Martha Gill rightly questions the proliferation of psychotherapists and counsellors (“We can’t move for therapists, but are they helping or harming mental health patients?”, Comment).
As parents of a severely, chronically depressed adult child, we are sadly all too familiar with the risks of this unregulated industry: we have paid around £30,000 over several years to two private therapists, to no avail. Even qualified practitioners offer no guarantees. One introduced our daughter to an online forum full of arguments against psychiatric diagnosis, thwarting any progress in her mental health.
