Contents:

• Features
  • Turning tricks

    • Prostitution is often referred to as the oldest profession whereas therapy is amongst the newest. At first sight they may appear strange bedfellows, but perhaps they have more in common than you might suppose By Kevin Chandler

  • Back to nature

    • A growing field of outdoor and adventure therapy practices connects individuals to the healing benefits of nature. But are we doing enough inside the therapy room to address the impact of environmental issues on mental health? By Martin Jordan

  • Online self-help

    • From peer mentoring and support networking to computerised CBT, the internet is a rich self-help resource for people in emotional distress. Karen Brown goes online to check out what’s available

  • What is IPT?

    • Interpersonal therapy (IPT) is rapidly emerging as a leading evidence based intervention for mood disorders and a favourable alternative to CBT for the treatment of depression. Julia Bueno finds out where it comes from and how it works

  • Duty of care

    • Probation and prison officers working with high-risk offenders in the Midlands are benefiting from an innovative programme of support based on a clinical model of supervision

  • Nothing personal

    • With more than 30 years’ experience as a group facilitator, Robin Shohet gives his perspective on group dynamics and how an understanding of groups can be of use in a variety of professions

  • Cover feature

    • A new book confirms what we already know in our hearts – that income inequality is bad for our mental health. Rather than anti-anxiety drugs in the water supply or mass psychotherapy, reducing inequality would increase wellbeing and quality of life for us all

• Regulars
  • Columns
    • Therapist column - The pursuit of happiness

      • I have recently finished re-reading Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World. Many of you will be familiar with it. For those who have never read it, it is set at some undetermined point in the future, where universal happiness is a shared, societal imperative.

    • Client column - In for the long haul

      • I’ve decided to go for the long haul and have chosen psychodynamic psychotherapy. I’m already on my fifth session

    • Student column - The placement dilemma

      • If we did not appreciate it before, we do now. The course we are on is a practical and vocational one. Beyond the reflective journal, the skills sessions and the written assignments, we need to get out there and counsel

  • News
    • Sisters ‘make people happy’

      • Sisters spread happiness while brothers breed distress, experts believe. Researchers quizzed 571 people aged 17 to 25 about their lives and found those who grew up with sisters were more likely to be happy and balanced.

    • Poverty and mental health

      • Evidence released by the Mental Health Foundation shows the importance of the poverty gap to both individual and collective mental health

    • Talking therapies help return to work

      • The Government is investing an extra £13 million to fund talking therapy services around the country as part of a package of measures to help unemployed people who are experiencing depression or anxiety to get back to work.

    • NICE includes arts therapy

      • New NICE guidance outlines the best way to treat and manage adults with schizophrenia in primary and secondary care. This is an update of NICE’s first ever clinical guideline. New recommendations include treatment with arts therapy and tailoring treatment for disadvantaged groups.

  • Editorial
    • We are a nation in distress and, it would seem, are turning in droves for emotional support to the internet where peer mentoring and support network sites are burgeoning
  • Letters
    • Treating the symptom not the cause?

      • In Peter Morrall’s article ‘The trouble with therapy’ in the February issue, I found the sentence ‘Therapy, as with other epistemologies/disciplines such as biology and medicine, is reductionist’ rather ironic, since reductionism is surely the trap that the writer fell into in his article.

    • ‘Serious but digestible’

      • I felt I needed to write to say how much I’ve taken to the new look and feel of Therapy Today.

    • The power of love

      • I have to thank Peter Morrall in his article ‘The trouble with therapy’ (Therapy Today, March 2009) for reminding me what is important about the work that I do as a counsellor. He seems to be saying that no effective or realistic change is possible in the individual if we cannot change society.

    • Palestine: to resist is to exist
      • We have received an unprecedented amount of correspondence, both negative and positive, in reponse to last month's article 'To resist is to exist'. More of this can be read here (see 'related articles, right)
    • One-sided debate

      • I’m sure I am not the only reader to comment on the 'Palestine: to resist is to exist' piece, March Therapy Today. I will confine myself to a few brief points.

    • Biased and uncorroborated

      • For a long time I have been disappointed because therapists have seriously neglected what I consider an important part of our role; namely, to bring the specialist knowledge we have of the impact of external factors on the inner life of the emotions, to public awareness and into the public arena for discussion

    • No monopoly on suffering

      • Your article ‘To resist is to exist’ (March 2009) is a disturbing one that demands attention in that it presents an emotive picture calculated to shock and is viewed almost exclusively from the Palestinian perspective

    • A legitimate topic for discussion

      • Your article ‘To resist is to exist’ by Martin Kemp and Eliana Pinto discusses the psychological impact of military occupation on the Palestinian people. If this is a legitimate topic for discussion in your journal – and surely it is – then description of the causative factors has to be part of that discussion

    • Treat assertions about sight loss with caution

      • In their paper ‘To resist is to exist’ (Therapy Today, March 2009), Kemp and Pinto cite a case of a child becoming blind due to the psychological trauma attributed to reported demolition of her house. I note that her mother reportedly became ‘mute’. As an optometrist I am not in a position to comment on the psychoanalytical diagnoses regarding causes but I would ask that I be allowed to make some observations.

    • Great shame of our time

      • I have just read the article concerning Palestine and would applaud the writers who have described the situations they encountered

    • Authors’ response to criticism

      • In our article (To resist is to exist, March Therapy Today) we argued that the Occupation has a direct and destructive impact on the mental health of Palestinians (and perhaps of Israelis too); and, in addition, we briefly intimated that our discipline might contribute to understanding the unconscious dynamics behind the conflict

    • Disturbed by hostile response

      • I commend Therapy Today and Eliana Pinto and Martin Kemp for publishing the article ‘To resist is to exist’. I am disturbed however by such a hostile response to a straightforward and honest recording of the current facts in Palestine. Indeed I think the response sheds light on why this problem seems so intractable.

