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The Psychotherapist_issue38_master:The Psychotherapist
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UK Council for Psychotherapy
Issue 38
Summer
2008
Michael White
29th December 1948
to 5th April 2008
the
Narrative
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the psychotherapist
Diversity and Equalities
Statement
The United Kingdom Council for Psychotherapy (UKCP) promotes an active engagement
with difference and therefore seeks to provide a framework for the professions of
psychotherapy and psychotherapeutic counseling which allows competing and diverse
ideas and perspectives on what it means to be human to be considered, respected and
valued.
Contents
Page
Guest Editorial: Prepare Yourself
1
Finding the story:
narrative in psychotherapy
3
Shakespeare: theatre and therapy
5
The Practitioner-Researcher:
a research journey narrative
8
UKCP is committed to addressing issues of prejudice and discrimination in relation to
the mental well being, political belief, gender and gender identity, sexual preference or
orientation, disability, marital or partnership status, race, nationality, ethnic origin, heritage
identity, religious or spiritual identity, age or socio-economic class of individuals and
groups.
How to become a book reveiwer
10
Book reviews
11
Obituary: Michael White
13
UKCP keeps its policies and procedures under review in order to ensure that the
realities of discrimination, exclusion, oppression and alienation that may form part of the
experience of its registrants as well as of their clients are addressed appropriately.
Letters to the editor
15
Doing the dirt on constructivism
16
UKCP seeks to ensure that the practice of psychotherapy is utilised in the service of the
celebration of human difference and diversity, and that at no time is psychotherapy used
as a means of coercion or oppression of any group or individual.
UKCP Honorary Fellows
18
Profile of Maura Sills
19
Profile of Heward Wilkinson
20
ChairÊs report
22
The Psychotherapist is published for the benefit of UKCP registrants and aims to keep
them informed of developments likely to impact on their practice and provide an
opportunity for registrants to share information and views on professional practice and
topical issues.
Interview with James Antrican,
UKCP Chair, on regulation
23
Shape of the Future
26
The material in The Psychotherapist is only provided for general information purposes and
does not constitute professional advice of any nature. Whilst every effort is made to
ensure the content in The Psychotherapist is accurate and true, on occasion there may be
mistakes and readers are advised not to rely upon its content.
Campaign against sedimentation of
modalities in statutory regulation
28
Letter from Vice Chair (Registrants)
29
The Editor and UKCP accept no responsibility or liability for any loss which may arise
from reliance on the information contained in The Psychotherapist.
Diverse minds: diverse contexts
30
From our European Correspondent
32
Research for the Psychotherapist
33
Ethics Committee FAQs
34
Editorial Policy
From time to time The Psychotherapist may
publish articles of a controversial nature. The
views expressed are those of the author and
not of The Psychotherapist.
Advertising Policy
Advertisements are the responsibility of the advertiser and do not imply
endorsement by UKCP or the editor of The Psychotherapist. The editor reserves the
right to reject or to cancel advertisements without notice.
Managing Editor: Jude Cohen-Phillips
Guest Editor:
Robin Hobbes
Editorial Board: James Antrican, Jude Cohen-Phillips, Sally Forster,
Katrina Phillips, Sally Scott, Tom Warnecke
Published by UK Council for Psychotherapy,
2nd Floor, Edward House, 2 Wakley Street, London EC1V 7LT
Registered Charity No. 1058545
Company No. 3258939 Registered in England
SocietyÊs Shameful Denial: the effect of
goverment policy on Asylum Seekers 35
A little tale of what happened to me
37
Becoming involved in UKCP
38
New UKCP registrants
39
Events
40
Continuing professional development 42
Cover photo:
Thanks to Dulwich Centre, Australia
www.ukcp.org.uk
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the psychotherapist feature: narrative
Prepare Yourself an introduction to
Narrative Therapy
Guest Editor: Robin Hobbes
Hearing someone tell you a story can
be a transfixing experience. Your
attention is caught. You find yourself
drawn into a narrative that plays your
feelings – plays your feelings like a
musician attending an instrument. You
become the subject of something –
something that you can call a voice.
ItÊs the voice that grabs you.
The voice of the client in
psychotherapy is the voice of a
storyteller. The psychotherapist
listens – responds. Sometimes the
therapist suggests edits to the
unfolding narrative. The client
changes, rewrites, elaborates,
illustrates their story.
This is the narrative quality of
psychotherapy and it was this that
drew me to editing this edition of the
Psychotherapist in which the theme of
Narrative is explored.
„psychotherapy needs
to question cultural
narrratives rather than
support them‰
Three psychotherapists write on some
of the key areas where narrative and
psychotherapy meet. Jeremy Holmes
writes on psychotherapy as a storytelling activity, John Casson on where
the narratives of Shakespeare meet
the narratives of psychotherapy, and
Bob Shaw explores the interface of
research and narrative. He argues
persuasively that psychotherapists as
practitioner-researchers can expand
the profession's knowledge of its
practice through the analysis of the
The Psychotherapist
narratives produced in the therapy
room.
Two other reflections strike me as I
think of narrative in psychotherapy.
One on how attention to
psychotherapy narratives can tell us
much about the culture from which
the narrative comes and how
psychotherapy needs to question
cultural narrratives rather than
support them. Secondly I want to
briefly show how attention to
narrative has profound implications for
demonstrating the efficacy of
psychotherapy.
In the Times Literary Supplement
(May 16 2008) Ritchie Robertson
wrote a fascinating piece on the
influence of Austrian literature on the
Fritzl case. This is the ghastly story of
the Austrian man who imprisoned his
daughter for 24 years in a cellar –
fathering seven children with her.
He references a number of pieces of
Austrian literature that ÂprefigureÊ the
Fritzl case, showing how imprisonment
of young women by their fathers
accompanied with sexual assault is a
theme repeated in Austrian literature.
He then makes a fascinating analysis of
Freud's Case Studies – in particular
Dora and The Rat Man. I'll focus on
The Rat Man.
In The Rat Man Freud digresses to
another case of a young obsessive man
who tells Freud of how he would
molest his friendÊs daughters by
inviting them away to a hotel and then
sexually abuse them at night. Freud
responds by saying „But aren't you
afriad of doing her some harm, fiddling
about in her genitals with your dirty
hands?‰(reported by Robertson). The
cultural implication of a statement like
this tells us much about the social
context Freud was immersed in.
The failure to realise the implications
of this action, the support of a
patriarchal system at the expense of
the women victimised by this system
is contained in the narrative. Maybe
the cultural failure to analyse these
narratives and transform them
contributes to the social toleration
that appears to have allowed Fritzl to
imprison his daughter and abuse her.
In critically looking at the narratives of
our case studies it seems to me that
we can restore psychotherapy to its
'outsider' status in which cultural
values are challenged and questioned
rather than supported.
„we can restore
psychotherapy to its
'outsider' status‰
Secondly, I want to say something
about the importance of narrative as a
way of demonstrating the efficacy of
psychotherapy.
Mary Main and her group of
attachment researchers wanted to find
out the characteristics of the parents
of securely attached children. They
reasoned that if there are
distinguishing characteristics then this
may help in the development of child
care strategies to promote securely
attached parenting.
They interviewed a number of parents
of securely attached infants.
Interestingly they found no
distinguishing characteristics. There
were no identifiable factors such as
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fewer occasions of childhood abuse or
fewer incidences of a loss of a parent.
This was suprising to them as they had
anticipated higher incidents of Âfamily
stabilityÊ than they actually found.
What they did notice, however, was
the narratives the caregivers utilised
to describe their own childhood
experience.
there was a consistency within the
narrative. They would produce
relevant details, not over or under
detailing. Essentially parents of
securely attached children, whatever
their background be it abusive or
seriously neglectful, were able to
produce coherent and congruent
narratives. Jeremy Holmes alludes to
this in his article later on.
IÊll leave the last word to the first four
lines of R S Thomas' poem Questions –
a kind of homage to nonintereventionist psychotherapy.
Prepare yourself for the
message
You are prepared?
Silence
„the narrative style
used by the caregivers
with securely attached
children differed
markedly from that of
the other groups‰
Using the system of categorising
attachment patterns into secure,
anxious-preoccupied, anxious-avoidant,
and anxious-disoganised, the narrative
style used by the caregivers with
securely attached children differed
markedly from that of the other
groups.
Using a complex system of narrative
analysis Main identified a number of
key processes used by caregivers with
securely attached children that were
not found in the other groups of
caregivers.
The insecure groups would use
multiple models to describe their
childhood experience. Often utilising
a generally positive account of their
own caregiving, on being asked for
specific examples they would
contradict the earlier positive
generalised account with negative
specific examples. For example they
might be asked „Who took care of
you when you were young and what
was this like?‰ They would answer
affirmatively about their caregiver but
when asked for specific examples of
the care received they would cite
examples of cruelty or negelect.
The caregivers who were securely
attached to their children would use a
singular narrative model in which
2
Psychotherapists taking a narrative
view of their work see their clients
start to deconstruct and reconstruct
the narratives of their lives into a new
coherence, relevancy and congruency
that mirrors exactly the narratives of
caregivers of securely attached
children.
„clients start to
deconstruct and
reconstruct the
narratives of their lives
into a new coherence,
relevancy and
congruency‰
Here is one place where a
professional concern to establish
research credibility can find research
that supports the efficacy of our
'talking cure' approach.
Of course the narratives from novels
or drama can directly affect us as
therapists. The other day I asked a
psychotherapist at a conference what
recent psychotherapy texts were
currently influencing his work. He
paused and then emphatically said „the
poetry of R S Thomas‰. Literature can
shape our sensibilities to the other –
can alter our perceptions of
experience.
„Literature can shape
our sensibilities to the
other – can alter
our perceptions of
experience‰
Silence is the message
Robin Hobbes
e-mail:[email protected]
Biography
Robin Hobbes BA CQSW CTA TSTA
is the former Chairperson of the
British Institute of Transactional
Analysis.
He co-directs with his wife Elan
Training and Development – a
humanistic psychotherapy training
centre in Manchester.
References
Robertson, R, Graves of the Living, TLS
May 16 2008
Main, M, Metacognitive Knowledge,
Metacognitive Monitoring, and Singular
(coherent) vs. Multiple (incoherent)
model of attachment: findings and
direction for future research – in
Patterns of Attachment ed. Murray
Parkes, Stevenson-Hinde and Marris,
1998 Routledge
Themes for future issues
of The Psychotherapist
The positive in psychotherapy
The psychotherapist as
expert witness
Adoption
Bereavement
Complementary therapies
If you would like to guest edit an
issue of The Psychotherapist,
contact the Managing Editor, Jude
Cohen-Phillips 020 7014 9969
[email protected]
www.ukcp.org.uk
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Finding the story:
narrative
in psychotherapy
Jeremy Holmes
The Oracle at Delphi asked its
supplicants: ÂWho are you? Where
have you come from? Where are you
going to?‰. A basic job for therapists of
all persuasions is to help patients tell
their story, to listen intently to it, and to
respond in a way that leads to a
deepening or widening of the narration.
A story is a narrated sequence of
causally connected events. The causal
connections can be of two kinds: factual
or emotional. „It started raining and I
got wet‰ would be an example of the
former. The rain was the unequivocal
cause of my getting wet. „We had a
row, I walked out without an umbrella,
then it started raining and I got wet‰
would be an example of the latter.
Here my dampness was a result of the
row, the rain simply being a necessary
but incidental agent, a minor player in
the drama.
„assume that the
particular incidents
which clients bring
up are not just
randomly chosen‰
Therapists assume that the particular
incidents which clients bring up are not
just randomly chosen, but are of
The Psychotherapist
psychological significance. A client might
mention as he walks up the corridor
for his psychotherapy session that he
had difficulty in parking. On the face of
it this is a reasonable and normal kind
of conversational gambit – especially as
hospital car parks are notoriously
overcrowded.
do as you were told.You could have
insisted that you sorted it out between
you‰.
Nevertheless it might set the therapist
thinking that this person could be
referring unconsciously to an anxiety
that he might just be being Âsqueezed inÊ
between other clients. That in turn
might link with a childhood in which, as
a middle child wedged between an
assertive older bother and a sweet
younger sister, he felt that there was no
time for individual parental attention.
Thus the ÂouterÊ car park story is
perhaps also a manifestation of his inner
world.
At this point the patient might go silent
for a minute, and his eyes begin to
moisten.
„I never have, it all goes back to my
father, he used to beat us if we
disagreed‰.
Who we are – our identity – is
inseparable from our story. Knowing
who we are makes us feel secure. And
if we donÊt know who we are, we are
more vulnerable to feelings of
depression, or exploitation by others.
„Facts in themselves
are of no significance‰
The Attachment-informed research of
Mary Main, Peter Fonagy and Klaus and
Karin Grossman suggests that people
who know their story, and who can tell
it coherently, are at an advantage; more
able to cope with the challenges that
life throws at us.
Facts in themselves are of no
significance. What preoccupies us is
their meaning and significance, their
emotional context. That is where
psychotherapy makes its contribution.
A therapist might say, challengingly:
„Your wife said she would leave you if
you didnÊt get help, but what made you
To which the answer might be
„Oh, we tried that and it didnÊt work –
anyway she always gets her way‰.
„And you donÊt?‰
Now we have two stories – the ÂnowÊ
story, and the ÂthenÊ story – and the
connections between them.
Therapists need to be skilful in helping
clients to tell their stories in a coherent
and vivid way. In answer to the
question „whatÊs brought you to see
me?‰, a young woman in her thirties
says to her therapist at their first
meeting „Oh, I donÊt know, my lifestyle
seems to have gone AWOL‰. That says
everything – and nothing: the devil is in
the detail.
Attachment theory suggests that there
are classic ways of not telling a story –
in the service of defending against
mental pain. For avoidant people a
cliché will do: „Oh we were just a
normal family like everybody else‰;
„my mum was the best mum in the
world‰.
„they pour out an
incoherent jumble of
facts and feelings that
threaten the therapist
with confusion‰
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The therapistÊs job here is to probe for
examples, vivid illustrations that will
bring the story to life. At the other
extreme of insecure attachment are
ambivalent people who seem to be
drowning in their story – they pour out
an incoherent jumble of facts and
feelings that threaten the therapist with
confusion. Here the task is to gain
some distance and objectivity and to
piece together, with the patient, a
coherent story. In both cases not
thinking about motivations, feelings and
desires helps avoid mental pain, but has
long-term disadvantages in that it makes
us less able to learn from experience
about how we and other people work.
Part of the therapistÊs job is to home in
on gaps, obfuscations, evasions, blurrings
in a clientÊs story – things that donÊt
quite fit, or donÊt really make sense,
even though the patient herself may not
have questioned them. A therapist has
to have a sixth sense for such things,
just as a conductor needs to be able to
hear a wrong note, even when the
orchestra is at full blast.
A story is always about something, it
has a theme. As a psychotherapist, one
is trying to find the leitmotiv that runs
through the story or stories a client
tells, to go behind the surface events to
underlying preoccupations and patterns.
Thematic analysis – which normally
goes on in a psychotherapistÊs mind
intuitively rather than systematically –
can be approached in several ways.
There may be a significant tone that
permeates everything a person says: of
sadness, injustice, victim-hood,
recklessness, abandonment or fear,
blaming others rather than oneself or
vice versa.
Or the story may reveal a life-theme or
preoccupation. Sandy, a depressed
young woman in her mid-twenties,
suffered from intense jealousy which
regularly undermined her relationships
with boyfriends. The oldest by 14
months of two girls, she had always felt
that her sister was favoured by her
mother: seen as prettier, easier, cleverer,
and able to „get away with murder‰.
4
Talking about her hobby, swimming, she
said how she used to enjoy the Âwarm
soothing feelingÊ of an empty pool, but
these days the pool had become so
crowded that „you canÊt enjoy it with all
those people kicking your face, pushing
past you‰. This little story seemed to
sum up her basic problem; no sooner
had she emerged from the amniotic
pool of her motherÊs womb, than an
upstart sister had come along,
destroying her feeling of calm and
security.
Thirdly there is usually a pattern in
intimate relationships that characterises
every individualÊs dealings with others,
as unique as a fingerprint or facial
appearance.
Usually the stories patients tell come
from two arenas – their current life
situation, and their developmental
history, especially childhood. To this, the
therapist is able to add her own
observations of the relationship in the
room with the therapist. The latter is
one of the reasons that analytic
psychotherapists like to remain fairly
neutral in their role, providing sufficient
indeterminacy for clients to impose
their own expectations and
characteristic themes on the shape of
the therapeutic relationship, which can
then be identified and examined.
Every client has two therapists. First,
there is an actual person who sits there
each week, at this time, on this day, at
this place, wearing these clothes, of this
age and gender, with this tone of voice,
educational background, level of
intelligence, range of cultural reference,
etc.
But in parallel with this concrete,
physical person there is someone else.
There is always another therapist, no
less ÂrealÊ, who is a product of the
clientÊs imagination. He or she might be
the longed-for or feared father, the
mother who favoured a sibling, the
forgetful, attentive, seductive, cold,
ambitious or narcissistic parent.
The more we need to feel close to
someone, and the less we know, or dare
to know, about them, the more we are
likely to fill in the gaps in our
knowledge with such phantoms –
unconscious stories – from the past. A
colleague once announced to me: „You
know, transference really does exist.
My first patient this morning told me
that I was a hateful, ugly, old hag, my
second that I was the most beautiful
woman he had ever encountered. They
canÊt both be right‰. Yet, in a sense they
were. Both were drawing on the
second therapist that comes into being
in the imagination, and is then projected
onto the first, the real person. The
experience of therapy contains a subtle
mixture of reality and phantasy.
A client who appears unduly compliant
with the therapist, is dominated by her
husband, and had a bullying father, will
reveal a core theme or story of
submissiveness. The task of the
therapist will be first to identify this
theme, and then to try to reach and
turn into a coherent narrative what has
been left out – the personÊs rage and
anger about being treated this way, and
the need to assimilate that anger rather
than repudiate it if she is to be less prey
to exploitation in the future.
„A story may hang
together, be convincing,
but still bear little or no
relation to the facts – it
may be plain wrong‰
So stories are intrinsic to
psychotherapy. But in the end a story is
a story – just that. As T.S. Eliot said of
the Gospel story: „And is it true, is it
true, this most tremendous tale of all?‰
A story may hang together, be
convincing, but still bear little or no
relation to the facts – it may be plain
wrong. How would we know whether it
was right or wrong?
One family simultaneously embarked on
exorcism and family therapy when the
daughter developed an eating disorder.
She recovered, but how would we
know which was the effective therapy?
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In theory one could carry out a
controlled trial in which a group of
people with eating disorders were
randomly assigned to family therapy or
exorcism. If one group did significantly
better than the other this would be
pretty good evidence that there was an
effective ingredient in that treatment.
But one would still not know what it
was about the effective treatment that
worked. Just because the family therapy
teams think that it is their particular
style of doing therapy which does the
trick does not mean that that is in fact
the case. It might be what
psychotherapy researchers call Ânonspecific factorsÊ: tone of voice, or the
intrinsic message of hope implicit in
coming for help, rather than their
specific technique which worked.
One way out of this dilemma is via selfreflectiveness, or mentalisation. It
behoves therapists not just to develop a
coherent story about their clientsÊ lives,
but also to have a Âstory of storiesÊ – to
consider why they espouse this or that
particular story. Therapists need to be
no less exhaustive in examining their
own motives as they are of their clients.
But that, as the saying goes, is another
story⁄
Jeremy Holmes
Jeremy Holmes, MD FRCPsych was
until recently Consultant
Psychiatrist/psychotherapist in North
Devon, where he now has a small
private practice.
He is currently Visiting Professor at the
University of Exeter where he co-runs
the psychodynamic stream of the MSc
in psychological therapies. He chaired
the psychotherapy faculty at the Royal
College of Psychiatrists 1998-2002, and
the 2003 DOH working party on
psychological therapies.
