Blog

When does child safeguarding become a safeguarding issue in its own right? When child protection procedures are implemented without cultural competence, and without listening to the experiences of the children whose family roles and values are being pathologised. Gretchen Precey, independent social worker, draws therapists’ attention to the traumatising impact of some state interventions as she shares her encounter with one Eritrean teenager whose anxiety, depression and tics told a complex story.

Far from the wishy-washy passivity with which it is sometimes associated, person-centered therapy has in fact been busy taking on new and exciting forms. Ahead of a FREE live workshop this Friday (March 17 2023), leading author and trainer Mick Cooper outlines key developments in this dynamic contemporary field, including shifts around process direction and relational depth, and some proactively person-centered approaches to research.

Institutional anxiety, unrealistic expectations around risk, and a corrosive undermining of clinical work… University counsellors are under huge pressure, argues psychoanalytic psychotherapist Alan Percy, and the emphasis on waiting lists is both compounding the problem and missing the point. As we mark University Mental Health Day 2023, the former Head of Counselling Service at University of Oxford considers dynamics at play in the university sector, including media attention around suicides – and speaks up for the vital role and proven value of short-term student counselling.

More likely to seek our support, yet less likely to experience a good therapeutic outcome: evidence suggests sexual minority women are being underserved in therapy. As we mark International Women’s Day 2023, Counselling Psychologist and ACT trainer Aisling Leonard-Curtin considers what ‘embracing equity’ means for this client group, and suggests how therapists might develop our insight and resources so that all women – regardless of identity, orientation or behaviour – feel seen, heard and understood.

What are the four phases of the menstrual cycle, and how might we support a client to become more in tune with these inner seasons? In the second of two blog posts, embodied psychotherapist Kate Merrick outlines the hormonal fluctuations that can shape phenomenological experience for many clients, from states of clarity and creativity to irritability and heightened intuition – and invites us to work with, rather than against, these natural rhythms.

As therapists, we are used to working with a degree of ambivalence about being ‘seen’. But what about those clients, including individuals with body dysmorphic disorder, for whom the experience of being looked at can feel unbearable? How might we work in face-to-face therapy when our own gaze causes intense anguish? Psychotherapist Dr Nicole Schnackenberg, a specialist in BDD, discusses helpful conceptualisations, adjustments and meeting points when we’re in the room with body-focused shame.

The wisdom of the body is now widely accepted in mainstream therapies. Yet this is often to the exclusion of the menstrual cycle, despite its powerful connection for many of us with changes in energy, mood, emotion and somatic sensitivity. In the first of two blog posts, embodied psychotherapist Kate Merrick encourages therapists to speak into this cultural silence – and suggests how we might help clients to learn about and connect with a vital self-care system.

Shame is an exceedingly vulnerable state that calls for great tenderness and delicacy on the part of the therapist – as Susan Warren Warshow learned through trial and error. Here, the author of The Therapist’s Handbook to Dissolve Shame and Defense and her upcoming The Practice of DEFT: A Shame Sensitive Workbook reflects on the process of developing her shame sensitivity – including requesting feedback, reframing interventions and communicating compassion for internal conflict.

When a client feels stuck, bringing attention to their movements can help to mobilise imagination. Inspired by a recent walk with her nephews, embodied movement psychotherapist sissy lykou considers the role of movement in communicating patterns, expanding process and allowing the unconscious to lead the way – and shares how two clients reached breakthroughs by developing their movement awareness.

What is it like for a parent when a child starts attending therapy? How can we better support guardians through this experience, and thus also improve the therapeutic process for our young clients? Suzanne Alderson, mother, author and founder of the charity Parenting Mental Health, offers a window into the thoughts, fears and un-voiced needs that may be racing through parents’ minds as they sit nervously in our waiting rooms.