Here in the UK, we are witnessing the start of an inevitable schism in the therapy field (predicted in Cynical Therapies, Chapter 21). On the one hand, the UK Council for Psychotherapy (UKCP) has broken ranks and thrown off the activist schackles, declaring that gender critical views must be respected and that exploratory therapy must not be conflated with conversion therapy. But, on the other hand, the British Association for Counselling & Psychotherapy (BACP) seems hellbent on its Critical Social Justice mission; apart from an increasing amount of critical opposition (published here under the auspices of CTA and elsewhere including significant academic publications) this entrenched position is now starting to attract wider negative public attention as follows.

The BACP is currently revising its ethical framework which aims ‘… to embed equality, diversity and inclusion (EDI) at the heart of ethical thinking.’ (Surely, ethics rather than a political ideology should be at the centre of this endeavour? ) To this end it set up an official consultation panel which includes the gender idealogue, Professor Sophie Grace Chapell. who appears to have expressed some decidedly questionable views – see newspaper report which starts as follows (see full report link here).

‘A transgender academic accused of saying it ‘would not matter’ if the number of female murders increased if men were allowed to self-identify as women has been put in charge of creating guidelines for therapists, The Mail on Sunday can reveal.’

The question that arises is – who is in charge of the BACP? Don’t they realise that, apart from everything else that is wrong with this antitherapeutic direction, they are in danger of bringing the therapy professions into public disrepute? The general public is not stupid. Although Critical Social Justice purports to serve the interests of the marginalised, it does no such thing. Instead, it is a power-driven, elite-serving ideology which despises the majority (see Nick Opyrchal’s discussion). Articles in the popular press such as this one undermine the therapy professions, setting them up as targets of ridicule – well-deserved, in this case. The BACP needs an urgent course correction before it topples into a grave of its own making..