The speakmans

[Randomswirls]

Hello

So I've heard about this TV show which starts tomorrow afternoon.

It seems fairly controversial:- http://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio ... rry-katona

Anyway I thought it would be interesting to see what they offer and how ethical it all is.

[BenJMan]

Oh no.. this is going to make me so so angry :/

[lingua_franca]

Have you seen the comments on that piece? A woman who was 'treated' by these Speakman articles is defending their approach using the usual messianic tropes ("The NHS couldn't help me at all, but after decades of no life the Speakmans saved me!"). I never thought I would see something worse than the 'treatment' of eating disorders on Supersize v. Superskinny but I think this is it.

[Randomswirls]

I saw it and thought if only real life therapy could have such a quick impact!!!!

I didn't really get what they did to treat her other than to show her a box of photos and tell her she was a fraud for not having a panic attack! Very bizarre

[BenJMan]

I loved the notion of:
'Go on then, have a panic attack for us'
*Girl tries and fails to induce panic attack on command*
'YOU ARE A FRAUD'


Honestly I don't know how these people aren't arrested This is why broader professional titles need to be protected and people prevented from randomly practicing therapy without safeguards.

[lakeland]

What do they claim to be qualified as, and are they regulated?

[lingua_franca]

They call themselves 'schema-conditioning psychotherapists' and claim to be pioneering a new form of therapy that they invented and that you can't find anywhere else. Their website says, "As yet the Speakmans have not trained anyone else in this therapy, but they hope to in the future via our Institute." Regarding their qualifications, they are reluctant to disclose them. Eva Speakman is quoted in one Guardian article as saying, "At the end of the day, what we do hasn't got anything to do with the courses we did. We only use stuff that we've tried on ourselves."

Edited to add: they've also developed something they call Visual Coding Displacement Therapy, which they will train people to do in a course lasting three to five days. From what I can see it is a bad (very bad) bungled rip-off of EMDR.

Yes...definitely more regulation needed!

[miriam]

All programs like this show is that the enormous amount of pressure on being seen to make progress and not look like an idiot on the telly (or not to feel gullible for spending loads of money on services from people that claim to have helped others) forces people to change their behaviour - and that once people try new things they can find better solutions to their problems. It doesn't deal with the underlying cause, or give strategies that will work outside of that environment.

I'd put good money that if you hyped up "standing on one leg therapy" and filmed the results you'd get people saying it cured all sorts of ailments. It doesn't mean it would stand up in a scientific trial.

This is like the gillian McKeith of therapy shows. I'm embarrassed that anyone would watch it, or use it!

[lingua_franca]

They do remind me of McKeith, but at least Advertising Standards stepped in and stopped her from calling herself a doctor in the end. No one can stop these two from calling themselves psychotherapists. My concern is that people who really would benefit from therapy will see this show and decide they're not going near any mental health professional with a ten-foot pole - there is still some stigma surrounding psychological therapies and what they actually involve, and programmes like this don't do anything to reduce the misconceptions. There is also a risk that quacks can really hurt people (when I Googled this pair I found that one of their clients had attempted suicide after being declared 'cured' by them).

[HedleyLamarr]

The broadcaster surely takes responsibility for this sort of thing. Vanessa Feltz was hammered years ago for having fake guests on her daytime TV show - surely a fake therapy is far far worse. They're being given a national forum to peddle their ludicrous snake oil.

[JamesFManc]

Well they seem to work

But they have had too much plastic surgery

[BenJMan]

Well they seem to work

That is the beautiful thing about TV

[maven]

Well they seem to work

But they have had too much plastic surgery

Their physical appearance is unrelated to whether or not they are effective therapists, and is not appropriate to belittle. Whether I'm a good CP or not doesn't relate to my hairstyle or gender or attractiveness, and I'd find it most objectionable if people made judgements about those things in order to undermine my professional standing. The lack of evidence that they offer anything effective, and their huge self-publicising machine is what is appropriate to challenge.

[sarahg]

Well they seem to work

But they have had too much plastic surgery

Their physical appearance is unrelated to whether or not they are effective therapists, and is not appropriate to belittle. Whether I'm a good CP or not doesn't relate to my hairstyle or gender or attractiveness, and I'd find it most objectionable if people made judgements about those things in order to undermine my professional standing. The lack of evidence that they offer anything effective, and their huge self-publicising machine is what is appropriate to challenge.

I think James' comment was purely made in a light-hearted manner.. No need to take it out of context. Mountain-molehill comes to mind!

[Angel28]

Is the show available online? Can anyone tell me where? Thanks