If you are a complementary practitioner of any sort in the UK then you work in an unregulated industry or field.
What does that mean? At the most basic level, it simply means that the Government has not stipulated what standards you must maintain in order to award yourself your job title. The title can not be taken from you on a legal basis, and you cannot be locked up for using it nor for continuing to practice if your only fault is the misappropriation of the title.
This does not mean that you can affiliate yourself with an awarding body that does not accept you as one of their own nor misrepresent your service. It does not mean that you are exempt from the law when it comes to consumer protection, data protection, advertising standards, business law, contract law etc, in fact, watched with the beady eye of suspicion, it can certainly feel as if these laws can be applied with greater speed and ferocity than might otherwise be the case.
Most insurance companies refuse to provide cover without some sort of proof of your qualifications. Some, like Holistic Insurance Services, set the bar even higher by insisting on seeing copies of your practitioner certificates (not attendance certificates) and only granting cover for skills learned in a live, face-to-face environment where nothing can be fudged and learning takes place under real-time observation.
You are of course subject to any standards set by your awarding bodies if you wish to keep their approval, use of their logo(s) and any other benefits they offer. In fact, it can mean that such bodies are extra stringent in an effort to stand out as being of impeccable standards in an unregulated industry.
Some fields approved by NICE nonetheless remain unregulated by Government. Psychotherapists, Psychoanalysts and Counsellors are also unregulated.
Not being regulated can add to feelings of insecurity and of having to work harder to prove your worth and the worth of your modalities. Feelings of insecurity can lead to hiding, self sabotage and fear of visibility, or conversely to an irresistible desire to exaggerate your skills, experience and client outcomes, in order to establish authority. Both are searches for security – one route ends up with no clients at all and the other with disappointed clients and a poor reputation.
Author: Cheryl White, EFT Test Manager