Contents:

• Features
  • Destroying client records

    • In the absence of guidance relating to the destruction of client records in a clinical executor arrangement in private practice, Graham Mills considers some options

  • Defining moments

    • By introducing state regulation, which seeks to standardise all psychotherapy in a way that appears to be medical and institutional-centric, the Government is geared to limit our capacities to grow, argues Steve Cox

  • Rapport in cyberspace

    • Online therapy is a huge growth area. Jethro Adlington offers practical advice for making good connections with our clients online

  • Cover feature

    • Sadomasochistic sex is arguably one of the least understood and most demonised forms of consensual sexuality. How able are we to offer ethical therapy to kinky clients when there is so little awareness of the kink experience?

• Regulars
  • Columns
    • In training - Endings and beginnings

      • Life has aquainted me in the past with ends. I have torn enough pages off the calendar to have marked the passing of close relatives, to have waved goodbye to workplaces and work colleagues, to have shared dinner with them and thanked them for the mantel clock.

    • In practice - A pile of dead leaves

      • 2 June
        Three hours between clients. The sun is shining and it’s a shame to be indoors. The tall front hedge needs trimming and even with my new extendable battery-powered hedge-trimmer it’s a job I don’t relish, fearing one day I’ll over-reach and topple off the ladder

    • In the client’s chair - Walking alone

      • On Tuesday my friend Rachel sent me a text; she was in need of urgent advice. She had had three sessions of therapy following an initial assessment. She had left the last session early, convinced that the therapist was not for her.

  • News
    • PTSD treatment U-turn

      • A government plan to provide more help for mentally ill soldiers has been thrown into doubt weeks after it was announced by the Ministry of Defence.

    • Help for bereaved children in schools

      • More than 11,000 UK teachers are to be given free guidance on how to support suddenly bereaved children, following a study highlighting a lack of support in this area.

    • Psychological therapies: roll- out continues

      • Psychological therapies will continue to be rolled out across the NHS in the coming year, health secretary Andrew Lansley has announced.

    • Brief interventions as effective as usual GP care for depression

      • Brief interventions that deliver counselling, problem-solving therapy (PST) and cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) in general practice are equally effective as treatments for depression and anxiety, a study shows.

    • Antidepressant use rises as recession feeds wave of worry

      • The number of antidepressants prescribed by the NHS has almost doubled in the last decade, and rose sharply last year as the recession bit, figures reveal.

    • Ban on gay conversion therapy

      • More than two-thirds of doctors at the British Medical Association’s annual meeting in Brighton have approved a motion backing a call for the Royal College of Psychiatrists and other mental health standards bodies to reject so-called ‘gay conversion therapies’ and ban their use ?in their codes of practice.

    • Postnatal depression clues found

      • Scientists believe they have found what triggers postnatal depression, leading to a possible treatment to prevent the baby blues.

    • Speak to your father – secret to happiness

      • Children who regularly talk to their fathers are happier than those who do not, according to new research.

  • Editorial

    • I was staggered when I realised recently that this is my 100th issue of Therapy Today. Some of the debates that were raging a decade ago, are still with us.

  • Letters
    • What constitutes a phobia?

      • I was interested to read about the life and work of Salma Khalid (‘Embracing spirituality’, Therapy Today, May 2010) as it offered an insight into the everyday life of another professional whose life is very different to mine, but I was troubled by some of the opinions expressed by someone who works as both a therapist and a diversity trainer.

    • Salma Khalid’s response

      • Following the very honest and open responses to the ‘Day in the life’ interview with me in the May issue of Therapy Today, I would like to thank Fauzia Gaba, Chris Jenkins and Jill Britten for their feedback and personal contributions on the subjects of diversity, spirituality and faith.

    • Accreditation, gender and sexual diversity

      • I am utterly disappointed and dismayed by Kate Thompson’s article in the latest Therapy Today (June 2010) entitled ‘Applying for accreditation: issues of difference and equality’

    • BACP’s response

      • Kate Thompson gave several, quite general, examples of difference and equality and stated very early on in the article: ‘There are of course many taxonomies of difference and many issues of equality.’

