Victimized by "victims": A taxonomy of antecedents of false complaints against psychotherapists.

Williams, Martin H.

doi:10.1037/0735-7028.31.1.75

Cited by 16 publications

(32 citation statements)

References 9 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Unclassified

Order By: Relevance

“…Unfortunately, mental health practitioners provide services to people who may tend to make false accusations for nefarious reasons (e.g., to get an unjustified refund or extract a financial settlement, gain a pathological sense of control over a high-status person, be vengeful, and on and on). Williams (2000) cautions Bmoral outrage against psychotherapists who would exploit their patients has blinded us to the ever-present possibility of false allegations^(p. 81). A psychologist who follows the suggestions in this paper is less likely to become a victim of this problem.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Psychological Safety for Mental Health Practitioners: Suggestions from a Defense Lawyer

Woody

2015

Psychol. Inj. and Law

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…There have been few surveys of the adverse effects of licensing and malpractice actions on the respondents (Williams, 2000;Woody, 2013;David Shapiro, personal communication, April 28, 2015). The lack of even survey data is hampered or blocked by several factors.…”

Section: Adverse Impactsmentioning

confidence: 96%

Psychological Safety for Mental Health Practitioners: Suggestions from a Defense Lawyer

Woody

2015

Psychol. Inj. and Law

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

“…The effect on practitioners of disciplinary hearing processes is well documented and can include loss of self-confidence, isolation, shock, anger, terror, disbelief, guilt, shame, anxiety, anguish, somatic symptoms, and physical illness (Celenza & Gabbard, 2003;Freckelton, 2007;Nash, Tennant, & Walton, 2004); high incidences of depression (Montgomery, Cupit, & Wimberley, 1999); and suicide (Peterson, 2001). Even if exonerated the experience can leave lasting scars, both personally and professionally (Williams, 2000). Health care delivery is also impacted because sued practitioners are likely to stop seeing high-risk clients, practise defensively, or retire early (Burkle, 2011).…”

Section: Emotional and Personal Costsmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Ethics of Ethical Regulation: Protecting the Practitioner as Well as the Client

Gunther¹

2014

Psychotherapy and Politics International

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Professional regulatory bodies, including ethics committees and association boards, as well as government licensing authorities, oversee the ethical behaviour of health care professionals, and specifically monitoring their use of power. There is, however, relatively less scrutiny regarding the use of power by such regulatory bodies in the consideration of grievances against professionals. The quasi-legal nature of the administration of justice is explored and questioned, and significant limitations in the implementation of administrative law are addressed. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.Key words: regulatory bodies; regulation; ethics; power; due process; natural justice; administrative law PROLOGUEInterest in a topic is always generated out of a personal context. Twenty years ago I was a cofounder of a psychotherapy organisation. Initially this was a collegial project which involved breaking new ground, and finding our way through historical feuds and theoretical differences. I was pleased at how successfully we were able to do this, and our field was strengthened as a result. However, over the years, I observed -and was finally subject toa seemingly inexorable politicisation of differences and the increasing use of power to silence opposition. I saw this played out in a number of venues including the operation of ethics investigations. I found little interest in my concerns, and an odd sort of blindness which I somehow did not expect on the part of experienced therapists. This echoed my own naivety about the possibilities of cooperation, the administration of even-handed fairness, and the benefits of regulation. In the end I came to recognise that the skills and ideals of interpersonal communication which are championed by the field of psychotherapy are not enough when it comes to the exercise of power. In fact, as Nevis and Backman (2003) pointed out, the valuing of intimate skills may be accompanied by a devaluing of the place of strategic skills. Here I examine the effects of the poor use of power by regulatory bodies, identifying the ways this occurs, in the hope that it may provide the ground for change.

show abstract

“…Research on the motivations for false complaints have categorised these as including material gain (i.e., academic advancement in this context), emotional gain, revenge, attention seeking, and/or disturbed mental state [10,11]. Current university procedures typically take no account of the possibility of false complaints, despite the punitive, harmful nature of the investigation process.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Strategies for Instructor Protection From False and Frivolous Human Rights Complaints

Neumann¹,

Salustri²

2019

PCEEA

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

False or frivolous human rights complaints against instructors, by students unsatisfied with their grades, have become a growing problem in some universities. These complaints and associated lengthy investigations are a form of mobbing that is harmful to instructors’ health and wellbeing. This in turn is harmful to instructors’ families, professional relationships, the pedagogical environment and the instructors’ careers. This paper reports on a brainstorming exercise used to identify possible ideas for preventing such false claims of human rights violations. This work operates under the assumption that the institution is unwilling or unable to improve their complaint management process. The authors identified 12 viable ideas that might help reduce the probability of a student making false accusations when unsatisfied with their grades. These ideas could be clustered as “Acquiesce”, “Shift Blame”, “Interaction Monitoring”, and “Separation”. All ideas had problem associated with them. Some ideas, like separation, were consistent with current pedagogical trends in distance and asynchronous education. In the face of a lack of institutional engagement in the current problem, the only idea identified that could secure instructor safety and wellbeing was to leave the profession. Further investigation is needed.

show abstract

Victimized by "victims": A taxonomy of antecedents of false complaints against psychotherapists.

Cited by 16 publications

References 9 publications

Psychological Safety for Mental Health Practitioners: Suggestions from a Defense Lawyer

Psychological Safety for Mental Health Practitioners: Suggestions from a Defense Lawyer

The Ethics of Ethical Regulation: Protecting the Practitioner as Well as the Client

Strategies for Instructor Protection From False and Frivolous Human Rights Complaints

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About