Contents:

• Features
  • The changing face of private practice

    • The impact of IAPT, the economic downturn and impending statutory regulation all suggest challenging times lie ahead for private practitioners. One creative response to these challenges, writes Julia Bueno, is for us to come together in the form of group practices

  • What goes up must come down

    • It is estimated that one per cent of the world’s population is living with a bipolar affective disorder. Bijal Chheda-Varma and Werner Kierski believe that acceptance and commitment therapy is a promising approach to working with this client group

  • Power and status in groups

    • A mix of mental health clinicians and service users recently participated in a group which explored how abuses of power can inflict damage on people’s wellbeing

  • Cover feature

    • Incidents of domestic violence where adolescents are the aggressors and parents the victims are on the rise. What explains this increase in adolescent violence and what help is available for parents being abused by their child?

• Regulars
  • Columns
    • In practice – Ritual in therapy

      • The gravel path leading up to my therapist’s house, forked, one leg veering off towards a pair of French doors, the other continuing towards a more traditional front door.

    • In the client's chair – Being seen

      • First session back after the break: I sat down feeling tense, but too self-conscious to stretch. Whilst I tried to un-knit my muscles through willpower alone, I looked at my therapist’s hands.

    • In training - Them and us

      • It all started with the student photocopier. Sensitive at the best of times, it had finally coughed out its last copy, which is why members of our student body raised it at a meeting with college staff.

  • News
    • IAPT services to continue and children’s IAPT to be developed

      • The Government has stated its intention to stick with its promise to offer psychological therapies to more people through IAPT.

    • Scottish Government scraps target for antidepressants

      • A target to halt the rise in the number of patients taking antidepressants in Scotland has been dropped.

    • Noisy home lives make children slow at school

      • Children are starting nursery school unable to speak and listen properly because of chaotic and noisy home lives, according to a recent Ofsted report.

    • TV dramas give misleading view of mental illness

      • Television dramas too often portray characters with mental health problems as ‘dangerous’, according to a study of peak-time programmes.

    • NHS psychological therapists enable four in 10 to recover

      • NHS psychological therapists are helping more than 40 per cent of people to recover from depression, anxiety and other mental health problems.

    • MRI brain scans could lead to targeted antidepressants

      • New drugs for anxiety and depression without the side effects of today’s medicines could be developed from studies showing how the brain reacts when worried, say academics.

    • Living in the moment really does make people happier

      • Happiness is found by living in the now, particularly if the now involves having sex, according to a major study into mental wellbeing. But the study also found that people spend nearly half their time (46.7 per cent) thinking about something other than what they are actually doing.

    • Europe’s wellbeing falls as incomes rise

      • Europeans are becoming less ‘emotionally prosperous’ despite the continuing rise in living standards, according to research.

    • Social model more helpful

      • A new report finds that most mental health service users believe that a medical model based on deficit and pathology still dominates public and professional understanding of mental health issues.

  • Editorial

    • My mother often goes on at me and my siblings about how our generation are asking for trouble in the way we have brought up our children – prioritising their every need, making them too much the centre of our lives and not setting firm enough boundaries. I wonder whether the thousands of parents who have been phoning Parentline Plus in the last couple of years to ask for help because their teenagers have hit them, feel that they themselves are to blame for their kids’ behaviour.

  • Letters
    • A need to protect the therapeutic space

      • It is fitting that Nick Totton begins his article on boundaries with the Bion quote ‘The inability to tolerate empty space limits the amount of space available’, since we would argue that Totton’s view of boundaries does indeed limit the space available to the client.

    • The relationship is the therapy

      • I was interested in Toby Ingham’s response to Nick Totton’s thought-provoking and well-researched article on boundaries because it seems to epitomise nearly all the attitudes that Nick Totton mentions.

    • Real and genuine relationship

      • I read Nick Totton’s article on boundaries with delight: at last someone is attempting to open up this subject, give it air and let it breathe – take the boundaries away as it were.

    • Flexible boundaries

      • I was very encouraged to read Nick Totton’s article on boundaries. As a bereavement counsellor I work with clients within their own homes – clients who, through age, disability or economic necessity, cannot attend the traditional counselling setting, yet are in need of personal one-to-one counselling. Boundary setting is vital, yet should be flexible

    • Hope is implicit in the act of seeking therapy

      • I would like to add a short observation to Denis O’Hara’s article on hope (Therapy Today, November 2010) and consider its implications. The observation is that seeking counselling or therapy is in itself an act of hope. A person seeks help because he or she feels that the process may do some good; why else would he or she come along?

    • Grainne Griffin

      • As members of the recent Professional and Ethical Practice Committee (PEPC), we wish to put on record our sadness that Grainne Griffin has left BACP after 12 and a half years as Head of Professional Conduct.

    • Grainne Griffin

      • BACP recently announced that Grainne Griffin, who was Head of Professional Conduct for 12 and a half years, has left the organisation. We, the undersigned, wanted to publicly acknowledge the huge contribution Grainne has made, both to BACP, and the profession

    • Beware the ‘relentless push’

      • I was fascinated that Mick Cooper and John McLeod see the ‘current threat’ of a ‘monoculture in which CBT dominates’ as ‘just one manifestation of a deeper trend’ towards theoretical divisions or ‘schoolism’ in the therapeutic field

    • Open to marginalisation

      • I found Cooper and McLeod’s article on pluralism helpful to a point but also somewhat confusing and missing alternative key components of a more dynamic definition of pluralism.

    • Negotiated therapy

      • I am always slightly puzzled by the concept of negotiating in advance with the client the type and content of prospective counselling.

