Some of the contributors to this handbook are prominent practitioners experts in their field they have published bodies of work that are known to many practitioners unfortunately other contributors are not & this lets the book down quite considerablyThe chapter 'Complaints' by Gallagher and Haworth seemed rather blaming and almost paranoidI would have preferred a more productive exploration relating to the very serious issue of complaints against therapists,an exploration into why complaints arise would have been helpful,their view seems quite exaggerated almost self centered-perhaps their writing indicates a cynicism inherent in the profession or perhaps its intellectual laziness or perhaps some other reason?I think most of us are aware that false allegations against therapists are extremely rare as is "delusional transference".Oftentimes complaints arise due to arrogant therapists who are so dissociated from their own emotional state sometimes through overly scientific training,sometimes by habit or choice,dogmatic adherence to an inappropriate service delivery style or unchecked countertransference that they genuinely have no idea of the damage they do to their clients-then there are the ultimate abusers the therapists who deliberately seek out therapeutic power in order to abuse perhaps Gallagher and Haworth should have focussed more on what the practitioner learned from the experience of being complained about,focusing on blaming others (externalising all blame) just doesnt support a therapists growth and professional developmentI feel oftentimes narcissism gets in the way. The therapist needs to be seen as credible prove the correctness of a theory or save face and this can be a huge impediment to responding to our future clients needsThe chapter 'Complaints Professional and Ethical Issues' made me smile it reminded me of the book 'Mistakes Were Made...But Not By Me'On a more positive note I agree with Mandatory Psychotherapy for therapists.Most therapists do not undergo significant long term personal therapy as part of their training programme,psychologists especially are told they should be detached and this can lead to prospective therapists hiding any perceived weaknesses or insecurities in order to 'look good' to colleagues tutors,ex-tutors and co workersA Therapists unfinished business can lead to the therapist distorting the therapeutic needs of the client,enacting and not being able to handle their counter transference.In order to combat this all therapists should commit to therapy in order to work on their unresolved family of origin issues.Some therapists are not stableInterestingly bad therapists have a common profile of developmental unfinished business.They are often first born or the only child are pushed through childhood too quickly without sufficient nurturing,warmth or protection and are parentified (asked to become a little adult and take care of parent(s)) they have low self esteem and tend to be loners they find it difficult to make friends and dont know how to be intimate[Weinhold 1992]

Handbook of professional and ethical practice for psychologists, counsellors, and psychotherapists PDF

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