Struck off and shamed... so why is groping psychotherapist still free to treat women today?
Victims said they were asked to undress – but lack of regulation means firm found to be ‘abusing trust’ can legally keep operating
TINA WELCH still finds it hard to explain why she ended up naked in her psychotherapist’s office, fending off his unwanted embrace. For, despite feeling extremely uncomfortable, she had followed his instructions to undress.
Shocking as it may seem he, too, had stripped off, bizarrely claiming he would ‘offer his body’ to her in a bid to help her work through intimacy problems in her relationship.
How could an intelligent, professional woman be persuaded into such a precarious position? The answer may be that the man in question, John Clapham, had been her employer – Tina was a counsellor at his practice – and, crucially, her personal therapist for seven years.
She had built up trust in him, talking about deeply personal matters, although she was increasingly unsettled by the tone of their conversations, especially when she spoke of intimacy issues with her partner.
She says she had been persuaded to go to Clapham’s therapy room that day, knowing – yet dreading – they would undertake a very unusual type of ‘treatment’. The moment he touched her breast, though, was an electrifying reality check.
Tina, 49, says: ‘Before the session John had mentioned that he had helped people using intimate “bodywork” techniques, although I don’t think I fully understood what he was implying.
‘We booked a two or three-hour appointment, and on my way there I was so nervous I recall physically shaking. When I arrived, John proposed we would get undressed and go through the process of becoming intimate, and then discuss my feelings. I didn’t like the sound of this but over the years he – as both my professional supervisor and personal therapist – had helped me with some deeply personal issues.
‘So I was uneasy, but I felt I had to comply. It is hard to say no to someone who is your boss and someone who you feel beholden to professionally and emotionally. I now feel he had manipulated or even groomed me for that moment. I struggled to get undressed and when he touched my breast I freaked, put my clothes on and walked out.’
And so began a firestorm of allegations, recriminations and threats – it transpired that Tina wasn’t the only woman to have experienced unwelcome attention from Clapham.
Amanda Williamson, another therapist working at the practice, had also had extremely uncomfortable massage experiences with him, during which she claims she had refused his request for her to strip.
Eventually came the judgment: in May, regulatory body The British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy (BACP) found Clapham’s company, Phoenix Counselling Services (PCS), guilty of serious professional misconduct, relating to his conduct with both women. Their panel accepted that Tina had ‘experienced emotional advantage being taken of her of a sexual nature which amounted to an abuse of her trust’ during that session.
They accepted that Clapham ‘suggested that they should both undress [and] her supervisor touched her breast during the bodywork session, which she experienced as abusive to her’. As Clapham was Amanda’s supervisor and in a position of authority over her, in a separate ruling the panel concluded it was ‘not appropriate or acceptable’ that he had carried out sessions ‘which required the removal of some of her clothes’.
Yet, despite being struck off, PCS still operates and, according to his website, John Clapham is still taking appointments at its Exeter offices. In the eyes of the law he is doing nothing wrong – psychotherapists and counsellors are not regulated by the Government and BACP membership is voluntary.
So even if the BACP panel issues a ‘withdrawal of Membership/Registration’ notice, as it did in this case, organisations and individuals can continue to operate.
Indeed, anyone can set up business as a psychotherapist or counsellor, without any qualifications, and treat vulnerable, mentally ill patients.
The revelation about Clapham’s conduct has renewed calls for regulation. Last year, Labour MP Geraint Davies put forward a private member’s Bill designed to regulate psychotherapists, but it failed to win enough support to become law. He says: ‘You or I could set up tomorrow as a psychotherapist or counsellor and a war veteran could come in with an NHS referral for post-traumatic stress disorder and end up in the hands of an unqualified person.
‘There are thousands of highly
qualified psychotherapists out there who want to bring in regulation.’
The main body responsible for the accreditation and regulation of ‘allied’ health professionals – those who aren’t doctors or nurses – is the Health and Care Professions Council (HCPC). This covers chiropodists, paramedics and even art therapy practitioners, yet not psychotherapists. The last Labour Government proposed to regulate psychotherapists by bringing them under the umbrella of the HCPC, but the Coali- tion abandoned the plans. Instead, the Department of Health instigated a ‘quality assurance’ scheme under the umbrella of the Professional Standards Authority, yet it has no powers to stop therapists practising.
Even finding out how many psycho- therapists are currently practising in the UK is difficult as statistics are scarce. The best indicator lies in the NHS’s nationwide initiative Improving Access to Psychological Therapies, which is designed to encourage patients to seek mental health services and to bring greater consistency across the NHS.
It has seen the number of referrals from GPs soar in England from 75,000 in 2008 to almost a million in 2012. The BACP itself is just one of several psychotherapy bodies in the UK, with more than 40,000 therapists on its books.
Tina is worried by the lack of regulation. She says: ‘If I, a qualified therapist, can get sucked into this kind of situation, anyone could.’
She started working at Palace Gate Counselling Service (PGCS) – the trading name for PCS – as a trainee in 1999, reporting to company director Clapham, who also owns nearby Taunton Counselling Service. He has built up a thriving business in Exeter with about 35 therapists working under him.
PGCS claims that 67 per cent of its referrals come from the NHS.