His main interest and publications have
been in Attachment Theory and
psychoanalytic psychotherapy and in
how the NHS can best provide services
for people suffering from Personality
Disorder.
The Psychotherapist
Shakespeare:
theatre and therapy
guided fantasy (of climbing to the edge
of the cliffs at Dover) and enactment to
help his suicidal father (Gloucester). He
states:
„Why I do trifle thus with his despair is
done to cure it.‰ King Lear 4. 6. 33
John Casson
We narrate in dramatic form: „He said
⁄ she said ⁄. then he did ⁄ and I told
him ⁄‰ Narratives are not onedimensional: they include multiple levels,
roles and points of view. These roles
contain different aspects of an
individualÊs psyche and relationships.
In the theatre of therapy it is the
interplay of these roles, their
relationships and conflicts, which
constitute the underlying plot.
Unravelling this plot and discovering the
meanings, the needs expressed by the
roles in the narrative, is the business of
analysis/psychotherapy. Dramatherapists
and psychodramatists use drama to
explore roles and expand clientsÊ
narratives in therapy. This paper is a brief
exploration of the therapeutic potential
of the narratives in ShakespeareÊs plays.
ShakespeareÊs Clinical
Precision
Shakespeare knew about madness. Cox
& Theilgaard (1994) have written of his
clinical precision: how accurately he
describes and charts the onset of mental
distress and its course. Many plays
contain mad scenes: Hamlet, Lear,
Macbeth, Othello, Midsummer NightÊs
Dream,The Winters Tale. Shakespeare was
also interested in whether and how
people could recover from such mental
distress. In King Lear, Edgar uses a
Edgar plays two different roles (Poor
Tom and a man at the foot of the cliffs)
in this ÂpsychodramaÊ. Although the play
is deeply tragic there is nevertheless a
sense of emergent healing, a state of
grace, towards the end of the play. I also
recently discovered the scenes of
dramatic healing in The Two Noble
Kinsmen, in which a mad woman is
gradually returned to sanity through a
ÂpsychodramaticÊ process. (Casson, 2006)
„these therapeutic effects
of theatre were obtained
at a time before the
introduction of modern
medication‰
Shakespeare in Therapy
The earliest recorded theatre in a
psychiatric hospital in Britain was opened
in 1843, when Dr. W. A. F. Browne
encouraged patients to perform plays
(including ShakespeareÊs Twelfth Night) at
the Crichton Royal Institute, Dumfries,
Scotland. This creative social activity was
found to be beneficial for patients. „No
human mean as yet employed has at so
little risk and with so little trouble and
expense, communicated so much
rational happiness to so many of the
insane at the same time, or so
completely placed them in circumstances
so closely allied to those of sane beings,
or so calculated either to remove the
burden of mental disease, or to render it
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more bearable. The attempt is no longer
an experiment. It is a great fact of moral
science, and must be accepted and acted
upon.‰ (Crichton, 1844, 23) What
perhaps is most significant for us is that
these therapeutic effects of theatre were
obtained at a time before the
introduction of modern medication.
In 1952 Dr. Henry Rollin, psychiatrist,
invited theatre director Elsie Green to
work at Horton Hospital, Epsom, Surrey.
For 32 years, until 1984, Elsie conducted
play reading, theatre therapy and
dramatherapy sessions with patients.
She included Shakespeare in the plays
read by the patients. She found that
tragedy had a purging effect: „Never
shall I forget the felicity of the rendering
of LearÊs line ÂLet me not be madÊ by a
patient⁄‰ (Thompson, 1998, p30).
Patients benefited from her work with
them, and Elsie herself spoke of the
normalising effect of her work: „I deal
with patients suffering from all kinds of
mental illness; psychotics, for instance,
whose hold on reality is very fragile,
many of whom are lost in a private
world of delusions and hallucinations.
My job as a therapist is to help them to
strengthen their hold on reality, and to
build a bridge between their private
world and the allegedly sane world in
which most of us live. By taking a
dramatic role in a group, the patient can
adopt a personality to which the other
members of the group can respond on a
reality level. This helps to strengthen a
sense of identity in a patient, and
supports his ego.‰ (Thompson, 1998,
p30)
I joined Dr. Sue Jennings and other
dramatherapists to explore the
therapeutic potential of ShakespeareÊs
plays, for present day clients, at the
annual Shakespeare Symposia held in
Stratford from 1989–1993. The plays
were found to contain many devices and
structures that could be used in therapy.
We were startled to discover, for
example, that Shakespeare had used
sculpting (arranging symbolic objects in a
pattern which tells a story) to describe
the grief of parting.
In The Two Gentlemen of Verona (II, 3,
15-34) Launce the clown uses shoes
6
to represent his mother and father, a
stick for his (thin) sister and a hat for
the maid. Many therapists use
sculpting to explore family dynamics
or aspects of peopleÊs experiences. It
was at the Symposium in 1989 that
Jennings introduced Mark Rylance to
Dr. Murray Cox, then Consultant
Psychiatrist at Broadmoor, and as a
result the Royal Shakespeare
Company visited the Special Hospital.
The very considerable therapeutic
benefits of the performances are
described in his book (Cox, 1992).
Jennings (1997, chapter 7) later
explored A Midsummer Nights Dream
with offender patients at Broadmoor
over 8 workshop sessions. She used
the narrative structure of the play,
images and characters, to provide
stimuli for mask making, costume and
set design, story telling and character
development. Using several different
psychological tests they found modest
but measurable therapeutic benefits.
Clinical Applications in
Individual Therapy
In Shakespeare as Prompter, Cox &
Theilgaard (1994) show how the poetry
of plays can enable therapists to prompt
a client hovering on the threshold of
disclosure and how metaphors can
stimulate and promote change.
I have used ShakespeareÊs plays in
therapy with people who hear voices
(Casson, 2004). In these following
examples I wish to stress that it was the
client who brought the Shakespeare into
the session. I present the use of text
first within just one session and then in
a series of sessions.
Gloria, a black woman who heard
voices, was mis-diagnosed as
schizophrenic, (it was later found she
was suffering from hypothyroidism). She
brought the text of Anthony and
Cleopatra to her therapy and we spent
the session reading and then improvising
on the role of the Queen, (I played her
servant). This enabled her to feel a
sense of dignified power and to express
her wishes and feelings: the role enabled
her to rehearse asserting herself and to
feel a dignity which, as a patient and a
victim of abuse, she felt she had lost.
Cheryll was diagnosed as schizophrenic
(though after her 156 therapy sessions
this was changed to personality
disorder). She spoke about A
Midsummer Nights Dream several times
before I suggested we explore the play in
her therapy. The play already had
multiple meanings for her; sheÊd even
called herself Hypolita after her first
marriage.
I was seeking appropriate creative
stimulus and metaphoric containers; she
specifically asked for more such
structure after sessions when talking
alone did not seem helpful to her. I
offered her a toy theatre, a commercial
reproduction of ShakespeareÊs Globe
Theatre. The toy theatre reminded
Cheryll of puppets, of when she, as a
child, had been unable to play.
This play had many meanings for her; the
forest, fairies, the lost lovers, the conflict
with parents. She asked: „Why would
Oberon mix up the lovers in the forest.
Why be cruel and confuse reality and
dream?‰ Reading the text (she had a
remarkable ability to sight read
Shakespeare) provided her, a very
distracted and fragmented person, with a
containing structure. Reading aloud has
been found to reduce voices (Watkins,
1998, 208; Slade & Bentall, 1988, 189).
Reading together, we were playing
together; I was a playmate. She was no
longer the lonely child but had a
companion and was able to be the star
of the show. She enjoyed playing Puck
and being mischievous. In the toy theatre
she picked out figures from the Âplay
within the playÊ, of Pyramus and Thisbe,
the wall and the lion. These seemed
metaphoric of her anger and the way
she protected or blocked her feelings.
After her partner JedÊs death she said:
„IÊve been unpenetratable since then, a
wall, I have the ability to cut myself off
from life.‰ She said she was walled off
from reality. Others did not see or
know a part of herself that she hid (the
voice she called ÂSecrecyÊ).
She showed me how she could go into a
safe place at will: dissociating and
entering a space walled off from the
world (which she called a psychotic
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Biography
John Casson has been a therapist in
adult mental health for 22 years, 11 of
which were in the NHS.
He is a senior trainer with the
Northern School of Psychodrama and
has a private practice in Uppermill, near
Manchester. His PhD was research into
what people who hear voices (auditory
hallucinations) find helpful or not
helpful in dramatherapy and
psychodrama.
His play, Voices and Visions, will be
performed in Manchester in July at the
Arden School of Theatre.
For more information see:
www.creativepsychotherapy.info
www.communicube.co.uk
References
The Five Story Self Structure
state. She stated that this disturbed
others but was OK for her). Reading
the text of A Midsummer NightÊs Dream
prompted her to talk about the
possibility and difficulty of emotional
bonding between mother and child, of
her own relationships with her mother
and her son. The lack of attachment
bonds with them had impoverished her
emotional life so that she did not feel a
person, and her masochistic bond with
the sadistic Jed had resulted in
emotional abuse and dissociation.
She created a scene with three fairies
who were her voices:
1) A wide-eyed depersonalised fairy,
only half human, angry, jealous.
2) A fairy who ate a magic
mushroom and went green (the
colour of forgetting in her system of
colour symbolism) and lost herself.
By eating the red berry (the colour
of love) she found herself again.
3) A glittering fairy with strong
delicate wings: a beauty that others
could not see. She was not alone but
dancing with others.
The following session she talked of
three lost siblings (one of whom died
less than a year before her birth, the
other two were miscarriages) and her
motherÊs mental illness.
The Psychotherapist
Cheryll also used the multi-level Five
Story Self Structure, calling it a wedding
cake and linked it with A Midsummer
Nights Dream, in which there are also
levels: the supernatural level of the
fairies, the social levels of the DukeÊs
court, above the lovers, above the Ârude
mechanicalsÊ (Bottom and Co.). The play
ends in marriage. Cheryll dreamed of
the structure and of marrying herself. As
her therapy progressed more evidence
of the integration of fragments of her self
(marriage) occurred (see Casson, 2004,
chapter 8 for an account of her therapy;
for information on the Five Story Self
Structure see: www.communicube.co.uk).
Conclusion
From these examples it is possible to
see that ShakespeareÊs texts and the
narratives in them can provide rich
associative material for clients to use, as
containing metaphors, to carry them
forward in their therapy.
Acknowledgement
I am grateful to Dr. Sue Jennings for her
comments on an early draft of this paper.
Dr. John Casson
Ph.D., B.A.(Hons), M.A., P.G.C.E.,
SRAsT(D), Dip. Psychd.
Dramatherapist (HPC reg), Psychodrama
Psychotherapist (UKCP reg)
Supervisor, Senior Trainer.
Casson, J. (2004) Drama, Psychotherapy
and Psychosis, Dramatherapy and
Psychodrama with people who hear
voices, Hove, East Sussex: BrunnerRoutledge
Casson, J. (2006) (in press) Shakespeare
and the Healing Drama, article to be
published in the Journal of the British
Association of Dramatherapists
Cox, M. (1992) Shakespeare Comes to
Broadmoor: the performance of
tragedy in a secure psychiatric hospital.
London: Jessica Kingsley Publishers
Cox, M. & Theilgaard, A. (1994)
Shakespeare as Prompter, London:
Jessica Kingsley Publishers
Crichton Royal Institution, (1844) 5th
Annual Report of the Hospital
Jennings, S. (1997) Dramatherapy
Theory and Practice 3, London:
Routledge
Slade, P. & Bentall, R. (1988) Sensory
Deception: Towards a scientific analysis
of hallucinations. London: Croom Helm
Thompson E. (1998) The Actors Are
Come Hither: A Tribute to Elsie
Green, published at Philip Walton
Partners, Coggers, Leatherhead Road,
Oxshott, Surrey KT22 OET, UK
Watkins, J. (1998) Hearing Voices, A
Common Human Experience.
Melbourne, Australia: Hill of Content
7
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The Practitioner-Researcher:
a research journey narrative
was more attracted to papers that
involved case studies or some form of
description of the therapeutic process
than others. There is a long history
within our profession of using case
studies to highlight aspects of practice;
this is, of course, research of a
qualitative nature. As such it is often
not seen as fitting in with the current
trend to provide quantitative data to
establish an evidence-based practice
culture.
Robert Shaw
If you are reading this you are likely to
be working as a psychotherapist. Did
you realise that, as a practising
psychotherapist you are already a
researcher? This may come as a
surprise to many of you. When I used
to teach research methods to trainee
psychotherapists they too were
surprised that they could be described
as researchers. For them research held
many fears and was thought of as
academic and not relevant to their
practice. Understandably there was
considerable resistance to engaging with
the notion that they were researchers.
I can sympathise very much with these
ideas; when I began I found much
research in the psychotherapy literature
rather dull, turgid and uninspiring. This
is a well recognised problem within the
profession. So how can research be
made accessible to practitioners? For
me, I knew if I could find a research
topic that interested me then it was
likely to help my practice, my clients and
be of interest to my colleagues. Hence
I started my research journey as a
practitioner-researcher.
The first stage was to read some
research literature, and I discovered I
8
A hard-nosed scientific approach
certainly has its place and provides
much valuable evidence, but only shows
part of the picture. Scientific theories
do not always work in practice.
However, the practitioner often has a
much better understanding of the
complexities of practice issues.
„these qualitative
methods are equally
important when
establishing a
research culture‰
This is where the practitionerresearcher comes in. I would suggest
that qualitative methodologies are in
many ways more suitable to the study
of a subjective enterprise like the
psychotherapeutic relationship, and that
they provide good evidence of what it is
we do as psychotherapists. Thus it is
my contention that these qualitative
methods are equally important when
establishing a research culture. In fact I
would argue that one of the founders
of modern psychotherapy, Sigmund
Freud, with his easy and accessible
writing style, was much more of a
qualitative researcher than a
quantitative scientist.
Nor are qualitative methodologies
particularly new. They have a long
tradition of being used by social
scientists and have been subject to
rigorous criticism. There is not space
to explore these methods here, but if
you are interested in the methods I
used for my research, that included
grounded theory, phenomenological
and narrative, please see Shaw (2004).
For the purposes of this article I shall
simply highlight the narrative method.
In order to engage with this
approach, one of the methods I
adopted for my research was to use
the model of the practitionerresearcher.
The practitioner-researcher
Within the counselling and
psychotherapy world there is growing
usage of the term practitionerresearcher, especially when related to
heuristic or phenomenological methods
of enquiry (McLeod, 1999; Etherington,
2000).
This model is one that many
practitioners can adopt to make
research relevant to their practice, and
in so doing, they can develop an
understanding of a particular practice
issue and gain a reflexive attitude to
their practice (Lees, 2003). I also
realised that it would enable me to
write into my research my experiences
as a practitioner and hence help me
with a particular practice issue. As
such, this method requires the
researcher to engage in a narrative of
the research, or a research story.
The Research Story
The practice issue that evolved for me
over a lengthy time period was that of
psychotherapist embodiment (Shaw,
2003), ie, what were therapists feeling in
their bodies as they worked and what
sense did they make of it? An
investigation into therapists' experience
of their bodies arose from my initial
interest in the concept of somatisation.
During both my counselling and
psychotherapy trainings I became aware
that the body seemed to be viewed
with considerable unease, especially
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02/07/2008
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Page 9
around the issue of touch. I began my
research project with the assumption
that, due to the contentious nature of
the body within psychotherapy, it was
ignored or somehow marginalized, or as
Boadella suggests (1997; 31): „The body
which became symbolically banned from
psychotherapy with the political
expulsion of Wilhelm Reich from the
psychoanalytic movement ⁄ has had 60
years in the cold.‰
„the age-old dualism,
that of ÂmindÊ and
ÂbodyÊ, in the realm of
psychotherapy the body
was a taboo subject‰
At this stage of my research I was
confronted by the age-old dualism, that
of ÂmindÊ and ÂbodyÊ, in the realm of
psychotherapy the body was a taboo
subject. I then decided to explore the
concept of somatisation in more depth,
and the idea of studying somatisation
within general medical practice arose.
I was about to embark on a participant
observation study in general practice
when I had to take a break away from
my research. On returning, my research
interests had moved on. As my career
began to be more influenced by
psychotherapy, I became more intrigued
by the body within therapy. Having
written some papers (Shaw, 1996a;
1996b), I was invited to talk on the
subject of the body in therapy. I took
this opportunity to hold some
discussion groups on the subject and
asked therapists general questions
about how they viewed the body in
therapy and a typical quote was:
„I became more
intrigued by the
body within therapy‰
„Particularly with some clients I am
more strongly affected. I somatise
myself. With an anorexic and bulimic
client who talked of vomiting and
diarrhoea, I felt I had a bug during the
next client session. I understood this as
somatising from her. With a client in
denial and cut off from feeling I felt lots
of anxiety in my body.‰
The Psychotherapist
Clearly this was a strong reaction and
the therapist was describing this
reaction as somatising in reaction to
their client. The focus of my study
changed and my research question
became: „What was the experience of
the therapist's body within the
therapeutic encounter?‰ A crucial part
of this story, and one that enabled a
change of focus, was the excellent
research supervision I received from
Ursula Sharma. Her encouragement
and supportive challenging of my
assumptions helped me focus on my
area of interest.
and is just the sort of embedded
narrative that is part of everyday
psychotherapy practice. However, there
is an important point to consider when
looking at therapist interpretations of
their body experience like this one,
namely that therapists are making claims
about their own bodies which relate to
something in their clientsÊ bodies. This
highlights a problem that is a part of
psychotherapeutic culture, of which this
therapist and myself are a part. The
issue that requires highlighting is the
issue of a clientÊs Âunconscious body
memoryÊ.
I found it essential as a novice
practitioner-researcher to have good
research supervision in order to
maintain a workable level of objectivity.
Being a practitioner of the subject
under research can be very difficult: it is
difficult to unpack some assumptions
embedded in oneÊs way of thinking (see
Embedded Narratives below).
On reflection, the claim to feel someone
elseÊs body memory is remarkable,
especially as this memory is also
unconscious. I introduce this point here
to highlight that, although a sophisticated
body communication mechanism may
well be in operation, there is also a
distinct lack of awareness of the
consequences to such claims by this
therapist. That is, as therapists, how can
we know that our bodily feelings
represent, or somehow correspond to,
our clientÊs Âunconscious body memoryÊ?
I was making the clear assumption that,
as in osteopathy, (my first and
continuing profession),, where the mind
appears largely absent within the
treatment regime, so too within
psychotherapy the body remains absent
or removed from the therapeutic
consulting room. My hope was that, by
investigating the therapist's body, I could
somehow reclaim the body for
psychotherapy. I also hoped to
reconcile my two professional lives, and
that my work as both psychotherapist
and osteopath could become
integrated.
Embedded Narratives
During my analysis of data a rather
disconcerting event arose. I had
collected data from several focus
groups and followed this up with indepth interviews with psychotherapists.
One therapist was describing a feeling
they experienced in their stomach with
one particular client. It was an ache and
would often occur with just this client.
I asked what meaning they put to this
experience and their reply was
„So what I was doing, I think, was
picking up the unconscious body
memory (of the client).‰
Initially when I read this I thought that it
sounded like a plausible explanation.
This sort of interpretation was made by
many of the therapists in my research
I urge caution when making such
interpretations, since there is a problem
of implying certainty and dogma to
what are essentially subjective
phenomena. The physical responses of
therapists are an important part of
therapy, and feeding these feelings back
into the therapy is one way of avoiding
the trap of assuming our physical
feelings have a causal connection with
our clientÊs Âunconscious body memoryÊ.
