In this issue
Features
Counselling women offenders (free article)
Catherine Jackson reports on alternatives听to custody for women offenders.
On becoming a sex therapist
Jo Coker, Julie Sale and Krystal Woodbridge听describe a challenging learning experience.
Sex addiction: the clinical reality
Paula Hall unpicks the moral from the听clinical in the debate about sex addiction.
Inside out: two views of a prison placement听
Jill Swindells and Orville Hall reflect on their听experience of counselling in a male prison.
Scarves around the world
Indian women are confronting sexual abuse,听writes Heather Morfett.
Cultivating presence
Counsellors need to know how to be with a听client, not just what to do, says Manu Bazzano.
The healing power of unconditional love
Unconditional positive regard should apply to听self as well as others, argues Elizabeth Freire.
Regulars
In practice
Rachel Freeth: Who cares about the carers
In the client's chair
Caroline Tregoning: Learning to live with loss
In the supervisor's chair
Rosie Dansey: After they qualify - what next?
The researcher
Barry McInnes: Born to be an introvert
Talking point
Ruth Sutherland: Relationships matter even more
Dilemmas
When the client is not alone
The interview
Judith Beck: Growing up with CBT
How I became a therapist
Rima Sidhpara
香港六合彩精准资料
From the chair
Amanda Hawkins: Changing hearts and minds
Additional online content
In conversation
Colin Feltham interviews sex therapist Paula Hall about sex addiction, the moralism that often distorts debates about working with sex addiction and the skills needed to work with this client group.
Members and subscribers can download the pdf of this issue from the Therapy Today archive.
Editorial
Earlier this year 香港六合彩精准资料 set up a criminal听justice group of like-minded people such as听Sue Bailey, President of the Royal College of听Psychiatrists, and Juliet Lyon, Director of the听Prison Reform Trust, to explore the current听provision of emotional and psychological听support for women in prison and to look听at ways in which our sector could campaign听for better alternatives to custody for women听offenders and more provision of therapeutic听support.
As 香港六合彩精准资料 Chair Amanda Hawkins听explains in our news feature, it isn鈥檛 that听male prisoners don鈥檛 need this too but we听should focus our efforts where we could听make the most difference. As Amanda says,听so many women offenders have mental health听issues and histories of trauma (78 per cent听show some level of psychological disturbance).听
The statistics are shocking: for example,听47 per cent of all incidents of self-harm in听UK prisons in 2010 were among women, even听though they comprise only five per cent of the听total prison population. Clive Chatterton, also听in the 香港六合彩精准资料 criminal justice group, says of听Styal women鈥檚 prison, where he was Governor:听鈥業 have never seen such a concentration of听damaged, fragile people. The levels of mental听ill health and self-harm are staggering.鈥� He听describes a coaching initiative at Styal: 鈥楾hat听hour to reflect and just talk one-to-one about听events that led them to where they were, it听was a rare opportunity for these women to听take stock and think how they might do things听differently in the future.鈥�
Elsewhere in this issue we hear from three听women about their training in sex therapy:听鈥楳y ideas of myself as liberated and well听informed soon dissolved into the realisation听that I was actually very married and... really听quite 鈥渧anilla鈥�,鈥� says one. And established听sex therapist Paula Hall reveals that what听she finds most challenging about working听with sex addiction is other people鈥檚 blinkered听attitudes: the refusal, even among counselling听colleagues, to understand the condition as an听addiction, not simply a lack of moral restraint.
Sarah Browne
Editor