Blog

Older people have often been overlooked in psychotherapy literature, and Freud even went so far as to state that people over 50 could not benefit from psychoanalysis. For Helen Kewell, this is a huge loss, both for an aging population that needs support, and for the therapy profession itself. The author of a new book of case studies focused on older clients, here she explains why such work is not just necessary and meaningful, but helps us grow as therapists.

Working imaginatively with what a client brings, rather than interpreting it, can help us to amplify unconscious material and explore feelings. This, argues Sarah Van Gogh, is where real change lies. In the next two parts of her series on creativity and trauma, she presents case extracts that reveal how imaginary dialogue helped a client with chronic back pain.

For leading body psychotherapist Michael Soth, the main regulator of the intensity of feeling – for both client and therapist – is the breath. But how much do most of us really know or understand about breathing? And how can we navigate the myriad existing traditions and techniques of breathwork? In preparation for a groundbreaking CPD weekend in May, here he outlines the importance of an integrative approach to working actively with the breath.

In our first Friday Focus series, Sarah Van Gogh is exploring the role of creativity in trauma work. Using the fictionalised case example of Belle and her recurring dream of a doomed astronaut, in her second blog she explores how working imaginatively with dreams can help clients to gradually integrate early trauma.

What do Polyvagal Theory, Sensorimotor Psychotherapy, Somatic Experiencing and Interpersonal Neurobiology have in common? They all encourage nervous system awareness and regulation as a key to wellbeing. To mark Stress Awareness Month this April, psychotherapist and Director of Psychotherapy Excellence, Tracy Jarvis, explains how we can help clients to identify positive and negative stress, befriend their bodies, and ultimately regulate their own nervous systems.

In the first of our Friday Focus series, Sarah Van Gogh will be exploring the role of creativity in trauma work. Over the next four weeks, she will show how helping traumatised clients to express themselves imaginatively increases their capacity to process un-integrated experiences. Today, she introduces this ‘third way’ of working with trauma, which neither risks destabilisation on the one hand, or superficial engagement on the other. On subsequent Fridays, she will use fictionalised case vignettes to illustrate how working with music, poetry or the client’s own imaginings can unfold in practice.

How many of your therapy clients are autistic? And what about your therapist colleagues? Caroline Hearst, who trained as an art psychotherapist and now works as an autism acceptance educator, suggests the numbers are far higher than we think. To mark World Autism Awareness Day, the founder of Autism Matters talks training gaps, internalised oppression, and the dangers of assuming neurotypicality and pathologising autism.

How can therapy reach out to some of the most vulnerable and excluded women in society? Founded by Pip Hockton in 2005, Street Talk is a charity that takes therapy to women in street prostitution using a pioneering model rooted in Object Relations Theory. In the hope of encouraging others to carry the work forward, Hockton has defined this approach in a new book. As she explains here, the aim is to help women to encounter their own humanity.

Instinctive self-protection comes at a price. In the moment of trauma, the prefrontal cortex goes ‘offline’ and we lose our ability to bear witness to the entirety of the experience. Ahead of a special London workshop in April, Dr Janina Fisher explains how traditional treatments fall short. Instead, she proposes a new approach to trauma based on mindful dual-awareness, which serves to sound the ‘all-clear’ signal, and restore that crucial ability to observe our own responses.

The UK is currently in the grip of a colossal identity crisis – something therapists know rather a lot about. With the clock ticking ever louder on the UK’s withdrawal from the European Union, Professor Sarah Niblock, CEO of UK Council for Psychotherapy (UKCP), considers the nature of ‘Brexit anxiety’, and the vital importance of understanding ourselves before we can move forward.