Mental health week, month, year, minute: Navigating the wild west of wellbeing gurus.
I think it’s mental health week or was at some point. To be honest, every week is mental health week for me, but I appreciate the sentiment. With this in mind I thought I would write about a pet hate of mine when it comes to this subject... that is, the sheer amount of people in the profession who mean well but need to consider the potential accountability of their actions.
This all started for me when I called out a ‘trauma’ expert online who was charging ridiculous amounts of money for his 'heal trauma’ course. Having spent 9 years training (and ongoing - Post grad diploma, MSc and doctorate) in clinical practice, I felt the need to challenge this bold claim. It appeared that the ‘guru’ had no accreditation or any formal training in mental health, counselling, psychotherapy or psychology. It transpired that the ‘expert’ had ‘done lots of reading around the subject and healed himself’. Ouch!
At this point I criticised the said ‘expert’ and asked him how he kept his clients safe and what kind of professional accountability or insurance he held. Of course, none. Whoop! Wow!
This is where I believe the general public are too easily hoodwinked. We only have to spend 10 minutes online to stagger across someone making bold claims regarding mental health. This is of course a complex field, and no one approach works for everyone. Perhaps ignorance is bliss?
The more I have learnt, the less I know... perhaps the guru of Instagram had indeed healed many, but at some point he will come across someone with deeper needs and he may come unstuck. For me, it’s vital to keep an eye on the ethics of what we do as counsellors, psychotherapists and psychologists. I also think we have a duty of care to ‘call it out’ when we see it. In a way, we are protecting people’s lives and our own profession.
It's hard enough for the average person to know what our qualifications or accreditation actually mean. For me I wanted to grill myself and go for the full UKCP (google it), this means that it was a post grad training lasting over 4 years in duration, (my initial course took 5 years at MSc level) we had to have 450 client hours, 50 therapy hours per year minimum and 250 supervision hours. I then continued to doctoral level due to the importance of knowing of my clinical work.
We also had to undertake a work experience placement in a clinical setting such as a psychiatric hospital or other inpatient facility to enable us to spot and acknowledge our limitations as clinicians. This was hard work and so it annoys me when social media gurus can just jump in with a flash advertising campaign to sell potentially dangerous interventions. In the UK, other accreditation providers such as BACP require less therapy, supervision and clinical hours than the UKCP but still remain an incredibly valid and important accreditation body. From my experience these are the two most robust UK accrediting bodies in counselling and psychotherapy, there may be some new ones but these two have the longest history. Now… I’m not saying other trainings or accreditations are better or worse, it’s an ambiguous area but I think the general public need to be aware of the level of training of the practitioner, the requirements of the accreditation and what it actually means. As I said, I’m always surprised when I see non-qualified people offering mental health support, it’s really dangerous!
There has also been a huge surge of mental health support in the music industry of late which is fantastic, but I do hold additional concern about the true level of knowledge and training that many of these people hold (don’t get me started on apps – did you know 95% have never received any independent clinical studies?). I know they are well intentioned, but I do hold huge concern in an area where there are a great many vulnerable people.
Anyway, when I get approached by people looking for therapy, I always tell them to ask the practitioner exactly what training they have done, what experience they have. If it’s a specialist area, what exactly have they done? Where did they tour, what band did they work with? What does this or that qualification mean? How long was the training?
Of course, these questions won’t answer every question we have but it will go some way in finding out the exact level of practitioner, service or app you are dealing with. It’s a messy world out there and anyone can call themselves a counsellor, psychotherapist or wellbeing guru. Please tread carefully!
In a nutshell, it’s vital you seek support with a robust and accredited service. One thing I have always found important in my work with Tonic and others is the attention to confidentiality, ethical frameworks and protecting the vulnerable. The screening processes used might be a ball ache, but it keeps people safe. This is why the groups at Tonic Music aren’t open access. As a facilitator, I really don’t want just anyone wandering into these precious spaces where vulnerability prompts growth.
If you are looking for a therapist, try to go for UKCP, BPC, BPS or BACP. I don’t know much about other accreditation processes but there may well be some. If they are not accredited, it means they are not insured or probably trained. It’s an unregulated profession so tread carefully, a bit like the good old days in the wild west, a bit like the music industry... it's no wonder there’s so many chancers.
Jai Guru Dev... or so they say.
Adam Ficek hosts a monthly show 'Tonic Music' on Totally Wired Radio, where he talks to various guests about music and mental health. You can listen again to any of the previous show on the Tonic Music Mixcloud page.
