By Tim Oleary

I have just noticed that Mr. Sean Collins is listed as "Dr" on the http://www.mindbodyspirit.ie in the section talking abour the mind body spirit festival in Dublin from 24th October 09. He will be in the Dodder Room at the RDS. The website states "1.00-2.00 [Free Workshop] Practical Strategies for Beating Stress with Dr Sean Collins. In this workshop, participants will learn latest methods for tackling stress from the fields of Cognitive Therapy and NLP (Neuro Linguistic Programming). Participants will acquire practical strategies for creating a more relaxed, creative and energised life for themselves. Handouts will be provided."

I find this very misleading and distrubing because Harry McGee (now political journalist with the Irish Times) and Richard Oakley did an investigative report. about unaccredited degrees. Their report stated that Mr Collins does have a Doctorate in Clinical Hypnotherapy (DCH) which was conferred on him by the American Institute of Hypnotherapy (AIH) in 1990. However, the AIH is an unaccredited USA institution (Sunday Tribune investigative report by Harry McGee, 25 February 2001). Link to Sunday Tribune report is http://www.tribune.ie/archive/article/2001/feb/25/tony-quinn-medicine-man-1-of-2/

In most USA states, it is a criminal offence to use the title "Dr" if the doctorate is received from an unaccredited institution. Mr. Sean Collins uses the title "Dr" in his 'Key Model' book and on the his website http://www.iol.ie/~therapy/

On the Yoga Ireland website, he is listed as "Dr. Sean Collins, Clinical Psychologist" http://www.yogatherapyireland.com/about us.html

Mr Collins does not appear to be a member of any professional counselling or psychological association in Ireland. Mr Collins's only "accredited" membership was of the Irish Institute of Counselling and Hypnotherapy (IICH) which he founded himself in 1991. However, he has recently changed the name of the IICH to Irish Institute of Cognitive & Humanistic Psychotherapy (IICHP) http://www.iichp.org. The IICHP is not accredited in Ireland.

On page 220 of his self-published book "The Key Model" Mr Collins states he was "Educated in Scoil Mhuire (CBS), Marino, Belvedere College (SJ) and University College, Dublin, he holds bachelor degrees in both psychology and clinical hypnotherapy and, in 1990, earned his doctorate in Clinical Hypnotherapy." The way that the above sentence is phrased could imply that he attended UCD and completed 2 degrees and a doctorate there. However, when I contacted UCD (Professor Ciar'an Benson, former chair of UCD School of Psychology) they had no record of him completing any of the above courses or passing any examinations.

It is very unclear to me where he received the B.A in psychology that he claims to have. His website now seems to suggest that it was a "modular" degree in the USA. What does he mean by "modular"?

I find it shocking and disturbing that there is currently no law in Ireland to prevent a person using the title "Doctor" or "Clinical Psychologist" from an unaccredited institute, especially when the focus of attention of that person are cancer victims, and due to the nature of this condition, many of these are vulnerable people desperately seeking an answer to their predicament.

May I respectfully request that you inform relevant people of the facts of this matter in order to help protect vulnerable people in Ireland, in particular those who could easily be confused or misled