Spanish psychiatrist retires from clinical practice to teach psychotherapy courses

Psychiatrist leaves clinical practice to focus on training

A psychiatrist with over 40 years of clinical experience has announced he is retiring from private practice because, he claims, psychotherapy lacks verifiable results. The striking part is not the thesis itself—a claim repeated for nearly a century—but his new direction: he is moving into training, courses, and events centered on the very discipline he claims does not work. This paradox lies at the heart of the matter and, for some attendees, serves as the core of the business model.

The individual is identified in the material as José Luis Marín López, a Spanish psychiatrist and psychotherapist, and founder and president of the Foro Internacional de Formación en Psicoterapia (International Forum for Training in Psychotherapy). In other words, this is not an outside critic speaking, but someone who has spent decades within the very sector he is now questioning. That detail completely changes the perspective of his message.

What exactly is being challenged

Precision is vital here. According to the available transcript of the video, he is not attacking psychiatry or psychology as a whole; rather, the criticism is directed at psychotherapy as a discipline with scientific pretensions. Some observers point out that behaviorist psychology is indeed rigorous and that conflating the two is a major error.

This nuance is significant. It is one thing to debate whether a specific technique outperforms the placebo effect, and quite another to declare an entire professional field fraudulent. Caught in the middle is the patient, who does not distinguish between acronyms or schools of thought and simply wants to feel better.

The business argument: 100 euros per hour

The most frequent criticism is economic rather than clinical. It is argued that the sector operates like an industry where therapists charge between 80 and 200 euros per session without guaranteed results, no obligation to refund money if therapy fails, and no public metrics for success. In Spain, it is noted, there is no law requiring refunds when a treatment proves unsuccessful.

Added to this is the revenue model that some attribute to the critic himself: expensive courses, lectures, and case supervisions where students allegedly pay to learn the very method that supposedly does not work. The underlying accusation from participants is that the business is not about curing patients, but about maintaining an open therapeutic relationship, much like a gym membership.

Those who attended and found value

Contradicting the narrative of a total scam are specific experiences that offer nuance. One participant recounted seeing five different psychologists: the first quickly admitted they couldn't help; two using cognitive-behavioral approaches were counterproductive; the fourth—inspired by psychodynamic theory—changed their life after five years of working through family trauma; and the fifth, a Gestalt therapist, was simply not a good fit. Their conclusion was not that therapy is useless, but that specific methods and professionals can be.

Another case described six EMDR sessions for agoraphobia in which the therapist suggested supplementing treatment with psilocybin microdosing. This detail, more than just an anecdote, illustrates the lack of a clear regulatory framework regarding what can and cannot be offered within a clinical consultation.

AI as a substitute and the regulation problem

The most common proposal at the end of the discussion is replacing the therapist with a language model. The argument is that an AI listens without judgment, maintains conversation history, and is available 24/7 at no cost. The counterargument is that the human connection is the essential therapeutic factor, which no machine can replicate.

Underlying all of this is a question that remains unanswered: who certifies that a therapist actually knows what they are doing? Almost anyone can study the degree, the title does not guarantee competence, and professional colleges do not audit results. Given this landscape, someone charging 100 euros an hour just to listen is, at the very least, a market position that is difficult to argue against from the outside.

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The reasonable prediction is that the sector will not shrink: the demand for emotional support is growing, and the supply is adapting. What will likely change—with reservations—is how it is sold: more training, more personal branding, and less clinical practice. In this shift, today's critic may well become tomorrow's model.