As people continue to write in questioning the probity of the decision to remove personal therapy as an absolute from BACP accredited trainings, and as the same line continues to be trotted out about other forms of self-development, might I propose one or two ideas to members?

Perhaps BACP should seriously consider changing its name so that the words ‘counsellor’ and ‘psychotherapist’ are no longer part of its title. After all, the name of this magazine has already changed from CPJ (Counselling and Psychotherapy Journal) to therapy today. Perhaps you were (unconsciously) ahead of yourselves.

I do not feel that BACP has much to do with maintaining the standards that were originally set with regards to levels of training. How can the Association suggest that it promotes counselling and psychotherapy when it no longer requires those training on its accredited courses to be in counselling or psychotherapy?

These professions are unique in the sense that they require the practitioner to be open inside themselves to understanding the client from a place of ‘not knowing’. By this I mean not assuming we know all the answers, because we don't. Ask anyone who has practised in this profession for a while and I suspect they will all tell you the same thing: it’s when we think we know that we are in trouble.

The things we do know – the things we want to rely on in the consulting room – are things like theory and technique. But theory and technique have nothing to do with being open. Being open to the client’s experience puts us in the extraordinarily privileged position of being able to understand their experience of themselves in the world. If someone feels understood there is the possibility of growth. Being open as a counsellor or psychotherapist comes from being in counselling or psychotherapy, and having spent a period of time allowing ourselves to be understood by another. We allow ourselves to be held in another’s mind where we are open to experiencing ourselves differently because we are being understood differently. Doesn’t BACP see what an extraordinary process it is supposed to be the custodian of?

Jeremy Vintcent