Contents:

• Features
  • Hello, darkness

    • Noting and accepting the pain that enters our lives is far less damaging to our wellbeing than avoiding it – with the
      ensuing loss of a meaningful humanity

  • Common ground for the sexual couple

    • Are we collectively ignoring the core issue as we work from our different perspectives? A critique of recent articles
      on couple counselling pinpoints the possible problems

  • Relate – an up-to-date remit

    • The breadth and complexity of 21st-century relationships has led the charity to cast its net wider and become a centre of excellence

  • Biochemical imbalance in the brain – does it exist?

    • Psychiatrist Joanna Moncrieff believes, somewhat controversially, that medicalising people’s distress only compounds their problems, and is not backed up by evidence

  • Integrity and openness

    • It is possible to work integratively without betraying the person-centred tribe – by consciously maintaining Rogerian values and keeping an open mind towards other modalities

  • The dialogical self

    • New thinking in psychotherapy leads us to understand our ‘selves’ as incorporating various I-persons, different voices or multiplicity within the person

  • Making sense of neuroscience

    • Professor Steven Rose, author of The 21st-Century Brain, has spent 45 years studying the human brain – and doesn’t believe neuroscience will ever explain human psychology

  • Are you sad or what?

    • Therapists must recognise the signs of Seasonal Affective Disorder or they risk harming the client

  • Approaches to supervision theory

    • A look at the broad base of books by UK authors that have contributed to our understanding of supervision

  • Cover feature

    • A logical and critical look at the arguments for identifying the counselling profession within healthcare ideology in the United States leads to the thought that the usual ways of justifying the transition to healthcare are insufficient and have potentially negative consequences

• Regulars
  • News
    • The importance of play

      • The Telegraph has published another letter about the importance of play to children’s mental health – with supplementary research evidence that has come to light since the original letter a year ago

    • Emotional support for jurors

      • A new partnership between Samaritans and Her Majesty’s Court Services (HMCS) means that Samaritans’ volunteers will provide help

    • Wellbeing therapy

      • Chiara Rafanelli, Associate Professor of Clinical Psychology at the University of Bologna, has presented the latest data on Well-Being Therapy (WBT

    • Diabetes helped by CBT

      • Professor Trudie Chalder, of King’s College London, has announced that CBT can help people with type 1 diabetes.

    • Counselling for alcohol absenteeism

      • Alcohol misuse is a major cause of absenteeism

    • GP ignorance about work and mental health

      • A new survey of 1,500 GPs has found that two-thirds are unaware of the evidence that work is beneficial for physical and mental health

    • Family therapy for bulimia

      • The first study in the US to evaluate any treatment for bulimia nervosa in adolescents has shown that family therapy is more effective than traditional solo psychotherapy

    • Grandparents for ever

      • A study by Saga, the over-50s expert group, has revealed that falling birth rates and increased longevity is having a major impact on the family structure in the UK

    • PTSD delayed in war veterans

      • Around 40 per cent of combat veterans with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) do not fully manifest the condition until many months or years later

    • Psychotherapy in Ireland

      • According to Enda Murphy, a leading Irish CBT therapist, psychotherapy in Ireland will be regulated in the next two to three years

  • Editorial

    • James Hansen’s article is taken from the journal of the American Counselling Association and critiques the development of counselling as a healthcare profession. It helped me to understand much more fully the objections and frustrations of those practitioners who see counselling and the medical model as incompatible.

  • Letters
    • Three’s a crowd, or who are you really having sex with?

      • What a good idea of Sarah Browne’s when she muses in the July 2007 issue that relationship therapy should be a much more regular part of therapy today

    • Obituary, Dr Albert Ellis (1913-2007)

      • Dr Albert Ellis was the founder of Rational Emotive Behaviour Therapy (REBT), which he developed in the 1950s. REBT was intended to help people lead happier, lives by challenging their irrational thoughts and taking immediate action to remedy them

    • Question of gender

      • I am not surprised that Duncan Craig, (‘LBG and trans students, please stand up’ – therapy today June ‘07) feels confused about terminology regarding gender and let down by training institutes in this area

    • Bereavement Counselling

      • I did not state in therapy today (July 2007) that bereavement counselling does not work if the counsellor meddles with the client’s inner world

    • Acknowledging qualified volunteer counsellors

      • We are a local network group, who mainly do voluntary counselling and we have been reflecting upon our status, including the respect or lack of respect for such counselling within BACP and the organisations that we work for

    • Response to ‘Acknowledging qualified volunteer counsellors’

      • I want to assure you that BACP is concerned for counsellors who work paid and unpaid across all three sectors. The Association recognises that counsellors who work in the voluntary sector

  • Reviews
    • Remember me

      • Remember me: constructing immortality – beliefs on immortality, life and death, Margaret Mitchell (ed) Routledge 2007 ISBN 978-0415954853 £21.95

    • Self-disclosure

      • Self-disclosure in psychotherapy, Barry A Farber The Guilford Press 2006 ISBN 978-1593853235 £21

    • Mental health in-patient care

      • Experiences of mental health in-patient care: narratives from service users, carers and professionals, Mark Hardcastle, David Kennard, Sheila Grandison, Leonard Fagin (eds) Routledge 2007 ISBN 978-0415410823 £19.99

    • Seminal work on the person-centred approach

      • Person-centred counselling in action (3rd ed), Dave Mearns, Brian Thorne Sage Publications 2007 ISBN 978-1412928557 £19.99

    • Leading text in SFT

      • Solution-focused therapy: theory, research and practice, Alasdair Macdonald Sage Publications 2007 ISBN 978-1412931175 £18.99

    • Human development

      • Human development: an introduction to the psychodynamics of growth, maturity and ageing (4th ed), Eric Rayner with Angela Joyce, James Rose, Mary Twyman and Christopher Clulow Routledge 2005 ISBN 978-1583911129 £19.99

    • About a body

      • About a body: working with the embodied mind in psychotherapy, Jenny Corrigall, Helen Payne and Heward Wilkinson (eds) Routledge 2006 ISBN 978-0415400725 £19.99

    • Beyond fear and control

      • Beyond fear and control: working with young people who self-harm, Helen Spandler and Sam Warner (eds) PCCS Books 2007 ISBN 978-1898059875 £16

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• BACP
  • BACP News
    • BACP News

      • News from your Association

  • BACP Professional Conduct
    • Termination of membership
    • Sanction compliance
  • BACP Professional Standards
    • Professional standards

      • Newly accredited counsellors/psychotherapists

  • BACP Research
    • Research

      • Research news and information