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The Irish

Journal of Counselling
and Psychotherapy
                                                  formerly             • Volume 21 • Issue 4 • Winter 2021

                                                        Reflections
• The Individual and Work: Politicised Psychotherapy
• Let’s Talk about the F word!

                                                        with purpose
  A reflection on fees
• Dark and Light – What Our Psychotherapy Heroes
  Reveal About Ourselves and Our Profession
• Shelter From The Pandemic:
  Notes On Nature
• When the closing session is final
  A therapist’s journey with her client through
  terminal illness and death                                 Irish Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy
Journal of Counselling and Psychotherapy - Irish Association for Counselling ...
IJCP                                                                                                        Volume 21   • Issue 4 • Winter 2021

 Contents

 From the Editor                                                                        3        Our Title
                                                                                                 In Autumn 2017, our title changed
 The Individual and Work: Politicised Psychotherapy                                     4        from “Éisteach” to “The Irish Journal
 By Alex Delogu                                                                                  of Counselling and Psychotherapy” or
                                                                                                 “IJCP” for short.
 Let’s Talk about the F word! A reflection on fees                                      9
 By Brendan O’Shaughnessy                                                                        Disclaimer:
                                                                                                 The views expressed in this
 Florescence                                                                          14         publication, save where otherwise
 Poetry by Members                                                                               indicated, are the views of
                                                                                                 contributors and not necessarily the
 Dark and Light – What Our Psychotherapy Heroes Reveal                                15         views of the Irish Association for
 About Ourselves and Our Profession                                                              Counselling and Psychotherapy. The
 By Emma Redfern                                                                                 appearance of an advertisement in
                                                                                                 this publication does not necessarily
 Shelter From The Pandemic: Notes On Nature                                           20         indicate approval by the Irish
                                                                                                 Association for Counselling and
 By Siobhan Maher
                                                                                                 Psychotherapy for the product or
                                                                                                 service advertised.
 When the closing session is final                                                    24
 A therapist’s journey with her client through terminal illness
 and death                                                                                       Next Issue:
 By Margaret Plunkett                                                                            1st March 2022

 Noticeboard                                                                          27         Deadline for Advertising Submissions
                                                                                                 for Next Issue:
                                                                                                 1st February 2022

 Editorial Board:                                                                                For more information about
 Mike Hackett (Chair), Hugh Morley, Kaylene Petersen, Annette Murphy,                            advertising please see
 Terry Naughton, Lynne Caffrey, Eve Menezes-Cunningham.                                          www.iacp.ie/IJCP-back-editions.

 Editor:                             Assistant Editor:                                           Scripts:
 Mike Hackett                        Lynne Caffrey		                                             Each issue of IJCP is planned well in
 Design and layout:                                                                              advance of the publication date and
 GKD.ie                                                                                          some issues are themed. If you are
                                                                                                 interested in submitting an article
 ISSN:
                                                                                                 for consideration, responding to
 2565-540X
                                                                                                 the Therapist’s Dilemma or wish to
 Advertising rates and deadlines:                                                                contribute a book or workshop review
 Contact the IACP for details. (Early booking essential)                                         or Letter to the Editor, please see
                                                                                                 ‘Guidelines for Submitting Articles’
 © Irish Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy – IACP
                                                                                                 on the IACP website, www.iacp.ie.
 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in, or introduced
 into a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means (electronic, mechanical,
 photocopying, recording, or otherwise), except for brief referenced extracts for the purpose    Contacting IJCP:
 of review, without the prior written permission of the copyright owners.                        iacpjournal@iacp.ie

                                                      Irish Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy
Journal of Counselling and Psychotherapy - Irish Association for Counselling ...
Volume 21   • Issue 4 • Winter 2021                                                                                   IJCP