„I was falling into the
trap of assuming
knowledge of
another person‰
This was another crucial phase of my
research story as it highlighted the
uncomfortable realisation of how I used
psychotherapeutic discourse – I was
falling into the trap of assuming
knowledge of another person.
Without the tools to challenge such
assumptions, our discourse can be
construed as abusive and claiming
knowledge about people without
checking this information with our
clients.
9
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Page 10
I found this a very uncomfortable
aspect of my research, resulting in a
period when I seriously questioned
whether I could continue to work as a
psychotherapist, overcoming this only
by an acknowledgment of my
embedded narratives and how they
could be used in a detrimental way in
the therapy room.
I became very taken by the narrative
movement and their rejection of
discourse and experts of powerknowledge. In my work now I see that
the therapistÊs body narrative is but one
valuable tool that may be used in the
therapeutic encounter, but that this
information needs to be shared with
the client.
I started my research journey with
some clear objectives, but during the
journey discovered the body did not
need reclaiming for psychotherapy; it
was already there, itÊs just that
therapists hadnÊt written about their
embodied reactions.
„the body did not
need reclaiming for
psychotherapy; it
was already there‰
I have not been able to reconcile my
practice lives as psychotherapist and
osteopath into an integrated practice.
In fact I am more confused than ever
over the use of touch in psychotherapy
and tend to avoid physical contact in
the psychotherapy setting.
However, via in-depth research into
embodied phenomena within
psychotherapy, I have found a way of
working with the body that does not
require touch (Shaw, 2003). Therefore,
by researching a practice issue I have
discovered a way of working in practice
that has developed a practice-based
theory.
I have found my research journey
challenging and exciting, and I hope I
have contributed to psychotherapy
research. I'm glad I undertook it and
realise that, as long as I practice, I will
be a practitioner-researcher.
Robert Shaw
10
Biography
Robert Shaw trained first as an
osteopath, later as a counsellor and
psychotherapist.
He now works in private practice as an
integrative psychotherapist, supervisor and
osteopath in Derbyshire.
His PhD examined psychotherapist
embodiment. He is also a freelance
lecturer specialising in the body in
psychotherapy, and qualitative research
methods.
e-mail: [email protected]
References
Boadella, D (1997) Embodiment in the
Therapeutic Relationship: main
speech at the First Congress of the
World Congress of the World
Council of Psychotherapy,Vienna 1–5
July 1996. International Journal of
Psychotherapy, 2, 31–44
Etherington, K (2000) Narrative
Approaches to Working with Adult
Male Survivors of Child Sexual Abuse: the
ClientÊs, the CounsellorÊs and the
Researcher's Story. London: Jessica
Kingsley
Lees, J (2003) Developing therapist selfunderstanding through research,
Counselling and Psychotherapy Research,
3(2); 147–153
McLeod, J (1999) Practitioner Research in
Counselling. London: Sage
Shaw, R (1996a) Towards An
Understanding Of The Psychodynamic
Processes Of The Body, Psychodynamic
Counselling, vol 2(2); 230–246
Shaw, R (1996b) Towards Integrating
The Body Into Psychotherapy,
Changes14 (2); 108–113
Shaw, R (2003) The Embodied
Psychotherapist: the TherapistÊs Body
Story London: Brunner-Routledge
Shaw, R (2004) The Embodied
Psychotherapist: an Exploration of the
TherapistsÊ Somatic Phenomena within
the Therapeutic Encounter,
Psychotherapy Research, 14(3); 271–288
Book reviewers required
Would you like to write a book
review for The Psychotherapist?
Recently published titles available
for review include:
Passionate Supervision Shohet,
2008, Jessica Kingsley,
„Presenting examples of good
practice in supervision‰
Suicide Palmer, 2008, Routledge,
„Exploring the myths and the facts
about suicide and also the
thoughts leading to suicidal
behaviour‰
The Enigma Of Numbers Storm,
2008, Pari Publishing,
„Challenging our obsession for
organising and quantifying our
world‰
The Something And Nothing Of
Death Parfitt, 2008, PS Avalon,
„Inspiring people to face the
prospect of death with a new
spirit of inquiry and to change
one's attitudes‰
Prayer in Counselling and
Psychotherapy Madsen Gubi, 2008,
Jessica Kingsley,
„Exploring the importance and
usefullness of prayer in
counselling‰
Feeling Queer Or Queer Feelings?
Moon, 2008, Routledge,
„Presenting ideas for counsellors,
psychologists and psychotherapists
to consider in their work with
non-hetrosexual clients‰
A Child's Journey to Recovery
Tomlinson/Philpot, 2008, Jessica
Kingsley,
„Outlining how to set up a
process for measuring a child's
progress towards recovering from
traumatic experiences‰
Although not all reviews can be
published within the magazine, in
future they will all be added to the
new UKCP website, currently
under development.
Visit the UKCP website at
www.ukcp.org.uk under
Publications - Book reviews for an
up-to-date list of available books
and guidance for reviewers.
To request one of the books
available for review, contact
[email protected]
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02/07/2008
22:34
Page 11
the psychotherapist registrantsÊ contributions
Cattanach comments on the historical
antecedents of the way we understand
childhood and the kinds of stories that
have emerged at different epochs – the
ÂcoddlingÊ period when Âinnocence and
sweetnessÊ were seen as the dominant
themes and gave rise to rhymes and
stories that reflected this. Or the
moralistic period which perceived
children as fragile and in need of moral
guidance. She also reflects on cultural
impacts on stories and story telling.
Book review:
Narrative
Approaches In
Play With Children
Ann Cattanach
Jessica Kingsley
ISBN: 9781843105886
Ann Cattanach is an experienced
therapist and writer who brings depth of
knowledge and understanding to her
writing. She begins with a detailed
introduction that looks at what
constitutes narrative play and then goes
on to consider the nature of the
therapeutic relationship with children.
Subsequent chapters look at story
selections that help children with
different themes – trauma, family life,
school, coping with the adult world.
Cattanach articulates an impressive
depth and range of stories from different
epochs and cultures which are a treasure
trove for the practitioner.
The initial chapters are a rich source of
information about the purpose and
function of narrative in child
psychotherapy. On pages 24–25
Cattanach describes 7 functions of
narratives and stories in play, for example
as a pathway through which a child can
make meaning of their experiences, as
well as a means by which a child can
exercise some control over their world.
The Psychotherapist
Subsequent chapters are jam-packed
with rhymes and stories on the themes
of her chapter topics, she uses case
vignettes to highlight the themes and the
narrative material. In the chapter Making
My World: Being in a Family, Cattanach
describes helping a mother manage her
own feelings when she finds the child
overwhelming – „When a mother feels
overwhelmed by the child I show or tell
her a soothing tale which is partly
congruent with the feelings of
persecution the child can engender. It
can relieve the tension, move from the
personal to the general, and help to look
at the family situation in a reflective way.‰
(p115-116)
This book is full of useful information,
but it did also leave me wanting more
links between theory and narrative
material. I would have enjoyed much
fuller conceptual discussions that then
led into the material.
The book describes itself as providing
„⁄ a wealth of practical ideas and
information for play therapists, social
workers and other professionals working
with children, as well as parents and
carers...‰ (back cover).
I think this is an accurate and fair
description. As an experienced
psychotherapist it left me wanting a
more in-depth text that would expand
on the ideas and the material in a more
far-reaching way. I do, however, think
students of psychotherapy will probably
find it useful and interesting.
Christine Lister-Ford
Integrative Psychotherpist
UKCP Registrant
UKCP Honorary Fellow
Book review:
Psychodrama –
Advances
in Theory and
Practice
Edited by Clark Baim, Jorge
Burmeister and Manuela Maciel
Routledge, 2007
ISBN 978-0-415-41914-7
This book provides a stimulating
read for therapists who wish to
understand and integrate aspects of
psychodrama into their therapeutic
work.
It is divided into two components: Part
One focussing on new perspectives on
psychodrama theory, and Part Two
considering developments in
psychodrama practice and research.
The book has a useful appendix that
explains the themes and concepts within
MorenoÊs work, and I would suggest that
anyone who is new to this modality read
this before embarking on Part One.
Part One of the book provides an
enlightening and sometimes radical
approach to the authoritarian or expert
stance that can exist in some modalities
11
02/07/2008
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Page 12
of psychotherapy. Kipper provides an
effective and in-depth exposition on the
process of emotional change from the
perspective of psychodrama.
This is followed by an excellent chapter
by Blatner whose description of the
meta-role enables integration of the key
elements within any integrative approach.
The subsequent chapters on Role
Theory, Mirroring, Chaos Theory, The
Existential Dialectic, How Psychodrama
Works, and A Post Modern Approach,
guide the reader through a range of
complex concepts that can be used
respectfully in the therapy context.
Part Two is delightful. I was fascinated by
the clarity and purpose that is offered in
this section, where each author carefully
guides the reader through a series of
methods and models that are brought to
life through case examples.
The chapter on transgenerational
analysis was spellbinding, with
SchützenbergerÊs use of story, case
example and personal reflection
providing an optimum demonstration of
psychodrama that comes alive on the
page.
The continuing chapters on
Psychodrama in Miniature, Neuroscience,
Child Development and Psychopathology
provide a rich source of theory, case
examples and author dialogue.
Some of the chapters in this first part
include heavy theories that can be
difficult to comprehend and I found that,
by reading Part Two first, I could return
to these theories for greater
understanding.
I would recommend that any reader
who is relatively new to psychodrama
and prefers a practical exposition to
enable understanding, approach the book
from Part Two before embarking on Part
One.
Lisa Wake
Neuro-linguistic psychotherapist
UKCP Registrant,
Author of Neurolinguistic Psychotherapy: A
Postmodern Approach
12
John Casson
Brunner-Routledge
ISBN 1-58391805-1
Book review: Neurolinguistic Drama,
Psychotherapy and Psychosis:
Dramatherapy and Psychodrama with
People Who Hear Voices:
A postmodern Perspective
John Casson has pulled off the
rare feat of turning his PhD
thesis into an accessible, wellstructured and fascinating
book for the lay reader.
dramatherapy is „the specific
application of theatre structures
and drama processes with a
declared intention that it is
therapy.‰
Comparatively few therapists are
equipped or inclined to work with
people diagnosed with schizophrenia,
those who experience psychosis or
who hear voices, while probably even
fewer UK practitioners are trained in
psychodrama or dramatherapy.
However, this fascinating volume
deserves the widest readership.
Inevitably there is an overlap
between the two therapies, but in
psychodrama practitioners are
more likely to work directly with a
personÊs difficulties, as in Gestalt
empty chair technique, whereas
dramatherapists use stories,
metaphors and objects to provide
peple with a safe distance from
material that could be too
threatening to be addressed
directly.
Casson quotes Jacob Levy Moreno
– the creator of modern
psychodrama – that it is „the
science which explores the ÂtruthÊ
by dramatic methods. It deals with
interpersonal relations and private
worlds.‰ As defined by Sue
Jennings, a leading exponent,
In this sense it is probably more
akin to art and play therapy. Both
approaches, therefore, offer
excellent opportunities for holistic,
creative and reparative work.
www.ukcp.org.uk
02/07/2008
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Page 13
Chapters 1 and 2 provide a
historical and personal perspective
to Âhearing voicesÊ and their
possible function; to give voice to
ÂunspeakableÊ disempowering
experiences, such as childhood
abuse, and how, nonetheless,
people can, literally, dramatically
regain control of their lives.
These ideas are further explored in
chapters 3 and 4, which include a
useful examination of the models
of ÂmadnessÊ and healing through
the dramatic repertoire, and in
Chapter 7, case studies illustrate
how this might be achieved in a
non-threatening and empowering
manner with even the most
vulnerable clients.
Several other chapters comprise
in-depth explorations of individual
and group work which include
illuminating pieces of dialogue
between the author and his clients.
The last two chapters explain what
clients find helpful and the
constituents of good practice.
Even if therapists arenÊt
encouraged, as Casson hopes, to
utilise psychodrama and
dramatherapy in their practice,
they will almost certainly find his
book a valuable and inspiring
resource.
Rosalind Hewitt
Psychosexual Therapist
UKCP Registrant
Profiles of influential
psychotherapists
The Psychotherapis t hopes to
run more profiles of eminent
and influential psychotherapists
and their work. Both figures
from the past and those
working today are important.
Suggestions of individuals for
profiling are welcomed, please
send these, and/or offers to
assist in the preparation of
profiles, to Jude Cohen-Phillips,
Managing Editor,
[email protected]
The Psychotherapist
Michael White
Innovative psychotherapist. Born December 29th 1948. Died 4th April 2008
Michael White, one of the most
distinguished and innovative
psychotherapists of his generation, has
died aged 59 having suffered a cardiac
arrest. Co-originator of what has become
known as ÂNarrative TherapyÊ, alongside
his colleague David Epston, Michael had a
quiet and unassuming way about him, a
dry wit and a knack for putting people,
particularly children, at their ease.
I first came across him in his home-town
of Adelaide, South Australia, where he
was putting up signs for a conference at
which he was ÂkeynoteÊ speaker.
„IÊve come all the way from the UK‰ I
volunteered, „to hear what Michael White
has to say‰Ê.
„Lets hope he turns up then.‰ He replied,
explaining that this mattered much less
to him, since he only lived around the
corner.
Later, after hearing the keynote address, I
felt a hand on my shoulder,
„Well, thank God I didnÊt have to travel
too far to hear that lot.‰ he said, grinning
broadly.
Michael lived and worked in Adelaide all
his life. Both he and his work have
become substantially significant in the
fields of counselling, psychotherapy and, in
particular, family therapy and community
work. MichaelÊs workshop tours across
the world and the later international
narrative therapy conferences organised
by the Dulwich Centre attracted
hundreds of participants. He was a
compelling speaker with an irreverent
sense of humour who was able to get
complex ideas across to large groups of
people who were quite unfamiliar with
them.
On the advice of a careers teacher, when
he left school he worked in a
draughtsmanÊs office, which he hated. He
regularly joked that that was the last time
he ever took professional advice about
his career. He later entered the
University of South Australia to study
social work, going on to become a family
therapist. He met his future wife, Cheryl
whilst they were both still students.They
later had one daughter, Penny.
Even during his initial training as a social
worker Michael found himself questioning
the wisdom and relevance of many
established therapeutic practices, which
seemed to him often to provide
opportunities for people in difficulty to
experience a sense of further failure in
their lives. He set about thinking outside
13
02/07/2008
22:34
Page 14
the Âpsychological boxÊ, that had it
seemed to him, largely ignored both the
context and cultural discourses that
human interactions both constituted and
were constituted by.
This explicitly Âoutside the boxÊ attitude
did not always endear him to the
established authorities within family
therapy or counselling in Australia but,
undaunted, Michael and Cheryl White set
up and co-directed the Dulwich Centre
in Adelaide for 25 years, from 1983-2008.
Here Michael practised family therapy
and developed his ideas, whilst Cheryl
developed Dulwich Centre Publications,
which became a resource for
disseminating narrative therapy literature,
and host to a variety of international and
local conferences, gatherings and projects.
Reading eclectically, Michael brought
together the diverse work of thinkers
such as the French poststructuralist
Michel Foucault, the North American
anthropologist Barbara Myerhoff and the
Russian psychologist Lev Vygotsky, as he
developed his ideas about therapeutic
practice. Together with other family
therapists particularly his friend and
colleague David Epston from New
Zealand, Michael began to develop what
was first described as Âlinking lives
therapyÊ, a relational and social way of
working that later came to be known as
„Narrative TherapyÊ.
Michael White proposed that people
perceive and communicate their lives and
relationships, including their problems, as
continuing Âstories.Ê Through selective
memory many significant details are
forgotten or seen as irrelevant. Narrative
therapists encourage the recall and
exploration of the ÂmissingÊ significant
details, assisting people to develop novel
and more nuanced understandings of the
events of their lives, to redefine their
sense of who they were, and to envisage
a broader range of possible futures for
themselves. Michael himself never ceased
to be fascinated by all forms of inquiry
that helped people to become reengaged with neglected aspects of their
lives and identities; a process which he
often described, after Bourdieu, as the
ÂexoticisingÊ of peopleÊs lives.
14
Throughout the 1980s Michael and David
Epston published prolifically, which
created widespread interest in their
developing thinking and practice. This led
to Norton publishing the influential
Narrative Means To Therapeutic Ends in
1990, which was to be translated into
many languages and established their
worldwide influence well beyond the
horizons of family therapy, across the
helping professions.
Between 1990 and the recent publication
of his second book for Norton Maps of
Narrative Practice, Michael published a
prolific series of essays, articles and
books, mainly through Dulwich Centre
Publications, clarifying and expanding on
his ideas, including: Narratives of
Therapists Lives, Reflections on Narrative
Practice and Narrative Practice and
Exotic Lives: Resurrecting Diversity in
Everyday Life.
His work has become synonymous with
ideas of ÂexternalisingÊ problems and with
the phrase Âthe person is not the
problem-the problem is the problemÊ,
now a ubiquitous catch-phrase amongst a
range of therapeutic approaches, but his
contribution to therapeutic innovation
has been far more extensive. Notions of
the Âabsent but implicitÊ - traces of
alternative stories contained within the
Âproblem saturatedÊ accounts that people
told and ways of helping people discover
and identify the points of entry to those
stories- were amongst the many ideas he
was wanting to write about more
extensively, just before he died.
He had a profound sense of social justice
and regularly used the proceeds from
workshops in more affluent parts of the
world to fund projects in less privileged
areas, such as Ramallah and Rwanda, as
well as engaging with many community
projects with the indigenous peoples of
Australia, towards whom he felt a
passionate responsibility and debt. He had
recently been delighted both that John
Howard had been finally ousted as Prime
Minister of Australia and that Kevin Rudd
had formally apologised to the aboriginal
Âstolen generationsÊ in February this year.
During the last 20 years of his life Michael
established a working pattern of spending
one third of the year travelling abroad,
delivering workshops and training
intensives, and the other two thirds of
the year back home in Australia, writing
and continuing with his work.
He was a man of great energy who loved
the Australian way of life. He had a pilotÊs
licence and regularly flew Piper and
Cessna small planes. He had also
acquired something of a reputation for
recklessness (which he rather enjoyed
and did nothing to dispel), whether on
mountain bikes, in small planes, in fast
cars or even go-karts.
Michael and his wife, Cheryl, separated in
2007. At the beginning of 2008, Michael
left the Dulwich Centre and set up a new
initiative, the Adelaide Narrative Therapy
Centre, with characteristic vivacity and
enthusiasm.
Just before he died so unexpectedly, he
was discussing his new interest in the
work of the philosopher Deleuze and its
implications and applications for therapy.
Who knows where this Âline of flightÊ
might have taken, indeed, might yet take
our therapeutic endeavours?
Michael WhiteÊs work and life was
suffused both with immense seriousness
of purpose and a mischievous and
infectious sense of humour.
He is survived by his own close-knit
family in Adelaide, including his daughter
Penni and his mother, Joan, his partner
Sarah, and a worldwide network of
therapy and community work
practitioners. He will be sorely missed.
Michael White. Innovative
psychotherapist. Born December
29th 1948. Died 4th April 2008
Jane Speedy and Martin Payne
Biography
Jane Speedy is Reader in Narrative and
Collaborative Inquiry at the University of
Bristol and author of Narrative Inquiry and
Psychotherapy, Palgrave/Macmillan, 2008
Martin Payne is an independent
counsellor and author of Narrative
Therapy: an introduction for counsellors,
Sage publications, 2006.
www.ukcp.org.uk
02/07/2008
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Page 15
Dear Colleagues
Dear Readers
I am writing to ask for your help to
support an exciting project I am
developing here in Devon.
I was slightly surprised when, following
the last issue of The Psychotherapist, I
received three letters of complaint
regarding the use of American spelling,
in particular in the feature articles on
Making Research useful for the
practicing (sic) psychotherapist.
