Following on from our recent post about the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy (BACP) in The Jewish News, we can report that the organisation has acknowledged its mistake.
This turnaround is obviously good news. Taking a charitable view, it would seem to be evidence of a stronger leadership asserting itself. However, a less charitable view would be that the organisation changed its position not based on an ethical re-evaluation but just due to the negative publicity generated by the news item published in The Jewish News. Only time will tell. The apology published on the BACP website is given below in full and verbatim:
We’re truly shocked and saddened by the horrific events in Israel and Gaza. Our thoughts are with all those affected by this, particularly families who have lost loved ones.
A related article titled ‘A community in traumatic stress’ by Dr Sandi Mann, a regular columnist for our BACP Workplace journal, was due to be published in January’s edition.
However, at the last minute we decided not to publish the piece over a concern around sensitivities relating to the topic. On reflection, this was the wrong decision.
We’re deeply sorry for not publishing the article and for the hurt that decision has caused.
It’s really important that we continue to listen and learn when we make mistakes, so that we can do better for our members, their clients and the profession.
We recognise the impact the situation in Israel and Gaza is having on communities in the UK. Racism, discrimination, threats and violence are unacceptable.
Dr Mann’s article is a powerful insight into important work being carried out to support the Jewish community with trauma and deserves to be shared publicly.
Trauma can have long-term consequences on mental health and wellbeing. As a registered charity and a membership body our focus must be on our charitable objectives and on mental health and access to counselling and psychotherapy.
We’ve contacted Dr Mann to apologise and have now published her article on our website, which you can read by following the link below. It will also feature in a future edition of BACP Workplace.
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