 From the Editor:
                                        which our affected clients emerge.             includes so that we can see them
                                        In this piece, Alex skilfully articulates      as real people. We thus meet
                                        many of these tensions and outright            ourselves in our own realness
                                        conflicts by illustrating the impact in        along the way.
                                        selected client vignettes offering us             Our fourth work offers us some
                                        an opportunity to explore our part in          much needed respite from talk of
                                        maintaining potentially problematic            Covid-19, and redirects us to the
                                        social pressures.                              topic of respite. Here, Siobhan
                                           Our second article addresses a              Maher’s work, Shelter from the
                                        hot topic at present (as illustrated           pandemic: Notes on nature explores
                                        by the number of motions on the                the many ways we can be in nature
Dear Colleagues,
                                        topic of protecting the value of               and the many benefits this has
We wish you a very warm welcome         counselling and psychotherapy                  on our physical and psychological
to the Winter 2021 edition of the       at the recent IACP AGM). Here,                 wellbeing. Biophilia, fractals and
Irish Journal of Counselling and        Brendan O’Shaughnessy’s Let’s talk             elemental natural forces are
Psychotherapy. As I write, we have      about the F word, explores the area            described as important resources
again reached that time of year         of fee setting from his professional           to offset the way we live today,
when the clocks have fallen back,       practise perspective. Brendan’s                with our ever increasing reliance on
the evenings stretch longer before      approach is to explore the                     screens and indoor living. Siobhan
us and we quiet somewhat and            practicalities, ethics and business            makes a strong case for a return to
claim some space to restore and         aspects of this often challenging              nature as solace and shelter.
reflect. Whilst not yet over the        and overlooked aspect of our work.                Our last prose work – When the
effects of the Covid-19 pandemic,       Overlooked in the sense of the                 closing session is final, Margaret
and with it all of the upheaval         need for careful, purposeful and               Plunkett, in a remarkably human,
and loss, we also have had              data-driven decisions necessary                courageous and compassionate
enormous opportunity for careful,       to inform us about what our work               mode, reflects on her lived
considered reflection on ourselves,     is worth. Though money alone will              experience of working with a client
our practice, our clients and our       likely never really represent the              in the last stage of their life, from
profession. In this context we are      actual value of therapy for clients            diagnosis of terminal illness to
delighted to present five articles      and for ourselves, it is an important          their death. This is a piece which
from professionals in our field who     aspect of our financial wellbeing.             is both moving and hopeful. With
explore very different themes and          Coincidental with the recent                enormous grace, Margaret charts
experiences. The thread which           news of the passing of Aaron                   those final months with her client,
binds them all together lies in                                                        V and shows us all what the soul of
                                        T. Beck (1921-2021), father of
each author’s ability to weave their                                                   a therapist looks like when faced
                                        cognitive behavioural therapy,
reflections on these themes into                                                       with such a terrible situation. I
                                        Emma Redfern turns her attention
colourful tapestries of words and                                                      think this piece is a fitting end to
                                        to the topic Dark and light – what
images which in turn prompts our                                                       our Winter Edition. The editorial
                                        our psychotherapy heroes reveal
                                                                                       committee would like to express
own reflections with purpose.           about ourselves and our profession.
                                                                                       our profound gratitude and support
   In our first article, Alex Delogu    She does so in a thoroughly self-
                                                                                       to Margaret for sharing such a
explores the topic of Politicised       reflective, descriptive and open
                                                                                       sacred experience.
Psychotherapy. As we are social         way, illustrating the influences of
                                                                                          And finally, as we continue our
creatures, our wellbeing is tied        veritable giants in our field. She
                                                                                       formal poetry section of the journal,
up with societal forces (including      notes that though all of us likely
                                                                                       we hope you enjoy the works from
politics) which, in turn, shape our     have our own therapy heroes (those
                                                                                       five different poets on a range
needs, expectations and place           people whose work has been
                                                                                       of topics and the theme of this
enormous demands on us as               formative and foundational in our
                                                                                       quarter’s issue – Reflections with
individuals. We cannot escape the       identity as therapists), we need               Purpose.
impact of these forces. Therapists      to remain vigilant for objectifying
play a part in society because we are   them as idealised others and land              Mike Hackett, Editor
members of the same society from        with the shadow each necessarily               and Lynne Caffrey, Co-editor

                                              Irish Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy                         3
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IJCP                                                                                                Volume 21   • Issue 4 • Winter 2021

Academic Article

    The Individual and Work: Politicised
    Psychotherapy
    By Alex Delogu

                                                                                       individuals and work and the impact
                                                                                       that these ideas have on physical
                                                                                       and mental well-being. Identity and
                                                                                       work are intertwined (Gertz, 2019,
                                                                                       p. 127). Before looking at these
                                                                                       two aspects, let’s explore the
                                                                                       critique in more detail.

