Blog

Dr Kathrin Stauffer on working with early emotional neglect, from common presentations and pitfalls to the role of creative resourcing and countertransferential responses – and the vital importance of scaling down the challenge. Part 4 in our new PESI UK Blog series, Free Clinical Conversations: An Hour With an Expert.

Arielle Schwartz shares essential insights and mind-body skills for helping clients with complex trauma, from navigating symptomatic overwhelm and phobic avoidance to understanding self-blame, shame and shutdown. Part 3 in our new PESI UK Blog series, Free Clinical Conversations: An Hour With an Expert.

The school year is drawing to a close amid reports of rising pupil absences and warnings of a ‘national crisis in education’. But what is being done to understand and address the psychological aspects of persistent absenteeism, including unmet additional needs? Suzy Rowland, CBT practitioner, autism / ADHD specialist trainer and founder of the happyinschool project, reflects on the difficult emotional dynamics around what is still unhelpfully termed ‘school refusal’ – and shares some suggestions for improving communication between school, families and children.

Pat Ogden on the impact of trauma on protective responses, tracking truncated action in the tiniest of movements, and how we can work through the body to both process the past and resource for the present. Part 2 in our new PESI UK Blog series, Free Clinical Conversations: An Hour With an Expert.

Janina Fisher, world-renowned trauma and attachment specialist, on the gendered stigma of BPD diagnoses – and how a trauma-informed reframing can liberate our female clients. Part 1 in our new PESI UK Blog series, Free Clinical Conversations: An Hour With an Expert.

It may be mistaken for dissociative experiences, dysmorphia, even psychosis. But clients who are plagued by existential doubts and ‘what ifs?’ may actually be experiencing a lesser-known form of Obsessive Compulsive Disorder. Dr Karen Cassiday, clinical psychologist and specialist in anxiety disorders, sets out the key differentiating features of existential OCD – and describes some of the disturbing ideas and desperate behaviours we may notice in its presence.

Why are some client communities still being referred to as ‘hard to reach’? This framing says much about therapy’s inadequate reckoning with structural oppression, and limited understanding of what access to therapy services – and indeed therapy trainings – really means. Myira Khan, founder of the Muslim Counselling and Psychotherapist Network and author of the forthcoming Working Within Diversity, explains why we must move beyond talk of ‘inclusion’– and shares some key pointers for anti-oppressive practice.

Taking a proactive stance against racism means engaging our minds, bodies and interpersonal selves. How can we develop the capacities we need for this essential and often deeply challenging work? Psychotherapist Eugene Ellis, founder of the Black, African and Asian Therapy Network, author of The Race Conversation and co-editor of the new book Therapy in Colour, outlines three core resources to help therapists stay on – or come to – the path of anti-racist practice.

What is resilience, and where does it come from? For psychoanalyst and professor of clinical psychology Clara Mucci, the answer lies securely with early attachment – while the responsibility must extend to political and social practices. Here, the author of Resilience and Survival discusses the central relevance of affect regulation to any understanding of resilience, and shares some clinical pointers for addressing interpersonal and intergenerational traumatisation.

How can we determine readiness for trauma processing? What skills and capacities need fostering in our traumatised clients before we take the next step? Rebecca Kase, leading EMDR consultant and author of a forthcoming book integrating Polyvagal Theory and EMDR, introduces the Preparation Hierarchy – a simple, neuro-informed framework that can help all therapists to pace, and prepare clients for, deep trauma work.