Open Letter to BACP - Pluralism & Ideological Neutrality... (18.2.26)

 

Open Letter to the Leadership and Ethics Committees of the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy

On 18 February 2026, a group of BACP members and other therapeutic professionals submitted the following open letter expressing concern about the growing incorporation of specific political frameworks into definitions of ethical practice, and calling for a reaffirmation of theoretical pluralism and ideological neutrality within the profession.

The letter is reproduced in full below.

Open Letter to the Leadership and Ethics Committees of the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy

18 Feb 2026

To the Leadership and Ethics Committees of the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy,

We, the undersigned BACP members and other therapeutic professionals, are deeply concerned by the growing incorporation of critical social justice frameworks into the BACP’s definitions of ethical practice and competence.

The President’s column in the October 2025 Therapy Today is a clear example: it framed “whiteness” as an inherently problematic identity requiring interrogation. This treats one contested ideology as orthodoxy – a position many members and clients reject on intellectual, clinical, or ethical grounds.

Many practitioners now risk being deemed lacking in cultural competence or unethical simply for prioritising individual experience over group-identity analysis, while clients may also feel pressured to adopt a political framing of their distress.

Therapy must remain a space where the client’s subjective experience is sovereign, where evidence-informed approaches from all traditions are equally legitimate, and where no single social or political ideology is imposed as “best practice.”

We therefore urge the BACP to reaffirm its core commitment to evidence-informed practice, theoretical pluralism, safeguarding ideological impartiality and free exploration, and protecting open discourse without fear of censure.

To demonstrate its commitment to genuine theoretical pluralism and ideological neutrality, we invite the BACP to adopt the following constructive steps:

Issue a public statement reaffirming its longstanding support for theoretical and viewpoint diversity, and clarifying that no single social-justice framework is treated as a primary requirement for ethical practice.

Establish (or support) an advisory panel tasked with reviewing recent publications and guidance, with a brief to ensure that language and examples remain inclusive of the full range of legitimate therapeutic approaches.

Devote at least one full issue of Therapy Today in 2026 to exploring pluralism and viewpoint diversity in counselling and psychotherapy, actively welcoming contributions from all major theoretical orientations.

Agree to participate in (or co-sponsor) an open professional conference or public panel discussion on the proper place of social and political frameworks within therapeutic training and practice.

Implementing them would show that the BACP is prepared to listen to the many members who feel alienated by its present course. This is not an attack on equality or social awareness, but a defence of the open, pluralistic, client-centred profession we trained to practice. Together, we encourage the BACP to lead with transparency and respect for the full spectrum of professional thought.

Signed,

Dr Jude Adcock – Psychotherapist Andrew Armour – Executive Coach Ursula Barnes – Integrative Counsellor, Systemic Psychotherapist Sue Beaney – Psychotherapist Lucy Beney – Counsellor Mark Birbeck – Child and Adolescent Psychoanalytic Psychotherapist Ian Andrew Boss – Counsellor Antoine Bowes – Psychotherapist David Britten – Counsellor, Psychotherapist Jennie Cummings-Knight – Psychotherapeutic Counsellor Heather Dale – Supervisor, Therapist Andrew Deakin – Counsellor Windy Dryden – Professor Wendy Durell – Art Therapist Sandi Durnford-Slater – Doctoral Student Audrey Elliot – Counsellor, Psychotherapist Deborah Evans – Counsellor Richard Evans-Lacey – Psychotherapist Birgit Ewald – Counsellor, Supervisor Paula Farson – Registered Psychotherapist Colin Feltham – Emeritus Professor Jo Fretwell – MBACP (Accred) Mary Garner – Counsellor Christie Harrison – Counsellor Vanessa Haynes – Counsellor Jim Holloway – Counsellor, Therapist, Supervisor Christopher K. Johannes – Counsellor, Therapist, Coach Nick Karr – Psychotherapist Ryan Karter – Counsellor Margaret King – Counsellor John Landaw – Psychotherapist Dr Nicholas Lewin – Jungian Psychoanalyst Sonia Lucas – Psychotherapist Mary MacCallum Sullivan – Psychotherapist Tom MacKay – Psychotherapist Thalia Martin – Counsellor Alex Maunder Taylor – MBACP Annie McKinney – Counsellor, Therapist Mark Neary – Counsellor & Trainer Kitty Newman – BACP Accredited Psychotherapist Sue Parker Hall – Psychotherapist Terry Patterson – Counsellor, Clinical Supervisor Nick Perkins – Therapist Steve Perkins – Psychotherapist, Supervisor Nalini Persaud – Psychotherapist Dr Nash Popovic – Personal Consultant Erin Rose Puttock – Cognitive Behavioural Psychotherapist Peter Rigg – Psychotherapist Marijke Roberts – Counsellor Becky Seale – BACP Senior Accredited Counsellor Ben Sears – Counsellor Dr Carole Sherwood – Clinical Psychologist Deborah Short – UKCP Registered Psychotherapist Lyndsey Simpson – Psychotherapist Jacob Smith – Counsellor Mark Smith – CBT Therapist Alasdair Stokeld – Psychoanalytic Psychotherapist Johnathan Sunley – Psychotherapist Dr Val Thomas – Psychotherapist Tim Toon – Psychotherapist Dulcie Tudor – Trainee Counsellor Jane Vincent – UKCP Accredited Psychotherapist Chloe Ward – HCPC Registered Sport & Exercise Psychologist Sarah Willocks – Therapist

