Contents:

• Features
  • Western diplomacy and psychology

    • Many skills from the therapy room can and should be used to foster political engagement among nations where Western diplomacy has failed

  • Maori and the marae experience

    • Extensive work with Maori clients in a psychology service in New Zealand leads to personal reflection on how this affects practice

  • Bi-culturalism and migration

    • Why watching Maori TV should be compulsory

  • Therapy has no goal: a radical model of practice

    • Seeing things that were hugely important as no longer so can bring enlightenment and relief to the client – which can be seen as effective therapy

  • Working within the medical model

    • Assessment, diagnosis and treatment are at the heart of the medical model. This is at odds with relationship-centred psychological therapies – and raises many questions for by Rachel Freeth those working in healthcare settings

  • Decoupling psychological therapies from the medical model

    • Adopting an illness model of distress is too high a price to pay for the professionalisation of counselling and psychotherapy. We need to establish a more humane and constructive alternative

  • Pacing the learning

    • Trainees have to hit the ground running when they start their placement. How can supervisors help them through those first weeks and allow them carefully graded learning?

  • Cover feature

    • Can we get our heads around assessing the monetal value of the services we offer? Proving our worth through cost-benefit analysis could lead to long term funding in the Third Sector

• Regulars
  • News
    • Prisoners and mental health

      • Prisoners are not getting the mental health care they need and deserve, according to Sean Duggan of the Sainsbury Centre for Mental Health, responding to HM Inspectorate of Prisons thematic review of mental health.

    • Poor face worse mental health problems

      • Those living in poverty in the UK are more prone to mental health problems, a report from the Race Equality Foundation has found.

    • ADHD meets CBT group therapy

      • Adults with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) experience reduced symptoms if they join group therapy with a CBT approach, according to a team of Dutch investigators who presented their findings at the 20th European College of Neuropsychopharmacology Congress

    • ADHD meets CBT group therapy

      • Adults with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) experience reduced symptoms if they join group therapy with a CBT approach, according to a team of Dutch investigators who presented their findings at the 20th European College of Neuropsychopharmacology Congress.

    • Parents’ distress lower?

      • Researchers at RTI International claim the incidence of reported serious psychological distress is significantly lower among adult parents than among non-parenting adults of the same age in the USA

    • Compulsory community care

      • An editorial in the November 2007 British Journal of Psychiatry highlights two recent studies from Australia – as well as a systematic review of existing research – which have found that compulsory community treatment for people with mental disorders is unlikely to reduce ‘revolving door’ care

    • £170 million for psychological therapies

      • Secretary of State for Health, Alan Johnson, has announced funding that will rise to £170 million a year by 2010/11 for its Improving Access to Psychological Therapies programme

    • UK advice line to combat child trafficking

      • People who are worried about crime in their neighbourhood tend to have worse physical and mental health than their peers who aren’t as concerned about being crime victims, UK researchers report

    • Fine Gael views on regulation

      • Deputy Dan Neville, the Fine Gael spokesman with special responsibility for mental health says it is a disgrace that there is no statutory regulation of therapists and counsellors in Ireland

    • Fear of crime reduces mental health

      • People who are worried about crime in their neighbourhood tend to have worse physical and mental health than their peers who aren’t as concerned about being crime victims, UK researchers report

    • Deferring to counsellors

      • TV host Jerry Springer has criticised television personalities like Oprah Winfrey for trying to encourage personal growth in the lives of their viewers

  • Editorial

    • One of the great questions of the day is undoubtedly: how can counselling and psychotherapy prove its worth? Whether we like it or not, commissioners in every field, ranging from social care to education – are looking for evidence that money invested in psychological therapies will be money well spent.

  • Letters
    • Valid ways of relating

      • When Helena Lovendal- Sorensen (Letters, October 2007) dismisses as ‘immature’ Michael Shernoff’s suggestion that negotiated non-monogamy can be a helpful way of relating sexually, she reveals much about a heteronormative (in the widest sense of that word) approach to sex and relationship.

    • Well, thank you!

      • How meaty October’s edition of therapy today. Article after article roused both interest and emotions – the best combination!

    • Psychotherapy and medicine

      • Whilst I found James T Hanson’s article (therapy today, October 2007) on the relationship between counselling and healthcare interesting, it seems to me that he is trapped in the very dualism he highlights.

    • The problem oriented method

      • The article by James Hansen (October issue) makes out a good case for distinguishing therapy from psychiatry. This case has of course been made before, and it certainly holds water. The problem has been that we have never had a therapy version of the DSM – whatever number. So we have been unable to answer the question – “What are you going to put in its place?” But now we have.

    • Not only CBT but also...

      • We welcome the Department of Health’s move to increase access to psychological therapies. We note that great emphasis has been placed on CBT since Lord Layard’s report in 2006.

    • Economic version of the truth

      • Evidence-based practice is a policy maker’s dream, a wish for what science would be: totally free from human contamination, utterly beyond question and absolutely clean. Over the last decade there has been a huge rise in the use of the phrase ‘evidence-based this or that’, especially amongst those who want to please policy makers. In some corridors, it has taken on a very special meaning indeed: it is a shibboleth, a magic word – it has a hypnotic effect.

    • Gender and sex conflicts

      • In his letter on gender Nick Duffell speaks of ‘honesty’ and ‘truth’; but the honest truth is that the ‘facts’ he
        presents about gender are as partial and confused as most supposedly factual statements in this charged area.

    • Multiplicity? It’s old hat

      • Considering John Rowan’s extensive knowledge of the field of subpersonalities, I and other colleagues at the Psychosynthesis and Education Trust are surprised that he claims the dialogical self is anything new.

    • Obituary, Sarah Jones (1953-2007)

      • Sarah Jones, who died on 7 September 2007 at the age of 54, after a 12-year battle with cancer, will be fondly remembered and sadly missed by many BACP and AUCC members who knew her during her career as a Gestalt counsellor.

    • The psychodynamic way

      • With reference to James T Hansen’s illuminating article (therapy today, October 2007), I joined BACP in 1985 as a
        psychodynamic counsellor, and qualified as a Jungian Analyst in 1995.

  • Reviews
    • Reviews

      • Reviews

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    • Research

      • Participate in research

    • Networking

      • Find a group near you

• BACP
  • BACP News
    • BACP News

      • Divisional news

  • BACP Research
    • Research

      • Your feedback is welcome. Please email comments or contributions for the research pages to Kaye Richards,
        Research Facilitator kaye.richards@bacp.co.uk