{"id":180,"date":"2026-04-20T20:03:03","date_gmt":"2026-04-20T19:03:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.malcolmrushton.com\/?p=180"},"modified":"2026-06-11T18:13:15","modified_gmt":"2026-06-11T17:13:15","slug":"the-case-of-marcus-west","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.malcolmrushton.com\/index.php\/2026\/04\/20\/the-case-of-marcus-west\/","title":{"rendered":"Marcus West"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Location: <strong>Sussex<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Final determination:<\/strong> 15 May 2023<br><strong>BPC case reference:<\/strong> COM04-22<br><strong>Registrant:<\/strong> Marcus West<br><strong>Sanction:<\/strong> Not withdrawal of registration<br><strong>Institution:<\/strong> Society for Analytical Psychology (SAP)<br><strong>Source:<\/strong> BPC Final Determination<br><a href=\"https:\/\/www.bpc.org.uk\/download\/16031\/COM04-22-Final-Determination.pdf\">https:\/\/www.bpc.org.uk\/download\/16031\/COM04-22-Final-Determination.pdf<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Case Summary<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Marcus West was found to have breached professional boundaries within a training analysis relationship involving a trainee.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The BPC found:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>declaration of love during therapy<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>inappropriate post-therapy meetings<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>conduct partly sexually motivated<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Risk Findings<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>dependent therapeutic relationship<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>power imbalance<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>failure to maintain boundaries post-termination<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>emotional and sexual boundary transgression<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>BPC Outcome<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Sanction short of removal from the register<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The practitioner remained in practice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Wider Public Protection Question<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Where serious boundary breaches occur in a dependent therapeutic context, the BPC\u2019s policies provide for safeguarding escalation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The relevant question is:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>What safeguarding or escalation steps were considered or taken where the practitioner was allowed to continue practising?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Determination Gap<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The determination does not clearly evidence:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>safeguarding referral<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>police referral<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>escalation under BPC procedures<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Cross-Case Context<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>In <strong>French (COM11-24)<\/strong> and <strong>Rushton (COM17-24)<\/strong>, practitioners were removed from the register following serious misconduct.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>In <strong>West<\/strong>, serious boundary breaches were found, yet the practitioner remained in practice.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Across all three cases, the same issue arises:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>There is no clear evidence of wider safeguarding escalation beyond the disciplinary outcome.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Systemic Significance<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">West introduces a further dimension:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Where misconduct is found but the practitioner remains in practice, the absence of evidenced safeguarding response becomes more acute.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Location: Sussex Final determination: 15 May 2023BPC case reference: COM04-22Registrant: Marcus WestSanction: Not withdrawal of registrationInstitution: Society for Analytical Psychology (SAP)Source: BPC Final Determinationhttps:\/\/www.bpc.org.uk\/download\/16031\/COM04-22-Final-Determination.pdf Case Summary Marcus West was found to have breached professional boundaries within a training analysis relationship involving a trainee. The BPC found: Risk Findings BPC Outcome Sanction short of removal from &#8230; <a title=\"Marcus West\" class=\"read-more\" href=\"https:\/\/www.malcolmrushton.com\/index.php\/2026\/04\/20\/the-case-of-marcus-west\/\" aria-label=\"Read more about Marcus West\">Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":196,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"link","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-180","post","type-post","status-publish","format-link","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-12","post_format-post-format-link"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.malcolmrushton.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/180","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.malcolmrushton.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.malcolmrushton.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.malcolmrushton.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.malcolmrushton.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=180"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"https:\/\/www.malcolmrushton.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/180\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":317,"href":"https:\/\/www.malcolmrushton.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/180\/revisions\/317"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.malcolmrushton.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/196"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.malcolmrushton.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=180"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.malcolmrushton.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=180"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.malcolmrushton.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=180"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}