Our Chief Executive Dr Hadyn Williams featured in the Guardian calling for more investment in counselling and psychotherapy to help meet the increased demand on mental health services.

In a , Hadyn said that the mental health workforce needed to be expanded with the recruitment of more counsellors and psychotherapists.

And he said that thousands of trained and skilled counsellors and psychotherapists were ready now to support the country鈥檚 recovery from the pandemic.

鈥淚t鈥檚 not simply a shortage of workers or delays in training them that鈥檚 preventing people accessing services, but a lack of political will and funds to bring existing skilled and experienced professionals into the workforce in greater numbers,鈥� he said.

Life-changing

鈥淚nvesting in life-changing mental health services is critical to our recovery from the pandemic, and will deliver extensive cost-saving benefits to government budgets as well as tackling the deep-rooted inequalities that hold so many of our fellow citizens back.

鈥淲e鈥檙e committed to increasing access to therapy services. We now need the government and those who fund counselling services to match that commitment to enable the recruitment of more counsellors and psychotherapists.鈥�

Hadyn also featured in in an article about the increasing numbers of people having therapy.

The article included our research which shows that the number of people in the UK who have consulted a counsellor or psychotherapist has increased from 21% in 2010 to 33% by 2021.

Lyndsey Baxter and Gordon Knott were interviewed by the BBC for a feature examining , while Ruth Micallef spoke to the BBC about .

Relationships

Relationships was also a theme for Anjula Mutanda when she spoke to the Sun about weaponised incompetence, for Arabella Russell when she spoke to about discussing managing money with your partner, and for Deone Payne-James when she spoke to about so-called struggle love.

Anthony Davis shared his expertise with the Daily Express for an article shining a light on the disparity between the mental and physical health of LGBTQ+ people and their heterosexual peers.

Gary Bloom shared his expertise with the and the Local TV network, shining a light on footballers鈥� mental health and the need for them to access therapy.

Lara Waycot offered advice to people anxious about returning to 鈥渘ormal life鈥� after the lifting of coronavirus restrictions, which was syndicated by and used by more than 75 regional publications and websites.

School counselling

Niki Gibbs, co-chair of our school counselling expert reference group, spoke to for an article examining whether children are tested too much. The article also highlighted our campaign for a paid counsellor in every school.

and how to overcome it was a topic discussed by Alison Hotchkiss with the patient.info website. Patient.info also spoke to Lindsay George and Hansa Pankhania for a feature on the , and to Nicola Vanlint and William Pullen for a piece on overcoming .

Katerina Georgiou spoke to about work-related stress while Armele Philpotts shared her expertise in an advice column for family-related problems in .

Money and Mental Health was the focus of articles in , featuring a contribution from Juulia Karlstedt, and in , featuring Philip Karahassan. Philip also contributed to a piece on Yahoo! News looking at male grief.

Emma Palmer discussed ecotherapy in Psychologies magazine while Emma Brand spoke about the value of counselling in a feature for Inspire, the Versus Arthritis magazine, about protecting your mental health.