Psychotherapy group facing motion of no confidence

A motion of no confidence in the board of the Irish Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy (IACP) is to be discussed at its annual conference in Kilkenny on Saturday.

The motion, which arises from claims of a lack of financial transparency at the association, which has 4,200 members, is supported by three of its former chairs.

A Facebook page, "Therapists for Change", backed by the three ex-chairs, Ray Henry, Gillford D'Souza and Bernie Darcy, has recently expressed strong criticism.

Efforts to get details of €75,000 worth of expenses, foreign travel and credit card spend had failed, the page claimed, adding that the failure “ is deeply worrying and needs to be urgently addressed”.

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“The lack of transparency evident seems to be reflected in the decision of the board not to allow minutes of this [September 15th] meeting to be kept, and is gravely concerning.”

Minutes of a meeting of the association’s board in September were not kept because it had been decided that the meeting was neither a formal one, nor a decision-making one.

‘Puzzled’

“We were puzzled by this seeming unwillingness to record the facts,” said the critics’ group, adding that the discussion that did take place had “ left us, in most cases, neither better informed, nor less concerned, than before”.

The board, it said, “also offered no further meeting to address the concerns raised. This situation needs to change and we intend to use the democratic process to enable that.”

To further this, the signatories to the Facebook report, and in reference to this weekend’s annual conference, said “we submitted five motions, including a motion of no confidence in the board. This motion is based on the board’s failure to respond in writing to our many questions and concerns.”

The largest counselling and psychotherapy association in Ireland, IACP was set up in 1981 and is a registered charity, representing over 4,200 members throughout the State.