{"id":484894,"date":"2025-10-09T05:53:12","date_gmt":"2025-10-09T05:53:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/484894\/"},"modified":"2025-10-09T05:53:12","modified_gmt":"2025-10-09T05:53:12","slug":"psychotherapy-regulator-cited-wider-implications-in-rejecting-personal-therapy-proposal-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/484894\/","title":{"rendered":"Psychotherapy regulator cited \u2018wider implications\u2019 in rejecting personal therapy proposal \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall b-it-article-body__text--left\">An internal document has highlighted why the regulator for psychotherapy overruled a recommendation to include mandatory personal therapy in new standards for the sector. \u201cPotential wider implications for other professions\u201d and financial burden on students were the main reasons.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall b-it-article-body__text--left\">In July <a href=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/tags\/coru\/\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Coru<\/a>, the regulator for health and social care professionals, published new training standards for psychotherapists that will be brought into law after years of the sector calling for government regulation.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall b-it-article-body__text--left\">However, the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/tags\/irish-council-for-psychotherapy\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/tags\/irish-council-for-psychotherapy\/\">Irish Council for Psychotherapy<\/a> (ICP), the Irish Association of Humanistic and Integrative Psychotherapy (IAHIP), the Irish Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy, and the European Association of Psychotherapy (EAP) have all raised concerns that the new standards will lower the quality of training. They say this could create risks for the safety of clients.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">One area the four bodies have criticised is the lack of mandatory personal therapy for psychotherapists. Minimum standards set out by the EAP state that psychotherapists must experience 250 hours of psychotherapy themselves, describing it as \u201dvital and absolutely essential&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall b-it-article-body__text--left\">However, a Coru document, dated April 23rd, 2025, showed the regulator decided to \u201crefuse the request\u201d by the Counsellors and Psychotherapists Registration Board to include such a provision.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall b-it-article-body__text--left\">According to the document, Coru said there were a number of reasons for the decision, including potential wider implications for other professions, challenges in measuring and assessing the process, as well as an additional financial burden on students.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall b-it-article-body__text--left\">It also cited uncertainty around integration within the assessment framework, discomfort with mandating the level of therapy required and concerns about potential barriers for international applicants.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">Jacky Grainger, chairwoman of the IAHIP, who obtained the document under the Freedom of Information Act, said \u201cthe need for trainee psychotherapists to undergo psychotherapy is already an established Irish and international norm\u201d.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall b-it-article-body__text--left\">She added: \u201cThe additional financial burden on students was also cited as an objection. This is not a consideration when setting training criteria. Student psychotherapists will also have to pay tuition fees. This has not prevented Coru from requiring an NFQ level 9 qualification.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall b-it-article-body__text--left\">Ms Grainger said there are \u201cseveral mandated thresholds for training\u201d in the published criteria. She questioned why personal therapy would be any different.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph b-it-article-body__interstitial-link\">[\u00a0<a aria-label=\"Open related story\" class=\"c-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/health\/2025\/09\/24\/minister-urged-to-intercede-over-regulator-row-in-psychotherapy-sector\/\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Minister urged to intercede over regulator row in psychotherapy sectorOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">In a statement Coru said mandatory personal therapy for student psychotherapists has not been included in the proposed standards as there is \u201cinsufficient evidence that such therapy provides a benefit to students or ultimately their clients\u201d. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">\u201cIn fact, some studies have highlighted that compulsory therapy can sometimes have unintended negative effects, including emotional distress for students,\u201d the statement said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall b-it-article-body__text--left\">\u201cWhen regulation is introduced, students will be required to meet the required standards of self-awareness, reflection and ethical judgment. However, they will not be required to pay considerable fees to private psychotherapy practitioners.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"An internal document has highlighted why the regulator for psychotherapy overruled a recommendation to include mandatory personal therapy&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":484895,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4317],"tags":[150092,12634,1213,153054,1234,150094,105,218,65115,285,30042,10734,65118,16,15,25002,978,659],"class_list":{"0":"post-484894","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mental-health","8":"tag-2025uspolitics","9":"tag-american","10":"tag-americas","11":"tag-antifa","12":"tag-government","13":"tag-government-news","14":"tag-health","15":"tag-mental-health","16":"tag-north-american","17":"tag-politics","18":"tag-the-white-house","19":"tag-u-s-government","20":"tag-u-s-a","21":"tag-uk","22":"tag-united-kingdom","23":"tag-united-states-of-america","24":"tag-us","25":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115342659188143737","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/484894","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=484894"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/484894\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/484895"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=484894"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=484894"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=484894"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}