Here is yet another film featuring sex between therapist and client. Unfortunately for we psychotherapists this is the favourite leitmotif of filmmakers when they decide to depict the world of psychotherapy. Typically the films are crass and the psychotherapy profession ends up with its reputation in the gutter. However, this film is about so much more...power, love, abuse, betrayal, class, being Jewish, being female, and being alive.
Psychodynamic psychotherapy describes a particular approach to psychological treatment which has its roots in psychoanalysis, but over time has been influenced by new developments in neuropsychology, attachment theory, humanistic, transpersonal and body oriented approaches to human nature. There are many different schools of psychodynamic psychotherapy (Freudian; Jungian; Kleinian; Object Relations; Gestalt; Lacanian; Cognitive Analytic; attachment based) and the list keeps growing.
All psychodynamic approaches seek to better understand the self and they use the therapeutic relationship to illuminate aspects of the self that were formerly hidden, misunderstood or neglected.
Despite their differences, there are certain processes and techniques which distinguish all psychodynamic psychotherapies from other types of psychological therapy.
In the right environment, where reflection and good practice are supported, it is possible for people to work together to protect the therapeutic space for patients, even in today’s gruelling economic climate.
Jessica Woolliscroft reflects upon how socioeconomic pressures affect psychotherapy services and how these impacts can be cushioned by holding on to key social and ethical values.
“I shall never forget those images of an emotionally frozen baby and his mother starting to smile and come alive again...”
The conference included national and international speakers and provided an opportunity for participants to take part in debates about psychotherapy research and to share work being carried out by UKCP members and students. The keynote speakers were:
Professor John Norcross - Professor of Psychology and Distinguished University Fellow at the University of Scranton
Psychotherapy relationships that work: evidence-based responsiveness .
On Monday 6th June 2011 Radio 4's You and Yours Programme highlighted the intention of the Ministry of Defence to support its military personnnel suffering from PTSD ( Post Traumatic Stress Disorder). They are agreeing a three year contract to fund clinicians to provide EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitisation and Reprocessing ) a form of psychotherapy recommended by NICE the National Institute for Clinical Excellence as a suitable treatment for psychological trauma.
The Radio 4 programme interviewed people who had been treated with EMDR, one of whom was the mother of a murder victim who had been unable to move past the horrific details of her daughter's death to rebuild her life.
Walking the Talk
On Saturday 2nd April 2011 UKAHPP held its annual gathering of practitioners in London. Unlike many AGMs in what is known as the ‘psy’ field (organisations that work in the field of psychological health), this one showed its commitment to ‘walking the talk’ by welcoming everyone warmly with an exercise to help people integrate their minds and feelings with their bodies.
How do trauma therapists help people feel safe when they have experienced terrible and overwhelming events? Where do they begin?
Some clients know they are looking for a place where they feel safe but other clients may not be able to say they feel unsafe due to a lack of confidence. Sometimes traumatised clients will hide their true selves, even in therapy, until they feel it is safe enough to emerge.
EMDR is an integrative psychotherapy practice based upon Adaptive Information Processing. It was originally developed by Francine Shapiro (1995, 2001) to treat PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder) and other trauma responses but has also been successful in treating anxieties, phobias, and complex grief.
The Adaptive Information Processing model that underlies EMDR maintains that new experiences pass through a physiological system which processes all new information so that we can adapt to it. This is how we update the internal maps by which we navigate our world.
Many people have heard of the term PTSD – Post Traumatic Stress Disorder - a condition that sometimes follows overwhelming and life threatening events such as a road traffic accident, assault, torture or combat experience. PTSD is diagnosed when someone has been suffering symptoms (severe anxiety, flashbacks to the traumatic event and avoidance of reminders) for longer than four months after the event.
Theme by Danetsoft and Danang Probo Sayekti inspired by Maksimer
