Friday the 13th may have seemed an ominous date on which to launch an attack on charlatanism. But it was an undaunted Mr Paul O'Donoghue, head of the department of psychology at the Central Remedial Clinic, Dublin, who stood up to address the delegates at the Psychological Society of Ireland's annual conference.
Equally, the Kilkenny venue, with its resonances of witch trials, left him unmoved.
He said the society's recently revised code of ethics placed an onus on psychologists to challenge practices that were exploitative and potentially harmful to their clients and to society as a whole.
His scepticism extends to the flower formula, the "vibrational essences captured from the energy of plants and flowers" which, it is claimed can be captured as a memory.
And he is equally unhappy with the more "scientific" practice of bio-resonance therapy which uses a machine, developed in Germany, which can "detect allergies, intolerances, chronic diseases, painful conditions, viruses, bacterial infections . . . all of which can be treated using the same machine".
"It is not my intent to imply that every alternative practice is useless, unethical or dangerous, but it is my considered view that many are," said Mr O'Donoghue.
Many of the claims were outrageous and could not be empirically tested. Scientific terms were misused, he added.
Personnel from occupational therapy, physiotherapy and particularly nursing were involved in these alternative practices, said Mr O'Donoghue, and he called on the relevant professional bodies, including the Psychological Society of Ireland, to challenge these claims.
He suggested one reason people practised alternative methods was because of the money to be made. One recent example from a patient of a colleague was a fee of £88 per half-hour session. Telephone consultations with "psychics" may cost more than £1.50 a minute, and many people used these lines addictively, he added.
Vulnerable people were being exploited, the conference heard. In times of bereavement, serious illness, personal trauma and the suffering of a loved one, people would consult anyone.
Mr O'Donoghue said there was a recent example of a child with a serious neurological condition who could have died if the mother had continued to listen to the alternative practitioner's reassurances.
In another case, a child was being poisoned by atropine, or belladonna, contained in a homeopathic medicine. Having upset the psychics, the healers, and the flower people, Mr O'Donoghue asks that anyone interested in the topic - sceptic or believer - get in touch with him, in writing, at the CRC. An invitation which may weigh down his mailbox for some time.