Contents:

• Features
  • The supervisor I want to be

    • Currently completing a postgraduate certificate in clinical supervision, James Rye reflects on the diverse influences that have helped determine the type of supervisor he wants to be

  • Music in the relationship

    • The unique qualities of music can help some people to live more creatively and resourcefully in the face of physical or mental illness and disability, or in the wake of traumatic experiences

  • The grilling of Mr B

    • The narrative therapy practice of ‘externalising’ conversations can free people to take a less stressed approach to their problems. Susan Dale explains how she used the technique with an elderly couple affected by blindness

  • Power in the therapy room

    • Few human differences are neutral with respect to power. The more aware we are of our own issues of power and those of our clients, the better therapy will work

  • Cover feature

    • If the proposed differentiation of the titles ‘counsellor’ and ‘psychotherapist’ goes ahead this autumn the implications for our professional world and for training courses will be significant and far-reaching

• Regulars
  • Columns
    • Therapist column - Boys don't cry?

      • I remember once in my counsellor training, many years ago, sitting in a group in which we were engaged in some particularly challenging self-awareness kind of thing

    • Client column - The holiday season

      • It is challenging to keep up the discipline and concentration needed for therapy

    • Student column - The therapeutic market place

      • Some of our most intense emotions are prompted by money. We are quick to anger when we feel swindled or ‘done’, instantly offended when we are overcharged or taken advantage of.

  • News
    • Future vision coalition for mental health

      • Eleven leading national mental health organisations have come together as the Future Vision Coalition to outline their proposals for a substantial shift in policy during the next 10 years

    • Rehab service to be scrapped

      • Concerns have been raised over a move to scrap a unique rehabilitation service for drug and alcohol addicts across Gloucestershire

    • Big rise in male ChildLine calls

      • A record number of boys called the children’s counselling service ChildLine last year, double the amount seeking help five years ago

    • Antidepressants can cause birth defects

      • Thousands of women in the UK may be taking antidepressants without knowing that the pills could cause birth defects in unborn children

    • CPS failing those with mental distress

      • A report issued by the House of Commons Justice Committee highlights deep concerns about the treatment of people with mental health problems in the criminal justice system

    • NICE guidance on child maltreatment

      • The National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) has issued guidance to help healthcare professionals identify children who may have been maltreated

    • Call to therapists over treatment for gay people

      • Official guidance to stop therapists offering gay people treatment to ‘change’ their sexuality has been called for by the National Secular Society (NSS)

    • PTSD symptoms common after heart attack

      • A study published in the British Journal of Health Psychology¹ has found that many people experience symptoms of post-traumatic stress following a heart attack

    • Relationship counselling benefits all

      • Relate has published research which finds that people using the service found that relationship counselling not only had a positive impact on them as a couple but also benefited their parenting skills and their ability to cope with work

    • Effectiveness of CAMHS

      • The Department for Children, Schools and Families has published figures on the effectiveness of child and adolescent mental health services (CAMHS)

    • CBT and arthritis pain

      • A study published in the Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine¹ has found that CBT may help people with arthritis to sleep better and feel less pain

  • Editorial

    • People are up in arms over the Professional Liaison Group’s (PLG) draft consultation ?on the standards of proficiency for counsellors and psychotherapists. In this issue we present a range of responses to the proposed differentiation of the titles counsellor and psychotherapist. We talk to service managers and practitioners about how, if the proposals go ahead, these changes might impact the profession in different settings from the NHS to university counselling services to EAPs.

  • Letters
    • Beware the siren call of the HPC

      • In a recent letter dated 28 July 2009 to the membership, Lynne Gabriel, Chair of BACP, has asked us to respond to the Professional Liaison Group’s (PLG) ‘Consultation Draft’ on the ‘Standards of proficiency for psychotherapists and counsellors’.

    • Low risk profession

      • The recent debate on regulation and particularly the fiasco of the ‘differentiated criteria’ between psychotherapy and counselling makes me feel the need to write something about the slippery slope I feel my profession is sliding down

    • Of equal value but different

      • I am writing in response to Lynne Gabriel’s letter to BACP members about the HPC consultation and their proposed definitions of psychotherapist and counsellor

    • Fake consultation

      • I have received the most extraordinary letter from our Chair, Lynne Gabriel, asking for my support in BACP’s dealings with the Health Professions Council

    • Time running out

      • At last BACP gives some space in Therapy Today for a debate on the pros and cons of HPC registration. What took it so long?

    • Incomplete vision

      • I read John McLeod’s vision on the future of counselling (Therapy Today, July 09) with increasing dismay

    • Different approaches

      • Professor McLeod said towards the end of his article that he guessed 90 per cent of readers would disagree with him. I am respectfully, but very certainly, one of them!

    • The future of counselling

      • Thank you John McLeod for outlining so clearly your vision for the future of counselling

    • Negative account of IPT

      • I was pleased to see that Interpersonal Psychotherapy (IPT) was given space in the April 2009 edition of Therapy Today

    • We need more ‘menswork’

      • In the tentative hope that it is still OK to have a letter that is not about regulation, I want to express delight at having my appetite whetted by the cover headline, The Widening Gender Gap, of June’s edition

    • Men absent as usual

      • Re: choosing to be childfree; seemed a shame that men and fathers were as noticeably absent from this piece

    • Parameters of choice

      • I have to disagree with Wendy Jefferson’s contention that because a drug addict or alcoholic may not be able, of their own volition, to break their addiction they have no choice

    • Choosing therapy

      • The article ‘The illusion of choice’ by Wendy Jefferson particularly interested me. I can see where Wendy is coming from and I agree with some of it

    • Simplistic view of complexity

      • I am the director of PeaceInsight. This is a charity that brings together Israeli and Palestinian teenagers to learn how to dialogue during two weeks in the summer in England

  • Questionnaire
    • Scott D Miller

      • A co-founder of the Center for Clinical Excellence, Scott D Miller monitors outcomes of clinicians all over the world to identify those who consistently achieve the best results

  • Marketing Toolbox
    • A worldwide web of clients

      • Clare Jones shows you how to create the kind of website that can compete for a reliable flow of client enquiries

  • Day in the Life

    • Jane Hetherington divides her working week between an EAP in London with contracts in the UK and abroad and an agency in Ramsgate where she works with clients affected by substance misuse. She lives 200 yards from the sea
      

  • Reviews
    • The complexity of the mind

      • Change your brain, change your life, Dr Daniel G. Amen, Piatkus 2009, £12.99, ISBN 978-0749941918
        Splendours and miseries of the brain, Semir Zeki, Wiley Blackwell 2008, £16.99, ISBN 978-1405185578
        Brain attachment and personality, Susan Hart, Karnac 2008, £29.99, ISBN 978-1855755888

    • Sex in couple therapy

      • Sex, attachment and couple psychotherapy: psychoanalytic perspectives, Christopher Clulow (ed),  
        Karnac 2009, £20.99, ISBN 978-1855755581

    • The healing power of music

      • The theory and practice of vocal psychotherapy: songs of the self, Diane Austin, Jessica Kingsley 2009, £22.50, ISBN 978-1843108788

    • Working with the narcissistic wound

      • How to talk to a narcissist, Joan Lachkar, Routledge 2008, £26.95, ISBN 978-0415958554

    • Using film in therapy

      • Movie therapy: how it changes lives, Bernie Wooder, Rideau Lakes Publishing 2008, £10, ISBN 978-0956075109

    • Relational selves

      • The emergent self: an existential-gestalt approach, Peter Philippson, Karnac 2009, £16.99, ISBN 978-1855755253

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• BACP
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  • BACP Professional Standards
    • Professional standards

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