MP Stephen Kinnock’s widely-reported comments on therapy are damaging and incorrect – and must be challenged.

The Minister for State in the Department for Health and Social Care said that he believes an ‘unregulated private sector' of therapists is contributing to an ‘overdiagnosis' of mental health conditions. 

While at the Pulse Live conference for GPs, he said he was concerned about how easy it is for people to set up as a therapist and start charging for it within the next day.

He reportedly said: "You look at countries like Sweden or the Netherlands, other countries, you have to have six years of training before you can set yourself up on that basis.

“So I am also very worried that there are diagnoses being given out by the private independent sector which are not rooted in clinical expertise, and that is an issue I have commissioned my officials to look at that.

He added: “I think that we’ve got to get on top of this, and we’re absolutely committed to do so.”

Unfounded and harmful comments

We’re hugely disappointed to see such unfounded and harmful comments coming from the Minister. We believe Mr Kinnock’s comments about private therapy are sweeping statements which do not address these challenges accurately.  They do not reflect the skills, good practice or ethics of our members who work in private practice. They show a lack of understanding of the therapy sector and the role, training and expertise of our members. They fail to recognise the public protections safeguards we have in place.

Members have extensive training

Our members don’t diagnose mental health conditions as this is outside of their professional role, competence and training. They undergo extensive training that can take several years and involves more than 100 hours on placement with clients. They must be fully qualified before they can be a registered BACP member. Training to be a therapist, registered with BACP, is not something you can do online in a couple of weeks.

We wholeheartedly support efforts to protect the public and we agree that incidence of people setting themselves up as a therapists without being qualified is a concern - and needs to be proactively addressed. As part of our work as a Professional Standards Authority accredited register we’re committed to ensuring our members adhere to our Ethical Framework, and high standards of professionalism and good practice. Our members are also held accountable through our conduct procedure.

We’re concerned Mr Kinnock’s comments could be harmful in preventing people in need from reaching out for support from a therapist or a therapist in any setting. We’d always encourage any member of the public to choose a therapist from an accredited register – such as BACP’s. This means they’ll know they’re seeing a therapist who’s highly qualified and who is committed to high professional and ethical standards. It also means if they want to make a complaint there is a process and support available.

Writing to Mr Kinnock

We'll be writing to Mr Kinnock on this issue and aim to have a discussion with him to correct these inaccuracies and explain the vital role that counsellors and psychotherapists are playing within the landscape of mental health support and to additionally offer our support to help address concerns around regulation. 

We’d like to work with the Government to ensure greater recognition and authority is given to the accredited registers that work in conjunction with the Professional Standards Authority (PSA).