Henshaw Consulting

AHPRA: Fear-Mongering Tactics From The Top

As psychologists, we receive threats, threats and more threats from the Chair of the Psychology Board of Australia (PsyBA), a branch of AHPRA (Australian Health Practitioners Regulation Agency).

Our Chair believes that “psychologists are dangerous” because Scientology was closed down in the 1960s and because patients died as a result of the psychiatric deep sleep therapy in the 1970s. 

His reasoning doesn’t quite make sense to me. See his public statement on the matter at:  http://bit.ly/psychs-are-dangerous

The ironically-named “Connections” newsletter from the PsyBA contains a threat in each issue and here are some examples: 

* ​De-registration:

“Psychologists who abandon evidence-based interventions and use discredited treatments, or interventions that have no reputable evidence, put the public at risk of harm. …If practices are not represented in mainstream psychology textbooks and the associated specialist scientific literature, then a registration board will be concerned and may take action.” (Nov 2012).

So, we are not allowed to provide any therapies that haven't been written up in text books. Might that be undergraduate textbooks, by any chance? Or any old books? Are some allowed, while others are prohibited? Talk about threats to innovation! New therapies are being developed all the time and research has demonstrated the equivalence of therapeutic modalities.

The evidence for evidence-based therapies is an invention by the profession of psychology to obtain legitimacy (read: status) for psychology-as-science and funding from governments or insurance companies for CBT (Cognitive Behaviour Therapy). Newer evidence now shows that outcome-based therapy provides better data than evidence-based therapy to demonstrate the efficacy of psychotherapy.

In fact, Duncan, Miller, Wampold and Hubbard (2010) call the equivalence of effectiveness among psychotherapies the "Dodo verdict" after Lewis Carroll's "Alice In Wonderland," where the Dodo says: "Everybody has won and all must have prizes." They argue that if three factors of change are strongly met then even something such as religious healing can be as effective as a psychological therapy model. For more details about this fascinating topic, read my article entitled: Is CBT The Golden Standard For Psychological Therapy? It's Time To Stop Pretending And Get Real.

* Fines:

“There are penalties that can be applied to people who mislead the public to believe they are a psychologist when they are not registered, with fines of up to $30,000” (April 2014)

Additionally, when you receive a notification of complaint, attached to the letter are the following threats:

• Investigators Have Power to obtain information
• If you Fail to produce information or attend a meeting with an investigator
• Give False or misleading information or documents
• Obstruct investigators
• $5,000 fine for individual or $10,000 for a body corporate

* Misconduct:

“You have a mandatory obligation to report… Do not delay in acting on these beliefs…. Not making a complaint [about an inappropriate relationship between a colleague and a client] leaves you open to a finding of misconduct.” (Sept 2015).

On rare occasions, it may be necessary to report a colleague for boundary violations with a client. However, this "mandatory reporting" has huge scope to be abused by malfeasant practitioners with professional or personal vendettas against colleagues! Interesting how there's no mention of the potential for vexatious complaints or the damage they inflict here...

* Humiliation by peers:

“’Skeleton notes', which only record the date and that a session occurred, are likely to be severely criticised by peers as not giving a satisfactory account of the service. 'Process notes' that reveal deeply intimate but irrelevant information about a clients’ personal circumstances are also likely to be severely criticised for potentially harming the client by breaching their confidentiality, privacy and dignity.” (Nov 2015)

Damned if you do, and damned if you don't then? Way to go to make us all more hypervigilant and paranoid about note-taking, given that AHPRA are on a perpetual fault-finding mission (as demonstrated by AHPRA's nit-picking approach of my website, as per the 1st May notification in the complaint timeline below).

* Fee-Badgering

• AHPRA fees are due on 30th November.
• The reminders start on 29th September
• You get four reminders
• You get threatened with fines for not paying on time

This bullying attitude sets up a relationship based on FEAR and LACK OF TRUST

Anatomy Of A Complaint

In 2015, I was attacked by a Facebook bully who took exception to my anti Tony Abbott political stance on comments to posts. I had never actually met this person and had no contact with her until she targeted me.

This person has a reputation as a “troll” who has impugned the reputation of a number of small businesses, as you can see here:

As an aside, you will notice that nearly all these reviews have a one-star rating, except the Eagles Nest Bar and Grill, which has five stars.

How come they did so well? This establishment is located in the wilds of Queensland and therefore it's very unlikely this reviewer from Western Australia had ever been there. However, this eatery achieved media notoriety in December 2014 for having a sign outside its premises declaring "sorry, no Muslims" (and we have already established this reviewer's extreme right-wing views). Read more about it here.

She took her “trolling” one step further and used the AHPRA complaints process to attempt to destroy my reputation and career. I have written a full account of this harrowing six-month long experience. If you wish to read it, please contact me using this form: