6 x Therapy Today: The Magazine for Counselling and Psychotherapy Professionals (Volume 22)

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Other key factors included restrictions on funeral and memorialisation practices that meant people were unable to support one another and mourn collectively, which in turn made it difficult to find closure and begin to grieve, she says: ‘These grief difficulties are consistent with the findings of the US pandemic study, 6,7 that disrupted meaning contributed to worse grief outcomes, and that higher levels of functional impairment occurred for all deaths during COVID-19 compared with pre-pandemic times.’ The researchers are still analysing results that will show if the degrees of distress would be enough to flag up risk of PGD. If you include material about individuals (clients, colleagues or participants in any research or study), please provide written confirmation that you have their permission to publish the material in a print and online journal and that you have anonymised all identifying details. Depending on the nature and detail of the material, we may also ask you to confirm that they've read the article. Conversations and correspondence He has found worryingly high levels of PGD among the COVID bereaved. Using the Pandemic Grief Scale, which he developed and validated with his colleague Sherman Lee, he found that more than two-thirds of a sample of some 850 people in the US who were bereaved by COVID were experiencing what he calls ‘the shadow pandemic of dysfunctional grief’ and would benefit from specialist interventions to help them make meaning of their loss, both of the death itself and the surrounding circumstances, including the mourning and funeral rituals. Please include up to 50 words of biographical information including, for example, your current job title, relevant qualifications or research interests. This will be published with your article.

This short multi-layered film speaks, sings and dances the lived experience of dementia. If, as witnesses, we become baffled in trying to solve the puzzle of the, at times, peculiar and other-worldly narrative (and imagery) of I Can’t Find Myself, it is because we are not looking, feeling or listening hard enough. Because dementia is peculiar, other-worldly and alienating. Most importantly, the film highlights that dementia is unavoidably an embodied, relational and affective experience.Bearing witness to dementia and holding an embodied awareness in dementia relationships is a political call – we are summoned both personally and professionally. In this last reflection on the film, Jonathan Wyatt, Director of Counselling and Psychotherapy at the School of Health in Social Science, University of Edinburgh, speaks of this kinaesthetic and affective call: It’s startling to read such a clear description of a phenomenon that is, arguably, besetting much of the Western world right now. We are seeing a greater prevalence of grief in extraordinarily grief-full times, and there is a growing realisation that maybe we need to come up with different ways to support those struggling with their grief, because current resources may not be enough. She says coaching is frequently misunderstood as highly directive and technique based. ‘Yes, coaches often have a toolbag of frameworks to use, but we also need to have the discipline to be focused on the person in the room and give them space to think – not reach for this or that tool and think this will fix them. That’s not our job. The tools are a way of helping them to explore things further for themselves. And you are always listening for their strengths and for the resources within them as well as the pain and suffering.’ Depending on the nature and detail of the material, we may additionally request confirmation from you of written or verbal consent to publication from a member or members of your family. However, she is not an advocate of passively sitting and waiting for the client to take the lead. ‘For the lay person, therapy can be an uncomfortable experience, particularly for people who are working class, because of the mystique around it. So it’s good to establish with them what would be a good outcome from therapy for them. But what we end up working on very often isn’t the issue that brings them through the door. Often it’s very much more flavourful – attachment issues, how they were loved or unloved, self-fulfilling prophecies, humiliation – how all of these feed into their personal lives. I articulate to clients that in unknowingness I have seen magnificence unfold that neither I nor the client could have predicted. I see what naturally emerges, which takes me into a space of spontaneity, listening as their lives are unfolded to me and reacting to what they bring.’

The aim of the refresh is to align Therapy Today more closely with BACP’s activities and your concerns and priorities. We want to ensure the magazine plays its part in keeping you up to date with what your Association is doing on your behalf and what you are doing on behalf of your profession. There are a lifetime of stories that need to be told and heard, and there’s depression and righteous anger about the here-and-now too – at ageism and the loss of visibility, community, mobility, health, respect and independence. Intrigued? Turn to our feature on counselling older people. In the US, leading bereavement researcher and psychologist Professor Robert Neimeyer has published several papers on the impact of COVID-related deaths on people and their risk of developing PGD. 2 Torrens-Burton A et al. ‘It was brutal. It still is’: A qualitative analysis of the challenges of bereavement during the COVID-19 pandemic reported in two national surveys. Palliative Care & Social Practice, 2022: https://doi.org/10.1177/26323524221092456I’ve been deeply moved by the fact that so many of our members have taken the time to write to us and call us to commend our response to this crisis. Start with a clear idea of the concepts and information you want to convey. Think about your audience - you need to capture their interest and be relevant to a range of practitioners. Read other articles from the specific journal to get a feel for the tone and style. She died a week later. The home had told me I could go and see her just for five minutes to say goodbye before she died and I donned all my own PPE – cagoule, waterproof trousers, goggles, dust mask – I didn’t want to use up the PPE at the care home. I think she knew I was in the room, but she was very heavily sedated. I just stood at a distance and spoke to her and said goodbye and came away. I didn’t touch her, I didn’t know if I could do that. And she died the following evening. I was told she wasn’t on her own when she died, which was some comfort. Please note, we don't review self-published books in our journals. Permissions and confirmations Client confidentiality

This is a very welcome vote of confidence in the magazine – thank you all for taking time to give us your thoughts. This month’s contents will, I think, match your expectations. Highlights are Gareth Cowlin’s graphic take on his experience of counselling, and Jimmy Edmonds’ and Jane Harris’ challenge to western societies to allow people to grieve in their own way and time. The need to connect is perhaps one reason why there are several thriving and lively Facebook groups for therapists, often the result of an individual practitioner taking the initiative to set up a group where they saw a need. One such therapist is Katie Rose, who recently started a Facebook group for UK therapists working for the US platform BetterHelp. The offer to clients of ‘24/7’ access to their therapist via messaging is just one reason why this subscription-based platform is controversial, but few practitioners are in a position to outright dismiss new potential sources of income. Rose set up the group to help UK therapists make working for the platform work to their advantage. In our ‘Big issue’ feature this month, I take a look at the other reasons why this platform is considered controversial, plus some of the home-grown versions, and the pros and cons for both therapists and clients of accessing and providing therapy this way.

Editorial Process

Is there a significant message here for the counselling profession? There is, says Cooper, an understandable wariness among person-centred counsellors about questioning Rogers’ six conditions and the fundamental client-led ethos of the person-centred approach. But, he argues, the research tells us this may not be what some clients want or find useful, and ethical practice demands that we listen to what clients say they want. ‘It is often assumed as a fixed position that it is the relationship that heals, but that’s not what the evidence always shows. It’s great if a therapist wants to be non-directive and work from a wholly relational stance, and there is evidence that it can really help some clients, but those practitioners need to be clear that it may not suit all clients, just as CBT doesn’t suit all clients.