Regulator must heed professional advice from therapists

Sir, – The letter from a director of the Irish Council of Psychotherapy (ICP) is of great concern (“Coru and personal therapy,” July 6th).

Coru’s dismissal of ICP’s experience and advice gained over many years in establishing international standards for training psychotherapists and for maintaining professional accreditation in Ireland is hard to understand.

The responsibility of Coru, the State regulator of the psychotherapy profession, is to protect the public. Personal therapy and supervision during and after training are the best safeguards for those who seek therapy and for the psychotherapists who provide it.

It is a bizarre anomaly that those who are being regulated are asking for more stringent standards for their profession than the regulator is willing to impose. – Yours, etc,