Psychotherapy/Counselling- Starting out, help!

lookingaround wrote: »

By the way I also have absolutely no idea what a 'shill;' is, but I'm relatively sure it is not complimentary

You could have found out in less time by Googling it than it took you to write the quoted post. A shill, in respect of Internet fora, is someone pretending to be a poster who is unconnected with an organisation or product and who stimulates discussion of it or effectively engages in positive marketing on their behalf.

At least we now know that you are not just a random person who happens to have a few friends studying with NCII, that is the impression you chose to give initially. It's not personal, but it is the culture of Internet fora for members to take unkindly to single issue posters whose sole aim is to promote an organisation or product. Whether you are or are not employed by NCII as a marketer your behaviour is functionally identical to someone who would be.

Nobody, and I really do mean nobody, would view your posts as being balanced. You arrived specifically, by your own admission, to promote NCII in the face of criticism of it. Nothing wrong with that if you are not connected with them beyond ordinary membership with them, and nothing wrong with it if you are and you are upfront about it. You are not being balanced, but neither I am, it's okay to have a particular view and disagree. The only thing that isn't okay is being a shill.

Anyway, I don't wish to continue us arguing (as I'm sure you don't either) as it serves no purpose on this forum. We'll wait until the another in the long line of first time posters pops up to ask about NCII. Funny how that only happens with NCII.

However, Lookingaround, every single one of your 6 posts is to do with NCII. So it can be seen that your entire agenda on boards is to do with NCII. You are not engaging with any other topic on boards at all. That say something, and yes, shill does come to mind.

Cyberbullying, really?

I didn't read it so much as people having a problem with dissenting opinions, rather that someone has joined Boards with the seeming sole agenda of promoting/defending/shilling/whatever about NCII. As other posters have said, that's perfectly fine once you are up front about it.

I think at some stage or another ALL of the psychotherapy training courses have been criticised or discussed in some way or another. Nobody has a problem with different opinions once they are discussed in a rational manner. However, you've got to see what Hotspur etc is talking about - you yourself said you joined Boards to defend "your friends" training course, and every post since then has been about that same course. That's a lot of interest for something that you say you're not yourself involved in! Can you see why people might think your posts are shilling?

It seems every time psychotherapy training is being discussed here someone seems to join boards to talk about NCII and it's getting a bit boring at this stage.

Yes the bickering and sniping among psychotherapy accrediting organisations and training programmes is somewhat endemic. However I'm not sure I agree that it puts off genuinely interested people in getting into the field.

I'll give you a brief sketch of who is who. None of the following are statutory regulators.

The PSI is the accrediting organisation for psychologists, so counselling psychologists and clinical psychologists will be accredited by them. The legislation is on the books for a statutory registration board to accredit and regulate them in the future.

Psychiatrists have the Irish College of Psychiatry.

Psychotherapists and counsellors have lots. There is:

Irish Council for Psychotherapy - they are an umbrella organisation comprised of:

Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT)

The Family Therapy Association of Ireland (FTAI)

The Irish Analytical Psychology Association (IAPA)

The Irish Association of Humanistic & Integrative Psychotherapy (IAHIP)

The Irish Constructivists Psychotherapy Association (ICPA)

The Irish Forum for Psychoanalytic Psychotherapists (IFPP)

The Irish Forum for Child & Adolescent Psychotherapy (IFCAPP)

The Irish Group Analytic Society (IGAS)

The Irish Psychoanalytic Association (IPAA)

The Northern Ireland Institute of Human Relations (NIIHR)

Among them IAHIP would be the biggest non-psychoanalytic group. There would have been some sniping over the years between them and the IACP as two of the largest groups who accredit your average humanistic and integrative therapist. Their accreditation standards are higher than the IACP's because IAHIP require that training be at postgraduate level unlike IACP which admits those without a degree.

IACP - are one of, if not the biggest, accrediting bodies in the country. I've always thought of them as being more on the counsellor side of the traditional counsellor - psychotherapy thing.

The Irish Association for Psychotherapy in Primary Care - accredit therapists who work in primary health care settings. They are relatively new, their accreditation standards are very high, and I have no clue how big their membership is.

The Irish Association of Alcohol and Addiction Counsellors - they accredit therapists who work in addiction.

There are religious kind of ones such as:
ACCORD Catholic Marriage Care Service
The National Association for Pastoral Counsellors and Psychotherapists

I'll mention The Association for Psychoanalysis and Psychotherapy in Ireland or Odysseus will get annoyed A lot of them are into Lacan.

There's the The Irish Gestalt Society, The Irish Association for Cognitive Analytical Therapy, Institute of Cognitive Behavioural Therapy Ireland (small group of REBT'ers), a few hypnotherapy ones some of which claim to also be psychotherapy, NCII.

And I'm sure there are others.

Any prospective trainee should consider that their course should meet the standards laid down by the submission to the government on statutory regulation. So that means postgrad level for a start. They should consider that their course would ultimately enable them to reach the level to get the European Certificate of Psychotherapy. They should also consider that their training will get them accredited and respected by bodies unconnected to the training course itself.

At the moment this probably means aiming to join the ICP after training.

A lot of the sniping is low level and usually restricted to people involved in the organisation of the bodies. NCII is the only body I know of which explicitly markets that their courses are more legitimate than any of the others.

If you don't have a degree before starting your therapy training then you will be looking at joining the IACP usually, and many people with degrees choose to train in an IACP accredited course and choose to join them after. If you're into psychoanalysis then there are lots of ICP affiliated bodies to choose from or APPI. Otherwise it's usually some IPC body, often IAHIP.

The situation is ludicrous tbh. There's also tension about money. For example PCI college which usually leads to IACP membership would have taken a lot of money away from courses accredited by IAHIP.

It would be nice to say that it's all just sillyness, and mostly it is, but there are yahoos out there too. We need statutory regulation imo. At least that would stop the organisations with bad standards claiming they train and accredit therapists.

Same college, basically BS