Early next year I will be opening a
counselling training centre to offer
learners the chance to study, at
Diploma level, in Bideford. This level of
training is not offered by Devon Adult
and Community Learning, so most
learners who wish to develop basic
counselling skills are required to travel
miles to access similar training. Many
students have limited financial support
so my aim is to reduce the cost, using
all my creative ideas to ensure the
course is affordable.
My request is that you donate to the
training centre one book, to help
establish a library of diverse reading
for learners to access. Please pick a
book you found significant for you as a
therapist/ counsellor, and write inside
it your name (if you wish), and why it
was useful, inspiring, or irritating to
you, or include a short synopsis to
explain why you chose it.
Please do not feel you have to buy a
new copy – old and tatty loved ones
are just as useful, especially when they
have your own scribbles in the
margins. If it is easier for you I am
happy to receive a book voucher and
a sticky label with your words and will
add them in once the book of your
choice, ordered locally, has arrived.
In the Summer 2007 edition a large
advert asked for contributions to this
issue, using this spelling. There have
also been numerous other instances of
American spelling in earlier editions,
including practice used as a noun, and
the use of z instead of s, e.g.
organization.
Perhaps it was the use of the offending
word on the cover, or the fact that the
contributors all followed the lead set
by the Guest Editor, or perhaps (ever
the optimist) that The Psychotherapist
is becoming more interesting and is
being more carefully read.
Whatever the reason, in the past
there was no policy on whether to
allow American spelling or not, it was
left to the individual authors. In light of
the letters of complaint, however, the
Editorial Board has decided it should
have a policy on this.
It has, therefore, been decided that
UKCP policy should be to allow
American spelling in The
Psychotherapist only where it is occurs
in a direct quotation or book title.
I think it will be inspiring to see the
diversity offered by contributions and
for these learners to share the views
and reading material of other
therapists, when they are just starting
out on their own learning road.
Readers are welcome to comment on
other issues relating to The
Psychotherapist: content, suggestions for
future themes or articles, layout.
Thank you all for your consideration.
Jude Cohen-Phillips
Managing Editor
Yours sincerely
Constructivism
revisited
The Psychotherapist has received a
number of complaints and comments
that the last issue, which contained a
series of feature articles on
Constructivism, was misleading, giving
a very narrow representation of the
modality.
In fairness to the Guest Editor, Martin
Weaver, one of the critics did say that
when he was allocated the issue two
years ago he did ask a number of
others from the Section if they would
like to contribute an article, and they
had not done so.
One of the letters received has been
reprinted overleaf, as it offers a
detailed critique.
In an attempt to achieve balance,
however, The Psychotherapist is
offering space for further articles and
dialogue on the subject, in the next
issue.
If you would like to comment or put
an alternative point of view regarding
constructivism, please let the
Managing Editor know by 14th July, so
that space can be reserved and, if
appropriate, potential contributors
put in touch with each other to avoid
duplication.
In order to give Martin Weaver the
opportunity to comment on the
contributions, we will be setting an
earlier deadline than is usual. The
deadline for the receipt of these
articles will, therefore, be 28th July.
Please contact Jude Cohen-Phillips,
Managing Editor, if you would like to
contribute an article:
[email protected]
Best wishes,
Sally Openshaw
Northdown House,
Northdown Road,
Bideford EX39 3LT
The Psychotherapist
Letters to the Editor
are welcomed, and
should be sent to:
[email protected]
Guidelines for contributors
can be found on the UKCP website
under Publications:
www.ukcp.org.uk
15
02/07/2008
22:34
Page 16
Doing the dirt on
Constructivism
The Spring issue of The
Psychotherapist has boldly printed
across the front page the word
ÂConstructivismÊ. But when we look
inside, we find articles by people who
wouldnÊt know constructivism if it
came up and bit them in the street.
Martin Weaver starts off quite
promisingly by saying: „Our
understanding and ordering of the world
is deeply connected to our experience of
it. In fact, we do not experience the
world, we simply experience‰.
The use of the word ÂitÊ suggests a
separation between the observer and the
world when no such separation can exist.
Our experience is the world. This
admirably sets off constructivism from all
those approaches that would reify bits of
our experience and set them up as fixed
entities out there in the world. For
example, Âthe unconsciousÊ is often just
such a reification of a feature of our
experience, namely that we sometimes
find ourselves at odds with ourselves, and
need to explore how this split takes
place, and how to cure it. No
constructivist would take Âthe
unconsciousÊ for granted in this way.
It is notable that George Kelly, who is
rated by constructivists as one of their
own, had no use for such a notion. And
in fact the authors in this issue do not
refer to constructivists in backing up
their assertions – they quote instead the
great exemplars Milton Erickson, Fritz
Perls and Virginia Satir, none of whom
were constructivists.
They also refer to Massey, who is quoted
by Lisa Wake as saying: „Between birth
and seven years of age, a child absorbs the
world around themselves like a sponge
with these events shaping their
personality.‰ Not a single researcher
known to me has found anything like this,
and when I came to check on the identity
of Morris Massey I found that he is mainly
known for his production of motivational
16
video tapes used to inspire managers.
Not exactly a constructivist, then.
It is perhaps worth pointing out that
many constructivists prefer to label
themselves as constructionists, and this
label has in recent years been more used
by people in the field. Let us just look at
some of the arguments to be found here.
The varieties of Social
Constructionism
The basic case of social constructionism,
as described for example by Kenneth
Gergen (1985), is that knowledge,
scientific or otherwise, is not obtained by
objective means but is constructed
through social discourse.
Hence the study of dialogue and
discourse and text become extremely
important. No single point of view is
more valid than another, because all
points of view are embedded in a social
context which give them meaning. „Such
a view does not obliterate empirical
science; it simply removes its privilege of
claiming truth beyond community‰
(Gergen 1997). However, within this
general outlook there are a number of
important differences.
The first step seems to be to outline the
various approaches within this field, and to
see what they are actually saying, and
whether they are all saying the same thing.
Scott Greer (1997) suggests that we should
distinguish between constructionists and
constructivists. The constructionists (like
Kenneth Gergen and John Shotter)
advocate a more anti-realist and antifoundationalist position, while the
constructivists (like Rom Harre, James Averill
and Donald Polkinghorne) believe that while
knowledge is to a large extent a social
artefact, there is still a ÂrealityÊ beneath,
behind and between our discourse about it.
Greer makes the point that Nietzsche was
one of the first people to take up a social
constructionist point of view:
„That the value of the world lies in our
interpretation ⁄ that every elevation of
man brings with it the overcoming of
narrower interpretations; that every
strengthening and increase of power
opens up new perspectives and means
believing in new horizons – this idea
permeates my writings. The world with
which we are concerned is false, ie, it is
not fact but fable and approximation on
the basis of a meagre sum of
observations; it is Âin fluxÊ, as something
in a state of becoming, as a falsehood
always changing but never getting near
the truth: for – there is no ÂtruthÊ.
„(Nietzsche 1967/1901, sec 616) This is a
radical and starkly stated position, which
is strikingly similar to the current issues
within the social constructionist critique.
Kurt Danziger (1997), on the other hand,
makes a distinction between light
constructionism and dark
constructionism. Light constructionism
says that „among those points of view
which do not claim a monopoly on the
path to the truth, which do not prejudge
the nature of reality, tolerance must be
the order of the day. A thousand flowers
may bloom, provided none of them is of
a type that threatens to take over the
entire field if left unchecked.‰ (p.410)
Dark constructionism (often referring to
Foucault) says that discourse is
embedded in relations of power. Talk and
text are inseparable from manifestations
of power. While light constructionists
such as John Shotter emphasise the
ongoing construction of meaning in
present dialogue, dark constructionists
emphasise the dependence of current
patterns of interaction on rigid power
structures established in the past and
protected from change by countless
institutionalised practices and textual
conventions.
Art Warmoth (1997) says „The fact that
power relations are an aspect of
communication (social discourse) should
not surprise humanistic psychologists,
especially those familiar with Gregory
BatesonÊs work. But we should be alert
to tendencies to stereotype or rigidify
categories such as class and gender
structures.‰ There is a delicate line to
tread here, because the humanistic
approach is like the constructionist
approach in having a liberatory tendency:
in this respect we are on the same side,
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02/07/2008
22:34
Page 17
so to speak, in relation to the forces of
mechanistic thinking. And the feminist
critique of gender certainties is part of
this effort for both parties.
Cor Baerveldt & Paul Voestermans
(1996) make a distinction betweeen weak
social constructionism, which says that
there can be such a thing as natural
emotional responses (although they can
only become connected with a sense of
self within the context of a cultural
system of beliefs and values), and strong
social constructionism, which denies the
relevance of physiological processes
altogether. „From this perspective, the
states and functions of the body become
a cluster of cultural instead of natural,
that is, biological constructions.‰ (p.695)
This is not positing physiology and
culture as polar opposites, it is merely
saying that physiology is not to be taken
for granted as foundational.
Perhaps the most radical form of social
constructionism is that put forward by
Paul Stenner & Christopher Eccleston
(1994), when they say that the more the
distinction between the real and the
discursive is examined, the more it
becomes obvious that it is precisely the
meaning something has for people and
what it matters to anyone (both
discursive questions) that constitute its
reality. So their approach, which they call
Textuality, sees the usual objects of
psychological inquiry as so many texts
which we read and discuss, as opposed to
fixed entities or essences which we strive
to know.
Another way of putting this is that
Textuality „serves to worry or trouble
the commonly held dichotomy between
subject and object, or knower and
known. For us, neither subject nor
object is accorded the status of already
existing fact or pre-given essence. Rather,
both are viewed as socially constructed;
as continually (re)produced in discursive
(and other) practices in the course of
social activities‰ (p.89).
This enables them to question in a radical
way the importance and even the
existence of such things as attitudes,
emotions, memory, personality, prejudice
and thought. „It is a deconstructive
The Psychotherapist
strategy which serves to dissolve the very
ÂthingnessÊ of the entity by drawing
attention to the discursive work
necessary to constitute and uphold the
impression of ÂthinghoodÊ‰ (p.94). This
vision of contexts within contexts within
contexts is a difficult one to get hold of,
and these authors are careful to
distinguish themselves from various
misdescriptions and misunderstandings
which have been imput to such a position.
It does seem clear, however, that they are
strong and dark constructionists in the
senses described earlier.
We encourage a social constructionism
whereby people are viewed as readers
and writers (written upon and read)
within the Textuality of culture. People
(and this includes people who are
psychologists or social scientists) actively
construct (and are actively constructed
by) versions of the Âway things areÊ,
versions which are always-already
enmeshed with the moral, political and
ideological concerns of Being (p.96).
So in the end they settle not for a critical
realism, but for a critical polytextualism.
There is of course a danger in all this of
paying insufficient attention to the ground
on which the social constructionists
themselves are standing. And in recent
times they have started to question this
themselves. A rather long quote from
Kenneth Gergen, one of the classic
pioneers of this approach, makes the
point well:
„While constructionist critiques may
often appear nihilistic, there is no means
by which they themselves can be
grounded or legitimated. They too fall
victim to their own modes of critique;
their accounts are inevitably freighted
with ethical and ideological implications,
forged within the conventions of writing,
designed for rhetorical advantage, and
their Âobjects of criticismÊ constructed in
and for a particular community. The
objects of their criticism are no less
constructed than the traditional objects
of research, not do their moral claims
rest on transcendental foundations.‰
(Gergen 1997, p.739)
This seems an appropriately humble
statement, and it shows us how the social
constructionists are capable of taking
their own medicine. This is the kind of
reflexivity which humanistic writers have
often championed.
The truth, as Hegel used to say, is the
whole. It is only when we can say
everything at once that we can say „This
is the truth!‰ But since we cannot say
everything at once, we must agree with
the constructivists and the discourse
analysts and the Lacanians and so forth
that we have no basis, no foundation.
Neuro-linguistic
programming
With this much understood, let us come
back to the writers in this issue, most of
whom say they hold to the doctrine of
NLP. It is not possible to maintain, it seems
to me, that NLP is based on, or even much
beholden to, constructivism. It is based on
Milton Erickson and the others already
mentioned. One authority often quoted in
Lisa WakeÊs book (very favourably reviewed
in the same issue), is Bill OÊHanlon, who
closely follows Erickson, but is otherwise
little known (he wrote a book on
spirituality which is quite the worst book
on spirituality I have come across).
Now I am not saying that NLP is not a
good source for psychotherapy; I am
sure that it stands up quite well in this
regard. All I am trying to say is that it is
not based on constructivism, still less is it
based on postmodernism, which forms
the misleading subtitle of Lisa WakeÊs
book. This book is not a work of
constructivism: it is a work of bricolage.
NLP is based on the work of John
Grinder and Richard Bandler, two
remarkable characters who unfortunately
fell out somewhere along the way, sued
each other, and are no longer together.
John Grinder is now busy selling New
Code NLP, while Richard Bandler is
plugging Design Human Engineeringtm and
Neuro-Hypnotic Repatterningtm. Neither of
these would describe themselves, nor be
described by others, as constructivists.
I just wanted to set the record straight.
John Rowan
UKCP Registrant
17
02/07/2008
22:34
Page 18
the psychotherapist ukcp news
UKCP Honorary
Fellows
In 2006 UKCP introduced the position
of Honorary Fellow, to be awarded to
individuals who have made a
distinguished contribution to the
profession of psychotherapy.
An award of Fellowship indicates the
esteem and respect in which UKCP
hold the recipient, for their contribution
to the profession in several of the
following ways:
contributions to the education and
training of psychotherapists
the raising of awareness of the
profession within other professional
groupings or within other national or
international organisations
At the 2008 AGM the following were
awarded Honorary Fellowship of UKCP
(see pictures):
Lesley Murdin
Maura Sills
Heward Wilkinson
The last issue of The Psychotherapist
included profiles of Christine ListerFord and Lesley Murdin.
Profiles of Maura Sills and Heward
Wilkinson follow.
contributions to academic excellence
through research, publication or the
holding of an academic post in
relation to psychotherapy
clinical excellence through
commitment to continuous
professional development and the
maintenance of high standards of
practice
active contributions to UKCP
committee work of at least four
years.
Maura Sills
Heward Wilkinson
18
Lesley Murdin
www.ukcp.org.uk
02/07/2008
22:34
Page 19
Maura Sills
UKCP Honorary
Fellow
„The malaise and sense
of disconnection
many of us are
experiencing in
relationship to each
other, to the planet
and to our children,
must be acknowledged
in psychotherapy.
Psychotherapy can no
longer be seen as an
individualÊs journey. The
nature of inter-being must
be understood by the
psychotherapist.‰
Why Psychotherapy?
I first qualified as an Occupational
Therapist in 1971.
After qualification, I specialized in applied
psychiatry, group dynamics and work in
acute psychiatry, and in the needs of
addiction.
I eventually became District Head
Occupational Therapist at the Middlesex
Hospital, London and went on to teach
applied psychiatry, psychology and group
dynamics.
I was a child of the 60s and 70s and
explored much of what that time had to
offer in London. I was drawn to many
things, mostly out of a real need to
discover the roots of my own suffering,
and from that, to help others.
Two major influences were Chan
Buddhism and Neo-Reichian Analysis. My
evolution as a psychotherapist seemed
more outcome than formulation.
The Psychotherapist
Who has been the most influential
figure in your professional life?
What a wonderful question as it suggests
a division between Professional life and
some other kind of life. I have thought
long and hard about this and just have to
include several people.
The first my primary school teacher, Miss
MacDonald, who believed in me, seeing
beyond the potential limitations of my
familial life. A Polish lawyer called Roman
Wiatr who fled his country and
profession as a lawyer during the war
and worked for my father. He saw a
latent intelligence that needed directing
towards books and reading. Dick Price,
the founder of the Esalen Institute, who
showed there need not be a division
between the spiritual and psychological.
It was also my greatest good fortune to
have found a spiritual teacher and
mentor, the Ven. TaungpuluKaba Aye
Sayadaw from the Burmese Forest
Tradition.
Perhaps the most ongoing influence in
my development personally and
professionally is my partner Franklyn
Sills. His wisdom and clarity of
perception have often allowed me to reorient to what is centrally important.
On reflection, the greatest influence for
me has always been linked to being
recognized in my truest places by others,
and invited to be my truest person.
Looking back, what were your most
memorable moments?
The birth of my first daughter, looking
into the eyes of my second daughter,
bowing to my teacher, Sayadaw, when I
first experienced his extraordinary
presence.
Basically, moments of absolute presence
and relationship where non-separateness
becomes the norm and deep stillness the
response.
What would you do differently if
you were starting out again?
Such a difficult question. Things seem to
unfold in their own unique way! I guess I
would have liked to orient to goodness,
kindness, beauty and stillness more.
What is the thing youÊre most
proud of?
Being a mother, and co-founding the first
non-religious Buddhist-informed
Psychotherapy Training.
Have you any ambitions or plans
for the future?
I hope that the work of the Karuna
Institute continues to evolve and be of
benefit.
Within this, to practice letting go and to
find more time to fulfill my need for
silence, beauty and spiritual practice.
But who knows? Open to being
surprised!
Have you any advice for newly
qualified registrants?
Be patient, enjoy small moments of
connection, be your deeper nature,
honour all experience and all diversity,
know you can only know a little and
deepen into the wisdom of the heart
mind.
DonÊt take it all too seriously, but do the
best you can when you can. Most of all,
realize that you cannot and need not
know everything, and that true healing
really takes us into the mystery of
human life.
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„Our ability to abide in
silence, confusion, fear and
uncertainty must be viewed
not as problems but as
doorways into mutuality,
wisdom and health‰
What are your hopes for the
profession?
Here is where I experience the most
ambivalence as the profession finds itself
in an extreme place of transition. It
seems the choices have diminished.
All the heartfelt work over the years
since the Rugby Conference to hold,
respect and embrace difference gets
challenged as we head towards a
Statutory Register. The lowest common
marketable denominator seems to be
the orientation. The reductionist view of
the ÂscientificÊ as a paradigm for
psychotherapy, linked to cost
effectiveness and outcomes seems such a
tragedy.
The creativity of the human endeavor
within fields of relationship, valuing the
mysterious, unknowable, numinous,
and the intention to deepen aspects of
our consciousness, finds less and less
ground.
Heward
Wilkinson
UKCP
Honorary
Fellow
„The structure of
psychotherapeutic
process is substantially
an analogue of poetic.
Poetic process is
substantially an analogue
of psychotherapeutic.
Both, for their full
articulation, lead into
an ontology of
human existence.‰
The art of psychotherapy, not its
science, needs a renaissance.
Background
Qualified as an Occupational Therapist
and worked in psychiatry in the NHS
for nine years.
First training:
Trained in a variety of humanistic
psychotherapy approaches, including
her own analyses in Reichian and NeoReichian forms.
Modality:
Humanistic and Integrative
Psychotherapy
Self description:
Core Process Psychotherapist
Current MO:
Karuna Institute
20
Current practice:
Director of Karuna Institute
Committee work:
Delegate to HIPS and UKCP
Contribution to education and
training of psychotherapist:
Created and developed curricula for
the Core Process Psychotherapy MA
and Post-Qualification MA in Buddhist
Psychotherapy Practice trainings
Speaker at numerous conferences and
numerous articles published in
professional journals
Author of Working with Embodied
Mind and Interbeing in Psychotherapy
in About a Body (ed) J. Corrigal and H.
Wilkinson (2006) Routledge
Why Psychotherapy?
The short answer is – to protect my
own sanity. Reading the writings of
Shakespeare, Jung, Freud and many
others helped me see that others also
faced that struggle. I think it is only if
you have experienced something that
you can truly understand what others
are going through.
As a child I was always curious about
people and what made them do what
they did.
