What Are The Guidelines?
by Lindsay Roadnight
last updated: 01/08/2021
This is Part 4 of a 6 Part mini-series on things to consider when thinking about returning to face to face sessions.
I have read a lot of posts on social media from other practitioners complaining about the lack of clarity in the official guidelines. Some people seem to be expecting the government or membership organisations (such as the BACP) to tell us exactly when we can return to in person sessions and what precautions we need to take in order to do so.
The problem is that as a profession, we were never in a category of business that was instructed to close. Reading through the guidelines there is plenty of scope to see that we could’ve continued working in person with clients throughout the lockdown. Therefore, we’re never going to get a green light sanctioning our return to in person sessions.
We work in an unregulated field, which can feel unsafe and uncontained. We get to pick how we want to run our business. ‘Counsellor’ and ‘Therapist’ are unprotected terms, yet most of us recognise that we need to be qualified. The reality is that this ‘qualification’ is simply a line in the sand that many of us have agreed to recognise. Professional organisations (such as BACP) are membership bodies and they ‘govern’ us by consent. They don’t have the power to instruct us on when we can or can’t do something. The best thing they can do is provide advice and suggested guidelines for their membership. This is what they have done. How we interpret the grey areas in that guidance is up to us.
The government guidelines are actually fairly similar. Very few of the guidelines have been enacted into law and if the Domonic Cummins row has taught us anything it’s that there’s plenty of scope for interpretation of such guidelines.
Think of it like an ethical dilemma. Consider all the possibilities and choose a path based on what you feel is right and what would be accepted by a majority of your peers.
This article is part of a series ‘Returning to Face To Face Sessions‘. You can view the other articles in this series here:
- Part 1 – Thinking Of Returning To Face To Face Sessions
- Part 2 – How Do I Keep Myself And My Clients Safe?
- Part 3 – What About Insurance?
- Part 4 – What Are The Guidelines?
- Part 5 – How Do I Do A Risk Assessment?
- Part 6 – What Do I Include In A COVID Disclaimer?