The Person-Centred Association's Official Response to the SCoPeD Project.

Please see below The Person-Centred Associations's official response to the SCoPEd project.

Charity number: 1044077

June 2019

The Chair
Expert Reference Group
SCoPEd Project  

Dear Madam or Sir 

The largest single group of counsellors and psychotherapists in the UK are person-centred by training and self-definition. The SCoPEd project from its inception has excluded this group in favour of a theoretical stance that privileges psychoanalytic ideas and practice.

The humanistic therapies, of which person-centred is a significant branch, are founded on principles which include support for the autonomy of the client. The SCoPEd project’s theoretical stance is predicated on the therapist as an expert, knowing more than the client and with a brief to diagnose and treat – a model tending towards the medicalisation of human distress.

There is a very great body of research that supports the efficacy of person-centred and other humanistic therapy. Moreover, leading edge developments such as the the Power Threat Meaning Framework developed by the British Psychological Society and Open Dialogue initiated in Finland are proving to be extremely effective in working with even the most extreme forms of “mental illness”.

For SCoPEd to be developing a framework that would render such work unlawful seems perverse and flies in the face of current research and practice.

Rather than simply criticizing the composition of the ERG, the “survey” of BACP members and so on, we prefer that the voice of person-centred practitioners be represented going forward. Please let us know as soon as possible which member/s of the ERG will be bringing research expertise and knowledge about person-centred practice into this forum.

Thank you

Janet Tolan
On behalf of the Trustees, The Person-Centred Association