                                                                                       The Critique
                                                                                       I first encountered this critique
                                                                                       through the work of philosopher
                                                                                       Mark Fisher who wrote insightfully
                                                                                       about the effects that culture and
                                                                                       politics have on the psyche of
                                                                                       individuals. As a biographical note,
                                                                                       Fisher was open about his struggles
                                                                                       with depression and sadly took
                                                                                       his life in 2017 (Colquhoun, 2020,
                                                                                       p.2; Fisher, 2021a). I mention this
                                                                                       as sometimes philosophers can
                                                                                       have a reputation of operating
                                                                                       at a theoretical distance from
                                                                                       their subject, but in this instance,
                                                                                       we have a person thinking and
                                                                                       philosophising through their lived
                                                                                       experience.
                                                                                          Fisher’s most influential book
                                                                                       Capitalist Realism (2009) is
                                                                                       concerned with how the political
                                                                                       system at the time stunted our
                                                                                       capacity to even imagine an
Introduction                             adopting. This is not something               alternative society beyond that of

T   here exists a rather worrying
    critique of psychotherapy in that
it may exist in service of harmful
                                         interior to psychotherapy but
                                         rather a demand that is placed on
                                         it from the outside. How should
                                                                                       the doctrines of capitalism, leading
                                                                                       us down a bleak imaginative cul-
                                                                                       de-sac that makes “it is easier to
societal forces. To put it concretely,   psychotherapy respond? The                    imagine the end of the world than it
the risk is that psychotherapy           aim of this paper is to show that             is to imagine the end of capitalism”
is used to rehabilitate people to        this is a demand that must be                 (Fisher, 2009, p. 2). The focus here
return to a societal system that         resisted if one is to maintain the            is that the social environment has
itself harms and breaks them. This       ideal of doing no harm seriously.             a direct impact on our capacity to
is not a criticism of psychotherapy      The problem itself appears in                 imagine and on mental health more
itself, but rather a particular          the unusual conjunction of our                generally, which will be returned to
function that psychotherapy risks        commonly held ideas about                     later.