Convenors: Steve Perkins, Nash Popovic

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Ironically, I was also sent a link earlier today that was being distributed among counselling students at a university, advertising a workshop that serves as a salutary example of why letters such as the one above are now necessary.

Here is the blurb from the "training course":

“When Therapists Become Activists: Embracing a Politicised Practice and Life”

This workshop invites us to reimagine our roles — not as detached professionals, but as active participants in collective liberation. Together, we will explore how embracing a politicised practice can transform not only our clients’ lives, but our own, as we expand into more empowerment, authenticity, and alignment. Learning objectives include: • Foundations in activism and how to apply them to therapeutic practice • How to encounter and overcome difficult emotions when becoming politicised • Strategies from past and present activist movements that ensure activism is effective and sustainable How may this workshop impact your practice? It supports participants to build a politicised outlook on life and their practice.

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I consider this orientation actively harmful to clients.

This isn't because therapists should be apolitical as people, and not because political commitments are illegitimate. But because the therapeutic relationship is structurally asymmetric, and because clients come to us in states of vulnerability, uncertainty, and some dependence.

When therapists are trained to approach their role as fundamentally political, clients are no longer encountered as subjects whose inner worlds are to be explored. They are met through an organising lens - and in the current professional climate, that lens is typically drawn from contemporary progressive social-justice frameworks, of the kind stated by the President of the BACP in Therapy Today in Oct 25 (and to which our open letter refers). It is difficult to imagine equivalent workshops encouraging therapists to embed culturally conservative political commitments into practice being received with much enthusiasm. Nor would such politicisation be acceptable to me.

The repacking of raw politics as continuing professional development will inevitably change the texture of therapeutic work. The therapist will select what gets heard or amplified, what feels welcome or awkward, and what draws energy or fades into the background.

I have recently written at length about these dynamics in my book Moral Singularity, which attempts to describe how moral systems change once certain structural conditions are in place, and why correction becomes increasingly difficult from within them - a process I call Therapeutic Enclosure.

These aren't abstract concerns, or some form of belligerent nitpicking. They describe what happens to real people, in real distress, sitting across from someone they have chosen to trust.

It doesn't require overt indoctrination to do harm. Even small changes in what counts as "responsible" understanding are enough.

Notice that this material is not presented as one possible orientation among many. It is presented as professional development. That distinction matters enormously. We risk the creation of a new normative category - one where politicisation itself becomes synonymous with competence.

When politicisation itself is framed as growth, openness to the experience of our clients without bringing our own agenda becomes cast as a dangerous deficit. When activism is framed as ethical maturation - with certificates attached - declining that role begins to look like ethical immaturity. Or worse.

This is how pluralism dies. Through the slow, bureaucratic reclassification of legitimate positions as professionally inadequate. One training at a time, it seems.

Which is why I speak out in defence of pluralism here. And why many esteemed colleagues signed the letter to BACP above.

The open letter above is an attempt to name that harm plainly, without demonisation and without caricature.

I hope the BACP is willing to engage with it seriously.