While the concept and research strategy of lived experience are still evolving, there is no doubt that they can "inform sharp critique" when used judiciously, particularly in the fields of social justice, health, and wellbeing (McIntosh & Wright, 2019, p. 449). Thus, for the development of psychotherapy, counselling, and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander healing practices, it is important to provide platforms for researchers with lived experiences of oppression, marginalisation, and diversity of gender, body, kinship, and sexuality (Barton, 2020;Bowers et al., 2007). In terms of qualitative research, lived experience is "a representation and understanding of a researcher or research subject's human experiences, choices, and options and how those factors influence one's perception of knowledge . . . [it] tries to understand why some experiences are privileged over others" (Boylorn, 2008, p. 490). Fittingly, Volume 10(2) of the Psychotherapy and Counselling Journal of Australia (PACJA) celebrates the richness and diversity of our community of practitioners, the work that they do, and the people they work with.Oehlman Forbes (2022), a psychotherapist, examines the often overlooked subject of women's friendships, particularly those involving interpersonal rejection, which can precipitate acute or chronic rumination. Her overview of philosophical, historical, social, and psychological perspectives includes relational-cultural theory (RCT), adult attachment theory, response styles theory, and minority stress theory-the latter when considering how ostracism affects women with sexual orientation differences. This article informs practice by advocating for RCT and mentalisation-based therapy when working with distress around women's friendship dissolution.
Recently released census data highlight Australia's increasing cultural diversity (Australian Bureau of Statistics [ABS], 2022c). For the first time, more than half of the population (51.5%) was either born abroad or had a parent born abroad, while almost a quarter (24.8%) speaks a language other than English at home. The number of Australians who identify as being of Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander origin increased between censuses (812,728 people or 3.2% of the total population in 2021 compared with 649,171 or 2.8% in 2016; ABS, 2022a). At least 167 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander languages were used at home in 2021. In another first, the 2021 Census permitted all respondents to choose non-binary sex as a third response option for the sex question; however, data about those who identified as non-binary will not be released until September 2022.
In arguably a watershed year for counselling, psychotherapy, and Indigenous healing practices in Australia, this issue of the Psychotherapy and Counselling Journal of Australia (PACJA) is the first since it moved to the Scholastica platform. The move is helping PACJA meet international standards for peer-reviewed journals, in terms of discoverability, design, device-friendly pages, and other features. It comes at a time when the Australian Government has announced funding for the development of national standards for psychotherapists and counsellors, and for two independent peak bodies representing people who live with mental ill health and their carers and kin. This editorial details the articles in Volume 11 (1) of PACJA which emphasise the paradigm shifts accompanying these announcements.
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