeze.
When blood flow is diverted, it reduced the ability to think clearly, to remember and recall events and to make sensible decisions that protect us.
This is why a client arriving in therapy deserves to be taken care of in a safe manner or to be provided with an understanding of the possible risks they face and how to navigate them safely.
what can go wrong
Therapy is not immune to preditors and clients need to be informed of the risks.
In therapy, client safety is paramount and various complications can jeopardize client welfare in therapy: An isolated error or mistake, empathic failure can leave a client questioning their safety.
Under trained therapists, can be niave to their blind spots and how they impact clients.
Clients can be inadvertently triggered even by competent therapists, who may take a while to realise what has happened, but if it happens with a therapist who is not trained in this area a client can be left questioning if therapy is not just as triggering as everyday life.
and the topic that nobody talks about is the risk of outright client abuse by preditors who hide under the facade of the title of therapist.
Ethical bodies are great for those therapists who are committed to best practice and healing clients.
Without safety nets catching those clients who start free falling due to unethical behaviour and the therapists who aren’t compliant, it’s evident our existing systems need significant improvement
Therapeutic Abuse
In todays world, ethics alone fall short when vulnerability can be exploited even within respected institutions like the Catholic Church.
1 in 20 Therapists have an inherent bias towards towards pow
5% have an Inherent Bias towards Power & Control
Dr. Diane Gehart, Professor of 25 years, author and therapist specialising in victims of abuse, was brought in as the external validator for the investigations into the Catholic Priest scandal. Her research says 5% of individuals have an innate bias towards power and control over others, a trait disproportionately represented in the helping professions.
1 in 20 Therapists are Predisposed to Excert Power & Control over Clients
Whether we like it or not in a pool of 200,000 UK therapists, up to 10,000 will be predisposed to exert power and control over their clients.
A modest case load of 15 would mean 150,000 clients affected at any given time.
Clients impacted by power imbalance are less likely to report it.
But only 1% of those affected by power imbalances are even likely to consider reporting it.
Benefit of Doubt:The Hidden Cost of Gifting Trust in TherapY
A Local Swindon Therapist
Clients who are targeted by therapists will become isolated, withdrawn and will struggle to escape. This is because it mirrors the dynamics that occur in domestic abuse. It took someone 7 years to escape the grooming that led to therapeutic abuse that occured under a local, very overbearing female, apparently 'Christian' Swindon therapist who worked from home barely a mile from my practice in St Andrews Ridge.
After 3 years of relentless stress it had destroyed their immune system, which landed them in ICU not expected to survive.
Even as someone who knew the therapeutic industry they could not break free of the power and control she held over them and this person had no history of abusive partners. They would even defend her to anyone who questioned her approach, until they became too embarrassed about the frequency in which these instances occured, then they stopped telling people. At the same time she picked off each of their close friends, isolating them from the huge support system that they had before entering therapy. Luckily some of those friends refused to abandon them and were instrumental in identifying the abuse and encouraging it being reported.
But she wouldn’t let go, persuing like a preditor. After another relentless four years their immune system was still struggling with reoccuring infections and they were hospitalised suffering from shock during another intense episode with her and this time they requested to see a consultant psychiatrist and told him how it really was.
Questions were asked about the dynamics of her therapeutic approach and they was told it was clearly therapeutic abuse. The shame of their dependency on the therapist that had held them silent and captive for seven years they put down. It had literally been killing them. However they remained convinced that the failing of their mental capacity and social decline over the years was routed in fundamental psychological flaws which she had them believe about themselves. The consultant psychologist was astounded by their commitment to this belief. So much so they shared the 374 pages of WhatsApp messages she had sent them to prove it. He concluded there was nothing fundamentally wrong with them that basic listening skills offered within in therapeutic containment wouldn’t have fixed a long time ago and he proved it to them.
I was left questioning how does this happen in a therapeutic industry with Ethical bodies that claim to protect us and this is what I found.
Perception
There is a perception of safety and illusion of trust in how therapy is allowed to be dressed up and presented to the public.
“…Our register is a public record of counselling professionals who meet or exceed our recommended quality standards”
“… which meet the authorities rigorous standards.”
“…As an Accredited Register holder we meet the robust and exacting standards set by the Professional Standards Authority with particular emphasis on public safety and assuring that the best interests of the clients are protected.”
Reality
But the reality is very different.
The standards and requirements vary greatly but this is not public knowledge.
But the largest problem is the whole process of ethical memberships relies solely on those therapists committing to the ethics and applying best practice.
There is no facility to catch clients who free fall due to unethical practices.
Ethical membership does not address those who hold membership but have no intention of following best practice.
