A complaint was registered with the Trust and BACP recently, so to keep the community in the loop, we’re sharing an update on this.
As you might know, the 4-day Essentials of Psychosynthesis course has for many years included the opportunity to have a session with a psychosynthesis therapist, observed and supported by the group during the evenings of the course. Most community trainees will have had the opportunity of doing this before embarking on further training at the Trust.
A year ago a participant on the Essentials made a complaint as they felt that they had been coerced into having their evening therapy session and then felt unsupported by the therapist during the session itself. Both the participant and the Trust were heard and, while the Trust did not agree with the participant’s complaint, the BACP decided to uphold the complaint against the Trust. In the October 2018 issue of Therapy Today magazine, under the usual listings of Professional Conduct Hearings, the complaint outcome was listed.
We are all really sorry that someone participating in the Essentials course felt overwhelmed or suffered in any way and we have worked with BACP’s recommendations to avoid this kind of situation arising again. The Essentials, the training team and the Essentials therapists are dedicated to supporting participants in their growth, insight and learning.
These are the changes we’ve made:
• Reviewed the application process to better identify people for whom the course is not suitable, or the right choice at that point in their personal development
• Changed the format of the Essentials by taking out the observed evening therapy sessions
• Given more clarity on how participants can feedback if they have a complaint. This has been done by a more visible signpost on the Contact Us section of the website, as well as on the contact us section of each training programme web page.
The BACP have recognised our actions towards preventing this happening again and continues to accredit our training programmes as it has done for the last 25 years.
Recent Essentials courses have ran without the evening sessions, and participants have continued to feedback to us about having had great experiences, going to the depths that you all know the Essentials does. We will keep working towards this continuing to be the case so that the Essentials course remains a transformative introduction to psychosynthesis that inspires personal and professional growth.
With best wishes,
The Psychosynthesis Trust