Same-Sex Therapist Loses Appeal Against Ruling

by Madeleine Davies

Not accredited: Lesley Pilkington, the psychotherapist who lost her appeal against the BACP’s removal of her accreditation this week, appearing on Channel 4 News on Tuesday

 

DISCIPLINARY action against a Christian psychotherapist who counsels people with “unwanted same-sex attraction” has been upheld by her professional body.  An appeal panel of the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy (BACP) found that, in offering therapy to a gay client, Lesley Pilkington (News, 21 January, 3 June 2011) “failed to exercise reasonable skill and care and was thus negligent”.    Mrs Pilkington was earlier suspended by the BACP in 2011, after it received a com­plaint from a gay journalist, Patrick Strud­wick. He had secretly recorded therapy sessions with Mrs Pilkington, in which he posed as a Christian seeking treatment for same-sex attraction as part of an undercover investigation of conversion therapyin 2009.    The BACP ruled that Mrs Pilkington had demonstrated professional malpractice, and removed her accredited status.    Mrs Pilkington appealed on several grounds, including an argument that the complainant was acting as an agent provocateur with a hidden political agenda, thus rendering her sessions with him a sham. She also argued that her actions were appropriate, given that she was seeking to provide biblical Christian therapy for unwanted same-sex attraction, and that she had established with her client that he shared the same belief-system.    The appeal panel ruled this month that Mrs Pilkington had failed to ensure that her client shared her belief system, her understanding of the nature of homosexuality, and the consequences of these for therapy. She had “wrongly and negligently” made assumptions in this regard. Even describing the therapy model as “biblical Judaeo-Christian” was insufficient, the panel ruled, given that there was a “wide range of opinion and beliefs amongst those who call themselves Christians”.    It also concluded that Mrs Pilkington had gone “too far” in making personal disclosures, and that she had made a number of “inappropriate” statements. It was “entirely wrong” to suggest, in spite of her client’s reflections, that childhood abuse or bullying had taken place.    Her style was “dogmatic”, and her inter­ventions at an early stage of therapy were “unprofessional”. She had failed to recognise the complexity of what her client was telling her about his experiences. Mrs Pilkington should have explored why her client was depressed rather than “rush in and assume” it must follow from his unwanted same-sex attraction.    The panel said: “This case is not about the freedom of Mrs Pilkington to hold what it acknowledges are a particular set of religious beliefs, both deeply and sincerely held, nor the complainant’s equally sincerely held opinions as to the nature of homosexuality and the wrongness of Mrs Pilkington’s beliefs about it.”    The appeal panel did not uphold all of the professional-conduct panel’s findings. It was “not satisfied” that her statements about same-sex attraction were unprofessional for a practitioner practising therapy for unwanted same-sex attraction. It also found that Mrs Pilkington was “aware of divergent views with regard to same-sex-attraction therapy”.    The appeal panel did not agree with Mrs Pilkington that the fact that Mr Strudwick was an undercover journalist was an abuse of the professional-conduct procedure, and argued that there was no evidence that she would have acted differently when faced with a “genuine” client.    Mrs Pilkington said that she was grateful that reparative therapy — which “much evidence” showed to be “valid and helpful for motivated clients” — remained available, but suggested that Christian therapists required protection from “harassment”.    In an interview on Channel 4 News on Tuesday, Mrs Pilkington said that homosexuality was “an abberation from normal” because “only one or two per cent of the population is homosexual.” Asked about her suggestion to Mr Strudwick of an association between Freemasonry and homosexuality, she said that this was “part of a biblical Christian world-view”. ________________________________________________________________ The final paragraph in this Church Times Report, says much about the therapist’s own convictions about the nature of homosexuality. Her opinion goes directly against the the stated opinion of the Royal Society of British Psychiatrists’ guide-lines on the etiology and management of LGBT clients. Damage done by so-called ‘therapists’, who believe that homosexuality is curable by therapy – on the grounds of its abnormality – has been remarked upon by those who have suffered from adverse mental, spiritual and physical consequences of ‘treatment’ by well-meaning but ignorant practitioners. Father Ron Smith, Christchurch, New zealand