About three years after joining, Tina was offered personal sessions with Clapham, 67. She says: ‘Therapists usually have therapy themselves – how can you help your own
I was not comfortable and I left in tears
Amanda Williamson, one of Clapham’s alleged victims
client if you haven’t gone through the process yourself?’
When it came up during routine casework meetings that Tina was having personal problems, Clapham went against standard practice – to refer the newly qualified therapist to another counsellor – suggesting instead they work through her problems together.
‘It put him in a very powerful position,’ says Tina. ‘After that session, our times did not always overlap so I did not see him that much and I could avoid him. He also avoided me and made me feel uncomfortable.
‘I decided to talk to him about this in a meeting, which is when he told me he felt rejected by me. At the time I felt quite bad about it, which is ridiculous.’
Although the groping incident happened in about 2009 Tina, fearing for her career, kept quiet until a chance conversation with a colleague three years later made her realise she was not alone.
Amanda, 42, arrived at PGCS in 2010 as a trainee and in March 2011 discovered Clapham had left vouchers in several colleagues’ files offering massage sessions for free.
She says: ‘I was interested to know whether this kind of massage worked and felt that if I was going to recommend it to my clients it would be hypocritical not to try it myself.
‘I had been massaged before and enjoyed it and I’d had a male therapist before, so initially there were no alarm bells. When he asked me to take my clothes off I felt a bit daft for feeling self-conscious but I told him the knickers stayed on. I felt boundaries had been set and there were modesty blankets as well.’
But that August, a session took an unpleasant turn.
‘He told me I had repressed sexual trauma. He suggested if I removed my knickers the work would be
more powerful. I told him I felt uncomfortable about this and that I did not think I had repressed sexual trauma. I left the sessions in tears.’
When Tina and Amanda complained to PGCS, they received threatening emails from director Lindsey Talbott.
And in one astonishing letter sent in 2012, Talbott warned: ‘… you personally risk... your current lives, your reputations, your livelihood, your... wealth.’
The BACP panel called this ‘aggressive correspondence’ which had ‘failed to remedy any harm’. PCS had taken no steps to ‘resolve the issues’ and instead ‘exacerbated them by sending threatening emails’.
However, an investigation into the allegations by Devon and Cornwall Police was dropped following advice from the Crown Prosecution Service last year.
Investigating officer Detective Constable James Hardy said the key point was whether the women had given consent to be touched – a ‘grey area’ – and there would need to be proof the alleged offender had been guilty of ‘over-stepping the mark from therapy into abuse’.
The CPS says: ‘We did provide some investigatory advice, but the no further action decision was taken by the police.’
As part of this investigation, local GPs were questioned about whether any patients they had referred to PGCS had made similar complaints about Clapham, and nothing came to
When he touched my breast I freaked and left Tina Welch, above
light. In desperation that Clapham was still seeing patients, in 2012 Amanda – by then working elsewhere – complained to the Advertising Standards Authority after discovering that PGCS was claiming to be regulated by the BACP when in fact it was the operating company Phoenix/PCS that was registered.
‘When I first called the BACP to complain about PGCS I was told they were not members,’ she says. ‘I was concerned in the future clients might have the same problem if they needed to complain.’
The ASA said in a letter to Amanda that ‘it appears you have a valid point’ and agreed it would ask PGCS to amend its literature. But after being told she could not complain anonymously, and fearing further vitriol from Talbott, withdrew her complaint.
During the period the two women also tried to take PCS to an employment tribunal, but again withdrew.
Later, a judge dealing with PCS’s claim for costs said that while the grievances about the events may have been genuine, the employment tribunal was not the proper forum to pursue them.
Graham Baldwin, the director of Catalyst, a charity that helps the victims of abusive therapists, and who has advised both women, says: ‘In my 25 years of working on these cases I have gone from being surprised and confused to understanding how easy it is for a therapist to manipulate people into sexual situations. That is why if there is any inappropriate behaviour between a doctor and a patient he can be struck off. We need statutory regulation and we need it now.’
Amanda says: ‘I cried with relief when I read the BACP findings.’ Tina says: ‘I feel vindicated and proud to have taken him on. I have gone from strength to strength in every part of my life.’ Amanda adds: ‘I want to use this experience to make sure he doesn’t hurt anyone else.
‘Looking back, it is so obvious I was groomed. It is well known that abuse victims are worried that no one will believe them if it is one person’s word against another. It is easy to say that it wouldn’t happen to you but it can. I now feel I am in a good place professionally and personally, but this has had a horrible impact.’ An NHS England spokeswoman said: ‘Therapists are expected to be accredited and their work must be managed by their employer. Discussions are under way on developing a service accreditation scheme on how regulation of IAPT services might be assured.’
A spokesperson for PCS said: ‘The information Amanda and Tina provided to the BACP contains gross inaccuracies and distortions. It does not afford a fair or balanced view of Phoenix or of this conflict.
‘The BACP chose to accept many – although by no means all – of their assertions without supporting evidence. It also failed to take into account evidence which is inconsistent with Amanda and Tina’s assertions about their experience here. Much of this does not feature in the published BACP decision.
‘The BACP is a private organisation with no statutory powers or authority. [PCS] denies the “findings” of the BACP panel and is no longer connected with that organisation.’