    • Obsolete accreditations and other anomalies

      • I read in the March issue of Therapy Today that people accredited as trainers, which has ow become obsolete accreditat

    • BACP’s response

      • Further to our comments in the March 2010 issue of Therapy Today regarding the closure of the Trainer Accreditation Scheme, which requested members to no longer claim this category of accreditation, we would like to clarify

    • Are we in danger of devaluing accreditation?

      • I have just become aware that the new pilot scheme for supervisor accreditation requires that applicants have completed a minimum of just 30 hours’ experience as a supervisor. The current requirement is 180 hours and I understand it used to be 250.

    • BACP’s response

      • There are around 8,500 BACP accredited counsellors/psychotherapists and only 330 accredited supervisors. The reality of supervision practice is that many who offer supervision have neither specific qualifications/training or even in some cases, are they accredited practitioners.

    • Ways of being a man

      • I wanted to respond to letters from the last two editions of Therapy Today: ‘Bloke bashing’ by James Hennah in the May issue and ‘What makes a man a man’ by David Mair in the June issue.

    • Alienating men

      • James Hennah’s letter in May’s issue initially evoked real sadness in me at what I also agree is a disturbing tendency in our culture to vilify men as potential paedophiles and unsafe to be around children.

  • Questionnaire
    • Paul Gilbert

      • Paul Gilbert is passionate about exploring the neurophysiology and therapeutic effectiveness of compassion focused therapy

  • Day in the Life

    • Liz Macann is head of executive, leadership and management coaching for the BBC Academy and juggles her working life with kids, dogs and horses

  • Reviews
    • Supporting our early emotional lives

      • The selfish society: how we all forgot to love one another and made money instead, Sue Gerhardt, Simon & Schuster 2010, £12.99, ISBN 978-1847375711

    • The meaning of work

      • Object relations, work and the self, David P Levine, Routledge 2009, £21.99, ISBN 978-0415479981

    • Clients at risk of suicide

      • Counselling suicidal clients, Andrew Reeves, Sage 2010, £22.99, ISBN 978-1412946360

    • Literature and mental health

      • Fiction’s madness, Liam Clarke, PCCS Books 2009, £18.99, ISBN 978-1906254230

    • Self-help for phobias

      • Coping with phobias and panic, Professor Kevin Gournay, Sheldon Press 2010, £7.99, ISBN 978-1847090799

    • Working creatively with traumatised children

      • Children and adolescents in trauma: creative therapeutic approaches, Chris Nicholson, Michael Irwin and Kedar Nath Dwivedi (eds), Jessica Kingsley 2010, £22.99, ISBN 978-1843104377

    • Working with systemic constellations

      • In the presence of many: reflections on constellations emphasising the individual context, Vivian Broughton, Green Balloon Publishing 2010, £17.95, ISBN 978-0955968310

    • Psychodynamic theory in action

      • Psychodynamic therapy: a guide to evidence-based practice, Richard F Summers and Jacques P Barber, Guilford Press 2009, £27.00, ISBN 978-1606234433

  • Noticeboard
    • Supervision

      • Search for a supervisor

    • Placements

      • Search for a placement

    • Research

      • Participate in research

    • Networking

      • Find a group in your area

  • Dilemmas
    • Maintaining confidentiality

      • Here we publish your responses to our first dilemma: how can you balance the need for confidentiality with the possibility of putting a child at risk of harm?

• BACP
  • BACP News
    • BACP news

      • News from your Association

  • BACP Professional Conduct
    • BACP Professional Conduct Hearing
    • Sanction compliance
  • BACP Professional Standards
    • Professional standards

      • Newly accredited counsellors/psychotherapists

    • Applying for accreditation: using the Ethical Framework

      • In the sixth of our series of guidance articles about completing the accreditation application form, assessor Patience O’Neill considers the use of the Ethical Framework

  • BACP Research
    • Research clinic at Metanoia

      • The Metanoia Institute has set up a research clinic using its existing clinical services, which both practitioners and clients are enthusiastic about taking part in

    • My first experience of the annual Research Conference

      • Jo Pybis, the new Research Facilitator for BACP, describes her first attendance at the annual Research Conference

    • BACP Research

      • News and information from the BACP Research department