Disgraced therapist who had sex with patient moans 'she came on to me'

A disgraced therapist who admits he had sex with a patient has told an Express undercover reporter that if he was found to have "groomed" that patient then he’d "groomed every single client I've ever had".

Jeremy Parkin told an undercover Express reporter he left his job at The Swan Practice in Buckinghamshire after allegations he "groomed" and had a "sexual relationship" with a former client were proven to a panel of experts at professional body the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy [BACP].

The counsellor was found to have "manipulated and exploited" and was determined to have "shown a blatant disregard for many of the core standards expected of him by the BACP, caused harm to the complainant and brought the counselling professions into disrepute".

During an hour-long therapy session where our reporter posed as a client, Parkin disclosed confidential information about another patient and revealed he liked to conduct sessions while flying a small aircraft. According to the shamed therapist, taking patients up into the clouds helped them to "have a different perspective". He also said he would conduct sessions whilst playing golf.

When the reporter asked him about the allegations which had led to the BACP removing his membership Parkin accused the patient of "trapping him".

"She came on to me and as we finished, I reacted in a way that wasn't terribly appropriate," he told our reporter.

"I was in the wrong. But it wasn't about having sex with a client was it? This woman [is] very senior, articulate [and] clever. I felt I was entrapped, ensnared. I couldn't get out of it."

Parkin refuted the suggestion he could have "groomed" anyone. However, he then acknowledged if the finding was accurate then he’d "groomed every single client [he’d] ever had because [he] does things [like] flying".

We showed Parkin’s explanations to Jonathan Coe, founder and managing director of the Professional Boundaries Company, an expert who works with individuals and organisations who’ve had issues with ethical boundary breaches.

It was his view that Parkin's explanation exhibited "clear evidence of victim blaming, a significant lack of professional responsibility and comments which show that attention is not on the needs of the client".

"The client is positioned as powerful," he continued. "The implication being that she has more power than the therapist, whereas the practitioner who takes responsibility knows that the significant power differential inherent in therapy is always there and means that it is the practitioner's responsibility to hold boundaries.

We put these allegations to Jeremy Parkin and the 65-year-old claimed to no longer be working as a therapist.

Asked to explain why he had repeatedly referenced other clients during his session with our undercover reporter and spoken of a young therapy dog he recently acquired, Parkin said those he spoke of were no longer clients and that he planned to take the animal on visits to hospitals and hospices where he would "sit and talk and listen" with patients. We challenged him on whether this was therapy and he claimed he would just be a "person with a dog" visiting vulnerable people.

Asked if he would disclose his misconduct cases during such visits, he suggested it would come up in a CRB check.

He did not explain why if he was "no longer working as a therapist" he would allow our reporter to book a session other than stating it was a "mistake". He was also unable to clarify why one week later he sent a text message to see if the reporter would attend a second session.

Parkin denied working for the NHS, despite claiming to our undercover reporter during the session that he had been.

The disgraced therapist did acknowledge that he was "totally at fault" for the relationship which saw his accreditation removed but said he had resentment in relation to the process. "I’m not a threat and never have been," he claimed.