Following a degree in English and
Theology, I took an MA in Religious
Studies. Then I worked for a number of
years as a mental health nurse and as a
nurse tutor.
Eventually I took an MSc in
Psychotherapy at Leeds University: I
have a special interest in the interface
between religion, philosophy, the arts,
and psychotherapy.
Who has been the most influential
figure in your professional life?
John Wisdom, a Cambridge philosopher.
He exemplified the art of creative
elusiveness, how truth is endlessly
discovered and he turned philosophy
into poetry, laughter, play.
„Most important, that literature and art
are part of the person.‰
Looking back, what have been
your defining moments?
Being disenfranchised by the
Psychoanalytic community in Yorkshire
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02/07/2008
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– on the grounds I was too ÂintegrativeÊ
– forced me to dig deep to discover my
own path and way of being, uniting
psychoanalytic and humanisticexistential principles. In the process, I
rediscovered in psychotherapy, found
my way back to, my roots in literature
and philosophy.
What would you do differently if
you were starting out again?
Nothing. That is not to say I have not
made mistakes and done wrong things I
deeply regret. But fundamentally I
accept the person I am, and do not
think I could have done any basic thing
in my life differently.
Have you any advice for newly
qualified registrants?
Learn from your teacher, but retain
your own beliefs and identity.
DonÊt become a clone of your teacher.
Whenever thereÊs a conflict, go with
your intuition.
years with UKCP: to see statutory
regulation introduced on an equal
basis for all psychotherapies.
Whenever thereÊs a conflict, you may
have something to learn from their view
and may have to acknowledge it, but
donÊt just dismiss your own intuitive
position.
To earn a certain amount of real
money!
Doubt is more important than belief
when learning psychotherapy.
Have you any personal
ambitions for the future?
Three:
To write a book a year for the next
15 years.
To complete the goal IÊve invested so
much energy in achieving over the
What are your hopes for the
profession?
That we continue to follow the power
of thoughts, of intuitions, of imagination
and feeling.
„I like people, by and large,
and some of them I love ⁄
I love also the natural
world, particularly
butterflies, the sea
and moors and
mountains – as well as
music and soccer.‰
Brief summary of professional history:
First training:
Psychoanalytic: Leeds University Master of Psychotherapy
Modality:
Humanistic and Integrative Psychotherapy
Self description:
Integrative Psychotherapist
Current MO:
Scarborough Psychotherapy Training Institute,
Current practice:
Full Teaching Member of Scarborough Psychotherapy Training Institute and in
private practice
Committee work:
Delegate to Rugby Conference/United Kingdom Standing Conference
for Psychotherapy 1987–1993
Delegate to UKCP 1996–present
Ordinary Member of UKCP Governing Board 2000–2002 and 2005 - 2008
Hon Sec HIPS, 1997–2000
Chair HIPS, 2002–2005 and from May 2008.
Contribution to the education and training of psychotherapists:
Co-Director, Scarborough Psychotherapy Training Institute, 1991–1998
Associate Teaching Member, Sherwood Psychotherapy Training Institute,
1994–2003
Senior Editor, International Journal of Psychotherapy (IJP), Journal of the
European Association for Psychotherapy, 1994–2004
Co-Chair, UKCP Professional Conference Committee, 2000–2002 and Chair,
UKCP Professional Conference Committee, 2002–2006
Co-Editor of Revolutionary Connections and About a Body
Author of The Muse as Therapist: A New Poetic Paradigm for Psychotherapy
(Karnac, in press)
http://hewardwilkinson.co.uk
The Psychotherapist
UKCP
Honorary Fellows
The following list
comprises the current
UKCP Honorary Fellows
Lesley Murdin
Michael Pokorny
John Rowan
Andrew Samuels
Phillipa Seligman
Trisha Scott
Maura Sills
Digby Tantum
Emmy van Deurzen
Heward Wilkinson
21
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Chair’s Report
James Antrican
Dear Registrant,
For the past several years the main
work of the UKCP has focused on the
statutory regulation of psychotherapy
and counselling. This work has been
and is important as we need to ensure
we have the freedom and regulatory
conditions to be able to do our work
in an effective manner.
It is too easy to devote all of our
efforts on issues of regulation, and
forget that we are individuals and
groups concerned about the day to day
issues of the world in which we live.
The movement toward statutory
regulation requires our involvement,
but we must look forward to the
opportunities presented by the
transition of the UKCP from a
voluntary regulator to a professional
organisation.
The approval of the delegates at the
UKCP AGM in Buxton showed the
unity between different ways of
working that we need to make the
transition to the professional
organisation. These changes include:
focusing on issues around the
regulation of psychotherapy and
psychotherapeutic counselling, not
modality interest, and moving toward
individual registrant involvement and
empowerment in all levels of the
UKCP.
Many people outside, (or inside), the
UKCP have found it difficult to
understand our emphasis on modalities
such as Psychoanalytic, HIPS, HypnoPsychotherapy, Constructivist, CBP,
22
Family Systemic, etc. These differences
are very important to us as
professionals and the way we organise
ourselves and make our philosophy of
practice visible. To the average person
they have little or no meaning. One of
the strengths of the UKCP is that we
hold the diversity of ways of practicing
under the umbrella of psychotherapy
and psychotherapeutic counselling. The
decision to have our public facing focus
on collective values and standards will
increase our unified response to
regulation and other government
initiatives. Our clear mandate is to
make sure that all those who qualify to
be a UKCP Registrant have equal
opportunities to career development
and work in the NHS and the private
sector. We are working to ensure that
we have a voice in the political
landscape for psychotherapy and
psychotherapeutic counselling.
Having a voice is one of the aspirations
that most psychotherapists have for
their clientÊs or patientÊs. The UKCP in
its history has not been able, until now,
to say the same for its registrants
having a direct voice. We have had a
situation where Registrants are the
major source of income for the UKCP
but could only express themselves
through being a member of a member
organisation, (MO) whose delegate
spoke on behalf of the MO at General
Meetings, and at the Section level. The
sections are represented on the Board
of Trustees. Each of these levels has a
specific interest to focus on.
We have come to a point in our
development where we must change
our structures for individuals to have a
voice alongside the other members of
UKCP. Our structure was formulated
around training organisations that had
the foresight to see the way to
professional recognition and put
structures in place that focused our
diversity in philosophy and
commonality in values. We are strong
enough to enlarge that diversity
through encompassing more
philosophies, have less hierocracy, and
to engage in real world issues of
interest to psychotherapist and the
public.
As we move forward we as
psychotherapists have to realise that
we do not practice in isolation.
Although our work frequently takes
place as a dyad we are always in the
room as part of several systems that
impact the work. One of those
systems is the political system that
constrains and enables who we can be
relative to our community. Too often
we have been avoidant of politics and
how we express our political views in
or out of the consulting room. We
need to explore the reasons for this.
On his website Andrew Samuels states:
„The strengths of psychotherapy when
it comes to political critique are
obvious: ÂtherapyÊ thinking, is reflective,
long-term, bringing together psyche,
body and the social realm, devoted to
deep understanding, compassionate.
Some of the weaknesses of
psychotherapy are also obvious: love of
power and being wedded to conformity,
ignoring of issues affecting difference,
whether sexual, ethnic or socioeconomic.‰ He ends his article with
two quotes. The first one is well known
and from Margaret Mead: „Never
doubt that a small group of committed
citizens can change the world. In fact, itÊs
the only thing that ever has.‰ Finally,
something from the Book of Proverbs:
„If thine enemy be hungry, give him
bread to eat. And if he be thirsty give
him water to drink. Say not, I will do to
him as he hath done to me.‰
I would like to invite you to write to
me with ideas that you have about
psychotherapy and politics. What are
the political issues that psychotherapists
see influencing their practice. What are
the messages you want to get into the
world that reflect who we are? Please
write to me at the UKCP offices or email me at [email protected].
James Gray Antrican
Chair
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Interview with James Gray
Antrican on regulation
1. Why has UKCP campaigned for
state regulation when we have done
such a good job of self regulating for
the last 15 years?
UKCP has always advocated statutory
regulation as a mechanism to protect the
publicÊs interest and to give
psychotherapy professional recognition
and responsibility, as well as to unite the
profession. The professions of
Counselling and Psychotherapy have
between 45,000–50,000 individuals who
are members of the 34 main professional
bodies. The numbers of those who are
designated psychotherapists are
estimated to be 16,000–18,000.
UKCP is not the only professional body
representing psychotherapy, and we must
be aware of other forces for regulation.
Although we are a significant proportion
of that number, we will not be the only
organization that claims to represent
psychotherapy, its competencies and
standards. When I first became involved
with the political work of UKCP, we
believed that there was a difference in
state regulation and statutory regulation
and that there was a possibility of us
being part of a regulatory group with the
Government taking a Âlight-touchÊ to
regulation rather than being the regulator.
That was the understanding at UKCP
AGM and EGM 2004, where changes
were made that gave the Standards
Board, Registration Board and Central
Complaints Process independence that
mimicked the Health Professions Council
(HPC) structure.
UKCP AGM of 2005 saw a vote on the
structure of UKCP, including Colleges
(Member Institutions as they were called
then), to fit with the government model
of regulation. This prompted UKCP to
propose a regulatory body as part of the
CHRE, (Council for Health Regulatory
Excellence – the Government body with
oversight of the GMC, HPC, etc.), which
The Psychotherapist
could be brought together with the
BACP, BABCP, BPS, and UKCP. By the
time the joint report between the BACP
and UKCP for the Department of Health
was issued in July 2005, it had been
determined by the DH that the regulator
of choice was HPC. DH started the
Skills for Health work that was to replace
the work done by BACP, UKCP and
Âother umbrella groupsÊ, that moved the
profession toward state regulation
informed by those organisations.
We have resisted HPC in its current
form as a natural regulator for
psychotherapy and counselling (see
articles in earlier editions on the
Psychological Professions Council
proposal). The opportunities that exist
are to embrace regulation and try to
negotiate for conditions that allow the
values and philosophy of psychotherapy
to operate, or to resist regulation as a
matter of principle.
The failures made visible by the Shipman,
Kerr-Haslam and the Foster review have
led the government to believe that no
profession can regulate itself due to Âself
interestÊ leading to corruption.
It is very important that we use the work
with the Psychotherapy Professions
Alliance Group, (PPAG; including BACP,
BABCP, BPS, BPC and UKCP) to ensure
we take every opportunity to create
regulation that works for our profession.
2. How would you describe its
position now? Has it changed ?
UKCP and BACP, along with other
organisations have been pro regulation
and are still focused on that goal. Some
organisations both inside and outside
UKCP are not pro regulation and have
interesting views on what could be lost
when regulation comes into effect. I
donÊt believe we have changed our
position, but the conditions for regulation
have become more visible and we are
responding to the challenges presented
by what we know about now and believe
will be the future changes. It is also true
to say that Statutory Regulation has
become more complex due to the other
initiatives (agendas) that the government
has in its Education, Social Welfare and
Work and Pensions platforms.
UKCPÊs relationships, with government
and others, must be able to evolve and
change in recognition of changing
agendas. One of the changes we are
making now is in UKCPÊs shape to be
more inclusive, including having a place
for the voice of registrants, and shifting
from voluntary regulator to becoming a
strong professional organisation.
In moving towards those changes we
have also moved from the notion of
cabinet responsibility where we all have
to speak with the same voice.This allows
a more transparent view of our multidisciplinary nature, and holds the tensions
that come along with that freedom.
3. There seems to be a lot of
conflicting information about the
regulation process – given that
information is power, why do you
think this is so – is it just muddle and
chaos or is it deliberate? Is there a
need for us to be more active about
spreading information?
Information around regulation is often
conflicting and confused, overwhelming in
volume and content.The final arbiters of
what statutory regulation will look like
are reasonably clear; they are DH and
HPC. The next level of complexity
informing regulation is the Skills for
Health and Improving Access to
Psychological Therapies (IAPT) initiatives.
All of these programs have their own
complexities and links.
I will illustrate one aspect the IAPT
initiative. This is driven by the
Department for Work and Pensions, the
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Treasury, DH and the Care Services
Improvement Partnership. When you
look at this list it becomes clearer about
the conflicts between costs, service
delivery, and protection of the public, the
outcome depending on your priorities.
It is also clear that the forces at work are
looking at psychotherapy and counselling
as tools to be used for social problems,
and as a perceived threat to the public
that has to be controlled. One of those
involved in the regulatory process made
the statement to me: Âwe canÊt just have
anyone messing with peoplesÊ minds.Ê
It is also true that mountains of material
germane to these issues do not hold
together without spending inordinate
amount of time making the connections.
UKCP fully supports the IAPT initiatives
and the regulation of the professions of
psychotherapy and counselling. There are
some concerns and incompatibility
problems that need to be worked on in
the process. Taking and making the
opportunities to do this is one of our
biggest challenges.
4. Do you think we should lobby
the public?
IÊm not sure I would agree with lobbying
individuals as that puts us in a particular
position that may not be useful, but I do
believe professional organisations have to
become more politically adept at using
tools such as lobbying. We also need to
talk about how we inform members of
the public about psychotherapists and
psychotherapy. Lobbying should be used
with consideration, as any other tool.
If you take a look at petitions on you.gov
regarding psychotherapy, response rates
are very low for more recent ones, i.e.
within the NHS.... Signatories: 10,035
(NB I spoke with Sheila Haugh about the
results of this petition. She felt the
contributing factors to her petition having
a high number of signatures was:
1. The petition had a novel ideal;
2. The wording of the petition was
inclusive and
3. the people interested relied on
personal networking to generate
enthusiasm.)
Petition to: provide increased funding for
the recruitment, training and employment
of an additional 10,000 cognitive
behaviour therapists
10,000 therapists have been
recommended – the Government has
given the go-ahead for just 10 more.
Signatories: 351
Petition to: Alter the NHS Mental Health
Care to be more proactive and not
reactive. 1 in 4 people will suffer a mental
health illness in their life, many of these
illnesses can be identified at a very early
stage ⁄ Signatories: 10
These (closed) petitions can be found at
http://search.petitions.pm.gov.uk/kbroker/
number10/petitions/search.lsim?ha=1158
&sr=0&sf=&qt=psychotherapy&sc=
number10 ) whilst current petitions are
at: http://search.petitions.pm.gov.uk/
kbroker/number10/petitions/search.lsim?h
a=1157&sr=0&sf=&qt=psychotherapy&sc
=number10 )
Does this mean the people donÊt care or
arenÊt informed? The answer is probably a
mixture of caring and quality/quantity of
information based on individual need.
Petition to: make Psychotherapy an
independent chartered profession in its
own right and ... the Prime Minister to
make Psychotherapy an independent
chartered profession - Signatories: 296
The level of participation in professional
organisations suggests individuals have
priorities that donÊt include taking a view
about the profession as a whole or its
future. It has been suggested regulation
will have little impact on current practice,
and it is difficult to get a consensus about
what the profession will be in 10 years
time to motivate participation.
Petition to: consider other psychotherapy
approaches, not only cbt, in the proposed
⁄ the undersigned petition the Prime
Minister to consider other psychotherapy
approaches, not only cbt, in the proposed
expansion of psychotherapeutic services
5. How much do you think we are in
the current situation with Government
regulation due to rivalry and infighting in the profession? Given the
long history of splits in our profession
was this inevitable?
24
I might restate your question to say Âgiven
the nature of our profession would we
not have had splits at points in our short
historyÊ.
We are a profession based on working in
a very private setting where there is a
psychotherapist and client (sometime
couples or groups), in a room in which
there is a re-creation of powerful
primitive relationships to allow change to
happen.
We want to believe we know something
as individual practitioners and members
of groups who have synthesized a way of
replicating the work that someone else
has described. Many of us hold to those
beliefs passionately as a way of being safe
in the work we do. The passion and
need for development can put us in a
place of replicating our own need to
Âgrow-upÊ and be different than our
predecessors. But that is only part of the
story.
We have varying needs about earning a
living, environments in which we can feel
safe to practice, the support systems we
need to grow, access to clients/patients.
We also need to be able to enact our
values and philosophy with those who
think in ways like ourselves.
All of these ways of thinking can be
divisive and we try to find a meta level
for unity, but often that will fail because it
isnÊt able to hold the passion as well as
the diversity of thought. We must find
ways of holding both of those dynamics
together around issues that preserve our
right to exist and to be valued by
government institutions. We must also
accept that splits are inevitable and that
we have to work with what is available.
6. Noteworthy theorists such as
Rogers and Reich have seen the
political and social as inextricably
linked to our work, and some
conceived psychoanalysis as an
agent of radical change, is this
about to be challenged? Will the
radical strands be excluded?
Since the beginnings of thought about the
individual in relation to another or
groups there has been a possibility that
the individual would be empowered to
have a greater concern for self than the
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group and thereby subvert the status
quo.
The nature of freedom for the individual
and the needs of society have been in
tension ever since. We have choices as
to where we join that debate or look for
the source of that tension; I am drawn
toward The Age of Reason by Thomas
Paine as a milestone in this struggle. In
simplistic terms psychotherapy and
psychoanalysis give rise to the individualÊs
view of themselves in relationship to the
world, and promote the notion that „ÂIÊ
am and at best ÂIÊ live in relation to...‰
Currently, states around the world have
adopted the Âwe know bestÊ attitude.
Part of that attitude appears to be that
human beings are naturally bad and only
need to be told what to do, then punish
them if they fail to conform/comply. This
seems to be the basis of a form of social
engineering that dominates business,
politics and society. Some have said this
is a mixture of the worse extremes of
idealised 19th century communism and
capitalism. Psychotherapists, in the main,
are concerned about having relationships
in which social structures are based on a
development model of humanness.
You ask if radical strands will be
excluded. If you are asking about UKCP,
the short answer is no, they will not be
excluded. The strength of UKCP is its
ability to provide a safe place for
expression and support for a wide range
of thought. We must have an
organisation that can hold and value
diverse ways of thinking and ensure that
we all have a forum to reflect on our
philosophies and values. It has been said
that freedom, and especially freedom of
speech, is often inconvenient.
When psychotherapy was developed as a
primary profession and we chose to
make a living through our work, we
became subject to the government and
business values (forces) which can be
incompatible with our professional values.
This tension will always exist and makes
us vulnerable to concepts of efficiency,
(cost vs time vs predicted (quantified)
outcome), and effectiveness, (cost vs a
desired, uncertain, (qualitative) outcome.
The Psychotherapist
When we have to use our skills to earn a
living we can often take a self-referential
position that appears selfish. Selfishness
often causes discrimination;
discrimination can then marginalize
individuals and thought. The choices
inherent in different ways of thinking
eventually become about what level of
control and predictability are needed in
order to govern to contain a threat. The
higher the level of control the
government needs to exert to contain
psychotherapy as a threat to the public,
the more likely the conditions we believe
we require to work as psychotherapists
will be seen as radical.
what we do is being taken out of our
hands and translated into Âcivil servant
speakÊ . Is this something we should
be fighting/ holding out for?
The answer above is applicable to this
question. The role of governance
requires that we be able to translate
between the languages of regulation,
public awareness, business, and
government initiatives, and our own
divisions of modalities and ways of being.
In addition to the problems of
interpretation and translation, we have a
problem of consistency between the
Âpsychotherapy dialectsÊ that we have to
address.
The government is not likely to use the
word radical, it would be more likely to
speak of ineffective or unproven.
9. How does UKCP propose to
support practitioners who cannot
be registered with HPC or choose
to opt out for reasons of
conscience? You have stated your
intention to do this but is it going
to be possible?
With the changes made at UKCPÊs 2008
AGM we have the possibility of changing
to be more inclusive in all areas. We have
a responsibility according to our
charitable aims to protect the public
interest and to promote the art and
science of psychotherapy. HPC and DH
will regulate titles at the lowest level
possible. Part of the challenge for UKCP
is to be able to hold a space that is safe
for clients/patients and practitioners who
exceed or are outside the standards of
the HPC. We also have to continually
look at how we can meet the demands in
a pragmatic way and hold our values as
psychotherapists.