    • The plural psyche

      • I was pleased to see Mick Cooper’s and John McLeod’s manifesto for pluralism in the last issue. It would have been right, though, to include acknowledgement of Andrew Samuels’ sustained argument for pluralism since before his book The Plural Psyche was published in 1989.

    • Is pluralism popularising psychotherapy?

      • The article ‘Pluralism: towards a new paradigm for therapy’ (Therapy Today, November 2010) gives a grand proposal of a ‘pluralistic’ approach which offers a new paradigm for therapy. For me this article offers the opportunity to visit the wider issues within our profession.

    • Obituary – Professor Douglas Hooper, PhD, FBPsS, FBACP, President BACP 1986-1993

      • It was sad to hear of Douglas’ death at the age of 82, and that of his wife Mavis, in a car accident in October 2010. He was involved in every aspect of the development of BACP.

    • Obituary – Christopher John Mace, 1956-2010

      • BACP has made considerable progress during recent years in engaging with leading members of professional groups who influence the development and sustainability of psychological therapy services. One such inspirational leader was Dr Chris Mace, a psychiatrist and psychotherapist, who has been the Chair of the Psychotherapy Faculty of the Royal College of Psychiatrists for the past four years, and a true friend of BACP. He sadly passed away on 1 November after a short illness.

    • Obituary – Marion Brewster, 1954-2010

      • I first met Marion in 1990 when I joined the then BAC’s Information Office. Marion was already a well-established and dedicated member of staff who taught me so much about the Association and needs of BAC members.

    • Counsellors must embrace marketing

      • BACP has done many years of prestigious work in representing counselling and psychotherapy, in education, research, lobbying and many other spheres. Most recently a new client friendly website has been launched. It is all sterling work and I am daring to be the Oliver Twist character who asks for more!

  • Questionnaire
    • Questionnaire - Michael Soth

      • Michael Soth is passionate about the possibility of a new integral and relational practice which draws on all therapeutic approaches, and brings a new conception of the mind-body relationship

  • Day in the Life

    • Heather Dale enjoys the contrast of running a private practice from her home in rural Yorkshire with teaching at the University of Huddersfield.
      

  • Reviews
    • Respecting suicidal feelings

      • Thinking about suicide: contemplating and understanding the urge to die, David Webb, PCCS Books 2010, £14 , ISBN 978-1906254285

    • Working with suicidal clients

      • Tightropes and safety nets: counselling suicidal clients [DVD] Andrew Reeves, Jon Shears and Sue Wheeler University of Leicester ITS Multimedia Services 2010, £150

    • Comic tale of therapy

      • Couch fiction: a graphic tale of psychotherapy, Philippa Perry; illustrated by Junko Graat, Palgrave Macmillan 2010, £12.99, ISBN 978-023025203

    • Formulation in practice

      • Constructing stories, telling tales: a guide to formulation in applied psychology, Sarah Corrie and David A Lane, Karnac 2010, £29.99, ISBN 978-1855756427

    • Integrating difference

      • Crossing borders – integrating differences: psychoanalytic psychotherapy in transition, Anne-Marie Schloesser and Alf Gerlach (eds), Karnac 2010, £20.99, ISBN 978-1855757837

    • Facilitating reflective practice

      • Supervising the reflective practitioner: an essential guide to theory and practice, Joyce Scaife, Routledge 2010, £22.99, ISBN 978-0415479585

    • Self-help for PTSD

      • Understanding traumatic stress, Dr Nigel Hunt and Dr Sue McHale, Sheldon Press 2010, £7.99, ISBN 978-1847090560

    • CBT with older people

      • Cognitive behavioural therapy with older people: interventions for those with and without dementia, Ian Andrew James, Jessica Kingsley 2010, £24.99, ISBN 978-1849051002

  • Noticeboard
    • Supervision

      • Search for a supervisor

    • Placements

      • Search for a placement

    • Research

      • Participate in research

    • Networking

      • Join a group near you

  • Dilemmas
    • Should you breach a confidence?

      •  Working as a counsellor for an employee assistance programme can present complex processes when it comes to confidentiality

  • From the Chair
    • From the Chair

      • The first snow of winter has well and truly arrived in the north-east, coinciding with the Government’s stated intent to map the nation’s psychological wellbeing.

• BACP
  • BACP News
    • BACP news

      • News from your Association

  • BACP Professional Conduct
    • BACP Professional Conduct Hearing
    • Withdrawal of membership
    • Withdrawal of membership
    • Sanction compliance
    • Sanction compliance
  • BACP Professional Standards
    • BACP Professional standards

      • Newly accredited counsellors/psychotherapists

  • BACP Research
    • Research

      • News and information from the BACP research department

TT.net

• Insights
  • Behind the pictures

    • 
      Aude Van Ryn, illustrator for December Therapy Today, offers a glimpse into her creative process.

  • In conversation with...

    • In ‘The changing face of private practice’, Julia Bueno writes about the challenges that may lie ahead for private practitioners. Here, Professor Colin Feltham explores these issues further, in discussion with Dr Glyn Hudson-Allez.

  • Talking point Richard Bryant-Jefferies

    • In what can seem an increasingly brutal world, how do we as caring, sensitive practitioners engage outside the therapy room?

• Relationships
  • Online supervision

    • Andrew has been in supervision with Maureen for just over a year. In this session, they explore his work with client Dave.

• Hindsights
  • Why I became a counsellor Denise Meyer

    • how an impulse decision has enabled a lifelong pursuit of justice and meaning

  • Characters on the couch

    • What observations might a therapist make about a prominent character from history? Lord Nelson is the first of several historical figures to undergo a non-too serious posthumous analysis

• From the archive
  • Counselling problem gamblers

    • Kate Anthony looks at an innovative response to the increase in gambling addiction brought about by ease of access on the Internet