An article has just been published in The Telegraph raising concerns about the governance of the main UK professional therapy bodies. The journalist interviewed four individuals who have occupied senior roles at the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy (BACP|), the United Kingdom Council for Psychotherapy(UKCP) and the British Psychological Society (BPS) and each person revealed how activists are able to silence anyone who doesn’t toe the line, and, in their particular cases, force them out of the organisation.
The main thread that runs through the article is the extraordinary power wielded by trans-activists to bully and intimidate anyone within the professional bodies who advocates for the rights of gender dysphoric children to receive appropriate exploratory therapy rather than affirmation only.
Both recent chairs of UKCP, Dr Christian Buckland and Martin Pollecoff describe their experience of questioning the Memorandum of Understanding on Conversion Therapy (MOU) which had been revised to include children not just adults. Buckland led the UKCP to withdraw its signature (see previous CTA post) and experienced a threatening campaign of activist intimidation including death threats. Pollecoff, who was the UKCP chairman for six years, told the Telegraph, ” he had only discovered he was a signatory on a revised memorandum including children two years after he had left the organisation, despite never having agreed to it.”
The article states that, “The concerns raised by Dr Buckland and Mr Pollecoff have been echoed across the profession, with former leaders at Britain’s other two biggest membership bodies for therapists also telling The Telegraph about the risk of ‘significant harm’ that the profession now poses to children, with members quitting the organisations in protest.”
Professor Nigel MacLennan, the former president-elect of the BPS, also voiced concerns about the MOU forcing children down a route towards surgery. He was forced to stand down before taking up the position of president because of “bullying” allegations, which he claims was in response to whistleblowing. He said others had not spoken out because “trustees are vulnerable to life-ruining retaliation at the hands of the wrongdoers, and those wrongdoers have complete legal impunity”.
Natalie Bailey was chair of the BACP for six years until she was ousted from her position along with her deputy on charges of excessive expense claims. She believes she was targeted because she had raised concerns that the BACP was ignoring the findings of the Cass report (see earlier CTA article and also the BACP’s press release supporting the trans community after the Supreme Court ruling on biological sex). She called this a: “clear example of governance failure”. She said since leaving that “many members have contacted me about the gender issue and how it is placing children at risk of serious harm”.
Read the full article here.
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