7. Given that our work is all about
empowering people to find their own
voice, isnÊt it essential that our voice
is properly heard and considered by
Government? In our understanding of
parallel process do you think this will
eventually impact negatively on our
work with clients?
Finding a voice pre-supposes that there is
a relationship in which the voice will be
heard. It is essential that we get our
voice heard, but we must recognise that
it has to be as a group rather than as
individuals. We must also be able to hold
the group that is representative of the
work we do, including clients/patients.
The forces of parallel processes or the
chains of transference and countertransference dynamics are always an
issue. These processes work at many
levels with connections of unconscious
processes to manifest material in the
consulting room. The manifest messages
from the Government about what has
value and what doesnÊt attach to
transference material in the work. One
of the ways this can be seen in therapy is
when an atmosphere of Âneeding to do
somethingÊ from my patients, and/or
myself, dominates the relationship in the
consulting room. It can be destructive of
the therapeutic alliance.
8. What about the language of
regulation? Many of us are confused
and dismayed that how we describe
As individuals and groups we have to take
care of the bureaucratic requirements
and to live the philosophy and values that
we stand for in the world. How to be
inclusive will always be a challenge
especially as changes in the regulatory,
business and political systems move to
ÂharmoniseÊ the ways we practice that are
not compatible with our values. Staying in
a position to be heard and having enough
political power to bring the different
elements together to be heard is one of
our greatest challenges.
This Interview was given for
Transformations, the newsletter of
Psychotherapists and Counsellors for
Social Responsibility
25
02/07/2008
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The Shape of the Future
A Shape Development Group is being
formed to complete the shaping of UKCP
The pace of statutory regulation of the professions of
Psychotherapy and Counselling seems to be accelerating while
the shape of regulation remains unclear. The Professional
Liaison Group, designed to debate the scope and shape of
regulation, should be convened by the HPC in the autumn and
will deliberate for approximately 6 months. So, although we
know that regulation is coming, and we know that the Health
Professions Council (HPC) will regulate us, we will not know
the details for probably another year or more. Meanwhile, we
have been planning for a post statutory-regulation future.
UKCP has been in a process of forming and reforming since
its beginnings at the Rugby conference in 1993. The vision of
the Rugby Conference was as an umbrella body that would
speak for the profession – across all modalities. Organised by
training organisations who wanted to distinguish their
graduates as having received a high standard of training, as
adhering to an established code of ethics, as having colleagues
who could vouch for their work, UKCP became a brand name
that registrants wanted and could feel proud of.
„to be a professional organisation for both training &/or
accrediting organisations and individual practitioners, to be
a political lobby for the profession, and to be a focus for
research – most particularly for research which uses
methods that are congruent with our own philosophy
about what we do‰.
SPAG went on, in its consultations, to ask: „If that is our
function or purpose, what then should be our shape?‰
We held a number of consultation days and the shapes
evolved as a result of that process.
Starting with the four shapes described in the January
issue of the psychotherapist, we worked with a fifth shape
and then finally an amalgam of shape 4 and shape 5 to
produce shape 6. Shapes 2, 3 and 6 were offered to the
delegates brought together for the AGM in March. After
much debate the AGM voted by an overwhelming
majority for Shape 6 and this is now the shape of the
future UKCP.
Statutory regulation will mean that
individual therapists will need to
register directly with the HPC, it means
that training organisations will need to
meet the statutory requirements and
be accredited by the HPC.
Other external pressures like the
governmentÊs Increasing Access to
Psychological Therapies (IAPT) and the
increasing influence of NICE guidelines
on health care commissioning will also
influence the publicÊs perception of
psychotherapy and counselling and the
detailed form that statutory regulation
will take.
Last year the Board of Trustees
established a Strategic Planning
Advisory Group (SPAG), to create a
space where creative thinking could
take place, to consult with the
membership and to come back to the
AGM in March with a plan and a shape
for the way forward.
SPAG established that the majority of
those consulted would want UKCP:
26
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02/07/2008
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Future shape of UKCP
The Board of Trustees undertook to develop the shape and to
formulate the necessary constitutional changes to be ratified
at the AGM in 2009.
Members of UKCP
Individual Members and Full Organisational Members would
be voting members. One possible outcome of this model is
the expansion of Âmember onlyÊ organisations, giving individuals
more choice.
Sections/Colleges
UKCP Shape – Under Development
The Shape Development Group (SDG) has begun work on
a process leading to the adoption at AGM 2009 of a new
ÂshapeÊ for UKCP. The process will include a series of
consultations with all of our stakeholders over the next six
months for a final pre-AGM review by the Board at their
January meeting. Mark Wehrly recently joined the staff as
part-time Company Secretary to facilitate the process.
There are many moving parts the SDG must reduce to a
series of decision trees to be consulted upon at the four
Regional Connections meetings this autumn. These include:
Modality based groupings would be created as required to
serve changing needs. They would be funded by the
membership and fully supported with central office and
secretarial staff.
Assumptions about the nature and extent of government
regulation under the Health Professions Council (and even
a fail-safe provision for a new government in 2010 changing
the landscape anew)
Specialist Faculties
The roles and powers of UKCP constituents, and the
configuration of UKCP office and staff after the new shape
is introduced. Governance roles will need to be distributed
among existing member organisations, existing registrants
who will become individual ÂmembersÊ, the Board of
Trustees, and some combination of management
committee, standards and registration boards, colleges, and
faculties.
Specialist Faculties, working across modalities, would emerge
to serve the development of particular skills, working with the
mentally ill, adolescent children, severe trauma, prisons,
disability, personal development, etc. These would be centrally
funded and fully supported with office and secretarial staff.
Individuals and organisations would join the appropriate
modality college. It is perfectly acceptable and could
become the norm to join a modality college and one or
more faculties. It would also be possible to develop
regional groups.
UKCP will provide full services to its members through a
central system, economically and flexibly.
The range of services UKCP will offer in the postregulation environment, from lobbying to training
accreditation, research, education, publications, and referrals
The following is the ambitious timeline for the process to
meet the March AGM goal.
June 13
First draft consultation document
released
September 19
Board Meeting approves final terms of
consultation
September 27
Bristol consultation
How will it make a difference?
UKCP Registrants will become members and will be able
to have a say in who runs the organisation and what their
priorities should be.
The form is flexible, we will be able to do all that we do
now and, as the needs change, we will be able to adapt
without constitutional change.
Modality colleges will be able to form as and when the
October (early) Glasgow consultation for Scotland,
Northern Ireland and northern England
Oct - November London and Manchester consultations
need arises.
December 6
ChairsÊ meeting consultation
Faculties will emerge to suit changing challenges in the
January 21
Board meeting to review consultation
results and draft proposal
March 16
AGM to consider proposal
community we serve.
This shape enables UKCP to provide full services to all
its members through a cost effective central system.
Next Steps – the devil is in the detail
A new Shape Development group is forming to continue the
work of the Strategic Planning Advisory Group and the
Constitutional Working Group. The group will draft out the
details of how the system will actually work, which functions
we still need, which we feel passionate about and which we
can now dispense with. A new proposal for a constitution and
membership bye-laws will then be produced for consultation.
The Psychotherapist
How can you help?
The Shape Development Group needs individuals to join
who are willing to work. The group also needs a second
tier of individuals who will represent their
section/institution and are willing to consult by e-mail
If you would be willing and able to help us transform UKCP
into its new shape please contact
[email protected]
27
02/07/2008
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The Campaign against the
Sedimentation of Modalities in
Statutory Regulation
Thank you to all who wrote to their
MPs last month questioning the
apparent lack of transparency, process
and understanding suggested by the
governmentÊs statements that it wished
to limit the number of modalities in
psychotherapy. It was also their view
all modalities were post-basic
specialisms of Psychoanalytic/
Psychodynamic, Cognitive Behaviour
Therapy and Family & Systemic Therapy.
Our letters have had an impact. Many of
your MPs wrote to Alan Johnson the
Secretary of State for Health, passing on
your questions, and the government
issued reassurance that the decisions
have not yet been made and that the
process will be transparent.
A promising first step! However we do
need to keep up the pressure. We
know how easy it is for decisions to get
made on the basis of advice from those
with vested interests. We also know
how difficult it is to persuade those
who believe that randomised control
studies are the best and most objective
evidence that can exist that there are
no other factors that need to be taken
into account.
If you havenÊt written to your MP yet
please do. If you have a chance to visit
your MP in his/her surgery, please do it.
We need to get some very
simple messages across:
We agree with regulation –
it can support quality
assurance and research and
if done well, protection for
the public and public
interest.
28
Enshrining modality through
Statutory Regulation does
not make sense
After 10 years of practice, there is
more similarity between good
practitioners of different modalities than
there is between the practitioners of a
given modality.
All competent practitioners use ideas
from other modalities provided that
they are compatible with their basic
platform. All competent practitioners
continue to learn and develop
throughout their working lifetime, and
integrate new developments and
research whatever its origin.
Artificially Restricting
Modalities will crush
innovation and deprive
patients of choice
This will be particularly detrimental if
the modalities chosen represent only
those already well established in the
NHS and donÊt represent those chosen
by a large number of members of the
public when purchasing their own
psychotherapy.
Randomised Controlled
Studies (RCTs) have limited
value when assessing a
process that is relational
While RCTs provide
important efficacy evidence
they are of limited
application without
additional qualitative and
quantitative research data
Transparency of Process is
essential
If the path to regulation is to build the
trust of the profession and of the public
then the processes and procedures
must be transparent.
In particular the relationship between
the DH, Skills for Health, Improving
Access to Psychological Therapies and
the Health Professions Council, and the
selection process for individuals on the
decision-making bodies needs to be
made clear.
It is vitally important that people who
are well informed and represent all of
the stakeholders make these decisions
about the future of Psychotherapy and
Psychotherapeutic Counselling. These
decisions will have a long-term impact
on the viability of trainings, on the
possibility of innovation and on the
availability of choice for people looking
for psychological help.
We must take every
opportunity to speak to
these messages
There are many government initiatives
that will impact on how we can practice
our profession in the future. Regulation
is one of these, but there are others.
Stay informed and keep UKCP
informed of your experiences with
anything that impacts the way we work.
More background information is
available, please see the UKCP MP
Briefing statement and the UKCP policy
statement on the website at:
www.psychotherapy.org.uk/campaign
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02/07/2008
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Letter from the Vice Chair
(Registrants)
Dear Registrants,
I want to dedicate my time and energy
as vice chair towards developing
service provision to registrants and
member organisations. I believe it is
hugely important that we continue to
evolve and develop as an organisation
and I hope to make the complexity
and the many functions of this
organisation more transparent and
accessible to registrants.
Service provision and functions of
UKCP need to reflect our shared
values and perspectives as well as
acknowledge the diversity and
differences in our professional practice
and thinking. We could follow the
practice well established by politicians
and take silence as consent but weÊd
much rather hear your voice. We are
planning some regional events to
facilitate this, the first ones in Bristol
and Manchester (please see details in
this issue). We also have an
organisational-community group
process day in London in the Autumn
for a creative enquiry into the
functions of the UKCP – both from
the perspectives of registrants and
member organisations (further details
to be announced).
I am also keen to develop a central
conference support service for
member organisations (MOs) and
sections under the guidance of a
standing UKCP Conference
Committee. MOs and sections will
have the opportunity to propose
The Psychotherapist
conferences and receive full support
from dedicated staff for the logistic
and administrative requirements of
their event.
Professional conferences play an
important role as platforms for
discourse and dialogue in the
profession. Conferences provide
crucial opportunities for new
generations of psychotherapists to
present their work in workshops,
seminars or presentations, and
develop skills and and authority.
This service will also particularly help
smaller MOs who often struggle with
logistics and administration of events.
At the same time, it will promote the
visibility of UKCP for psychological
and health professions in the UK. I
hope a central conference service will
stimulate a vibrant calender with a
range of events that is representative
of the diversity of modalities within
UKCP.
A UKCP Conference Committee is
being established to guide this service.
Please contact me if you have a track
record of organising conferences and
would like to contribute your
experience. I would also like to hear
your feedback and any suggestions
about UKCP services you might have.
Best wishes
Tom Warnecke
UIKCP Vice Chair (Registrants)
[email protected]
29
02/07/2008
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Diverse minds:
diverse contexts
How many of us can say we work in
really diverse settings? How many of us
work with clients, or have supervisees,
from backgrounds that are
culturally/ethnically/economically
different from our own? How many of
us can say that our training or
supervision groups are diverse in
relation to gender, race, age, ethnicity or
class? How do we manage disability?
A cursory glance around UKCP AGM
meetings and psychotherapy
conferences overall reveal what we
already know: that the majority of
psychotherapists and counsellors are
white, middle-class, middle-aged, without
disability, and predominantly women.
How can we change this picture and
encourage people from more diverse
backgrounds and cultures to enter
therapy, to train and become the
psychotherapists, trainers and
supervisors of the future? This is one of
the crucial questions that the UKCP
Diversity and Equality Committee
(DEC) is attempting to map out and
address, with the help of other
committees, registrants, the Executive
Committee and the Board of Trustees.
Some of you who were delegates
attending the last two AGMs, in March
2007 and 2008, may recollect the
workshops which our committee
organised, our aim being to engage
delegates in precisely these pressing but
often difficult dilemmas and challenges.
Both these workshops generated much
creative and positive discussion and
debates, which we thought might be
useful to share with others who were
unable to be there, for various reasons.
Hence this article, which is an attempt
to summarise the two workshops, and
focus more specifically on the questions
that have arisen from the dialogues,
which many of us may be familiar with.
At the 2007 AGM, DEC presented a
workshop called Diverse Minds:
Connecting Inner and Outer Dialogues in
which delegates were organised into
ten different groups representing:
Ethnic minority trainees on a
The delegates were then invited to
consider two questions from the
perspective of the above groupings:
A. What specific factors in the current
UKCP framework might make you feel
that your particular issues were not
being addressed in the daily activities of
UKCP?
B. What specific responses/actions/
processes would you want to see in
UKCP to indicate that UKCP was being
respectful/mindful/inclusive of your
particular issues? Do you have any
examples of good practice that you are
already aware of?
The exercise created an environment of
debate and thoughtful comments. What
was clear was that delegates wanted
more visible and accountable practices.
There was a sense that openmindedness and an ability to critique
oneÊs own practices, whether in therapy,
training or supervision, was crucial in
increasing awareness of these issues and
that having a policy does not always
necessarily guarantee or attune our
ability to be mindful of our own
personal and professional blind spots
when navigating the often challenging
terrain of diversity and equality.
predominantly white training course
Ethnic minority UKCP registrants
Ethnic minority clients seeking
therapy from UKCP
Gay and lesbian trainees
Trainees with a range of disabilities
in a therapy training, or thinking of
embarking on training
Predominantly white people
attempting to address issues of
diversity and equality
Predominantly white trainers and
supervisors working with white
trainees regarding issues of diversity
Male and female practitioners
grappling with issues of
work/life/family/relationship balance
Trainers of psychotherapy courses
looking at ways to improve access to
training for under-represented
groups
30
Some of these challenges, for individuals
and organisations, were articulated over
the course of the workshop in the
UKCP 2008 AGM. In groups, we asked
delegates to consider several dilemmas
and questions, all taken from Âreal lifeÊ
situations, which were as follows:
1) How do you deal with a clientÊs
view of gay people as ÂabnormalÊ?
2) A potential applicant to your training
course asks what your policy is about
the age criteria for entry, as she has
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02/07/2008
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heard that such a course requires
trainees to have Âlife experienceÊ, and
that the average age of people entering
training is mid-forties. She is twentyeight.
3) An Afro-Caribbean male rings you
for feedback, having failed to gain
entrance to the training of which you
are the course tutor. He expresses his
disappointment that he has the
necessary qualifications and experience,
yet has been refused, and makes a
comment about whether his ethnicity
has played a part in not being accepted
on the course. What do you say?
4) Following a training event for your
team on diversity and equality, a white
colleague shares with you her views
that it seemed a waste of time, as your
team consists of all white staff, serves a
largely white population, and, to her,
everyone is the same, anyway. How do
you respond?
5) A lesbian client is looking for a
lesbian therapist who she feels will
understand her particular issues, and is
disappointed to see that the Register of
Psychotherapists does not offer any
information about such therapists, and
complains to you, as Chair of her MO,
about this situation. What is your
response?
What thoughts/challenges have
these dilemmas raised for you in
how you currently attend to issues
of diversity in your own
practice/MO/Training institute?
What steps have you taken to
increase awareness and integration
of these issues into your practice?
Please list some examples.
If you were achieving your goals
for implementing Diversity and
Equality, what would you be doing
differently as a therapist/supervisor/
trainer/MO? Please list some
examples.
What supports would you need
to implement these changes?
As with the previous workshop, the
discussions were thoughtful and thought
provoking, particularly with regard to
peopleÊs experiences of how sexual
orientation, and gay and lesbian trainees,
were dealt with in courses. There was a
majority view that a generation of
psychotherapists were perhaps
ÂdamagedÊ by the experience of training
in ÂhomophobicÊ institutions, and that
there was a real need to develop Âgay
and lesbian friendlyÊ and sensitive
training for future psychotherapists in
training, and services to clients.
6) As course tutor in a counselling
course, you notice that the Muslim
female trainee is often quiet in group
discussions. Fairly early into the
course, she arrives one day wearing the
hijab, having previously not worn one.
You notice the rest of the group do not
comment on this change. Do you say
anything?
In considering these dilemmas, we also
asked the groups to address the
following questions:
have emerged for you from
considering these dilemmas?
The Psychotherapist
DEC, on behalf of UKCP, is currently
involved in looking at identifying areas
of good practice, and auditing the
various ways in which individuals and
organisations are responding to the
challenges of enabling their practice and
procedures to be more sensitive,
responsive and creative with regard to
matters of diversity and equality. We see
this very much as a journey, that people
are at different stages in this process,
and that permission to pace rather than
hasten the work must be respected.
In UKCP, we have taken some steps
towards this journey, such as putting
images of diversity on our website,
constructing a disability questionnaire
which we are hoping to pilot
imminently, and embarking on an audit
of the ways in which issues of diversity
and equality are being thought of and
practise, at various levels, including
identifying areas of strengths and good
practice that are clearly already out
there.
We will be approaching registrants and
member organisations to help us with
this task, and hope that you will feel
able to approach us if you would like to
contribute to the work in any way.
7) A visually impaired person applies
for training in your organisation. What
is your response?
What thoughts/feelings/reactions
individual and institutional levels. At the
same time, however, the two workshops
have also indicated that there are
ongoing blind spots for all of us,
whether in relation to gender, sexual
orientation, age, disability, race, culture,
ethnicity, religion or class, and that more
can and needs to be done to ensure
that we continually strive towards
maintaining our openness to selfscrutiny and scrutiny by others in our
attempts to achieve good standards of
practice, that are accountable to us, our
clients, trainees, supervisees and the
public at large.
UKCP is very aware that there are
clearly examples of good practice in
relation to these issues and the whole
gamut of diversity and equality, at both
Sue Crofton and Shila Rashid
If you would like to contact Shila to
discuss any aspects of the CommitteeÊs
work, e-mail [email protected]
Sue Crofton is a member of DEC.
Shila Rashid chairs DEC and is a
member of the Executive Committee
and the Board of Trustees of UKCP.
31
02/07/2008
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Page 32
From Our
European
Correspondent…
Heward Wilkinson
All of you who have read my colleague
Adrian RhodesÊs flamboyant contribution
in the last issue, on the NUOC, will be
already be agog and prepared for another
acronym!
This one is EWOC.
And this one stands for Europe Wide
Organisation Committee, which is
comprised of the EWAOs (Europe Wide
Accrediting Organisations).
