Life as an IAHIP committee volunteer

by Rachel Somers

My first introduction to committee work started on the Supervision Accreditation Committee in 2011. I’d been invited by a friend who I had trained with back in 2002 with The Tivoli Institute. Having just had my second child, I was trying to restart my private practice after my maternity leave and was delighted to be invited into such an experienced and supportive group, supporting fellow supervisors in their journeys to get accredited. I had experienced my private practice to be exceptionally isolating. As psychotherapists, we don’t belong to a profession where we can go home and talk about what we have heard at work or are holding in our bodies from a day of client work. To be part of this committee which met regularly, albeit to speak to all things supervision, was initially an opportunity for me to link in with other like-minded therapists as well as catching up and staying connected with those I had lost contact with.

There was no doubt I had to get my head around a lot. There were forms, checklists, bye laws and procedures to become familiar with. It all felt quite daunting. There was a settling in period to observe, take everything in and ask questions. The committee members were all so supportive and advised me to take my time and that the information would land. That it did. Over the three years I volunteered I’d become secretary and really looked forward to our meetings. What I really enjoyed was how much I learnt in such a short period of time. Having qualified as a supervisor in 2009, I was new in my accreditation, but being part of this committee supported my work and my supervisees tremendously. If I didn’t know something, I knew someone who did and the path was clear to lift the phone, email, or ask at a meeting itself. The committee not only processed and supported supervisors toward their accreditation, we also developed a supervisor forum and created more events for IAHIP supervisors to meet and learn more as well as contributing to important changes in criteria and standards within IAHIP.

Another important learning for me was how I became very aware of my own position as a supervisee. Being on this committee, I had learnt about the support I should have been getting from my own supervisor and the support I wasn’t getting. It was within this committee that I gained the strength to challenge my own supervisory relationship. This helped me break away from that which was so comfortable and easy, I hadn’t realised my learning had ceased. As an IAHIP volunteer I was supported. My committee peers helped me to break from what was no longer acceptable for me. I discovered that being part of an organisation, guiding professionals toward a professional standard, meant I could no longer accept blurred boundaries and unprofessional behaviour that gave the perception of perfection but adhered to nothing like it.

Since then, as a supervisor, I have worked with many supervisees from differing training institutes and professional accrediting bodies. Committee work alerted me to the varying standards for the profession. It also informed me in terms of who I choose to work with and who may not be the best match.

I missed being part of the committee when I was no longer volunteering for IAHIP. Being a young mother of two stretched my resources so much, that in 2014 I took a break, knowing I would at some stage return to volunteering. I missed my committee members and I felt out of the loop not only regarding support from like-minded professionals, but also in the work itself. It felt like hard work having to keep up to date with changes or just relying on my supervision to keep me focussed on the ever-changing developments in the world of psychotherapy and supervision.

Five years ago I was invited, again by the same friend I had trained with, to join the Accreditation Committee. I had since had another child, and I craved to be back involved at the grass roots of the organisation. I thought, what did I know about accreditation? I had become accredited in 2004 under the now defunct Bye Law 10, a much simpler experience compared with what applicants have to go through today. I had been grandparented into the European Association of Psychotherapy (EAP), again a simpler process then, and when I looked into the newer Bye Law 11, I felt slightly inadequate as the criteria required now is so much higher than my core training could ever meet back in 2002.

The Accreditation Committee were lovely (still are) and I was welcomed in 2019 by a supporting chairperson and secretary who oversaw the general running of procedures, meetings, and processing of applications. I had no idea when I started that the accreditation committee played a huge part in advising and supporting the standards within IAHIP. Each committee runs into each other I discovered. We consulted with the Ethics Committee when we discovered applicants who may have been unsupported in their training and first years in practice. We connected with the Psychotherapy Training Course Recognition Committee (PTCRC), when applications highlighted discrepancies in standards within recognised training colleges, and the Supervision Committee often met with us to maintain support and make sure everyone was singing off the same hymn sheet as regards standards and meeting EAP criteria.

I had a few meetings under my belt in March 2020 when lockdown happened. This was a massive challenge to the committee. A self-confessed slow burner, it has always taken me a while to feel settled and confident in the knowledge needed. Not only had I agreed to be secretary (again), but I felt like I was still getting used to the forms, documents and bye laws, specifically Bye Law 11, which sets out the committee work. The work of the committee came as a nice distraction from the monotony of lockdown. I home schooled my three children, Zoom called my clients and supervisees and kept busy with committee work. No one knew what Zoom was before the Covid-19 pandemic, but it soon became our main communicator for IAHIP committee work.

The work of the Accreditation Committee did not stop during lockdown. Nor did any of the work on other committees, working groups or the Governing Body. We continued to work and process applications online and on Zoom. We kept in contact with other committees and working groups and I believe this connection to colleagues, some of whom had now become friends, kept me sane in the unpredictable present we were now living in. Some members had become sick, really sick. Some were losing family and friends. Some volunteers were vulnerable, living alone and cocooning and still volunteering for IAHIP. We supported each other, listened to each other, and came together, bringing the IAHIP family closer and unified in the work at hand.

