Emma Kenny, Jo Hemmings and concerns re "Celebrity psychologists"

[noodle]

I had the unfortunate experience of watching GMTV's resident 'psychologist' this morning - I think a lot of people's perceptions are probably influenced by these kinds of programmes. Her qualifications aren't at all clear from her website:

http://www.ekenny.co.uk/about.html

In terms of TV
In the latest series of 'how I met your mother', Robin sees a therapist and then ends up dating him
Desperate housewives - there have been a couple of storylines involving people going to AA meetings and alike. Interesting how going to a 'group' is portrayed and how this influences peoples' perceptions.
A BBC three programme called 'Freaky Eaters' which showed people who had a really limited diet going through an intervention delivered by a dietician and psychologist. There were usually issues around anxiety and food for most of the individuals featured.

That's all I can think of for now!

[JCBird]

I had the unfortunate experience of watching GMTV's resident 'psychologist' this morning - I think a lot of people's perceptions are probably influenced by these kinds of programmes. Her qualifications aren't at all clear from her website:
http://www.ekenny.co.uk/about.html

I just looked her up and it makes me cringe. "Emma Kenny is a qualified and highly experienced practitioner with Psychological and Counselling qualifications recognised by the British Association of Counselling and Psychotherapy and the British Psychological Society". I did a bit of quick digging and it looks like, as far as I can tell, that the BACP qualification is an Advanced Diploma in Counselling and the BPS qualification is her undergraduate degree... I find it difficult to understand how someone with only those qualifications can go on to be used as an expert psychologist on TV!

Why is it that TV and media "psychologists" rarely seem to be qualified, accredited & regulated psychologists? We seem to steer well clear of these roles leaving the under-qualified to provide a cringeworthy portrayal of psychologists to the masses.. This factor alone of the type of people who are shown in the media as psychologists will surely have a big impact on the publics perceptions of psychologists and their willingness to see one for support...

I particularly like this sentence written on an online profile: "Emma’s insight into the human psyche is unique.".

[Borrowed Cone]

I had the unfortunate experience of watching GMTV's resident 'psychologist' this morning - I think a lot of people's perceptions are probably influenced by these kinds of programmes. Her qualifications aren't at all clear from her website:
http://www.ekenny.co.uk/about.html

I just looked her up and it makes me cringe. "Emma Kenny is a qualified and highly experienced practitioner with Psychological and Counselling qualifications recognised by the British Association of Counselling and Psychotherapy and the British Psychological Society". I did a bit of quick digging and it looks like, as far as I can tell, that the BACP qualification is an Advanced Diploma in Counselling and the BPS qualification is her undergraduate degree... I find it difficult to understand how someone with only those qualifications can go on to be used as an expert psychologist on TV!

Why is it that TV and media "psychologists" rarely seem to be qualified, accredited & regulated psychologists? We seem to steer well clear of these roles leaving the under-qualified to provide a cringeworthy portrayal of psychologists to the masses.. This factor alone of the type of people who are shown in the media as psychologists will surely have a big impact on the publics perceptions of psychologists and their willingness to see one for support...

I particularly like this sentence written on an online profile: "Emma’s insight into the human psyche is unique.".

All of this makes me so angry and only supports a move by CPs to split from the BPS. Her behaviour on This Morning could well be considered unethical and I will personally be asking the HPC about her self-misrepresentation as a "psychological" "practitioner".

[noodle]

Totally agree Cone. Not representing your qualifications clearly and behaving in a way that doesn't show self awareness or professionalism is certainly not ethical. I really think psychologist should be a protected title. The likelihood is that most of the programmes employing her will think that she is a fully qualified psychologist.

[Borrowed Cone]

Totally agree Cone. Not representing your qualifications clearly and behaving in a way that doesn't show self awareness or professionalism is certainly not ethical. I really think psychologist should be a protected title. The likelihood is that most of the programmes employing her will think that she is a fully qualified psychologist.

Just edited my post slightly. Unfortunately, if she isn't a BPS member (which I doubt she is), they can't do anything. And even if she was, all they would do is give her a spanking and tell her to stop it.

[jane doe]

Did anyone else see how Emma Kenney spoke to Samantha Brick (the lady who wrote about the drawbacks of being attractive in the Daily Mail) on This Morning on Thursday? I thought it was an appalling example of bullying, and I think I might complain to ITV, but I'm not really sure how to put it just yet...

[Borrowed Cone]

Did anyone else see how Emma Kenney spoke to Samantha Brick (the lady who wrote about the drawbacks of being attractive in the Daily Mail) on This Morning on Thursday? I thought it was an appalling example of bullying, and I think I might complain to ITV, but I'm not really sure how to put it just yet...

I should think ITV could care less, but I've written to the HPC about the way she confusingly refers to herself as a practitioner of psychology. I would complain to the BPS but I don't think she's a member! It's really annoying how there seems to be no way of keeping these people in check. Maybe the BPS and BABCP should come out and distance themselves from her behaviour on that program, considering she states on her website that her qualifications are approved by the BPS and BABCP.

[jane doe]

You're probably right, Cone - though I'm not sure the BPS/HPC could do anything much about it as she's not pulling off a Gillian McKeith-style fake qualification, just 'sexing up' the one she's got...

I find it embarrassing to think that people might think that she's connected in any way to what I do on a daily basis.

On another note, there was a clinical psychologist on BBC Breakfast last week (I think it was an article on depression) saying that "psychologists take those negative thoughts, and turn them into positive ones"

*facepalm

[noodle]

Did anyone else see how Emma Kenney spoke to Samantha Brick (the lady who wrote about the drawbacks of being attractive in the Daily Mail) on This Morning on Thursday? I thought it was an appalling example of bullying, and I think I might complain to ITV, but I'm not really sure how to put it just yet...

That's what I saw and what prompted me to post in the first place. Very unprofessional in my opinion.

[Peach]

Here is the interview in case anyone is interested:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c0_CG3rmRYs

I wasn't overly fond of Samantha Brick after reading her article (and no it's not because she's 'beautiful' ) but after seeing that interview I warmed to her and think she handled Emma's harsh reaction to her quite well.

[Ruthie]

I really do not like Emma K's style - what an obnoxious woman and I wish they would protect the term psychologist!! Was there even an inkling of psychological thinking in what she was saying??

Out of curiosity - any suggestions here about what psychology might contribute to this debate or what angle you'd have taken in the interview?

[jane doe]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree ... omen-media

I liked this - perhaps EK could have made (or attempted to make) some points on, oh, I don't know, ANY of this??

[eponymous85]

I was infuriated by many of ben goldacre's twitter comments on this, eg:

"massively inappropriate, like so many tv psychologists. the BPS shepherd these people onto the screen, they're a broken org."

"the BPS shepherd these people onto the screen. it's amazing. and they have a huge tantrum if you point that out."

"i guess their leaders eg BPS are preoccupied with exposure at any cost. aric sigman is on their books, for example."

"i'm amazed more psychologists don't rage against this silly tv thing of psychologist as sciencey expert on common sense vagueness"

(re Aric Sigman) "they give his number out to journalists, so it is right that he is strongly associated with your profession. complain to them"

Still not quite sure why this made me angry. My feeling was he knows they're not properly qualified, but deliberately misrepresents them as qualified practitioner psychologists. He does have a point though about the BPS giving their details out to the media as representative experts of the profession.

[matt.berlin]

I wonder how well this appearance fits in with the BPS guidelines for working with the media?

[Borrowed Cone]

I don't think the BPS had anything to do with this. She has her own company that is clearly in cahoots with various production companies, including the one that produces This Morning and Loose Women.