And these may be best understood simply,
in part, as parallel or akin to what we
know as Modality Sections.
The difference is mainly that, whereas our
Sections are based upon Generic or Meta
Modalities, wider concepts which may
embrace a number of specific Modalities,
the organisations which make up the
EWOC are simply any psychotherapy
modality which has been able to achieve
scientific standing within the EAP, and
which is represented in six or more
European States.
This remains in accord with the very farsighted Strasbourg Declaration, formulated
in 1990, which consists of five key
statements:
1. Psychotherapy is an independent
scientific discipline, the practice of which
represents an independent and free
profession.
2. Training in psychotherapy takes place at
an advanced, qualified and scientific level.
32
3. The multiplicity of psychotherapeutic
methods is assured and guaranteed.
4. A full psychotherapeutic training covers
theory, self-experience, and practice under
supervision.Adequate knowledge of
various psychotherapeutic processes is
acquired. Access to training is through
various preliminary qualifications, in
particular human and social sciences.
There are differences of emphasis as we
scan Europe as a whole. Some modalities
are much stronger in Europe than they are
here, various forms of Body
Psychotherapy, for instance. Considered
by the side of the richness of the EAP
modalities, it might seem that UKCP
Sections, which seem so different when
we consider them from within our
parochial nationalism of outlook, actually
appear to have a great deal of affinity and
to be Âintegrate-ableÊ.
I list these 17 EWAO organisations, all of
which, you recall, are represented in at
least six European States. More details can
be found at the EAP Website at:
http://europsyche.org/
I put an asterisk* by all those which are
represented amongst us and familiar
within UKCP. (If there is doubt I err on
the side of identity and put an asterisk*!)
European Association for Body
Psychotherapy*
European Association for Biosynthesis
European Association for Gestalt
Therapy*
European Association for Hypno
Psychotherapy*
European Association for Integrative
Psychotherapy*
European Association for
Concentrative Movement Therapy
European Association for
Neurolinguistic Psychotherapy*
European Association for PsychoOrganic-Analysis
European Associaton for Transactional
Analysis*
European Confederation of
Psychoanalytic Psychotherapies*
European Federation for Bioenergetic
Analysis-Psychotherapy
European Federation of Centers for
Positive Psychotherapy
European Federation for
Psychosynthesis Psychotherapy*
European Family Therapy Association*
European Society for Communicative
Psychotherapy
Federation of European Psychodrama
Training Organisations*
Network of the Europ.Assoc. for
Person-Centered and Experiential
Psychotherapy & Counselling*
Six of the organisations with asterisks* are
represented in HIPS; one would be with
CJPPP (previously AP-PP Section); one
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02/07/2008
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Page 33
would be with Constructivist
Psychotherapies; and one with Family,
Couple, Sexual and Systemic Therapy
Section.
Several of the others without-asterisks,
though perhaps not all, would probably be
with HIPS if we were thinking in terms of
the UK situation.
The net effect is that, with regard to the
Europe Wide Modalities within EAP, there
has been little sense of the issues of
hierarchy, or Âpecking orderÊ, which have so
beset, and still perhaps beset, discussion of
the modality issue in the United Kingdom.
Perhaps Europe is less stuck with any
equivalent to the British Class System!
So it is possible that this is reflected in the
greater freedom, which there is in the
community of Europe Wide Accrediting
Organisations, from the kind of
considerations, which drive us in the
United Kingdom towards setting up
Super-Modalities, and then scrapping about
which of us shall be included in them, and
which excluded from them!
In terms of the developments going on in
the UK, the EWOC corresponds to a
Health Professions Council (HPC) model
of the Profession, based as UKCP is now
committed to being, upon a single
registered title of Psychotherapist (plus, of
course, Psychotherapeutic Counsellor),
and an openness to any modality which
can show it fulfils the complete range of
scientific and professional requirements.
The Super-Modalities Model corresponds
more to the discussions going on in the
Department of Health (DH), and in the
Quangos set up by DH, Skills for Health
(S4H) and Improving Access to
Psychological Therapies (IAPT).
You see, in the end, we have a few
problems with Acronyms All Our Own
(AAOO)!
Heward Wilkinson
Chair of HIPS
One of the UKCP European
representatives
The Psychotherapist
Research for the
psychotherapist
Proclamation
The UKCP Research Committee
intends to provide, for each issue of
The Psychotherapist, examples of
research, and of our activities, to offer
practitioners aspects that could be of
value in their work. Value can come in
many forms, ranging from ways of
improving the therapy that we offer
clients, through to supporting a
political argument such as maintaining
diversity of provision.
The activities of your research
committee touch on various points in
this range. The more therapists who
participate with us, the more we will
be able to do.
Good news from the
research world
I hope you will allow me a second
report based on Marital and Family
Therapy (MFT). I think the fact that
any psychotherapy can achieve these
kinds of results is something the NHS
should know about. It implies that
investment in psychotherapy could
have tremendous preventative effects
on physical health which are of great
value to each client. But having the
useful side-effect of saving the health
service shed-loads of money.
Psychosocial intervention was found
to be related to subsequent
reductions in outpatient health care
use, when comparing usage during six
months before the psychotherapy with
usage during the six months after its
conclusion.
For this issue of The Psychotherapist I
want to offer a couple of pieces of
research that I find amazing. They
come from Russ Crane of Brigham
Young University and provide data
from the USA that we can use to
support psychotherapy in the UK and
Europe.
Health care use reductions were most
prominent for high utilisers. Those
high utilisers who participated in MFT
showed significant reductions of 68%
for health screening visits, 38% for
illness visits, 56% for laboratory/X-ray
visits, and 78% for urgent care visits.
(Crane & Christenson, 2008).
The first used a rather simple
indicator, of whether the client
returned for further treatment. They
used data obtained from insurance
records across the USA to identify
almost 490,000 unique ondividuals
who were referred for psychotherapy.
Treatment outcomes across all
therapists and all forms of therapy
were overwhelmingly successful with
85% of patients requiring only one
course of treatment. Specific findings
included that physicians required the
fewest sessions, marriage and family
therapists had the highest success
(86.6%)/lowest recidivism rates
(13.4%), and professional counsellors
were the least costly. (Crane & Payne
2008).
What particularly intrigued me was
that in many cases the greatest
reduction in use of health services was
for the partner of the referred person.
Research Committee
initiatives
A major focus for the RC has been to
foster the development of Practitioner
Research Networks (PRNs). We have
organised a series of meetings for this
purpose. Sheila Butler has been
leading this initiative and we now have
two PRNs with about 40
psychotherapists involved.
One is concerned with the effect on
therapists of being involved with
research, the second proceeds from
33
02/07/2008
22:34
Page 34
Daniel SternÊs current work on
exploring intersubjective moments in
Psychotherapy and the Process of
Change model. There is also the
possibly of a third project based on
participantsÊ interest in clinical
outcome.
The next general PRN meeting will be
on 10th July 2pm to 5pm, St ThomasÊs
Hospital, London. Do join us.
In collaboration with UKCPÊs Training
Standards Committee, we organised a
very successful Research Conference on
2nd Feb, with major contributions from
Peter Fonagy and Robert Elliott. The
theme of the conference, From
Research-Based Practice to PracticeBased Research exemplifies our vision of
how research needs to develop within
psychotherapy. We are also involved
with the Society for Psychotherapy
Research and are presenting a UKCP
paper describing our PRN initiatives to
their International conference in
Barcelona in June. We hope that this
will generate European collaboration.
Research in politics
The Committee is committed to the
UKCP objective of psychotherapy
being seen to be making a positive
contribution to the wider society.
We are in a game in which the rules
are set by powerful organisations,
though when they are competing with
each other, they are not as bound by
the rules as they wish us to be.
So we have two possibilities: we can
play within the rules, and fortunately
we often have the resources, for
example in research evidence, to be
able to do this. And we can look for
the opportunities to have influence
where there is space between the
rules. These opportunities range from
chinks in the armour of NICEÊs
prescriptions of what counts as
evidence, and consultation submissions
highlighting innovative and effective
practice not yet featured in the
research literature, through to the
scope for MPs to be influenced by
good arguments and compelling case
accounts.
34
We are working to expand the range
of modalities being considered by
Skills for Health. Del LoewenthalÊs
UKCP Research Unit at Roehampton
University has completed the first
stage of a review of the evidence base
of Humanistic and Integrative
Therapies with a particular focus on
making the case that Integrative is a
major form of psychotherapy in its
own right, and not just a matter of
practitioners combining aspects of the
therapies as currently specified by
Skills for Health.
We have been trying to influence the
Improving Access to Psychological
Therapies (IAPT) initiative from the
start and to head off their continual
drift back to an assumption that CBT
is a sufficient answer to all of the
mental health needs of the population.
As Chair of UKCPÊs Reasearch
Committee I am now on IAPTÊs
Research and Development
Committee.
Tirril Harris and I are participating in
planning the next Psychological
Therapies in the NHS conference.
Last year the conference produced the
Savoy Declaration, to which UKCP is
a signatory, supporting diversity in the
provision of psychotherapies. This
yearÊs conference, on 27th and 28th
November, will take that impetus
forward.
Coming soon
The PRNs swing into action.
The Roehampton report on
Humanistic and Integrative
Psychotherapies is completed.
Current Research Committee
Members:
Sheila Butler
Angela Cotter
Tirril Harris
Del Loewenthal
David Winter.
References
D. Russell Crane, Jacob D. Christenson
(2008) The Medical Offset Effect:
Patterns in Outpatient Services
Reduction for High Utilisers of Health
Care. Contemporary Family Therapy
30:pp127–138.
D. Russell Crane, Scott H. Payne (in
preparation 2008) Individual and Family
Therapy in Managed Care: Comparing
the Costs of Treatments of the Mental
Health Professions
Ethics Committee:
Frequently Asked
Questions
Every issue we publish a Frequently
Asked Question and invite answers
for publication, so as to share
registrantsÊ views and encourage
debate.
As well as answering questions,
registrants may want to comment
on answers already published, or to
ask their own question. All
contributions are welcomed, to
make sure UKCP fully reflects the
thinking and concerns of its readers.
Question for the next
issue:
„My supervisee, now ex, had a
complaint from a client upheld.
The research committee
constructs a position paper about
which forms of evidence are
appropriate for psychotherapy.
He did not bring the client to
supervision during the relevant
period and I had no inkling he
would behave as he did.
Sounds fun? Email us about joining the
committee or participating in any of
our activities.
I feel bad for all of us about this
happening and worried about the
implication for myself. What
should I do now?‰
Peter Stratton
Chair of UKCP Research Committee
[email protected]
Send your answers to Jude CohenPhillips, the Managing Editor, by 11th
August [email protected]
www.ukcp.org.uk
02/07/2008
22:35
Page 35
Our Society’s Shameful
Denial – the effects of UK
government policy on
asylum seekers
Psychotherapists and
Counsellers for Social
Responsibility
Conference - 17th May 2008
„You are the experts on human damage‰,
said Dr Frank Arnold, who was coming
to the end of an articulate presentation
on the asylum process, and urging the
audience to contribute their professional
and personal voices in support of the
rights of asylum detainees.
This conference was born out of the
therapeutic work of PCSRi members
with clients seeking asylum and
protection from torture and abuse.
Organised by one of the speakers, Shirin
Amani Azari, the programme was devoid
of headline grabbing sound-bites. There
was no need. Personal stories were
shared by Trude Ndagireii and Shirin, and
the stories of others were told through
songs performed by the Banner
Theatreiii, a Birmingham based
Banner Theatre performers Jilah and Dan
The Psychotherapist
multimedia performance group, with titles
such as, ÂScapegoatÊ and ÂFabio SanchezÊ
(about a Colombian human rights lawyer
now working as a cleaner in HSBCÊs
offices at Canary Wharf).
Dr Arnold (a surgeon), was one of
several speaker-members from Medical
Justiceiv, set up in October 2005, a
network of volunteers providing
independent medical and legal advice and
representation to asylum seekers
detained in immigration removal centres.
Together with Dr Cornilius Katona (a
psychiatrist) and Dr Jonathon Fluxman (a
G.P.) they shared their first hand
knowledge of the living and working
conditions in detention centres, their
patientÊs realities and experiences.
We learnt that at any time of the day or
night, if you are in the U.K. seeking
asylum you may be picked up from
where you live and placed in one of the
ten U.K. centres indefinitely (each with
around 2,500 detainees). Your children, if
detained with you, may be given semi-
skimmed milk but no education. You may
not have access to medicine or a doctor
to treat your asthma, diabetes or HIV.
You have a greater chance of developing
chronic depression, anxiety, suicidal
feelings, PTSD and self-harming
behaviours than asylum seekers living in
the community or detained foreign
national prisoners (and less of a chance
to see a psychiatrist). During the first 10
months of 2007, eight detainees
successfully attempted suicide and 1643
people were on suicide and self harm
watch (SASH). Scared yet?
Despite detention centre rule 35 that
requires doctors to report cases where,
„any detained person whose health is
likely to decline as a result of being
detained‰ (including suicidal intention),
which might warrant a grant of status,
reporting figures are low. Dr Fluxman
calmly informed us that such record
keeping is poor or non-existent and
attributed partially to dual loyalty issues
that exist for healthcare personnel; to
the private companies running detention
centres (who subcontract healthcare), the
health department (who dictate eligibility
for primary and secondary medical care)
and patients (through the Hippocratic
oath).
If English is your second or third language
you may never have a grasp of your legal
rights or how to prepare for a judicial
review or appeal your failed application
for asylum. Unless you have a 50%
chance of winning you wonÊt get legal
representation anyway. The process of
appeal or of making a fresh claim may
take two–six years (some people have
been here a decade).
35
02/07/2008
22:35
Page 36
In the interim you have no right to work,
no right to support yourself and
therefore give your daily life structure
and a reason to get up in the morning.
Once in court, your escape story and
medical evidence of your bullet wounds
may be disbelieved by the judge (who
might even offer a more plausible medical
explanation). And your psychiatrist may
be accused of disproportionately
believing your account.
You will have 21 days to leave the U.K.
once your application for asylum has
been declined. After this time you have
no recourse to benefits or
accommodation. The staff of private
companies funded millions of pounds to
run our detention centres will escort you
onto your deportation flight. ThereÊs a
£600 bonus for them if your flight arrives
at its destination – as long as you are still
on board.
You might think twice about resisting the
walk across the tarmac though. Many
detainees have experienced over zealous
use of force by escorts, when protesting at
being placed on board. Threats by
authorities to inform soldiers in your
home country of your imminent return (if
you donÊt board) might not have their
intended effect. And who is this system of
detention and deportation regulated by?
No one.
There is an alternative. Go underground.
Join the 264,999 other failed asylum
seekers living in the UK. Join the
trafficked, the overstayers and others on
the margins of our society. Be at risk of
abuse by employers (youÊre illegal now) or
prey to criminality. Your inability to access
healthcare may lead you to the MP
surgeries of Jon Cruddas or Neil Gerrard
(Dagenham and Walthamstow
constituencies respectively). You wonÊt be
alone there.
policies by parties as a way to maintain
power, inflaming the situation. Dagenham
(which he represents) has the highest rate
of low cost private housing in London. Jon
believes itÊs these poorer areas of society
that are taking the strain, which is drawing
local voters to the extreme right as a
result. „People are staying for years
without knowing the outcome and this
feeds the perception that theyÊre living off
the state‰.
Jon Cruddas (M.P.) and Shirin Amani Azari
Earlier I had asked Shirin Amani Azari
about the role of the media in our
heightened era of terrorism: „The system
of detaining asylum seekers whoÊve been
tortured bears no relationship with
terrorism. One media message is itÊs
either the rights of you – the potential
victim of terror (the general public) – or
itÊs the rights of the Ugandan mother. This
isnÊt so ⁄ But I donÊt blame people for
not understanding why people seek
asylum. I can only speak for myself as an
Iranian. You donÊt have the freedom of
speech in Iran that you do in the United
Kingdom. Torture is a concept here so
alient that they (the public) donÊt feel it.
Needles being stuck in your kidneys is not
a concept they can understand.‰
We can not assume unquestioningly that
attaining basic human rights is an issue
only for other nations. From the growing
reactions of the audience today, the
starkness of the U.K.Ês two-tier extension
of rights (echoing apartheid) was shocking.
The foundation of democracy and equality
(with all its imperfections) that you and I
build our lives upon (a given), does not
extend to those people reaching our
shores in search of asylum. Despite the
changing public and political attitude to
and recognition of depression, post
traumatic stress and anxiety (thank you
Dr Layard), which has raised our
expectations of treatment and
understanding, it does not stretch to
responding humanely to the trauma, grief
and despair of failed asylum seekers.
Shirin appears quietly determined about
her campaign for the Home Office to
review the policy on asylum seekers,
„LetÊs listen today, to people who work in
these settings. If we object to the system,
look at ways to change it‰.
This indictment against our detention
centres and the humanitarian rights of
those seeking refuge is a symptom of
our times. While reality television
appeases our voyeuristic interest and
chat-rooms foster two-dimensional
relationships, we risk eroding the quality
of our relationship-building skills that
connect us and which ultimately bring
our lives meaning. The raising of political
issues is censored by addressing the
publicÊs perception of politicians (as
incompetent and out of touch with our
ever-changing priorities), over and above
an informative dialogue over the
countryÊs lack of affordable housing,
spiralling debt, environmental abuse and
Both MPs spoke at the conference. Neil,
involved with asylum issues for more than
20 years, has 450–500 cases at any one
time. HeÊs not hopeful:
„It (has been) harder to get ministries
involved in individual cases, but now itÊs
impossible‰. Jon Cruddas is not optimistic
either. He views the move to right wing
36
Dr Cornelius Katona, Judith Anderson (Chair) and Dr Frank Arnold
www.ukcp.org.uk
02/07/2008
22:35
Page 37
diminishing self-efficacy of our younger
citizens. Our collective gaze seems
hypnotised, looking for someone to
blame, someone else to be accountable.
A little tale of what happened
to me some time ago
Counsellors and psychotherapists can
contribute to the understanding of our
cultureÊs dynamics. How we marginalise,
turn away from one another, how we
relate to each other as human beings. It is
the human to human relationship that
fosters empathy, doubt, shame and hope.
Empathy validates experience and
embraces shadow as well as light. When a
personÊs life experience is beyond our
imagined possibility, doubt can niggle and
nibble away at our perceptions and so the
other personÊs truth. Disbelief can erode
hope and promote collusion. And shame?
Shame is what blinds when responsibility
finds a resting place.Whether resting with
the individual or a society, an intolerable
sense of responsibility can push us to place
blame and to scapegoat, censor ourselves
and others.
I needed a repair job done on my house
and so I asked a nice young man, whom
I had known for a long while, if he could
spare the time to do it for me. It would
only take 20 minutes at the most. He
came willingly, he is a nice chap and
when he had finished what I needed
doing we sat down and had a cup of
coffee before he left.
Most people at that point feel as though
they had been hit by a brick and are
stunned beyond belief. Often they get
very angry and blame all kinds of thing,
even their GP, for the situation they are
in, finding all kinds of reasons why they
have been told a great big lie! At that
stage they are in a state of
bereavement.
He knows what work I do so I was
very surprised when, over the kitchen
table he suddenly said:
I donÊt believe in all this counselling lark,
I think it is a lot of rubbish.‰
Now, if that person has no-one to
understand how they feel they could
easily go into what is known as a clinical
depression, which is a very serious
illness. Happily not everyone who
becomes seriously visually impaired
reached absolute rock bottom and this
is usually due to the fact that they
sought help in time. However, going into
a totally different world from the one
into which we were born can be very
frightening.
