Editorial

As I write this editorial the BBC is embroiled in controversy about the sexually inappropriate behaviour of one of its as yet unnamed presenters. This is the latest of numerous cases to be brought to public attention since the #metoo movement gained worldwide momentum following the revelations about Harvey Weinstein in 2017. Our first paper addresses these issues within the psychotherapy profession. ‘The experience of making a complaint in a case of professional sexual misconduct: towards a safer profession’ brings together the vexed issues of sexual boundary violations in psychotherapy and how our profession should be regulated to protect the public from harm. Writing under a pseudonym, Intra Fines describes her own painful experience as a patient in psychoanalytic psychotherapy from the point when she first made a complaint of sexual misconduct against her former psychotherapist through to the outcome of the Fitness to Practise procedure. Her co-author, John Hook, brings his expert perspective in supporting both perpetrators and victims (including Intra Fines). They decided to jointly write this paper to highlight their unsatisfactory experiences of the complaints process and to place this within the context of how sexual boundary violations in psychotherapy are perceived and managed by the profession and regulators. By following Intra Fines through the complaint process they argue that complaints procedures do not take adequate account of the complainant and are in fact biased against the complainant. They suggest that complaints procedures are not aligned with the principal aim of protecting the public from harm and instead appear to function primarily to protect the reputation of the regulators and the profession of psychotherapy. Additionally, they propose that the failure to teach boundary ethics or monitor and improve ethical practise through continuing professional development, the absence of an effective reporting structure and a limited research evidence