Mj Milton

Lesbian and gay affirmative psychotherapy: Issues in theory and practice

Abstract This paper is structured into four sections, each considering issues that are relevant to the thinking of therapists when working with lesbians and gay men. First, several observations are made about the psychotherapy literature and the approaches that it takes to lesbians and gay men. Second, recent relevant research on psychotherapy with lesbians and gay men undertaken for the Division of Counselling Psychology of the British Psychological Society is summarized. The third section reports preliminary findings from research into the nature of lesbian and gay affirmative psychotherapy. The final section considers the issues that this raises for therapists in terms of their training and personal development. It is hoped that this paper will raise awareness of some of the issues in the broad field of affirmative psychotherapies and stimulate debate.

Evidence-based Practice: Issues for Psychotherapy

This paper attempts to review both the frequently discussed ‘objective’ factors in evidence-based practice as well as the more subjective factors facing psychotherapists engaged in this debate. The contention is that greater familiarity with the issues will allow us to inform and structure this debate in a more appropriate manner than if we allow those from other disciplines to structure it for us.

Therapy and Beyond: Counselling psychology contributions to therapeutic and social issues

Therapy and Beyond: Counselling Psychology Contributions to Therapeutic and Social Issues presents an overview of the origins, current practices, and potential future of the discipline of counselling psychology. •Presents an up-to-date review of the knowledge base behind the discipline of counselling psychology that addresses the notion of human wellbeing and critiques the concept of ‘psychopathology’ •Includes an assessment of the contributions that counselling psychology makes to understanding people as individuals, in their working lives, and in wider social domains •Offers an overview of counselling psychologys contributions beyond the consulting room, including practices in the domain of spirituality, the arts and creative media, and the environmental movement •Critiques contemporary challenges facing research as well as the role that research methods have in responding to questions about humanity and individual experience.

The relationship between existential-phenomenological and cognitive-behaviour therapies

The move towards therapeutic eclecticism has been observed as a growing trend. Coupled with an ideological emphasis on short-term work and evidence of effectiveness in many health-care settings, this has given rise to an increased interest in systematic integration of diverse philosophies of practice, at both a theoretical and a technical level. It seems significant that, within this trend, little has been written on a potential relationship between existentialphenomenological and cognitive-behaviour therapies. Given that both these approaches emphasize the concept of meaning in working towards psychological growth and change, this omission seems important to address. In this paper, we aim to draw out areas of commonality between these therapeutic models and explore ways in which each approach might enrich the other. Through providing brief overviews of each model and then mapping aspects of one on to the other, we suggest that there is a strong case for developing a relationship between existential and cognitive models at both a theoretical and therapeutic level.

Politics in psychotherapy: therapists' responses to political material

This paper reviews the psychotherapeutic literature that addresses the ways in which political material is engaged with by psychotherapists. The paper explores this in both the traditional and contemporary psychotherapeutic approaches. The paper concludes with a recognition of some of the challenges psychotherapy faces in developing politically sensitive approaches which draw upon the lessons learned across therapeutic theory.

The case for existential therapy in HIV-related psychotherapy

Abstract Few topics currently evoke such debate and dynamics as HIV and AIDS. It is a phenomenon that affects people at all levels of their existence, including in their psychotherapy experience. There is an ever growing field of HIV related psychotherapy. Currently this field contains work from a cognitive behavioural focus, a systemic one, work from a psychodynamic focus and from the Group Analytic approach. In this paper the case for existential psychotherapy will be made as an important approach with a great deal to offer the field of HIV-related psychotherapy.

Filling the Silence: Exploring the Bisexual Experience of Intimate Partner Abuse

The objective of this study was to explore the subjective experience of bisexual people who have experienced intimate partner abuse to provide a tentative foundation upon which further discourses and research work can build. This study recruited 10 participants (8 females, 2 males) from the United Kingdom. Taped data from semistructured qualitative interviews were transcribed verbatim and analyzed using grounded theory methodology. A theoretical understanding of the phenomenon was developed. The basic psychological process of ‘adjusting for consonance’ described the dynamic process of the categories ‘getting lost in the relationship’ and ‘lifting the veil.’ New insights into the phenomenon are provided and their clinical implications are discussed.

Countertransference issues in psychotherapy with lesbian and gay clients

This article briefly reviews literature on responses towards same-sex (lesbian and gay) sexualities from psychoanalytic and ‘lesbian and gay affirmative’ psychotherapeutic perspectives. An analysis is presented of reports of countertransferential reactions to lesbian and gay clients, obtained from interviews with fourteen psychotherapists who work in a lesbian and gay affirmative manner and eighteen clients who had received affirmative psychotherapy. Data were subjected to grounded analysis. Participants consistently attended to the thoughts, feelings and values that therapists held in relation to lesbian and gay clients and how these affected the meanings and practices available to them. These were linked with the therapists sexual identity among other factors. Negative countertransferential reactions were regarded as potentially occurring among heterosexual and lesbian and gay therapists and were seen as arising from therapists’ conscious and unconscious fears about same-sex sexualities. These findings indicate a need to continue debating these issues more widely in the professional arena.

The frame in psychotherapy: Langs and Casement compared

Abstract This paper attempts to explore the writings of Robert Langs and Patrick Casement on the therapeutic environment, (the frame). These writers suggest that the frame of psychotherapy or counselling sessions is one of the most important areas that the therapist can pay attention to. This paper will outline the similarities of thought, as well as highlight the dafferent opinions held by these writers as to what the frame should consist of.

The development of counselling psychology in a clinical psychology service

This paper will describe one Clinical Psychology departments efforts to incorporate Counselling Psychology into the service. It is written from the experience of the Chartered Counselling Psychologist.