Therapist Competence & Qualifications
Competence
There is a correlation between how long someone has been qualified, length of experience and how competent they are. But Counsellors are not required to state what year they qualify on adverts. Not even on the directories run by the ethical bodies. So how can a client gage who has experienced and is likely to be competent and who is not.?
For clients it’s crucial to understand a therapist competence, but currently,
Ethical bodies don’t expect counsellors to disclose what qualifications they have or what year they qualifies and not even training provider are required to share their syllabus publicly.
Qualifications what you need to know.
So thinking about transparency it turns out that
Level 5 training equips counsellors for private practice.
In contrast, Level 4 only prepares someone for working for a counselling organisation.
The ethics say you must not work outside of your training and competence.
Financial Incentives lowering standards
Yet, ethical bodies advertise therapists wanting private clients on their directories who are only fit and qualified to work within an organisation.
Ethical bodies do not inform potential clients of the risk of encountering therapists unsuitable for private practice.
And it turns out there is no process for enforcing a supervisorsletter attesting to a therapist readiness for private practice.
Therefore it does not happen and once a therapist is listed on one directory, they can gain access to all the others, as all operate under the false premise that a verification policy is in place.
I wonder how much financial incentives influence the transparency clients deserve?
Under the bravado of privacy
Supervision
Therapists are expected to review their client cases in supervision. If a therapist's judgment is clouded by confirmation bias, they may be unaware of underlying problems.
When a therapist opts to change supervisors, it inherently elevates the risk of critical client information being overlooked or omitted.
This situation underscores the necessity for a comprehensive handover process. Yet none exists.
Ethically committed therapists, who are more inclined to persistthrough challenging cases, are less likely to switch supervisors frequently or when faced with adversity.
Therefore, the instances of supervisor change are particularly crucial moments that demand meticulous attention to ensure continuity and safeguard client welfare. Because the rogue therapist will flee and will lie to avoid being caught.
Therapists accused of serious allegations remain listed due to ethical bodies failing to follow their own policies.
Ethical organizations claim their registers list counselling professionals who adhere to or surpass quality standards. This implies that the therapists on these registers are well-trained, consistently supervised, methodical in their documentation, and ethical in their practice.
The perception ethical bodies create when they say: those listed meet or exceed quality standards undermines transparency and accountability …when they don’t disclose the number of therapists facing for instance, serious sexual assault allegations which could damage public trust, that continue to be listed, without suspension, for years.
This is due to the failure of ethical bodies to effectively manage their own policies and procedures to protect the public.
Moreover, a lack of transparency compounds these issues. There's no warning to clients about the extended duration of the complaints process and the associated risks.
The facts remain that concealing that clients face a 1 in 20 chance of encountering a rogue therapist not only compromises their autonomy and increases their vulnerability, but also erodes trust in the therapy profession, underscoring the urgent need for greater transparency and systemic reform.
Updated: February 2024 I can confirm the NCPS no longer advertise the local therapist and the NHS insisted CID were involved. The case is currently sitting with the CPS. I am advised that only 6% of reported cases of 'misuse' hold sufficient evidence to warrant being sent to CPS which means sadly 94% do not meet the threshold. We are delighted that following the presentation at the conference the NCPS have introduced their own traffic light system, similar to our recommendations.
A Call for Transparency
Safety Routed in Research
The client is sent a form which takes 3 minutes to complete capturing their current symptoms.
Then at intervals the client completes symptom monitoring forms. We can very easily tailor the forms according to presentations and interventions being used.
Client are also sent an ethical practice feedback which educates client on what good looks. It captures likelyfalsepositive reviews and alsofalse negatives.
The data visually tells everyone how they are doing.
and can be used to prove unique approaches are effective.
The data doesn’t wait for the client to escape or realise there is a problem, it provides real time insights because data wont lie. What’s more the data can be fed back to the training providers for post qualifying therapists.
About Trauma Informed Ltd
Understanding the data
Understanding the data
Understanding the data
Focusing on the blude data it tells us that this test client marked the therapist down as a 4 out of 10 on competence – ouch!
Isolated issue
Understanding the data
Understanding the data
We can see all their other clients have scored quite high and also this client has scored high in other areas. So what might be causing this score.
Triggered Clients
Understanding the data
Triggered Clients
Testdata client 3 is triggered by people in positions of authority or caring roles not doing their job properly and so there is a high chance this is a transference issue occurring.
Knowing this equips the supervisor and therapist to address before it manifests into an ethical complaint.
But if a complaint occurs the therapist can demonstrate it’s an isolated issue and will be able to evidence this.