Blog

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.

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.

How can we extend the benefits of EMDR to better support LGBTQ+ clients? Ahead of her PESI UK masterclass on Attachment-Focused EMDR, Dr. Laurel Parnell outlines the potential impact of stigma and discrimination on relationships to self and others, and explains why she now includes an attachment-repair orientation in all phases of this work.

How can we help clients to access and attend to intense and difficult feelings that may be deeply buried? Susan Warren Warshow, author of The Therapist’s Handbook to Dissolve Shame and Defense and its forthcoming sequel, shares 10 ways in which we can support our clients to turn towards their unconscious affect, from clarifying the nature of feelings to expressing care for these ‘children at the door’.

What difficulties are schoolchildren currently bringing to therapy, and how might we help? Dr Sharie Coombes, a headteacher turned leading child and family psychotherapist and author, has been observing the mixed impact of the resumption of school routines. Combining psychodynamic exploration with neuroscientific psychoeducation, she shares her work with one anxious and panic-stricken child.

Establishing goals can be a key part of therapy with young people. But how can we help our adolescent clients to set themselves goals when life feels so uncertain? To mark Youth Mental Health Day, with its theme this year of #StrideForward, consultant clinical psychologist and mental health charity CEO Dr Nihara Krause suggests how we might adapt our approach.

How is the world of dating changing in the wake of the pandemic? In what ways might vaccine status be interacting with relationship values and attachment patterns? Psychosexual and relationship therapist and author Silva Neves surveys the new preoccupations facing single clients, and considers how core dating concerns around safety and autonomy have been further complicated by Covid-19.

Stephen Porges on the intimate connection between our social world and our visceral organs, the impact of stress and trauma on physiological state, and why the pandemic has left even the founder of Polyvagal Theory struggling “to feel comfortable in the presence of others”.

The sharing of sexual images without consent is on the rise, including among school-age children. Renée Danziger, psychoanalyst, social scientist and author of Radical Revenge, discusses the life-changing impact of these acts, and the powerful and complex feelings we may encounter when victims of revenge porn come to therapy.

At first, the pandemic forced therapy online. Now, it is encouraging us to step outdoors. Ecopsychotherapist Lara Just has been meeting clients on Hampstead Heath and in rural locations for years. As we continue to mark Mental Health Awareness Week, with its 2021 theme of ‘nature’, the founder of The Walking Therapist recalls how a forest path provided just the challenge one client needed.