Endorsements

Professor Paul Barber – The Metanoia Institute.
Christopher J. Coulson, MAHPP, psychotherapist and counsellor, one-time delegate to the UKCP.
Dina Glouberman, co-founder Skyros Holidays, and international imagework trainer.
John Heron, Retired Assistant Director, British Postgraduate Medical Federation, University of London
Darian Leader, Psychoanalyst, the Centre for Freudian Analysis and Research (CFAR)
Richard Mowbray, The Open Centre, author of The Case Against Psychotherapy Registration: A Conservation Issue for the Human Potential Movement.
Arthur Musgrave, IPN, and BACP accredited counsellor and supervisor
Craig Newnes, Director Psychological Therapies, editor, writer, past Chair BPS Psychotherapy Section
Chris Oakley, The Site for Contemporary Psychoanalysis.
Ian Parker, Professor of Psychology, Psychoanalyst, Manchester Psychoanalytic Matrix.
Sue Quilliam, agony aunt, relationship psychologist, broadcaster, author
Simona Revelli, Psychoanalyst
John Rowan
Ivan Tyrrell, Principal of MindFields College.

“Denis Postle confronts the status quo with its blind spots. He questions our compliance to ‘professionalism’ while reminding us that love and respect for the human condition cannot be legislated into us. I believe we need to consider what he says carefully if we are to avoid identifying ourselves with the alienating political and social conditions that bring our clients to us in the first place. This book is essential reading to all those who wish to make the practice of psychotherapy a fit home for the human spirit.”
Professor Paul Barber – The Metanoia Institute.


"If you've ever asked: "Why doesn't the psycho-establishment practice what it preaches?" this book will answer your questions. Denis Postle's commentary is shrewd, articulate and dynamically informed. It also possesses the qualities missing from so much of psycho-practice today: clarity, logic, and a rigorous passion for truth. Read it and feel your own vocational fires rekindled."
Christopher J. Coulson, MAHPP, psychotherapist and counsellor, one-time delegate to the UKCP.


“I am very grateful for this intelligent, passionate, well researched, and carefully documented book which underlines the dangers of a fear-based state regulated approach to evaluating clinical practice and preventing abuse. As an American, coming from a culture that is dominated with this approach but full of abuse, I have hitherto been impressed with the comparatively high level of integrity of the practitioners of the UK. The higher fear level does not eliminate abuse, but has instead begun to restrict our creativity, breadth of approaches and ability to heal”.
Dina Glouberman, co-founder Skyros Holidays, and international imagework trainer.


“This book is a relentless exposé of the spurious claim that statutory regulation of psychotherapy is needed to protect the public. It chronicles the sustained machinations of a profession in pursuit of protection of its status by government edict, a pursuit that is driven by hidden and self-serving fear. Denis Postle reminds us that human helping calls for an open, unfettered and self-regulating professionalism which honours the wide-ranging liberation and flourishing of its clients.”
John Heron, Retired Assistant Director, British Postgraduate Medical Federation, University of London


“This splendid, lively and invigorating book should be read by anyone who works in the field of psychotherapy and, indeed, by anyone who cares about how a discipline that sets free thinking at its heart has found itself under attack from the forces of unreason and ignorance. As well as being a great read, Denis Postle's book is an important document charting the story of attempts to regulate psychotherapy in the UK”.
Darian Leader, Psychoanalyst, the Centre for Freudian Analysis and Research (CFAR)


Denis Postle has kept his finger on the pulse of the psychotherapy regulation saga in the UK for going on 20 years and this comprehensive collection of his writings on the matter is a detailed guide to the convoluted twists and turns of a misguided project. Writing in an engaging and accessible style, he brings wit and insight to bear on an obscure business and exposes its true nature for those willing to see it.
Richard Mowbray, The Open Centre, author of The Case Against Psychotherapy Registration: A Conservation Issue for the Human Potential Movement.


What kind of relationship ought counsellors and psychotherapists to have with the organisations that represent them? Codes of ethics and practice are noticeably silent in this regard. For the last ten years Denis Postle has hosted a website dedicated to scrutinising the dynamics of professionalisation. He has collated the material that has come his way, examined it, probed it and asked questions of it. In doing so he has performed an invaluable service for both his colleagues and the public at large. This collection provides startling evidence of muddle and incompetence, of a blatant disregard of evidence and research, and of the active search for power, status and money at the expense of integrity and good practice. All counsellors and psychotherapists who want to know what has been – and is being – done in their name should study it carefully.
Arthur Musgrave, IPN, and BACP accredited counsellor and supervisor


Denis Postle has struggled for a lifetime to demonstrate, in his conduct and his writing, there is nothing remotely unusual about the best kind of counselling. Decency, respect for others and kindness are what are required. Meanwhile, the ever growing professional world of counselling seeks respect (and good pay packets) through appeals for accountability, complicated practitioner guidelines and their Holy Grail—registration. If you value a humane approach to counselling others, read as much Postle as you can. If you seek a counsellor, ask yourself a simple question after your first meeting – “Do I feel a little better about life now?” If the answer is “Yes”, you might go again. If the answer is in the negative and you happen to have a friend or two, talk to them instead. Denis Postle’s message is that the self interest inherent in the so-called professionalism of counselling should make us very wary indeed of people who don’t even include decency and kindness amongst their qualifications.
Craig Newnes, Director Psychological therapies, editor, writer, past Chair BPS Psychotherapy Section


“In the light of the responsibilities thrust upon us by our historical times and those traditions entrusted to our keeping there is an unequivocal urgency for a cacophony of voices seeking to stem the seemingly unstaunchable push for the professionalisation and the regulation of the psychotherapies. One of these seeking to crank up the volume is Postle in order to excite the reader in other directions, in other forms of thinking, always sensitive to the invisibility of ideology and the issues of power. His provocation amply situates itself within the field of Derrida's favourite word: resistance.”
Chris Oakley, The Site for Contemporary Psychoanalysis.


“Postle presents passionate arguments for diversity of practice and against attempts to shut us up”.
Ian Parker, Professor of Psychology, Psychoanalyst, Manchester Psychoanalytic Matrix.


“Every therapeutic practitioner in Britain should by now be thinking through the issue of State Regulation, and Denis Postle's book is essential reading in this process. Combining a stunning overview of the field with passionate exploration into the arguments, it not only clarifies the subject but also provides a crucial counterbalance to conservative views. If you haven't yet read "Regulating the Psychological Therapies", you haven't yet seen the whole picture on State Regulation.”
Sue Quilliam, agony aunt, relationship psychologist, broadcaster, author


“Denis Postle is the Searchlight of psychopractices. His passionate arguments against State regulation of Psychotherapy must be read and debated.”
Simona Revelli, Psychoanalyst


“This book contains information and arguments which I think deserve careful consideration by all practitioners in the field and it would in my opinion be folly to ignore them.”
John Rowan


"I find myself totally aligned with the spirit of Denis Postle's collection of lively, iconoclastic writing about compulsory government regulation of psychotherapies. It sets out a clear warning to anyone interested in using psychological interventions to help people. Psychotherapy is, as he shows, at such a primitive stage of development, with no clear theoretical agreement as to purpose and methodology, that regulation is likely to inhibit new thinking and perhaps crush innovation and creativity entirely."
Ivan Tyrrell, Principal of MindFields College.