    • Concern at shocking article

      • As longstanding members of the BACP, we are writing to you concerning the recent, quite shocking article ‘To resist is to exist” in this month’s Therapy Today

    • Failure of judgement

      • We are writing to register our concern and dismay at the article 'To resist is to exist' in the March issue of Therapy Today. The official BACP journal is no place for a political article.

    • Blatant bias

      • Has Therapy Today entered politics? This blatantly bias article is nothing more than five pages of pro-Palestinian propaganda with the occasional psychological sentence thrown in.

    • Suffering on both sides

      • Many thanks to you for your courage in publishing the article on Palestine.I write as a long experienced counsellor and social worker who has visited some of the places mentioned in the article, and know some of the people visited

    • Inaccurate article

      • My heart sank when I saw the cover of your March Vol. 20 Issue 2 edition. It sank further when I read the article. First of all, it is inaccurate. As yet, there is no such state as Palestine.

    • Consider casualties from all sides

      • I am a child and young person’s counsellor and a member of BACP. At present I am working towards accreditation. It is a long and arduous task, but I am working with determination and am actually enjoying it.

    • Political polemic

      • The article ‘To resist is to exist’ is a most blatantly one-sided piece of political polemic. It has no place in what is supposed to be a professional journal.

    • Misleading without another viewpoint

      • We were very disappointed to read your article ‘To Resist is to Exist’. The article contained several factual errors and omissions which led to conclusions that we dispute.

    • Flawed background research

      • An unfortunate outcome for a professional journal that offers a forum for the expression of views is that the opportunity can arise for the presentation of mere opinion as fact, no matter how biased or erroneous

    • The effects of conflict

      • I was very proud to be a member of an organisation (BACP) which took the brave step in publishing this moving account on the situation in Palestine

    • Highlighting long-term consequences

      • I am a member of BACP and was very pleased to see the timely article on Palestine in the March issue

    • Excellent article

      • I just want to say what an excellent article Martin Kemp and Eliana Pinto have written about the occupation of Palestine in the most recent copy of Therapy Today

    • Biased and political

      • Your magazine is packed with excellent relevant articles – so why the totally biased and political one on the Palestinians?

    • More balance needed

      • In printing the article about Israel and the Palestinians by Kemp and Pinto, you have published a piece of unashamed one-sided political propaganda thinly disguised as professional analysis.

    • No mention of suicide bombers

      • I was concerned at the editorial and the article ‘To resist is to exist’. The whole tone is closer to a political campaign than anything to do with counselling and psychotherapy and politics clearly is not the function of BACP or its monthly journal.

    • Non-political ethos

      • I have been a member of BACP for over 20 years and accredited for 13 years. I have always understood the ethos of counselling to be non-political

  • Questionnaire
    • Michael Jacobs

      • A seminal influence on counselling and psychotherapy training for the past 30 years, Michael Jacobs takes all he writes and teaches with a liberal pinch of salt

  • Marketing Toolbox
    • A brand new you?

      • Whatever the features of your practice, Clare Jones believes it’s crucial to have a basic understanding of branding and how you can use it to gain competitive advantage

  • Day in the Life

    • Rev Dr Gerard Byrne trained as a priest in Rome and a psychotherapist in America before returning to the UK where he is currently director of the St Luke’s Centre in Manchester

  • Reviews
    • New guides to counselling online

      • Online counselling and guidance skills: a practical resource for trainees and practitioners Jane Evans Sage 2009, £17.99 ISBN 978-1412948654

        Online counselling: a handbook for practitioners Gill Jones and Anne Stokes Palgrave Macmillan 2008 £19.99 ISBN 978-0230201958 

    • Working with Asperger’s

      • Counselling for Asperger couples Barrie Thompson Jessica Kingsley 2008 £24.99 ISBN 978-1843105442 Reviewed by Maxine Aston

    • Self-help for bipolar disorder

      • Living with bipolar disorder Dr Neel Burton Sheldon Press 2009, £7.99 ISBN 978-1847090546 Reviewed by Rosalind Hewitt

    • Parenting adult children

      • Don’t bite your tongue: how to foster rewarding relationships with your adult children Dr Ruth Nemzoff Palgrave Macmillan 2008 £9.99 ISBN 978-0230605183 Reviewed by Kate Thompson

    • Counselling for IBD

      • Counselling and reflexive research in healthcare: working therapeutically with clients with inflammatory bowel disease Gillian Thomas Jessica Kingsley 2008 £22.99 ISBN 978-1853028663 Reviewed by Cicely Gill

    • Diversity training

      • Working with diversity in counselling (DVD) Aileen Alleyne, Gill Tuckwell, Jon Shears and Sue Wheeler University of Leicester 2008 £150 Reviewed by Maureen Perkins

    • Authoritative guide to CBT

      • The cognitive behaviour counselling primer: a concise, accessible and comprehensive introduction Rhena Branch and Windy Dryden PCCS Books 2008, £11 ISBN 978-1898059868 Reviewed by Angela Cooper

    • Responding to intellectual disability

      • Intellectual disability, trauma and psychotherapy Tamsin Cottis (ed) Routledge 2008, £19.99 ISBN 978-0415421676 Reviewed by Vee Howard-Jones

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      • The following answers are given in response to questions raised by members at the AGM Open Forum in October 2008

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      • Research into psychological therapies is supported through the Health Technology Assessment programme of the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR)