Blog

Love is fundamental to human lives, cropping up repeatedly in client narratives and consulting room dynamics. But how much do we understand about it? Dr Divine Charura, editor of Love and Therapy, continues his five-part series on the role of love in life and psychotherapy with two vignettes around compassion and erotic transference in the therapeutic relationship

Empowering clients to speak up for their rights is a complicated business – especially when they have arrived in the UK via refugee camps and war zones. Therapists may find themselves working with guilt and fear, and needing to encourage a sense of justice in the consulting room. Jude Boyles is the Manager and a therapist of a Refugee Council therapy service based in South Yorkshire, offering therapy to Syrian refugees resettled via the Vulnerable Persons Resettlement Programme (VPRS). In her fifth occasional blog about this work, she recalls clients who have been reticent to challenge and complain

Love is fundamental to human lives, cropping up repeatedly in client narratives and consulting room dynamics. But how much do we understand about it? Dr Divine Charura, editor of Love and Therapy, continues his five-part series on the role of love in life and psychotherapy with a look at attachment research, mirror neurons and the contributions of Polyvgal Theory.

If processing is not ‘healing,’ then what is? This is the question internationally renowned trauma specialist Dr Janina Fisher began pondering five years ago. Ahead of a special PESI UK training in March, she explains why trauma treatment needs rethinking – and why ‘healing’ needs defining.

Love is fundamental to human lives, cropping up repeatedly in client narratives and consulting room dynamics. But how much do we understand about it? On Valentine’s Day, Dr Divine Charura, editor of Love and Therapy, kick-starts a five-part series on the role of love in life and psychotherapy. Today, he explains his fascination with the topic, and outlines eight types of love.

We all understand the value of self-care, but often those of us in caring professions find it very hard to walk the talk. As part of a new partnership with PESI UK, Counselling Directory offers five tips for ensuring you are getting the replenishment and support all practitioners need, from regular peer get-togethers to being clear of your own boundaries

Sexual abuse and violence are profoundly disempowering. To mark Sexual Abuse and Sexual Violence Awareness Week, psychotherapist Erene Hadjiioannou, author of a forthcoming textbook on working with survivors, explains how we can co-create an empowering clinical environment by enabling clients to make choices around practical matters and language use.

When a playful quality begins to enter sessions, child psychotherapist Deirdre Dowling knows an important shift is occurring for her client. In this blog to coincide with Children’s Mental Health Week, the author considers the challenges of working with young people who, due to crises in the family, have experienced the cumulative trauma of unmet developmental needs. What can get missed in brief interventions, she suggests, is the vital importance of developing these children’s capacity to play.

How is the modern workplace affecting our mental health? And how might psychotherapists find themselves being recruited to serve the economy rather than the client? David Frayne is the editor of a recent book about the hijacking of therapy for the purposes of work discipline. We wondered what he would make of ‘National Sickie Day’.