Geoff Lowe: Reading and writing - pleasure, guilt and health
"Many studies have shown how our frame of mind can be a crucial determinant of our health. Participation in the arts, reading and writing all require an active imagination. Conjuring up characters in a book for instance puts our minds in 'what if' positions which may chemically change brain processes."
Elsa Jones: Women's rage - a dramatic deconstruction
"A theme that often emerges in couples' therapy is the fear and loathing inspired by the possibility of women's anger. As I discuss with women their sense that their anger is illegitimate and unbecoming, and with men their explanations for their intolerance of women's anger, I receive a range of answers that are intriguing and illuminating for all of us participating in the therapeutic encounter."
Charlotte Burck and Jeannette Josse: Developing the therapist's lens - learning through photograpy
"The processes around portraiture have a particular relevance to us as family therapists. Issues of power, of consent, and of self-representation reflect parallel ethical dilemmas in systemic therapy and research."
John Gash: Song
"Today is gonna be the day/Your appointment is due/Please don't come here on your own/We want to see all of you/We don't believe that blame reveals/We believe it conceals/The here and now."
Kedar Nath Dwivedi: Therapeutic powere on narratives and stories
"Most of us are already familiar with the enormous impact of narratives and stories on our lives. Listening or reading stories makes us imagine things more vividly and our minds are therefore much better engaged in the process as we 'hear', 'smell', 'taste', 'see', 'touch', and 'feel' things. As the experience of reading, listening to or watching stories also stirs up feelings, the learning points tend to sink in much deeper."
Mama, East African Womens Group: Shells on the shore - shells on a woven cord
Liz Burns met members of Mama, the east African women's group from Sheffield, last year. They use storytelling to help them confront the problems they encounter in their daily lives. Theis article contains extracts from their book Shells on a woven cord.
Rosie Whiffen and Eileen Jamison: Influential books
A conversation about books which have been important to two family therapists in their professional life and in their development as therapists.
Larel Richardson: Nine poems - marriage and the family
"If I were a fork, I would know my place/to the left of the plate, tines beckoning/a hand to cradle me/me holding meat for the knife/The blade slips between my tines scraping edges/There is no pain and after/I am bathed in water and returned to the space/I share with others of my kind."
Gillie Bolton: On becoming our own shaman - creative writing as therapy
"There are many different ways of suggesting a client can write. Lists can be a really unthreatening beginning - anyone can write a list and then extend it. The items on the list can be as humdrum or as demanding as the therapist likes.Letters (usually unsendable, as to a dead father) are pretty good and their replies - dialogues with people, dream people or objects or even parts of the body can be eye-opening."
Celia and John Goto: Observations on art and child psychotherapy
A conversation between trainee child psychotherapist, Celia Goto, and her husband, the artist John Goto, illuminates the preoccupation shared by artists and therapists with ways of seeing and being.
Gabrielle Lees: Art therapy and systemic thinking
"Art therapy is an extremely effective way of working with troubled and frightened children....Some therapists emphasise the 'art' in art therapy, believing that the creative process is in itself healing....other art therapists are more concerned with the'therapy', the emphasis here being on interpretation and the therapeutic relationship."
Rukiyia Jemmott: Ethics, ethnicity and training
Rukiya Jemmott brings to our attention the limited reference to the word 'race' in the AFT code of conduct and ethical guidelines and proposes that the guidelines fail to address ethics and ethnicity with regard to training.
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