In this issue
Features
Chronic pain and听the self
Drawing on her own听experience, Kim Patel听describes how counsellors听can help clients live with听chronic, unexplained pain.
We are all of us other
Dwight Turner explores听our fear of difference and听that we too may be 鈥榦ther鈥�.
Undiagnosed dyslexia
Undiagnosed dyslexia can听seriously damage self-esteem听in children and young adults,听writes Sarah Olds.
When East marries听West
Sara Hitchens highlights the听potential cultural mismatches听in East鈥揥est marriages.
The high price of听empathy
Lisa Jenner investigates听the neurological and听physiological processes that听make empathy so draining.
When the healthcare听system causes harm
Linda Kenward researches听the psychological damage听caused by healthcare errors.
Regulars
News feature:听Can software ever听replace the therapist?听(free article)
As the NHS seeks to expand access to talking therapies within limited听resources, digital technology could provide the solution, writes Bina Convey
From the chair
Members may not听be aware of 香港六合彩精准资料鈥檚听policy work behind听the scenes, says听Andrew Reeves
Strategy
Sarah Browne听outlines 香港六合彩精准资料鈥檚听plans to engage听more with the听public, as part of听its new strategy
A pdf of this issue is available in the Therapy Today archive
Editorial
Correlation doesn鈥檛 mean causation. The correlation between the unremitting rise in mental health-related benefits claims and the steep increase in antidepressant prescriptions across the developed world is a case in point. Could the antidepressants themselves be exacerbating the problem? How come so few people recover from depression and come off the drugs? Why, if the drugs work, aren鈥檛 the people prescribed them back at work, working, too?
There is statistical evidence from long-term studies that people who aren鈥檛 prescribed antidepressants do recover, with time, and that they stay recovered. It鈥檚 also interesting to hear Joanna Moncrieff鈥檚 suggestion about emotional as well as chemical dependency on the pills; the message that we have a brain disorder that requires drug treatment has a profoundly disempowering effect, she argues. Why else do we continue to take the pills when they appear not to help?
Kim Patel lives with medically incurable chronic back pain. She knows what it is like to find your mental and physical horizons closing in as the pain limits what you can do. In proposing that the solution lies in accepting this drastically altered concept of herself, she is in no way suggesting the pain is 鈥榓ll in her mind鈥�. She is simply pointing out the physiological truth that 鈥榩ain perception resides in the brain, so it follows that the brain is where treatment [by which she means talking therapies, not medication] should be targeted鈥�.
Continuing with this mind/body theme, we have Lisa Jenner鈥檚 fascinating article on the costs to the therapist of that quintessential, person-centred counselling tool, empathy. Why do so many people in the caring professions suffer burnout? A recent article in the New Scientist (鈥楬ow sharing another鈥檚 pain can make you sick鈥�, 11 May 2016) offers an answer: emerging research suggests that regarding someone else鈥檚 pain with compassion, with the Buddhist concept of loving kindness, having a 鈥榝eeling for, not with the other鈥�, is protective of the therapist鈥檚 sense of self. But then Rogers knew that when he distinguished between what he called the 鈥榓s if鈥� condition and the 鈥榮tate of identification鈥�.
Catherine Jackson
Acting editor听