Letter from the new chief executive
Hi, I am David Pink, the new chief executive of UKCP.
I attended the UKCP AGM in Leeds three months ago but my first real day in the job was Monday 18 May, so I am still very new, with a lot to learn about psychotherapy, psychotherapists and UKCP.
The relationship between society and professions has been changing for many years, with less deference and much less trust in professional autonomy. Psychotherapy as a profession is struggling to cope as we catapult from being a relatively unknown or misunderstood group to being centre stage. It is no longer under the exclusive ownership and control of therapists because society is, at last, taking an interest and making an investment.
Collective and corporate approaches from healthcare are now being extended to psychological therapies. Soon it will no longer be possible for any unqualified charlatan to set up practice as a psychotherapist or counsellor, without even belonging to a professional body such as UKCP. And the NHS sees talking therapies as a 'treatment' deserving much more serious national attention than it has ever done before - we have NICE guidelines, occupational standards, and national roll-outs, all promising to improve access to therapy for the masses.
As a profession, psychotherapists need to grapple with these new realities. UKCP is the place where the interests of therapists from different philosophical backgrounds come together to engage with the world outside the profession.
I see my appointment as part of the changes needed to equip psychotherapy to deal with its new situation in the world. I have a passion for improving people's access to the services they need, a commitment to professionalism in the modern world, and a well-developed skill in understanding and influencing the way public policy is formed and changed.
I hope we can take full advantage of the opportunities before us. I do not underplay the sense of threat people feel when engaged with juggernauts like the NHS and NICE. But I remain optimistic about psychotherapy - we have battles to fight this year and next, but in the longer term I am convinced that many more people can have access to therapy, and they should have more choice of therapy.
At UKCP my aim is to make sure the voices of our sections, our member organisations and individual therapists are heard as that future is created.
David Pink
chief executive
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| David Pink |
UK Council for Psychotherapy | Registered Charity No. 1058545 | Company No. 3258939 Registered in England
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