Contents:

• Features
  • After adoption

    • Little support is available for birth parents when their children are taken into care. But, for the past four years, an independent counselling service in Northamptonshire has been providing them with much needed post-adoption support

  • Adapting to difference: the hairdryer theory

    • When we travel abroad, we have to take a power adaptor with us if we want our electrical appliances to work. Extending the analogy, shouldn’t we also remember to adapt our Eurocentric psychological theories when we work with clients from non-Western cultures?

  • Bridging the gap: therapy through interpreters

    • With the number of languages spoken in the UK thought to run into hundreds,we need to embrace the challenge of working with interpreters to ensure equal access to therapy for all

  • The prison of the self

    • Whilst Western therapeutic approaches place considerable emphasis on building a positive sense of self, for the past 2500 years Buddhism has taught that the key to enlightenment lies in letting go of our attachment to self

  • What’s in a word?

    • If we trace the etymology of words common to both therapy and medicine, we might be surprised to discover that their disparate usages find common roots

  • Gandalf’s apprentice the magic of supervision

    • With impending statutory regulation, it is urgent for us as a profession to reach a common understanding of what constitutes a competent supervisor

  • Cover feature

    • Priska Imberti left her native Argentina 20 years ago in search of a better life in America. Here she tells her story of loss and transformation and explains why immigrants living in a hostile social and legal climate need a therapeutic space where they can heal and reconcile the different parts of themselves

• Regulars
  • News
    • Researchers claim CBT superiority is a myth

      • The idea that cognitive behaviour therapy (CBT) is more effective than other types of therapy is a myth, according to experts who attended a conference organised on behalf of the World Association for Person-Centered and Experiential Psychotherapy and Counselling at the University of East Anglia earlier this month.

    • Mental wellbeing champion needed

      • A coalition comprising of the Association of Directors of Adult Social Services, the Mental Health Foundation, Mind, Rethink, Sainsbury Centre for Mental Health

    • Plea for children of mentally ill

      • More needs to be done to support the children of parents with mental illness, says children’s charity Barnardo’s

    • Under-18s in alcohol epidemic

      • NHS figures reveal that one in 10 patients admitted to hospital with alcohol problems is under 18. Taking into account all ages, binge drinking has led to alcohol-related hospital admissions doubling in a decade.

    • Patient choice at heart of health service revolution

      • A new draft NHS constitution unveiled by the government after a year-long review of the health service in England by the surgeon-minister Lord Darzi

    • Returning to work can help recovery from depression

      • Going back to work can help people recover from depression, new research has suggested

    • Mental health services under stress

      • A new King's Fund report into mental health services in England calls for the government to commit funds commensurate to meet projected rises in overall costs and says this needs to be accompanied by more robust research into effective treatments and evidencebased interventions such as talking therapies

    • Twice the punishment

      • The Women’s Institute (WI) in England and Wales has launched a campaign to call a halt to the inappropriate imprisonment of people who are mentally ill

    • A stiff upper lip

      • A survey to test responses to the 9/11 attacks carried out by researchers at the University at Buffalo, has found that the traditional stiff upper lip may be a better way to deal with shock than letting your feelings out.

    • Scientists launch major study into depression

      • Depression will affect up to 25 per cent of the population at some point in their lives and has been shown to have a strong genetic component

  • Editorial

    • This month we take a welcome break from the politics of therapy in the UK and offer a range of contributions which touch on the experience of cultural difference and integration.

  • Letters
    • No to class war

      • I’m writing in response to the article ‘Equal access for all’ (therapy today, May 2008). I disliked Linda Bellos’s choice of language when she referred to counselling and psychotherapy as ‘not simply a middle class luxury or indulgence’, which seems to dismiss a whole section of society and their reasons for coming for counselling

    • Hysteria about CBT

      • CBT is a simple set of techniques, not a threat to competent therapists. We CBT therapists are not practitioners of the Dark Arts, whom all good therapists must (Harry Potter style) work to defeat.

    • Optimism over IAPT unfounded

      • It has become clear that the optimistic message we have received from therapy today that counsellors will benefit from the £173 million that the government has put in to the IAPT initiative is unfounded

    • Growing concern over incomplete evidence

      • This letter was sent to The Guardian in response to an article about Lord Layard, ‘Will this man make you happy?’ 24 June 2008: Most professional therapists think Lord Layard’s plans for talking treatment on the NHS will help the nation feel less depressed.

