Scarborough Counselling & Psychotherapy Training Institute - Scarborough

Kai Ait

A terrible experience. Bullying behaviour from the main leader Tim who has massive blind spots about needing to get his own way. The other trainers simply can't or won't call him out, because they can easily loose their jobs as he employed them.
Tim is so powerful he part owns the organisation and even when their own ethics committee rules against him he simply ignores them. There is no structure in place to ensure he has to follow the college guidelines.
I saw him simply ignore guidelines when it suited him and have no guidelines at all for certain student situations.
I found that there was literally zero student support when Tim tried to impose his own projection on to me.
I thought that was disgraceful and incredibly unprofessional, not least as an organisation structure.

I was then further shocked to find that though the UKCP were suppose to be overseeing him and the college, they said they can do nothing to insist he sticks to his own guidelines or support students either because it's apparently an independent college!

I've been a counsellor more than 25 years and never realised that psychotherapists who are training others could have such big gaps in awareness and so little ability to act in a relational way, which is what they were claiming to be teaching.

Other training aspects i did really like and in part i thought it was a good course. The other students were great, focussed and i loved going. Yet if you call out Tim he can not see or take on board what is being offered as feedback and will push you to leave rather than take it on board.
A shocking almost traumatising experience i would say overall.

Paula Haigh

In my 3rd and final year as a trainee at SCPTI. This is a unique, special experience which needs to be considered carefully. This is an emotionally challenging course, and I'm grateful for its depth of content, as I feel that can only lead to my becoming a well rounded, grounded therapist in the future. I would recommend this course to anyone whose prepared to be curious and open to change.
I'm as sure about my choice to study at SCPTI now as I was 3 years ago.

Jo Wells

I would not recommend the training here as my experience was quite negative. Firstly the team failed to create a safe and containing environment, in my view, because I experienced some of the tutors behaving inappropriately in terms of protecting and respecting a participant's confidentiality. Staff changes were occurring as I continued into the second term, the remaining staff kept changing the structure of the group learning and practice which I found extremely stressful because it felt so disorganised. Years 1-4 were all mixed in terms of skills practice which, in my perception, created a feeling of resentment from the more experienced students as they felt they were left to guide year 1 students without much support from staff.

It was a very disorganised and confusing approach to providing learning and I was extremely disappointed with the theory input. The quality and organisation of the information presented to us was very poor.

I left the course halfway through the year. As I had paid for the whole year, I was refused a refund whereas if I had paid monthly as some of the other students did, I would not have lost out financially.

I felt completely let down by this course.

Kerrie Cook

I am in my first year at Scpti and enjoying every bit of it, it has been life changing for me. Our tutor Pete Lavender is brilliant and very professional. I certainly don’t recognise the words used to describe Pete from the previous review. I am really looking forward to continue my journey in a safe and secure environment with the help and support of Pete and all my fellow students.

Sharon Walker

Scarborough Counselling & Psychotherapy Training Institute is excellent. I have experienced SCPTI as a highly professional training institute run by tutors with outstanding knowledge and experience. I am in my final year of The Diploma in Relational Centred Counselling course which I can only recommend. It is a challenging course and for me has been life changing. Sharon

Stephen Hewitt

Unethical and unsafe!

18 months ago as a student of SCPTI I lodged a grievance due to concerns re unsafe and unethical practices on the so-called ‘Relational Centred Counselling Course’ ran by a director of this institution called Peter Lavender.
Since then there has been three changes to the appointment of ‘ethical’ chairs.

Following my complaint I was advised I was suspended from the course (not that I would go back).
Over 7 months later my grievance hearing had been cancelled twice.

I was refused a consideration by the directors of a Course fee refund until the hearing had occurred.
In my opinion the course is not fit for purpose, it is unsafe and has unethical practices involved.

10 months after I lodged my grievances an ethics panel concluded unsafe and unethical practice did take place. Lavender appealed.

2 months later Peter’s appeal was unsuccessful.

As far as I am aware nothing has changed in order to safeguard students or the general public. Consequently I have serious concerns re this institution and the UKCP allowing them to fly their flag.

Noor of SCPTI stated that my google review was ‘offensive’ and ‘unethical’ and asked me to remove it. I have had no acknowledgement or apology for the unethical and unsafe practice Lavender dished out although clearly stated in his own policy that requests of ethics panel are to be adhered to.

My verdict is, if you want a course on which you are lied to and bullied into sharing your innermost thoughts and feelings, you want to be abused and you want to be blindly led this is the one for you. In my opinion, there is nothing in how Peter Lavender operates that distinguishes him from any sociopath you may have the extreme misfortune to encounter.

In my opinion the ethics panel were softening the severity of the abuse in the report yet still it is damming.

Exert from Ethics Panel:

‘The grievance was examined in a formal manner on Monday 29th January at ScPTI...unanimously upholds the grievance...against...Lavender.   We agree with the complainant that the Congruence exercise was facilitated in a way that was unsafe for him. We also agree that it was unethical, in that

a) the initial verbal instructions, which assured the trainee of confidentiality and privacy, were changed, therefore exposing the trainee’s thoughts and feelings to other group members and causing him distress.
b) the lead facilitator used his position of power and authority as justification for being incongruent in the classroom situation. The original published instructions (Leijessen) for this exercise on congruence do not include any reference to deceiving participants.
c) insufficient attention was paid to the field conditions within the course group. The written instructions advise that ‘there needs to be sufficient trust in the group for participants to feel secure enough to be vulnerable or to risk themselves personally’.  At the time this was not the case for Steven Hewitt, and this was not taken into account when deciding to proceed with the exercise, nor when assigning individuals to groups.

Further, the panel believe that following the exercise, Peter Lavender failed to acknowledge and appreciate Steven Hewitt’s distress and vulnerability, and the severity of the relational rupture. He therefore gave insufficient attention to the relational process of repair, which in turn contributed to an escalation of the situation, and negatively affected Steven Hewitt’s wellbeing...

We strongly recommend that Steven Hewitt receive full reimbursement of his course fees and ScPTI membership fee.

We also require Mr Peter Lavender to provide a written statement of acceptance of the adjudication and an apology to Mr Steven Hewitt, in accordance with 5.9.1 of the ScPTI Grievance procedure.’

Not all UKCP members are ethical and some can do far more harm than good. As P. Clarkson, once the Chair of Ethics at HIPC, made clear in her book ‘Ethics’, some abuse and others cover for them or turn a blind eye for fear of losing status among peers. It goes all the way to the top I fear.

Diana Morgan

This course is not for the faint hearted. As students, we enter with preconceived ideas, which will be challenged. It takes courage to engage with the process. However, if you take up the challenge, you will achieve self development like no other course can offer. I believe graduates from this course emerge as extremely robust therapists.

Isabel Hicks

I LOVE BEING AT SCPTI! The training here is exciting, thought provoking, practical and thorough. I am learning so much about myself too, my emotions and feelings. BRILLIANT, BRILLIANT, BRILLIANT!