Contents:

• Features
  • Behind the scenes

    • As Chair of the New Savoy Partnership and a special advisor to BACP, Jeremy Clarke and others are working hard behind the scenes to ensure the Government commits on its promise to scale up psychological therapy services to the public

  • Thinking ahead

    • As Chair of BACP for the past three years, Nicola Barden has steered the Association through a period of rapid change – the result of external factors that will significantly shape the future of counselling and psychotherapy in the UK

  • Combating the solitude of shame

    • For men struggling with sexually compulsive behaviours, a group treatment programme can help dispel the shame that motors the cycle of addiction

  • The art of therapy

    • In an environment increasingly demanding evidence for the effectiveness of therapy, might there be other ways to justify our work than the elusive evidence base researchers desire to construct?

  • Body talk

    • Movement, drama, storytelling, touch and play can all be powerful ways to access the unconscious and unlock closed doors in clients’ emotional lives, as the Sesame Approach demonstrates

  • Is the relationship the therapy?

    • More and more researchers are considering common factors across models that can be measured and linked to positive outcomes in therapy. Of these, the centrality and importance of the therapeutic relationship is replicated in over 1,000 studies

  • Gatekeepers for the profession

    • With a lack of equivalence between supervisor training courses, how can we guarantee that all supervisors will be effective gatekeepers for the profession?

  • NICE guidelines for mental health

    • With the guidelines for schizophrenia and depression under review, now is a good time to catch up with what the NICE guidelines currently recommend

  • It's the law - isn't it?

    • As there is no mandatory duty to report child abuse under British law, therapists working with children and young people have a complex set of decisions to make when faced with cases of suspected abuse

  • Cover feature

    • That patients must be given greater choice across the range of NICE recommended therapies was a key message delivered by Alan Johnson and others at the second Psychological Therapies in the NHS conference at the end of last month

• Regulars
  • News
    • Relationship credit crisis

      • New figures reveal the stress of the credit crunch combined with job losses and Christmas has lead to a sharp rise in the number of couples seeking help from counselling

    • Primary school subject overhaul

      • A major review of the curriculum for England’s primary schools calls for children to learn more about wellbeing, happiness and healthy living

    • Forces mental illness figures out

      • Nearly 4,000 new cases of mental health disorder were diagnosed among armed services personnel last year, according to the Ministry of Defence (MoD)

    • New advisory council on children’s mental health

      • The Government has committed to radically improving children’s mental health services with a package of measures including a National Advisory Council and the rollout of extra support for children in schools

    • Happiness ‘rubs off on others’

      • A study of 5,000 adults suggests happiness is infectious and can ‘ripple’ through social groups, according to researchers at the Harvard Medical School

    • Try Buddhism on prescription to tame depression

      • Psychologists from the University of Exeter have published a study into mindfulness-based cognitive therapy (MBCT), finding it to be better than drugs or counselling for depression. Four months after starting, three quarters of the patients felt well enough to stop taking antidepressants

    • Doctors ‘should receive counselling’

      • Doctors should receive counselling to help reduce emotional exhaustion and sick leave, research claim

    • Wales unveils strategy on suicide

      • Thousands could be trained to spot the first signs of mental illness as part of a plan to cut suicides in Wales

    • Census confirms damage to black Britons

      • The conclusions in the fourth national census of the ethnicity of all inpatients in the NHS and independent mental health and learning disability hospitals in England and Wales, shows that the discrimination within the services continues unabated

  • Editorial

    • For those counsellors involved or interested in the development of the Improving Access to Psychological Therapies (IAPT) programme, the Government’s statement of intent (pictured on our cover) delivered at the recent Psychological Therapies in the NHS conference by Alan Johnson included two very welcome messages

  • Letters
    • Avatars don’t sweat

      • Thanks to John Daniel for an informative and stimulating article on therapy and online virtual worlds (‘The self set free’, therapy today, November 2008)

    • Be careful what you wish for

      • In response to Roger Sealy's letter (therapy today, November 2008) may I share my experience as a counsellor who has somehow recently slipped under the IAPT wire and got a post as a high intensity worker

    • Speaking out about ADHD

      • Well done for the article in the November issue of therapy today, ‘ADHD: the war for our children’.

