Objectives: Around 26% of the British adult population are prescribed psychiatric drugs each year. Most therapists (counsellors, psychotherapists and psychologists) provide therapy to some clients taking prescribed psychiatric drugs. This study aimed to better understand the experience, knowledge, training and concerns of therapists working therapeutically with clients prescribed psychiatric drugs.
Design:This was a survey study, generating both quantitative and qualitative data.
Methods:The online survey was completed by 1,230 therapists (members of UKCP, BACP and the BPS). Brief descriptive statistics for the quantitative data are reported.The qualitative data were analysed thematically.Results: Therapists would welcome professional guidance as to how to work better with clients taking prescribed psychiatric drugs, with some feeling their training had left them unprepared for this. Qualitative themes were broad-ranging and encompassed the following: client factors, therapist factors, prescriber actions and inactions, medicating therapy, the ideological and professional context, areas of therapist need, and actions and justifications that mitigate concerns.Conclusions: This article illustrates the complex nature of therapeutic work with clients taking, or withdrawing from, prescribed psychiatric drugs. Therapists want to work within their remit to appropriately help clients but need better information and improved relationships with prescribing clinicians.
BackgroundCounselling and psychotherapy have complex relationships with religion and spirituality. Therapy has not tended to focus a great deal on the spirituality of the client, much less that of the therapist. More recently, there has been an increased interest in the role of spirituality in therapy.Aim/MethodologyThis study used a grounded theory methodology to explore the spirituality of nine therapists and to identify the ways in which their spirituality influences their practice.FindingsOne overarching theme emerged from the data, which was the reflective, dynamic, and developmental process in which participants were engaged, in order to integrate their spiritual and therapeutic identities. Within this, two sub‐themes emerged: the direct influence of therapist spirituality on therapeutic work, and finding harmony between spirituality and broader professional context.ImplicationsProcesses of professional and spiritual development of therapists are discussed along with implications for practice, training, and research.
Context and focusThis paper presents a critical evaluation of the relevance and implications of the scientist-practitioner model for counselling psychology. It reviews thehistory and development of the model and outlines its main features. Support for the model and criticisms of it are considered in order to demonstrate that the model representsa creative tension.This creative tension exists because of a need for counsellingpsychology to regularly review and question its philosophies, origins, priorities and its practice.ConclusionsThis paper takes the view that the scientist-practitioner modelremains the most helpful model for counselling psychology, but that components such as scientific practice, research methods, and integration need to be flexible concepts, open to improvement as a result of discussion, reflection, and experience.
Content and FocusThis article explores the relationship between ecopsychology and the person-centred approach to psychotherapy and counselling. The literatures of both topics are reviewed and areas of fit as well as of conflict are identified. This exploration is situated within the context of climate change and the broader damage to the natural world. Specific person-centred concepts are considered with regard to our relationship with the natural world.ConclusionsConsiderations for the person-centred approach and counselling psychology practice are discussed. In particular, the article highlights ways in which the self may be relocated within a larger ecological context, the possibility of ecologically situated well-being and incongruence, and the relevance of Rogers’ concept of psychological contact to our relationship with the natural world.
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