Sideways.

For a conflict to be resolved through mediation certain factors need to be present. If both parties care enough about the relationship, if the power difference can be levelled out so that both parties feel safe enough, and if both parties feel as if they have some control over the process, mediation will probably be of a considerable help.

The therapist and I? 

A good mediation would not make!

I left his room for the last time feeling that he was glad to see the back of me. And as far as I can tell he has no intention of ever addressing what went wrong. And in my opinion? There is a problem here created by therapy culture. 

The complaint 'formulation' is in itself a bad start. 

It isn't focused on reparation.

So, what am I saying?

Clients can find that therapy makes their mental state worse.  Sometimes it simply isn't right. sometimes it is harmful. Sometimes it is devastating. Clients can only feel and suspect that that something was wrong until they read the therapist's professional ethical code. There should be a link to this on their website, if not, ask them what ethical body are they a member of.

But this isn't guaranteed to be of much help - more on that later.

If the therapist is working for an organisation and you make a complaint, then the practice manager should investigate, and work with the complainant to get some kind of resolution. 

When the therapist is in private practice - you will be told to try contacting the therapist first, and then, if things aren't improved, make a complaint to their Ethical Body (EB) who will use their ethical frameworks to decide what was OK, or not - and some frameworks are are better drafted than others. 

So where does this leave a client who is sure that their distress has been caused by a therapist in private practice? 

Fact is, you as the client, really need evidence.

So I think I'm saying that therapists in private practice should be asked to prove how they have tried to resolve a conflict. Because the complaint procedure is fundamentally about protecting the good standing of the ethical body! This is more important than identifying malpractice. It is quote possible to be wrecked by 'ethical practice!' And how are you going to describe 'lack of candour', ack of integrity' if it isn't in in an email to you from the therapist?

If a client leaves therapy feeling that therapy has added to their suffering, this must be taken seriously. 

I don't have much experience of making a complaint, but possibly a bit more now than most clients? And it seems to me that things could be less conflicting and kinder if the ethical bodies added conflict resolution to their codes. Beginning with a requirement that a therapist subject to a complaint must explain why they have not resolved the issue with the client. This could be a letter from their supervisor explaining the therapist's problem, and a letter from the therapist describing how they will avoid similar problems in the future. Plus what they will do next to make amends!

Meanwhile the client has been left to drown in whatever went wrong. 

So the ethical body should contact a therapist local to the client - a therapist who practices non-pathologizing collaborative therapy - to create either a repairing session, or a preliminary mediation session. Or better still, the case should be referred straight to an interpersonal mediator.

If the situation isn't resolved by mediation then and only then should the ethical body make a judgement. 

Mediation is tough, but worth it. But so far as far as I can see, making an official complaint is soul destroying, and the procedure for complaining isn't easy for clients. Worst of all, as far as I can tell it was something about the complaint procedure that badly affected the therapist whose sessions are recorded here. 

This experience made him unable to see beyond his panic, made him react in a way that really wasn't helpful...

Anyway.

The complaint form as designed by the therapist's Ethical Body is very likely to create the dynamic a mediator does her best to sidestep. The complaint procedure risks turning a bewildering mess of guilt , fear, shame into a drama triangle, with the ethical body playing the role of persecutor and rescuer, while client and therapist take it in turns to be victim or persecutor...no one hearing anyone else, or understanding what's going on. 

I think you can see from what I've said here, I don't see any point in me attempting to move this complaint against the therapist, forward.

Instead I will use the knowledge I've gained, and see where it takes me!

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