The road less travelled? An attempt to understand why families consult independent clinical psychologists

Abstract

The media often vilifies both practitioners and their clients in the private health sector, suggesting that this is the world of the wealthy and privileged. When I was training in the 1990s NHS teams often expressed suspicion of private therapists, whereas now there are increasing numbers of psychologists choosing independent practice (the British Psychological Society’s cross-divisional Special Group for independent practitioners has over 600 members and there is now an Independent Practitioner Network in the Faculty for Children, Young People and their Families). There are still, perhaps understandably, mixed views among my psychologist colleagues about the morality of working outside the public organisation that trained us. However, there are also concerns that access to psychologist-led interventions is becoming more limited in NHS settings (MIND, 2013) and NHS Choices (seewww.nhs.uk/conditions/Counselling/Pages/Introduction.aspx) now references ‘private therapy’ as an option for their users. This small scale survey attempted to explore clients’ perspectives on their route to private practice, and the results suggest that ordinary families are concerned and determined to access direct psychological support, and often make financial sacrifices to do so. It carries potentially important messages for psychologists in both public and private practice.