Letter from a Consumer of Counselling Therapy Services

On April 6, 2020, FACTBC received this letter from a consumer of counselling therapy services.

To: FACTBC

Re: Regulation of Counselling Therapy

I recently wrote Health Minister Adrian Dix, Mental Health and Addictions Minister Sheila Malcolmson, and my local MLA, to ask that they act now toward regulation of counselling therapy in BC.

I know something first-hand about the suffering, pain, and anguish that occurs when mental health professionals do not meet ethical standards and maintain boundaries.

The intimate, power-imbalanced, and confidential setting of a counsellor’s office is akin to a physician’s medical examination room, and the potential for harm is comparable. Yet the medical profession has been governed by a regulatory body for decades while the counselling profession’s pleas for a similar body have failed to gain purchase with our Provincial government for many, many years.

I don’t understand this inaction.

Regulation of counselling therapists is an opportunity for prevention – prevention of potential harm to thousands of British Columbians who need to feel they are safe, protected, and in highly trained and ethical hands when they seek mental health services.

I fully acknowledge that at present the government is dealing with health matters of crisis proportion. But harm in a counselling setting is also a crisis.

That’s why I asked Minister Dix to use the Health Professions Act now to declare regulation of counselling therapy to be in the public interest (as surely it is).

This would be a vital first step.

I applaud FACTBC’s advocacy efforts and hope that as someone who has experienced harm, my one small voice speaks for others who cannot find their own.

Sincerely,
A consumer of counselling therapy services