Today we were asked to own our authority
as professionals and consider how we
might come together and give voice to the
human damage we witness in our
counselling and psychotherapy rooms, and
contribute to the public consciousness. We
were asked to consider acting upon our
collective therapeutic knowledge and move
beyond the political and personal. To
consider how we might have a part in
elevating human dignity and respect above
political pandering and public fear. To shine
a light in the shadows where secrets fester,
names are meaningless and strangers live in
limbo.
Pablo Van Schravendyk
Biography
Pablo Van Schravendyk is the Counselling
Manager for Youthreach (London) and in
private practice.
References
i Psychotherapists and Counsellors for
Social Responsibility www.pcsr.org.uk
ii Read her story and campaign at
www.ncadc.org.uk
iii www.bannertheatre.co.uk
iv www.medicaljustice.org.uk
The Psychotherapist
I was quite taken aback at the time but
I just said „Oh yes? Why?‰ and he
replied that he gets depressed from
time to time, and it may go on for a
week or even longer, but he pulls
himself out of it! – he doesnÊt need
anybody to talk to! – and then he
laughed.
What he was describing was a
condition that most of us go through
from time to time – we call it being
depressed, but itÊs nearer to being just
Âdown in the dumpsÊ. Life isnÊt giving us
what we expect of it, or something has
gone badly wrong and we donÊt know
what to do about it.
However, soon comes a day somebody
is very pleased to see you, nice to you
about something or itÊs just a lovely day.
The birds are singing, the atmosphere
feels wonderful outside and itÊs warm
and a little breezy, or the person you
had a row with a few weeks ago comes
up and speaks to you, or telephones as
if nothing untoward has happened.
Whatever it was, we get over it.
The young man I talked about is not
visually impaired. He has good sight but
is probably lacking in confidence. What
he understands by the word depression
is nothing at all like the feeling a person
has when they are told either that there
is nothing more can be done to save
their sight, or that if they try a certain
procedure it may not be successful.
It is thought that blindness is the most
feared of all disabilities. It is unique, in
that it takes away our spatial awareness,
eye contact with other people and
therefore the ability to read their body
language. Often we do not know where
we are, even in our own homes! The
older a person is, the more difficult it is
to lean all the new techniques which
may be of help. Few people are
immediately ready to learn how to use
a white cane of read Braille and the
thought at that point, of having anything
as complicated as some of the new
technology, is just beyond the pale. If it
becomes necessary it can al be learned
later on, after the terrible shock which
has temporarily damaged the whole
nervous system has been overcome.
After they have received the devastating
news, this ifs often the point at which
they first seek professional help in
getting over the emotional and
psychological problems which sight loss
brings in its wake. Ideally, someone who
really understand what they are feeling,
should be around to catch them when
they feel as if they are falling off the
world. This is where I come in.
Success can only be achieved by talking,
37
02/07/2008
22:35
Page 38
talking, talking and listening all the time.
Sighted people are usually so fearful of
blindness themselves that whilst they
try their hardest to be kind and
understanding, they often have a reverse
effect, causing more hurt than help.
Become
involved in
UKCP’s work
There are many forms and causes of
blindness. When people come to me for
the first time, they are usually very
distressed. Seeing them at regular
intervals, we strike up a relationship
which enables them to ask more
questions and for me to support them
as they begin a new way of life.
UKCP Service Development
Committee: help develop UKCP to
meet registrants and MOsÊ needs
Any visually impaired person, whether
partially sighted or totally blind, comes
within my remit. I have completely
dedicated my life to this work and as far
as I am aware, am the only blind
registered psychotherapist who
specialises in helping visually impaired
people.
Time commitment
Two meetings a year in London plus
occasional teleconferences and
consultation via e-mail.
Knowing a little more now, I hope you
will not think that what I am doing is
rubbish! It is not unknown for people
to hear laughter coming from my room
from time to time – itÊs not all doom
and gloom.
Ellen Daniels
UKCP registered psychotherapist
Ellen Daniels has a rare form of
Retinitis Pigmentosa, and has
experienced different stages of
blindness during her lifetime of 80
years.
EllenÊs work is entirely with people who
are visually impaired or totally blind –
both men and women – from the age
of 18 onwards.
Write for The Psychotherapist
Do you, or your MO, have a
particular group of clients that you
specialise in working with? Or are
you involved in a particular project
you think innovative or unusual?
Then contact the Managing Editor.
Jude Cohen-Phillips, to discuss writing
an article for The Psychotherapist.
[email protected]
38
Role
Oversight of all current services and
the planning and development of new
services.
Conference Co-ordinating
Committee: providing CPD and
networking opportunities nationwide,
through partnership
Role
This new committee will oversee the
development of joint UKCP
conferences.
MOs and Sections will be invited to
suggest conference themes.
programmes and speakers, and assist
with finding a venue and providing
volunteers on the day. UKCP will help
as appropriate with programme
development, promoting the conference
and the administration of bookings.
Time commitment
Following an initial meeting in London,
the committee will decide how it
wishes to conduct meetings, face-toface, by teleconference or by e-mail.
Membership Committee:
Role
The membership committee considers
applications for membership of UKCP
from training, accrediting and listing
organisations.
As we move towards a new Shape for
UKCP, however, the Membership
CommitteeÊs work takes on a new
perspective and importance.
The Membership Committee has
vacancies for UKCP registrants from
across all modality Sections and
Institutional Members. We would love
to have some Ânew bloodÊ committee
members who are interested in and
have some experience of organisational
standards, ethics and governance issues,
as well as those who may have ideas
about what it should mean to be a
member, whether individual or
organisational, of UKCP.
Time commitment
Four meetings a year in London, some
teleconferences and e-mail
consultations.
Ethics Committee: protecting the ethical
foundations of our work as
psychotherapists
Role
As well as carrying out work around
UKCPÊs Code of Ethics, the Ethics
Committee plays a wider role.
Having run two successful annual Ethics
Conferences, the committee hopes to
run a joint conference with the
Diversity and Equalities Committee in
2009.
The Ethics Committee also encourages
registrants to become involved in
discussions of ethical issues, through
articles and inviting answers to
Frequently Asked Questions in The
Psychotherapist.
The Ethics Committee is also seeking
new blood, to carry its important work
forward.
Time commitment
Four meetings a year in London.
Consultation on documents via
teleconferences and e-mail.
More information
If you are interested in receiving more
information or offering to join any of
UKCPÊs committees, contact:
[email protected]
Shape Development Group:
preparing UKCP for the Future
See the article on pages 26/7 for more
details
www.ukcp.org.uk
02/07/2008
22:35
Page 39
New UKCP registered psychotherapists
Sally Pauline
Heidi Angelina
Elizabeth
Richard
Susan Clare
Karen Tina
Rosemary
Karen
Julia
Donna Margaret
Julie
Osvalda Maria
Penelope Ann
Elizabeth
Rodney
Catherine
Frances
Janice
Helen Louise
Carolyn Jane
James
Nicola Jane
Peter Michael
Karen
Sarah Margaret
Janette
Rachael Mary
Fiona
Sharon
Steve
Rebecca Mary
Nicola
Coral Elinor
Judy
Robina
Nicholas
Constance M
Jo
Sue
Maria Eugenia
Clare
Talia
Abbott
FPC
Amey
ITA
Aspinall
IATE
Backes
FPC
Berry
PET
Blumenfeld
ITA
Bowden
AIP
Bresloff
MC
Bueno
MC
Butler
IATE
Caulfield
BPA
Cerati-Harrod
MC
Chipps
BPS
Church
ScPTI
Collins
UPCA
Crabtree
UPCA
Currie
UPCA
Cusick
AFT
Davies
ITA
Deane Gore
AFT
Eyre
BABCP
Ferguson
UPCA
Flowerdew
ITA
Francis
UPCA
Frettingham
ITA
Gale
SPTI
Gardner
ACAT
Gilmour
IATE
Gl‹½ersen
IATE
Hall
BCPC
Hanson
FPC
Harris
ITA
Harrison
ITA
Henry
AFT
Husain-Naviatti UPCA
Irving
ITA
Kaine
BPA
Keats
BPA
King
FIC
Kol
MC
Leigh Browne
VAPP
Levine Bar Yoseph MET
Claire-Louise
Leyland
Kim Natalie
Lockyer
Daniel
McAvoy
Carmel
McCartan
Denise
McHugh
Brian David
McMinn
Marc
Medina
Jennifer Anne
Moody
Kareen Elizabeth Morgan
Eunice Margaret Mortimer
Tricia
Mulcahy
Lawrence
Nam
Kath
Nurse
Aideen
OÊHagan
Michelle A RL
Oldale
Exarmenia
Pappa
Exarmenia
Pappa
Zaibunnisha
Patel
Gerhard Franz Payrhuber
Caroline
Penney
Nils Soren
Petter
Stewart Douglas Pollard
Beverley Ann
Pretty
Graham W
Price
Vivien
Price
Alida
Roberts
Paula
Robinson
Jane
Saunders
Sharon Elaine
Soper
Jane
Stephens
Fiona Dorothy Switzer
Lelia Grazia
Tanti
Gill Claire
Theodoreson
Sharon
Toye
Malcolm
Toyer
Julie
Walker
Penelope Ann
Weighell
Sandra Elizabeth Westland
David Geraint
Wilcox
Ian William PatrickWonnacott
MET
AFT
MET
GUILD
BABCP
MET
UPCA
CAP
ITA
ITA
MC
CCOPPP
BASRT
ITA
SPTI
ScPTI
ScPTI
AFT
MET
AFT
UPCA
ITA
WMIP
BABCP
ACAT
ITA
ITA
BCPC
AFT
ACAT
BABCP
ScPTI
BCPC
BCPC
BABCP
BCPC
ACAT
UPCA
BABCP
AREBT
New UKCP registered
psychotherapeutic counsellors
Firstname
Jane
Jeremy
Jane
Jane
Diane Elizabeth
Pamela Mary
Lesley
Surname
Cherry
Christey
Douglas
Eustace
Fernyhough
Ive
Mackinnon
MO
FPC
CPC
WPF
UPCA
WPF
WPF
WPF
Vesna
Rosemary Ann
Naomi Louise
Julia Mary
John
Mary-Rose
Erica Ma
Mandic-Bozic
Raddon
Rae
Rickett
Skitt
Thompson
Wilson
CPC
CPC
CPC
WPF
WPF
WPF
CPC
Congratulations and welcome to you all.
The Psychotherapist
39
02/07/2008
22:35
Page 40
the psychotherapist events
Events
5th to 7th June 2009 – Manchester
Unravelling the mysteries of relationships:
MIND THE GAP!
The Northern School of Psychodrama
Dr. Olivia Lousada 01457 877161
[email protected]
7thJune
Discovering the Labyrinth with Elizabeth
Clarke.
A one day workshop to learn about and
experience the amazing ancient pattern of
the labyrinth. Details from:
www.synthesise.org or tel: 01625 260721
13th & 14thJune
The Dark in the Light with Chris
Robertson.
Exploring the organisation shadow and how
it undermines success. Details form:
18th June- Manchester
Race, Culture and Psychological
Perspectives
Promoting a better understanding of
psychological health and well being of BME
communities. Details from: www.bmementalhealth.co.uk or tel: 07985 702 149
20th & 21st June
Beyond the Fragments with John Shiers,
Louis Taeijon and Elizabeth Andrew
An introduction to the vision and techniques
of Psychosynthesis. Details from:
21st June - Hereford
And They Lived Happily Ever After ⁄
The Jungian Seminars Day Workshop
working with Fairy Tales, led by Antonia Boll
Details from:Tel. 01432 272170
www.hereford-monmouth-jungians.org.uk
Friday 27th June
London Metropolitan University
Director Penny Woolcock in
conversation with Nicola Abel-Hirsch
As part of the Holloway Arts Festival 2008.
Tickets: £12/£8. Details from:
www.connectingconversations.org
27th June - Lancaster
The Role of the Body in Contemporary
Psychotherapy
A one day conference, four international
speakers. Details from: [email protected]
Friday 4th July
The Resource Centre
Director Mike Leigh in conversation with
Andrea Sabbadini
As part of the Holloway Arts Festival 2008,
Tickets: £15/£8. Details From:
40
5th July - Islington, London N1
Conference
Child and Adolescent Psychiatry:
Diagnosis Explained and Treatment
Explored (Asperger's, Autism, ADHD, Conduct
Disorders, Oppositional Defiance, PTSD,
Depression, Anxiety Disorders)
The Centre for Child Mental Health
2-18 Britannia Row, London N1 8PA.
Details from: 020 7354 2913
www.childmentalhealthcentre.org
5th & 6th July
The Dance of Life with Jessica Bockler
Explore your inner landscape through guided
meditation, expressive play, movement and
voice. Details from: www.synthesise.org
or tel: 01625 260721
12th to 13th July - London
"She won't stand up for herself"
Introductory workshop.
London School of Biodynamic Psychotherapy
[email protected] www.LSBP.org.uk
Sunday 13th July
The Anna Freud Centre
Children's author Julia Donaldson in
conversation with Fatima Martinez del
Solar
JTickets: £12/£8
Details From:
14th July - Lincoln, Lincolnshire
The Heart and Soul of Change - What
Works in Therapy Workshop by Dr Barry L
Duncan, Psy.D. Details from: Laura Pritchard,
Postgraduate Administrator, Lincolnshire
Partnership NHS Foundation Trust
[email protected]
01522 573517
July 16th - London Repeated July 17th
Working with the breath and patterns of
defence- Gillie Gilbert
26th July - London
Phoenixpsychodrama
One day psychodrama workshop on the
theme of bereavement and loss
Details from: www.phoenixpsychodrama.com
or tel 07765968361
21st-25th August - London
Bank Holiday Intensive workshop.
Details from: 0207 7263 4290
13th September - London
UKAHPP Workshop: Humanistic Lifecoaching John Gloster Smith
Details From: www.ahpp.org or tel:
08457 660326
13th to 14th September- London
Insight through the Body Introductory weekend workshop
16th September- London
Biodynamic massage introductory course.
Six Tuesday mornings.
Repeated 18th September
The Body and the Language - Claudia de
Campos.
20th September - Islington, London N1
Trauma: Brain Science,Treatment and
Understanding with Dr Bessel Van der Kolk
2-18 Britannia Row, London N1 8PA
25th September
The Anna Freud Centre
Children's Laureate Michael Rosen in
conversation with Hannah Solemani
Michael Rosen talks about his work and the
part reading plays in the emotional life of
children. Tickets: £12/£8. Details From:
27th September - Bristol
Refional Connections
The first of a series of UKCP days for
registrants, to explore regional perspectives
relevant to registrants in South West
England, in a variety of ways.
The programme includes a consultation
workshop on Continued Professional
Development (CPD) and an update on
developments in statutory regulation
Bookings: tel: 020 7014 9966
[email protected]
27th September - Islington, London N1
Family Breakdown, Divorce and Parents
Fighting: Helping Children and Young
People Recover and Work Through
UKAHPP Workshop:
Experiencing Community Laurie Slade
Social dreaming & inter-personal community,
mandalas and intra-psychic community.
www.ahpp.org, or phone 08457 660326
www.ukcp.org.uk
02/07/2008
22:35
Page 41
the psychotherapist events
28th September - London
Ongoing monthly psychodrama therapy
group Phoenix psychodrama
Details from: www.phoenixpsychodrama.com
or tel 07765968361
1st - 3rd October - Manchester
The Royal College of Psychiatrists
The Principles & Skills in Using CBT Selfhelp Approaches Education and Training
Centre. Details from: 020 7481 4842
3rd October- London
LSBP Diploma Course in Biodynamic
Body Psychotherapy
020 7263 4290 [email protected]
www.LSBP.org.uk
4th October - Islington, London N1
Conference.
Healing Parent-Child Relationships:
Tools,Techniques and How To Be
15th October - London
Repeated 16th October
Levels of Interaction and Levels of
Language Clover Southwell
11th October - central London
UKCP / Karnac WritersÊ workshop
A workshop for registrants who want to
write a book but need some advice, who
have an idea for a book but need help
developing it further, or who have written a
dissertation and wonder if it could become a
book.
Meet members of the editorial board of the
joint UKCP/Karnac series and explore how
to proceed. £50 incl. lunch.
Bookings: tel: 020 7014 9966
[email protected]
Further details from:
[email protected]
18th October - Islington, London N1
Conference
How Not to Make a Thug. A Wealth of
Successful Interventions
18th October
Donna Orange PhD, PsyD
'Intersubjective vulnerability in the
therapeutic dialogue'
Bath Centre for Psychotherapy and
Counselling. Details from: 01225 429720
[email protected] www.bcpc.org.uk
The Psychotherapist
18th October - Southampton
UKAHPP Workshop: Anger, Friend or Foe?
Henry Fryer
Creative ways of working with our own
anger and the anger of others.
26th - 28th November 2008 - London
The Royal College of Psychiatrists
The Principles & Skills in Using CBT Selfhelp Approaches
Education and Training Centre
26th October - London
Phoenixpsychodrama
group. Details from: tel 07765968361
www.phoenixpsychodrama.com,
6th December- London
UKAHPP Workshop: New Light on the
Dialogical
1st November - Islington, London N1
Conference
Helping Children Speak About Feelings:
What To Say and How To Be
020 7354 2913
1st November- London
UKAHPP Workshop:
Psychophysical Integration Brigitta
Mowat/Glen Park. Details from:
www.ahpp.org, or tel: 08457 660326
Sunday 2nd November
The Freud Museum
Writer and literary critic Al Alvarez in
conversation with Ted Jacobs
Tickets: £12/£8. Details From:
4th November- London
Biodynamic massage introductory course.
Six Tuesday mornings.
020 7263 4290 [email protected]
www.LSBP.org.uk
8th to 9th November- London
The diaphragm is the gateway to the
unconscious Introductory weekend workshop.
UKAHPP Workshop:
Anger, Friend or Foe. Henry Fryer
Creative ways of working with our own
anger tan the anger of others.
Repeated 20th November
Reviewing the biodynamic principles and
assessing the potential they offer - Elya
Steinberg.
23rd November - London
Phoenixpsychodrama
group. Details from: tel 07765968361
www.phoenixpsychodrama.com
14th December - London
Phoenixpsychodrama
group
Details from:
www.phoenixpsychodrama.com, or tel
07765968361
27th December- London
UKAHPP Workshop: Adler's Life Tasks
Tony Williams
Lively exploration of Career, Communal Live
& Sex, Love & Intimacy.
www.ahpp.org , or phone 08457 660326
Advertising with
UKCP:
There are a number of ways to
advertsise with UKCP
In The Psychotherapist:
Free events ads
Download a form from the website
or e-mail a request for one.
Approximately 30 words, longer ads
will be refused or cut to fit space.
Display ads
The current rates and deadlines for
advertising are on the website under
Publications - The Psychoterapist
On the website:
Free events ads
The same conditions as for
advertising in The Psychotherapist,
we can also ad links to flyers/booking
forms or you own website
Free consulting room ads
If you have a consulting room for
hire send details and we will add it to
the consulting rooms for hire section
of our website.
Free job ads
If you have a relevant job
advertisement for UKCP
registrants we can carry your
advertisement, along with
application packs and/or links to
your own website.
All advertisement bookings and
queries to [email protected]
41
02/07/2008
22:35
Page 42
the psychotherapist continuing professional development
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02/07/2008
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The Psychotherapist
43
02/07/2008
22:35
Page 44
44
www.ukcp.org.uk
02/07/2008
22:35
Page 45
To advertise in The Psychotherapist contact [email protected] 020 7014 9955
45
02/07/2008
22:35
Page 46
46
www.ukcp.org.uk
02/07/2008
22:35
Page 47
To advertise in The Psychotherapist contact [email protected] 020 7014 9955
47
02/07/2008
22:35
Page 48
48
www.ukcp.org.uk
02/07/2008
22:35
Page 49
02/07/2008
22:35
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Now

Transcription

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