Don’t get me wrong, there were/are definite times we have not been one big happy family. Some meetings went on until 10/11 o’clock at night. Fights were had about online hours and Covid clinical client hours, supervision hours and personal therapy applicable during phase 1 training. Personalities clashed regarding changing standards all while managing our own homes and fears within them. While processing of applications for accreditation slowed down, we continued working together for all members which signified the care, commitment, and tremendous passion all IAHIP committees, working groups and volunteers had and still have today.

Personality is alive and kicking within the organisation. Reactions can be large and challenging to manage at times. I see this as a reflection of the work we do and the grá each volunteer member has for the profession and IAHIP itself. This has challenged me now, not allowing me to sit back. Disagreements can happen, personalities can oppose each other. However, we are all humanistic and integrative psychotherapists at the end of the day and share a connected experience. The IAHIP criteria set for our own psychotherapeutic experience and journey means that we all get and understand this passion and the energy attached to the work. Our humanness, vulnerability and fragility at times, connect us and allow us to support each other. A thick skin has been required. In different circles I have heard murmurings that the Accreditation Committee can make it deliberately hard for those going through the accreditation process. This has felt hurtful to the committee, whose energy and time given to all applicants and their supervisors, supporting them through the process which has been unwavering, whether they complete to being successful, or unsuccessful in their applications. Speaking for myself, I have only ever had one main focus in my role on the committee, that is, to help and support applicants in the process of accreditation within the standards outlined by Bye Law 11. It is upsetting to me that the committee can be blamed for upholding a standard developed by previous governing bodies and committees, set out years before our current volunteers became actively involved. The Accreditation Committee upholds the current bye law as it currently exists. As a volunteer, reaction, projection and blame can cut and wound. The energy it takes to respond to this can be a real force which has interfered with some volunteers staying on committees.

Despite this, I have had, and continue to have, so much fun working within IAHIP. I laugh so much with my fellow volunteers, and the office staff. Our Christmas parties have been especially memorable where we have let our hair down and made great connection to each other. Lunch breaks have also been a great opportunity to link in and check in with each other in all our processes, both personal and professional. I have laughed so hard, and after three children, my pelvic floor has been compromised on several occasions. I have also cried when I felt vulnerable with people I feel safe and supported around. I have thought at times, what am I doing here? And definitely wobbled once or ten times.

Nevertheless, it has never impacted enough for me to stop the work as an IAHIP volunteer. If anything, it has enhanced the work and camaraderie within the team. It is a team, in my opinion working together for the membership and for you, the valued and respected member.

There’s a perception right now that IAHIP is in its last few years, that it will no longer be needed once CORU comes in. I disagree completely. CORU will be the regulating body, when it eventually happens. I don’t see IAHIP disappearing, if anything it will come into its own in continuing to support our members in their work, in maintaining the standards everyone has worked so hard to achieve for psychotherapy in Ireland, especially regarding supervision, which won’t be regulated by CORU. I see IAHIP moving forward in a new role of support and further training for its membership, lessening the isolation we can all experience at times and strengthening the humanistic and integrative tradition for psychotherapists in Ireland.

There is no doubt that some view IAHIP as elitist and exhibiting some form of professional snobbery. Speaking to this now, I would rather engage in a professional supporting body who recognises my training and experience and includes its members in upholding this standard, and not relating to how many credits I’ve accumulated or a box ticking exercise. My clients and supervisees do not see my credits or how many boxes I tick. They see the person, my experience, and my ability to sit and hold the space, how I listen, how I don’t tell them what to do or tell them what direction to go next, or that I even know better than them. Working on a committee and most recently the Governing Body as a representative for the Accreditation Committee, has done nothing except enhance my work and my own growth as a person and as a humanistic and integrative psychotherapist.

This year is the 30th Anniversary of IAHIP. The founding members created this organisation for us humanistic and integrative psychotherapists coming behind them, also seeking support and to help maintain and uphold the professionalism and standards we all work under. I am overwhelmingly grateful to them, my trainers, supervisors, colleagues, peers, and the friends I have met and worked with throughout my IAHIP experience. In gratitude for the work done before my time, I continue to give back as they had once done. They devoted their time, energy, passion and grá so that we could be guided in the humanistic and integrative tradition. Is it now time for you to give back?

Rachel Somers graduated from The Tivoli Institute in 2002. She became accredited with IAHIP in 2005 and has worked with a number of organisations since then as a psychotherapist, supervisor, lecturer and tutor. Rachel is also an accredited supervisor and a qualified EMDR therapist. She set up her private practice, Somers Psychotherapy in Clondalkin Village in 2012. She has a special interest in upholding standards within the Psychotherapeutic Community through her involvement with IAHIP. Rachel is currently Accreditation Secretary and Representative on the Governing Body since 2021.

IAHIP 2023 - INSIDE OUT 100 - Summer 2023