Tuesday, March 23, 2010

Regulation Round-up - Judicial Review


Just arrived in the PCAyorks inbox is the following, from Darian Leader, updating us all on progress with the judicial review.

You know - the judicial review that is challenging the HPC's fitness to regulate those of us who use the title counsellor or psychotherapist.

Read on:

The judicial review of HPC is now in its first stage. Documents prepared by Dinah Rose QC and John Halford of Bindmans have been sent to the High Court which point to problems with the HPC's actions to date. It had been charged with assessing the regulatory needs of counselling and psychotherapy and whether its own system was capable of accommodating this field, yet proceeded as if this was a foregone conclusion. Despite stating several times unequivocally that it had not made any attempt to study these questions, HPC could then write to the Department of Health in December 2009 claiming that it had in fact done so. Attempts to query this contradiction proved fruitless.

The JR papers discuss and document this, as well as other major failures in the process, which indicate that the HPC did not approach its work in a rational or fair way. Alternative models of regulation were not given proper consideration despite being repeatedly brought to HPC's attention. Key questions about the nature of the talking therapies were ignored, and hardly any of the HPC's criteria for regulating professions, such as homogeneity of knowledge base or practice, are applicable to our highly diverse field.

The first set of documents will now be scrutinised by the courts. The instructing organisations are The Association for Group and Individual Psychotherapy, The Association of Independent Psychotherapists, The Centre for Freudian Analysis and Research, The College of Psychoanalysts-UK, The Guild of Psychotherapists and The Philadelphia Association. Funding of the review has been made possible by contributions from thousands of therapists and members of the public who feel strongly about the issue.

Significantly, the Department of Health has now said that it will await the outcome of the judicial review before acting on the HPC's recommendations and that it is exploring alternative models of regulation. This is an important decision, as until now the DoH has simply stated that it will regulate the talking therapies via HPC, and the HPC itself has refused to discuss alternative models of regulation. The fact that other models will now be studied is real progress, and we hope that the DoH will work with our organisations and examine the models used in other countries, where regulatory arrangements have been arrived at that are satisfactory to both government and the field itself.

Saturday, March 06, 2010

WAPCEPC, PCEP & all that



Taking advantage of the discounted rates for BAPCA members (see Why Join BAPCA?), I decided to take out a year's sub to WAPCEPC (the World Association for Person-Centered and Experiential Psychotherapy & Counseling).

Then - demonstrating conclusively that I need to get a life - I decided to have a go at producing my own desktop index to the full collection of PCEP Journals (2002-09).

What I've done is to save the link page for every paper in every issue of the journals as an html file, and then I've combined all those files into a single pdf - which is obviously searchable by keywords and handy in itself.

But I've also activated all the links in the document and, if you click on the title of any of the papers, it will take you to the actual download page for that paper. If you are logged in you can read or download the paper in question. If you don't have a membership / login, at least you can read the abstracts and remind yourself of where to find the paper in your hard copy (if you're a BAPCA member) - or simply drool at the collection and/or save up your pennies (if you're not).

You can download my index from:
PCEP Desktop Index Beta

Don't be put off by the truncated titles on the first couple of pages - that's something that WAPCEPC sorted out after the first (short) Volume - the rest of the index shows the full titles of all the papers.

Hope you find it useful!

If you desperately need sight of any of the papers, why not join PCAyorks and we’ll see what we can do to help?

Some (generous) comments on my little innovation:

Wow! Impressive.
[Janet Tolan / Liverpool John Moores University / BACP Fellow / author]

I feel this is potentially pretty useful, particularly when I am doing a lit review at the moment! Maybe you want to talk to the WA people and see about them offering it on their website [...] I feel this is a quick and easy way through for PCEP readers to find that lost article that they know is there somewhere. [Mark Harrison, MBACP / BAPCA trustee]

WOW Paul very impressive indeed, and so fast!
[Linda Heavon, Knowsley Council / BAPCA trustee / President-elect of Bootle Club of Soroptimist International / Therapist]

I've just visited your index, must have taken you ages! Thanks very much, I'm sure it will be a useful resource.
[Paula Newman, GQHP, UKRC, BACP (Accred) / Counsellor and Hypnotherapist]

Wow!
[Jackie Taylor MBACP, UKCP registered psychotherapist]

Oh, that's brill, many thanks! I'll need to study how to get to the info for a while, but look forward to getting there!
[Shirley Jolley / BACP / BAPCA / occasional author]

Thanks for sharing this - it's a fantastic quick resource. I'd like to share it with students on the course I work on.
[David Murphy Nottingham University]

Amazing!
[Ralph Wallin, BAPCA]

Wednesday, March 03, 2010

Carl Rogers & the CIA



Carl Rogers was a pioneer and leader in the humanistic psychology movement. Although his many professional activities and accomplishments are well known, the story of his association with the Society for the Investigation of Human Ecology - a front organisation for the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) - is barely known and has never been explored in any depth...until this article by Stephen P. Demanchick and Howard Kirschenbaum, which attempts to tell that story in the context of America during the 1950s, Rogers' academic career, and the mission of the CIA.

