Psychologists said that a new law being discussed in Parliament would not allow them to offer therapy to clients.
The practice of psychotherapy, which was “inherent” to their work, would become impossible, warned Malta Chamber of Psychologists president Roberta Farrugia Debono.
Practitioners would not be able to apply for jobs that required them to do therapy, she added.
“Employers will only be able to hire psychotherapists, not psychologists, in jobs that require therapy with their clients. Ninety per cent of the work done by warranted psychologists is therapy,” Ms Farrugia Debono noted.
The psychologists who work in government organisations such as Appoġġ and the Foundation for Social Welfare Services were also under threat, Ms Farrugia Debono insisted.
Under the proposed law, psychologists would be limited to performing short-term interventions on clients while in-depth therapy would only be provided by psychotherapists.
Asked whether the Psychotherapy Bill would impinge on psychologists’ practice, the Social Solidarity Ministry insisted it was not the case. The Bill only sought to clarify ambiguities between the two professions, “neither taking away from nor adding to the psychology profession,” a ministry spokeswoman said.
The Malta Chamber of Psychologists said it had repeatedly asked that psychologists be exempt from provisions of the proposed law. It said it met both former social solidarity minister Michael Farrugia prior to the June election and the present minister, Michael Falzon, earlier this year.
However, it added, calls for further meetings were ignored.
The ministry spokeswoman dismissed claims that calls for meetings with the ministry had not been answered, saying the ministry consulted several stakeholders, including “institutions relevant to psychology”.
Insisting that the Bill would only serve to highlight the differences between psychotherapists and psychologists, the spokeswoman said the proposed move would only serve to make the distinction between the two professions clearer to patients, “eliminating the current state of confusion and ambiguity”.
Psychotherapy was a practice inherent to psychologists, counsellors and mental health professionals’ work, the Malta Chamber of Psychologists said.
It also flagged its concerns to the European Federation of Psychologists’ Associations, whose council met last week to urgently discuss the proposed law.
The federation is expected to write to Dr Farrugia calling for amendments aimed at allowing psychologists to continue to practise therapy.