    • What role for trained counsellors?

      • Listening to Lord Layard speaking on a Radio 4 programme recently left me feeling frustrated and undervalued. In response to a question from Gerry Robinson regarding concern over the skills levels of the counsellors that would be used in the government’s planned roll-out of CBT

    • Being ourselves as therapists

      • I found reading clients’ counselling experiences in June’s edition of therapy today both interesting and disconcerting. I also thought the article, ‘The therapy maze’, made some very valid points.

    • ME has a physical cause

      • I read with interest, but also concern, the research paper on counselling people with ME (CPR, June 2008) and the article ‘Living with ME’ (therapy today, June 2008). I take issue with the idea that ME is a disputed condition.

    • ME patients struggle to be heard

      • Thank you to the authors of the research paper ‘The experiences of counselling for persons with ME’ (CPR, June 2008) for giving a voice to ME patients and introducing a breath of fresh air into the ME/CFS debate

    • Saving the lives of anorexics

      • I welcomed the very informative and personal account of anorexia written by Laura Deacon, ‘My body, my rights’ (Therapy Today, June 2008)

    • Waking up to our mortality

      • The discussion about death and the anxiety that Yalom's article 'The ripple effect' (therapy today, May 2008) has generated, reminds me of Laurens van der Post's biography of Jung¹.

    • Empathic opportunities

      • As a lecturer in counselling skills I was deeply encouraged by McLeod's article 'Outside the therapy room' (therapy today, May 2008) and I acknowledge the personal and professional challenge of working to provide appropriately held and ethically informed 'embedded counselling'.

    • What death anxiety?

      • I read with interest Yalom’s article on ‘The ripple effect’ (therapy today, May 2008) and looked in vain to find some mention of the effect that a belief in reincarnation would have on death anxiety.

    • Reminder of transcience

      • I had to write to express my thanks for including Irvin Yalom’s ‘The ripple effect’ (therapy today, May 2008)

    • Contemptuous dismissal

      • I cannot leave John Rowan’s response (Letters, therapy today, June 2008) to Yalom’s article to go unchallenged

  • Reviews
    • The reading group

      • If you’re taking some time out this summer and looking for an inspirational read,the following recommendations – a selection of classic and contemporary fiction,autobiography and a children’s favourite – might be a good place to start

    • The neuroscience of human relationships

      • The neuroscience of human relationships: attachment and the developing social brain, Louis Cozolino WW Norton 2006 ISBN 978-0393704549 £22

    • Tales of psychotherapy

      • Tales of psychotherapy, Jane Ryan (ed) Karnac 2007 ISBN 978-1855754928 £19.99

    • Doing practitioner research

      • Doing practitioner research, Mark Fox, Peter Martin and Gill Green Sage 2007 ISBN 978-1412912341 £18.99

    • On supervision: psychoanalytic and Jungian analytic perspectives

      • On supervision: psychoanalytic and Jungian analytic perspectives, Ann Petts, Bernard Shapley (eds) Karnac 2007 ISBN: 978-1855754973 £19.99

    • Overcoming anorexia

      • Overcoming anorexia, J Hubert Lacey, Christine Craggs Hinton, Kate Robinson Sheldon Press 2007 ISBN 978-0859699860 £7.99

    • Suicide: strategies and interventions for reduction and prevention

      • Suicide: strategies and interventions for reduction and prevention, Stephen Palmer (ed) Routledge 2007 ISBN 978-1583919958 £19.99

    • Overcoming depression: talks with your therapist

      • Overcoming depression: talks with your therapist [2 CD's], Paul Gilbert ISBN 978-1845298180 Constable & Robinson 2007 £9.99

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    • Research

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• BACP
  • BACP News
    • BACP News

      • News from your Association

  • BACP Professional Conduct
    • BACP Professional Conduct Hearing Findings, decision and sanction
    • BACP Professional Conduct Hearing Findings, decision and sanction
    • BACP Professional Conduct Hearing Findings, decision and sanction
    • BACP Professional Conduct Hearing Findings, decision and sanction
  • BACP Professional Standards
    • New accreditation application process launched

      • Are you considering accreditation but keep putting it off? Recent changes to the accreditation process will hopefully encourage you to apply by Patience O’ Neill

  • BACP Research
    • BACP Research

      • Your feedback is welcome.Please email comments or contributions for the research pages to Kaye Richards, Research Facilitator kaye.richards@bacp.co.uk