Download: Carl Rogers & the CIA

Launde Abbey Encounter Weekend



PCAN - see Kendal Encounter post, below - are running another event at their regular haunt, Launde Abbey, from Friday 9-Sunday 11 April 2010. Some places remain. The cost will be £195 for the weekend.

For further details, contact Bernard Mooney, T: 020 8504 3675.

Launde Abbey is an Elizabethan manor house, set in a partly wooded valley among the rolling hills of Leicestershire. It has gardens of several acres, and is a place of tranquility. It is the site of an Augustinian priory founded in 1119.

PCAN (established over 30 years ago) has met here for more than 20 years.

See the website for more details of how to get there.

“In a group where control is shared by all… where every person is empowered, a new type of community becomes possible, an organic kind of flow… if we can find even one partial truth about the processes by which… people live together…. Without destroying one another… can live together with a caring concern for the full development for each person… can live together in the richness of diversity, instead of the sterility of conformity, then we may have found a truth with many, many implications”
[Carl Rogers, On Personal Power, 1978]

Tuesday, March 02, 2010

PCA Encounter Group in Kendal

Encounter Group in Kendal
Friday 9 April (7.30pm) to Sunday 11 April (4pm)
Facilitated by Will Stillwell from the La Jolla Program in California.

About the Encounter and the person centred approach
An Encounter Group provides an opportunity for people to experience a temporary Person-Centred Community. Such gatherings can be facilitated or have no formal structure except for conditions required by the venue. There is a commitment to creating an environment of the Core Conditions: where individuals are accepted and valued, where we each strive for empathy and authenticity. Since there is no-one "directing", each member of the group is able to take personal responsibility. It is an opportunity for self-exploration of, for example, your relationship with personal power. The gatherings can be challenging, exciting and deeply moving.

Reflecting on his experiences in both large and small community groups, Carl Rogers wrote: "I realise that of all the ventures in which I have ever been involved, this was the most thoroughly person-centred".

* Group numbers are between 10 and 25.
* The cost is £95 (there may be reduced fee places available, on request) for the facilitation and administration fee. Food and accommodation is not included.
* This group requires payment in advance for each booking.
* No food is provided except a limited variety of coffee, tea and biscuits. Please state special requirements. There are places to eat nearby.
* We include your contact details on a participant list, unless you ask us not to.
* Each gathering will determine its own confidentiality with regard to sharing of personal information, photographs from the event etc.
* Our meetings are unstructured, taking encounter form.
* The gatherings can be exciting, energising and risky. This offers a rare opportunity to experience an undirected temporary community. The facilitator has some responsibility for ensuring that arrangements go smoothly.
* We ask each for each person to be responsible for her/himself. We also ask each member of the community to contribute as far as they are able towards the 'duty of care'.

La Jolla Program
Will Stillwell is facilitating the 8 day Program in the south of England and has agreed to facilitate an Encounter Group in Kendal. He knew Carl Rogers. La Jolla Program uses a method of facilitating human potential and interpersonal effectiveness that grew out of client-centred therapy and known today as the person-centred approach. To help someone else “grow as a person” is no easier than to “grow oneself as a person.” But it can be done, and we have some hope – based on over 40 years of observation and practice – that it may be guided and encouraged by what one learns at the La Jolla Program. Take this weekend for yourself! You may decide to do the 8 day La Jolla Program at a later date (Phone 01539 720647 for more information).

Many, many people tell us this experience is still extremely useful, many years later. You can think of the Encounter Group as part of your journey of self discovery and professional advancement. You will learn methods for being effective in your associations with other people both personally and professionally. You will probably interact with people who bring different customs, thoughts, values and aspirations to the program. You may become a more effective listener. You may increase your acceptance of others and yourself. You will learn more about yourself at levels that are invigorating and may be surprising.

For more information on the British Person Centred Approach Network, go to: www.pcan.info

For more information on La Jolla Program go to:
www.lajollaprogram.com

For bookings and further information on the Kendal Encounter, contact:
Ian Fallows on (01539) 720647 or email ianfallows@hotmail.com