15 years ago, we sex and relationship therapists were met with the same incredulous response from our generic colleagues… “sex therapy??…oh, but why ? … We all deal with this stuff all the time !” And of course, the same would apply to “relationship therapist”. It is astounding to me how many of my colleagues could be dealing with couples or relationship issues, giving out advice on relationship matters to their individual clients, or inviting couples into their consulting room and much of that without specialised training and without specialised supervision. Many will be astounded to hear that psychosexual and relationship therapy does exist at all (sadly experienced by many colleagues in the NHS or in the general population). Others fail to understand that the relationship is the client rather than partner A or partner B – as my friend recently found out when asked to disclose the couples therapy notes by the divorce lawyer of partner A and having done so without explicit consent of the partner, B may then be subject to a complaint for breach of confidentiality.
There could be many other other hair-raising examples of therapists working outside of their competence. Consider two spouses being each in individual therapy, then, being sent by their individual therapists for couples therapy, ending up with three different types of assessment and treatment: by individual therapist A, individual therapist B and – guess what – their psychosexual and relationship therapist. Having received three different kinds of opinions on their presenting issues, I fondly imagine that our couple will feel utterly confused as to how to progress their work. I won’t mention money and time (three sessions of therapy per week? Will they ever have time to take out the rubbish or pay the gas bill ??) On a more political note, it may also be that many therapists offer sex and relationship therapy to couples from different cultures (black, Asian, working class, polygamous, polyamorous, those who went through an arranged marriage, those who identify as nonbinary or queer) … again without specialist training or supervision. Who in their right frame of mind would go and see a chiropodist if their head aches? Would you just see a GP if you have a specialist ailment ? It is astonishing, after PRT has been established as a specialist professional body for 50 years, that the knowledge and skills gained from our rigorous specialist training is still not widely recognised.
– Bernd Leygraf – Director LDPRT
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