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Our lively editorial platform, serving you with enriching and engaging reads from world leading therapists, psychologists and other key voices several times a week.

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Reproductive Trauma: Multiple Forms, Clinical Manifestations

  • 3rd Nov 2022
  • Julie Bindeman

We will all encounter the impact of reproductive trauma in our client work. But we may not always know it. From intergenerational trauma to disenfranchised grief, issues related to reproduction often lie deep beneath the presenting problem, sometimes buried within a family history or silenced by social norms. In the second of two posts ahead of PESI UK’s Women’s Trauma Summit 2022, reproductive psychologist Julie Bindeman draws our attention to the huge range of ways in which reproductive trauma can show up in clinic, and be experienced by our clients.

Shock, Anger, Fear and Grief: Abortion Rights in Clinic

  • 2nd Nov 2022
  • Julie Bindeman

How is the upending of Roe v Wade impacting the psychological health of women? In the first of two posts ahead of PESI UK’s Women’s Trauma Summit 2022, reproductive psychologist Julie Bindeman reflects on how the decision to limit abortion rights in the US has reverberated in her clinic, including among clients not ‘directly’ affected by the landmark decision – from the ratcheting up of existing anxieties to the awakening of new fears.

The Power of Groupwork with Refugees

  • 28th Oct 2022
  • Jude Boyles

Connection and community are critical to mental health, and often missing in the lives of recently resettled refugees. Jude Boyles, the manager of a Refugee Council therapy service and co-editor of a new book on groupwork with refugees, shares her encounter with one Afghan client who struggled to communicate that it was not counselling she needed for her depression – but the chance to meet other women with similar questions and struggles.

Perinatal History 2/2: Exploring Earliest Life, Making Meaning

  • 25th Oct 2022
  • Florence Nadaud

What sorts of useful information might perinatal context afford? How might we start to explore this sensitively with a young person’s parents or caregivers? In the second of two blog posts about the importance of including perinatal history in assessment, Florence Nadaud, child and adolescent psychodynamic psychotherapist, urges us not to skip the opening chapters of our clients’ lives.

Navigating Dissociation: Therapists, Know Thyself!

  • 21st Oct 2022
  • Jamie Marich

Many clients with dissociative minds get a message that they are inherently dangerous or ‘too much to handle’. Some therapist trainings unhelpfully reinforce clinicians’ fears. Ahead of PESI UK’s Women’s Trauma Summit 2022, trauma specialist and EMDR trainer Jamie Marich shares their own experience with Dissociative Disorder – and introduces a personal inventory exercise we can all use to deepen our understanding and normalise the experiences of even our most dissociative clients.

Perinatal History 1/2: The Missing Piece in Adolescent Assessments

  • 18th Oct 2022
  • Florence Nadaud

Enquiring as far back as pregnancy and birth can reveal the best path forward for therapy, regardless of our clients’ age. In some cases, clinical formulation can even hinge on it. In the first of two blog posts on taking perinatal histories, Florence Nadaud, child and adolescent psychodynamic psychotherapist, shares her work with one young person whose traumatic birth story shed new light on his current difficulties – and, just as crucially, helped her to reflect on parental and professional attitudes towards his presentation.

Sex and Therapy 6/6: How do Sex Therapists Work?

  • 14th Oct 2022
  • Cate Campbell

What do sex therapists actually do? Which clinical interventions and exercises are key, and where might the work begin and end? Concluding her blog series on sex and therapy, psychosexual therapist, supervisor and author Cate Campbell outlines the basics of the cognitive-behavioural approach used by most sex therapists, and explains how an emphasis on personal experience over ‘outcomes’ helps to overcome anxiety and build mutuality.

Therapist Mental Health: 10 (Sometimes Surprising) Ways to Support Ourselves

  • 10th Oct 2022
  • Blog Editor

Making mental health a priority is something we therapists commit ourselves to on a daily basis… except, perhaps, when it comes to our own. To mark World Mental Health Day 2022, we recommend posts from fellow therapists that inspire us to focus on our own wellbeing – whether we’re rebalancing our nervous systems, getting playful, integrating mindfulness, movement and self-compassion, or addressing our shame and embracing our failures.

Sex and Therapy 5/6: Less Common Presentations

  • 7th Oct 2022
  • Cate Campbell

As therapists, we may never have heard of sexomnia, postcoital dysphoria or persistent genital arousal disorder – and chances are that clients struggling with these more unusual sexual issues won’t have heard of them either. In the penultimate part of her blog series on sex and therapy, psychosexual therapist, supervisor and author Cate Campbell introduces some less common sexual presentations – including how to recognise them, when to reassure, and where to refer on.

Mother-Daughter Conflict: The Canary in the Coal Mine

  • 5th Oct 2022
  • Rosjke Hasseldine

Arguments between mothers and daughters can speak volumes – when we learn to listen systemically. Rosjke Hasseldine, author, trainer and specialist in mother-daughter dynamics, explains why she always begins her client work by mapping the female family history, and shares how the cross-generational silencing of women’s voices often emerges as the loudest running theme.