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                                          B
   From a mental health                                                                   This is not an argument against
perspective, Fisher’s main concern             elief in the common                     personal improvement. Rather,
was that this connection between               idea that “you can                      the danger is that mental health
our environment and mental health         achieve anything” has                        difficulties come to be viewed
was being undermined by the                                                            as a personal failing where in
idea of the “atomistic individual”        become more and more a                       fact it is often a reasonable
(Fisher, 2009, p. 37). By over-           reality today.                               and understandable reaction
emphasising the individual, the                                                        to systemic demands that are
political and social causes of                                                         detrimental to physical and mental
mental illness are diminished. By        (2021b, p. 119). I have argued                well-being. The difficulty is in
extension, the impetus to change         similarly elsewhere (Delogu, 2020).           identifying these connections. It
things at a social and political level     The detrimental effects of an               is much the same as exploring
are similarly diminished (Fisher,        over-emphasis on individuality can            someone’s developmental history
2009, p.37). If we become blind          hardly be overstated, especially in           and connecting past and present
to the causes of our distress, how       a society that glorifies individuality.       difficulties, except in this situation,
can we possibly change them?             The pandemic has no doubt had                 the net is cast a little wider into the
It is this disconnect that led           an enormous impact of the focus               cultural domain.
psychologist David Smail to state        on individuality. “Loneliness                    There is a discourse and
that “psychotherapy does not work”       hangs over our culture today like             language that goes with this
(Smail, 2001, p. viii), where he         a thick smog” (Hari, 2009, p. 88).            individualization, of which I am
argued that a psychotherapy that         Loneliness can occur because of               sure many are quite familiar.
aims to heal people but ignores the      social isolation but exists even              Belief in the common idea that
societal causes of mental illness        in the presence of others. As the             “you can achieve anything” has
will fail from the start. It would       adage goes, the loneliest place is            become more and more a reality
simply end up treating a symptom,        amongst a crowd. Hari points to a             today. Smail calls this “magical
something many therapists would          key factor in reducing loneliness             voluntarism” - “the belief that it is
reject. This adds a nuanced danger       and that is being together with               within every individual’s power to
to the popular idea that the only        others who hold shared meaning or             make themselves whatever they
thing you can change is yourself.        values (2019, p. 100): just being             want to be” (Fisher, 2021a). This
   To counter this trend means           together with people is insufficient.         idea is clearly false. Obviously, it is
that psychotherapy must become           One might think the internet helps            important to have belief in oneself,
socially and politically aware in        in this regard, and no doubt it               but that “you can do anything” is
its functioning (Fisher, 2009,           does to a degree, but it is a paltry          an unfulfillable expectation. Should
p. 37; Totton, 2003, p. 49).             substitute for real togetherness              one not achieve these expectations
Psychotherapy should not simply          (Hari, 2019, p. 108).                         the outcome is regarded as a
be a tool to adjust people to social       These isolating social conditions           personal failing. Believing in this
norms but something that holds           have an impact on how we see                  also entails its opposite: “It is the
these norms into question. It is         ourselves in the world. Nolen Gertz           flipside of depression – whose
important to note that this is not       puts it well:                                 underlying conviction is that we
an excuse to ignore developmental                                                      are all uniquely responsible for
and family contributors to distress.       “So a system built on life, liberty,        our own misery and therefore
The political and social are simply        and the pursuit of happiness                deserve it” (Fisher, 2021a). This
inherent dimensions of that very           can induce nihilism by treating             sort of view is unfortunately all
process.                                   lifelessness, oppression, and               too common in positions which
                                           unhappiness as personal feelings,           discriminate against people from
Pathological Individualization             as feelings that reveal a person’s          lower socio-economic backgrounds:
The idea of there being an                 pathological inability to be happy,         “We have begun to think: I will look
absolute individual exists only as         the result of which is that we              after myself, and everybody else
an abstraction. The reality of our         respond to our suffering with               should look after themselves, as
situation is that the social nature of     the nihilistic desire to change             individuals. Nobody can help you
being human precedes any notion            ourselves rather than with the              but you” (Hari, p. 101).
of individuality. “There’s no such         political demand to change the                  Byung-Chul Han makes some
thing as the individual” says Fisher       system” (2019, p. 169).                     acute observations about the

