More Nonsense Claims This Time About Psychotherapy
Regular readers of my posts will know that I have a very low tolerance for people making ludicrous claims about the therapy that some practitioners practice. Up until now, my angst has been toward claims relating to hypnotherapy. However, in looking into what to write about today, I found an article about how a couple are claiming on national television that their version of psychotherapy is more effective than what is currently being offered on the NHS and are calling on the Royal Family to help them role it out nationwide.
Now, the proponents of this statement claim their claims are backed up by “two tests” conducted by the University of Amsterdam and University of Utrecht against EMDR. Now, I am not sure what that is supposed to mean, are they referring to two experiments, case histories, or papers it is not at all clear. Now, I would think that if there was genuine clinical evidence that a psychotherapeutic approach has proved to be more effective than what is generally perceived to be the treatment of choice, these finding would be written up in the professional and academic journals covering psychology, psychotherapy and psychiatry. However, it will come as little shock that these findings are only being discussed on morning television and not by professionals.
It is a shame that the people involved are claiming to have science on their side, as at the best of times it is difficult to link psychotherapy with science in its traditional sense. Brining the Royal Family into it, in my view is simply trying to get publicity for their method. It is a great shame that television producers do not conduct more due diligence when booking guests for their programmes. This is especially true with issues relating to mental health. A search of the guests of this programme does not yield any information about their qualification to even practise, except for their “intellectual curiosity for behaviourism and behavioural conditioning”. Leave psychotherapy to the professionals, both in and out of the NHS and leave this nonsense where it belongs…..alone!
