Irish psychotherapy standards at risk

Sir, – I warmly welcome the letter from José Castilho and Tom Warnacke of the European Association for Psychotherapy (Letters, October 26th). They make the point clearly that being recognised by the State as a psychotherapist in Ireland is one thing, and having that qualification recognised elsewhere in Europe is quite another.

Their question to Coru, on whether its proposed standards have been compared with those of other European countries, is a fair one. The standards as proposed for Ireland remove the mandatory requirement for personal therapy and clinical supervision, and do not set a minimum training duration.

These are not academic niceties. What Coru has proposed is well below what our European counterparts regard as the foundation of safe practice.

Psychotherapists work with people who are traumatised, bereaved, suicidal or recovering from abuse. A practitioner who has not looked at their own experiences, or been closely supervised while learning,…