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direction this type of thinking                                                     our individuality and identity
in his book The Burnout Society             he thing that I found                   impact how we organise our
(2015). Han sees burnout,                   challenging was that                    work lives. Work has a profound
depression, ADHD, borderline                                                        effect on self-worth. The first
                                      he would nearly always
personality disorder as                                                             question likely to be asked of
exacerbated by modern living          circle back to the idea that                  a stranger is “What do you do
and this illusion of infinite         it was down to his lack of                    for a living?” (Graeber, 2019,
potential. “They are pathological                                                   p. 240). In his philosophy of
conditions deriving from an           will power or motivation                      existentialism, Sartre cautioned
excess of positivity” (2015, p. 4).   for not being able to move                    against rigidly identifying with
We live in a society more inclined                                                  a distinct archetype, “there is
towards individual achievement,
                                      past his anxiety and enjoy                    the dance of the grocer, of the
driven by the ideals of “freedom,     even basic things in his                      tailor, of the auctioneer, by which
pleasure, and inclination”, where     life.                                         they endeavour to persuade their
everyone “must be a self-starting                                                   clientele that they are nothing
entrepreneur” (Han, 2015, p.                                                        but a grocer, and auctioneer, a
38). This is the downside to there    I was working with a client, let’s            tailor” (Sartre, 2004, p. 386).
being less constraints on how we      call him Bob, who was quite                   We collapse our potential into
choose to live; we are confronted     depressed. Bob had stopped                    easily digestible archetypes. This
by choice paralysis. Echoing          enjoying things pretty much                   goes for therapists as well. To
Fisher, the implicit contemporary     altogether. He did a lot of                   not simply become a therapist, to
burden - the illusion of absolute     exercise; a lot more than I do                keep your being an open question
freedom is exhausting, collapsing     in fact. He was on medication                 (Bion, 2018, p. 30).
into its depressed opposite, that     for depression and had noticed                  Work leaves not solely an
“Nothing is possible” (Han, p.        no change. He came to therapy                 ideological mark. The toll which
11). It becomes an individual         because of an upcoming job                    workplaces upon the body is
failure for people who cannot         interview which he aced but could             often visible through strains,
achieve their potential. There        not face starting the job and                 injuries, or illnesses. The body is
comes a weariness from too            was subsequently dismissed.                   thus the site where work leaves
much freedom, from having to          He had no traumatic family                    its mark. The “body is political”
constantly become something           history, if anything they may have            (Totton, 2003 p. 47). There are
better. Leading society towards       been distant, but it was hard to              marks particular to the “labouring
competitive performance between       establish how much. How do you                body” and the “consumerist
individuals, “a space where           quantify an absence? The thing                body” (Totton, 2003, p. 49-50)
solidarity and empathy are only       that I found challenging was that             and following Han let us coin
dangerous distractions weakening      he would nearly always circle back            the modern “achievement body”
the warrior that you are obliged to   to the idea that it was down to his           (2015, p. 8). As a subtlety, we
be” (Berardi, 2019, p.46).            lack of will power or motivation              are called to see the damage
  It should be clear how insidious    for not being able to move past               from what anthropologist
this type of thinking has become.     his anxiety and enjoy even basic              David Graeber calls “spiritual
Obviously, people want to achieve     things in his life. “It is ultimately         violence” (2019, p. 67). That
their potential, to be free. But      my responsibility to change” he               is, the detrimental impact of
to demand it, expect it, and          would say, as if everything hinged            meaningless work, lack of values,
make it the order of the day is a     on him alone. His conviction                  and an increasingly uncertain
form of violence that becomes         on this point at times had me                 future (Hari, 2019; Graeber,
internalized. It is oppression that   struggling to think otherwise. My             2019; Gertz, 2019, p. 124-138).
becomes internalized and invisible    interventions never really evoked               The proposed solution to the ills
because who wouldn’t want more        more thought around this core                 mentioned above is often more
freedom? A paradoxical control        conviction. The short-term therapy            work. “Some have done better
through the promise of infinite       came to an end.                               than others because they’ve
possibility.                                                                        worked harder than others. If you
                                      Work                                          want to do that well, you should
Vignette 1                            These profound ideas about                    work hard too” (Fisher, 2021, p.