    • The trauma of domestic violence

      • It seems fitting that I am writing this response to Hilary Abraham’s article on domestic abuse (‘It’s safe here’, therapy today, November 2008) on White Ribbon Day – the international day for the elimination of violence against women

    • Acronym agony

      • I want to comment on Bill Andrews’ interview of Steve Pilling (therapy today, November 2008) – not on the content but the use of acronyms

    • Clarifying IAPT referral pathways

      • As an experienced practitioner working in low intensity and high intensity roles within the newly-delivered IAPT service in primary care in Cornwall, and as a supervisor of low intensity therapists, I would like to clarify the IAPT referral pathway in response to Alice Renwick’s letter regarding counselling and support for people who have experienced sexual abuse

    • Lack of respect

      • My heart sank as I read the interview with Steve Pilling on NICE guidance in the November issue of therapy today

    • A question of logic

      • Government proposals that universities are to be rated on the quality of the jobs their graduates secure might have a sobering effect upon all those university-ratified counselling and psychotherapy courses that qualify countless numbers of people to work as therapists, but for often non-existent paid employment

    • Sick of negative attitude towards CBT

      • It seems that not a monthly issue of therapy today goes by without an article or letter criticising CBT or defensively comparing this style of therapy with other therapeutic interventions

    • Making our voices heard

      • I read Gillian Proctor’s ‘Professionalisation: a strategy for power and glory?’ (therapy today, October 2008) with some dismay

    • Language equals power

      • I was shocked to read the response to Caroline Vermes’ letter sent in by Anthony Hall-Shaw (therapy today, November 2008) regarding the need for therapists to be sensitive to labelling

  • Questionnaire
    • Reader survey

      • In September 2008 we invited you to tell us what you think of therapy today – how useful it is to you in your practice, your views about the content and whether the general format works for you. We have now analysed the results, some of which are included below

  • Reviews
    • Counselling and psychotherapy in contemporary private practice

      • Counselling and psychotherapy in contemporary private practice Adrian Hemmings and Rosalind Field (eds) Routledge 2007, £18.99 ISBN 978-1583912461. Reviewed by Naomi Stadlen

    • Woman on the verge of a nervous breakdown: life, love and talking it through

      • Woman on the verge of a nervous breakdown: life, love and talking it through Lorna Martin, John Murray 2008 £14.99 ISBN 978-0719524516. Reviewed by Joyce Allen.

    • Employee well-being and support: a workplace resource

      • Employee well-being and support: a workplace resource Andrew Kinder, Rick Hughes and Cary L Cooper (eds) Wiley Blackwell 2008, £29.99 ISBN 978-0470059005 Reviewed by Val W Allen

    • Psychotherapy and the everyday life: a guide for the puzzled consumer

      • Psychotherapy and the everyday life: a guide for the puzzled consumer Emily Budick and Rami Aronzon Karnac Books 2007 £22.50 ISBN 978-1855754294. Reviewed by Eileen Aird

    • Bewitched, bothered and bewildered: how couples really work

      • Bewitched, bothered and bewildered: how couples really work Wyn Bramley Karnac Books 2008 £18.99 ISBN 978-1855756502 Reviewed by Margaret Akmakjian-Pitz

    • Supervision in clinical practice: a practitioner’s guide (2nd edition)

      • Supervision in clinical practice: a practitioner’s guide (2nd edition) Joyce Scaife Routledge 2008 £24.99 ISBN 978-0415450003 Reviewed by Penny Henderson

    • Confidentiality and record keeping in counselling and psychotherapy

      • Confidentiality and record keeping in counselling and psychotherapy Tim Bond and Barbara Mitchels Sage 2008 £18.99
        ISBN 978-1412912709 Reviewed by Angela Cooper
        

    • Counselling and psychotherapy with older people (2nd edition)

      • Counselling and psychotherapy with older people (2nd edition) Paul Terry, Palgrave Macmillan 2008 ISBN 978-0230506541 Reviewed by Vee Howard-Jones
        

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    • Case study research

      • We have been slow to develop a systematic case study tradition as a way to build a knowledge base for the profession. Now a new network has been established to promote case study research