More on the McCarron case

Last month I was alarmed to hear that the Health and Care Professions Council had failed to strike off a practitioner psychologist after finding allegations of serious sexual misconduct proved. The full committee findings are now online. I think it raises a few questions about how the panel came to its decision.

John McCarron, a psychologist from Lancashire. was suspended for a year after beginning a sexual relationship with a vulnerable client shortly after the therapy ended. I’ve chatted about the case on Twitter with various psychologists, all of whom have been shaking their heads at what looks like a worryingly lenient decision. I received a few thoughts from Leigh Emery about the sanction.

Concerned counsellors raise alarm over Palace Gate

The following statement has been issued to various agencies in the Exeter area, warning them about Palace Gate Counselling Service, who were struck off by the BACP last month. It is signed by 27 counsellors and psychotherapists, including 11 supervisors. I think it says something about the service that so many of their fellow professionals feel compelled to raise the alarm. Unfortunately it probably also says something about the lack of statutory authority behind accredited voluntary registration that it’s relying on people taking the initiative in order to raise these concerns.

CONCERNED COUNSELLORS

 

Findings by British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy May 2014:

PHOENIX COUNSELLING SERVICES: SERIOUS PROFESSIONAL MISCONDUCT

 

Phoenix Counselling Services, the company who continue to run Palace Gate Counselling in Exeter, have now been twice struck off the register of the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy.(BACP) Two women made separate complaints about touch and nudity in therapy sessions in 2012 and this has been judged in hearings last month (May 2014) to be “serious professional misconduct”.

Struck-off Exeter counsellors also running services in Plymouth and Taunton

I recently blogged about Palace Gate Counselling Service, whose Exeter-based directors John Clapham and Lindsey Talbott have just been struck off by the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy. Under their trading name Phoenix Counselling Services, a whopping 30 allegations were found proved against them, including sexual abuse during therapy by Clapham.

Palace Gate Counselling Service are still going despite this. Indeed, their company blog still has a spectacularly libellous blog post online about the two women who complained. A little suggestion, Mr Clapham and Ms Talbott. If you’re objecting to being called a ‘therapeutic cult’, it’s generally not a good idea to make long, rambling public statements claiming to be under attack by nefarious people for vague reasons. It kind of makes you look a bit cultish.