In this issue
Features
Finding a way towards healing聽(free article)
Catherine Jackson talks to counsellors and聽clients of a support service for victims of聽Catholic clerical and institutional abuse.
Food and mood
Nicola Terry argues that counsellors should聽pay more attention to the effects of diet on聽mood and emotions.
The power of shared reading
Bernadette Lynch and Gina Neale describe聽the therapeutic benefits of reading groups.
Autism in the therapy room
A diagnosis of autism can transform the lives聽of people struggling to understand why they聽don鈥檛 fit in, writes Caroline Hearst.
Feminism in the therapeutic space
Surahbi makes the case for taking a feminist聽approach when counselling survivors of聽gender-based violence.
Regulars
In practice
Susan Dale: Hope out of charity
In the client's chair
Allie Millward: Naming the elephant
In the supervisor's chair
Rosie Dansey: Looking back, going forward
The researcher
Barry McInnes: Lumbering towards extinction
Talking point
Nyamiye Hermenegilde: A small piece of care and love
How I became a therapist
Mehmet Akkurt
Dilemmas
The uninvited guest
The interview
Windy Dryden: The business of living
香港六合彩精准资料
From the chair
Amanda Hawkins: Quality and quantity
Members and subscribers can download a pdf of this issue from the Therapy Today archive.
Editorial
In our cover article Nicola Terry asks why聽therapists don鈥檛 take more interest in what聽their clients eat. We know enough about the聽links between nutrition and mental health,聽so why would we ignore something that聽could be a major contributor to depression聽or anxiety?聽As Nicola points out, if a client聽were telling us that they were drinking heavily聽every night and complaining of headaches,聽lethargy and depression, we would surely聽discuss this with them; so why not when it聽comes to food?
Nicola describes how she has聽developed her awareness around nutrition聽through her work with clients who are living聽with HIV, where issues affecting the physical聽body are constantly being brought alongside聽psychological issues in the therapy room.
Also in this issue, Catherine Jackson reports聽on the work of Towards Healing, a counselling聽service in Ireland set up to provide therapy聽for people who suffered clerical, religious or聽institutional abuse in institutions run by the聽Catholic Church in Ireland. Last year this聽service provided 31,400 counselling sessions聽to clients. It regularly receives a call from聽someone over 70 disclosing their abuse for聽the first time and seeking a referral to talking聽therapy. Many of the clients鈥� stories are the聽stuff of nightmares 鈥� childhoods spent in a聽culture of torture, kept secret for a lifetime.聽It is moving to hear of healing beginning after聽clients finally find words to describe what has聽happened or find a 鈥榝amily鈥� for the first time聽in groups with other survivors.
One thing that struck me in some of the聽survivors鈥� accounts was the cyclical nature of聽the abuse 鈥� being carried out in some cases by聽the older girls in the institution. 鈥業 don鈥檛 blame聽the older girls now,鈥� says one survivor who was聽subjected to 18 years of neglect, sexual and聽emotional abuse and cruelty. 鈥楾hey were doing聽to me nothing more or less than what had been聽done to them.鈥� I wonder how the perpetrators聽of abuse will heal themselves? Will therapy聽play a part in their coming to terms with what聽they have done?
Sarah Browne
Editor