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Editor鈥檚 note

The plight of family carers seems never to听be anyone鈥檚 business except their own. It is听too often assumed that women (and some听men, but less commonly) will just step into听the role.

As an ageing, working adult with an听aged parent, it was balm to my own nagging听sense of guilt when I read Laura Smith鈥檚 gentle,听compassionate article on counselling carers. Given the dynamics of the听relationship, the concept of the good-enough听mother/parent is exactly transferable to the听good-enough child-carer of an elderly parent.听

By coincidence, in this month鈥檚 news is some new research showing that women who work long hours and at听weekends are more susceptible to depression than men. The researchers听point out that women are often adding employment to existing domestic听and caring responsibilities, and that women who work antisocial hours听(such as weekends) are likely to be those employed in service industries 鈥撎齮he lowest-paid jobs with least status. Small wonder they are depressed.听

To me, this vividly demonstrates the need to look beyond the individual听to the systemic factors influencing clients鈥� lives and mental health. Tanya听Beetham highlights this in her short article. People who work听long hours for very little pay or other reward (job satisfaction, for instance)听have every reason to be anxious and depressed. Antidepressants aren鈥檛听going to fix that.

It鈥檚 this wider perspective that the social justice conference听in October will be addressing. The keynote speaker, Dr Manivong Ratts,听argues that counselling needs to start from the individual and move out,听through family and community to the socio-environmental systems around听us, in order to identify where and how to work with the client鈥檚 presenting听problems. His presentation will be unmissable.

Catherine Jackson
Editor

I was introduced to听the notion of using an 'internal supervisor' during training.

It immediately struck me as being one of听those incredibly useful and usable ideas听that you can put into daily practice now and听forever. My own way of working with it is to听visualise one of the supervisors听I鈥檝e had in the past and imagine听how they might react to a听therapy conundrum I鈥檓 dealing听with now. I say to myself: 鈥榃hat听would Birgit or Gisela say about听this? How would I explain this to听Annette? Imagine Richard鈥檚 face听if I revealed that.鈥� It has provided听some interesting insights over听the years

So, I was delighted when Wyn Bramley听offered to write about her own take on听self-supervision. Wyn believes that 鈥榤ature听therapists who work relationally need less听external, 鈥渙bjective鈥� supervision and more听frequent self-supervision鈥�. She notes that the听鈥榖enefits of distance and hindsight after a听session make studying it easier than if you听were inside it and will prepare you for the听next鈥�. Agreed.

Rachel Shattock Dawson
Consultant Editor

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