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                                       “I
122). All this even though “[m]                                                      Vignette 2
ore often than not, individual               f we all woke up                        I had a client, let us call him Jeff.
wealth owes more to luck, laws               one morning and                         When Jeff was a child, he would
and regulations, inheritance or                                                      be beaten for not helping in his
                                       discovered that not
fortunate timing than to individual                                                  father’s business operated from
brilliance” (Standing, 2017, p. 32).   only nurses, garbage                          home. He would be paid little or
There are thus many more factors       collectors, and mechanics,                    nothing for his long day’s work.
than individual motivation. Though                                                   This happened intermittently over
likely preaching to the choir, many    but for that matter, bus                      several years. Jeff now becomes
who do not work don’t do this by       drivers, grocery store                        retraumatised by the mere
choice. Often, some relational                                                       mention of work and all that this
difficulty or trauma gets in the
                                       workers, firefighters, or                     word symbolises. He would work
way for those who want to work. I      short-order chefs had                         in manual labour types of jobs
feel like I am defending idleness      been whisked away into                        (caring labour) and is extremely
here. Let it be said that people                                                     sensitive to the disparity in pay
shouldn’t need an excuse to be         another dimension, the                        between himself and the people
idle, there is nothing wrong, lazy     results would be equally                      he would work for, that is, the
or otherwise, about idleness and                                                     managers or coordinators would
leisure (Standing, 2017, p. 117).      catastrophic”.                                be making a lot more money than
   I think it is very important                                                      him. In therapy Jeff fluctuates
however, to carefully interrogate      done or assumed to be done by                 between wanting to work to make
any inherited social assumptions       women, e.g., cleaning, raising                a better life for himself and not
we carry about work because they       children, teaching, nursing, etc.             wanting to work because of the
can carry into therapy. As Graeber     Psychotherapy as a line of work               stress it causes him. He receives
points out, many think “that those     can be similarly included. “The               disability pay to sustain life’s
who avoid work entirely should         more your work helps and benefits             basics. Jeff gets along somewhat
probably drop dead” (2019,             others, and the more social value             better with his father. Work
p. 242). Work is considered a          you create, the less you are likely           remains traumatising.
fundamental human trait. To not        to be paid for it” (Graeber, 2019,
work is viewed as pestilent. Even      p. 207). So, we have this societal            Commentary
within psychiatry “having a job        devaluation of jobs that are of               It was clear that there was a
is considered one of the major         enormous benefit to the social                strong connection between Jeff’s
characteristics of being a high-       fabric of our lives.                          mistreatment by his father and
functioning person” (Wang, p. 51).       The hypocrisy of this position              his ongoing difficulties with work.
Again, this is political standpoint,   was highlighted during the                    This developmental aspect was
as “a capitalist society values        pandemic. “Unskilled labourers”               explored on many occasions
productivity in its citizens above     magically became “essential                   but is not the focus here. I was
all else, and those with severe        workers”. Graeber, writing pre-               struck however by the fact that
mental illness are much less           pandemic, proposed a thought                  the things that were triggering him
likely to be productive in ways        experiment: “If we all woke up one            revealed an injustice. Specifically,
considered valuable: by adding to      morning and discovered that not               management earning much
the cycle of production and profit”    only nurses, garbage collectors,              more money for the same or
(Wang, p. 51).                         and mechanics, but for that                   fewer hours. A classic capitalist
   There is a connection between       matter, bus drivers, grocery store            arrangement. This seems to be
how work is also valued in             workers, firefighters, or short-order         something that others take for
monetary terms. There is a             chefs had been whisked away into              granted but because of Jeff’s
long history of the devaluation        another dimension, the results                heightened sensitivity, it could not
of women’s labour (Federici,           would be equally catastrophic”                be ignored.
2014, p. 92-96) or what today          (2019, p.208). Many of these jobs                It seemed to be that rather
can be called “caring labour”          tend to be the ones that generate             than his father being the source
(Graeber, p. 236; Block, Croft,        the most scorn during strike action           of his future difficulties that he
Schmader, 2018). In other words,       taken to secure better pay or                 was a conduit for these social
work that has traditionally been       working conditions.                           forces of workaholism. Culture

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                                         I
is not something outside of                                                           interest in embodiment and
the family, but the family is our          often felt compelled,                      teaches Tai Chi and Qi Gong
first encounter with culture.              especially early in the                    in Dublin. He has been playing
“The family is permeable to                                                           music semi-professionally for over
                                        therapy to intervene with
environmental forces and exterior                                                     15 years.
influences” (Guattari, 2009, p.         anxiety management
201-202). In Jeff’s case, his           to help Jeff to cope                          Alex can be found at
father had embodied this work                                                         www.alexdelogu.com
ethic to an authoritarian degree,       and continue to work.                         and can be contacted at
and he was encountering a               However, I resisted this                      alexdelogu@gmail.com
variation of this same theme in
his adult work life. To say that his
                                        compulsion.
difficulties with work are solely to
be resolved through exploring his       the therapy as rehabilitation for
past would be the sort of nihilism      work would have fallen into the                REFERENCES
inducing interpretation mentioned       trap mentioned at the outset,                  Berardi, F. B. (2019). Futurability: The age of
                                                                                       impotence and the horizon of possibility. Verso.
earlier.                                facilitating my client’s exploitation
                                                                                       Bion, W. R. (1980). Bion in New York and Sao
                                        and his inner self-exploitation.               Paulo: And three Tavistock seminars. The Harris
    “If the symbolic father is often                                                   Meltzer Trust.
    lurking behind the boss–            Conclusion                                     Block, K., Croft, A., & Schmader, T. (2018).
    which is why one speaks of          The purpose of this work is to                 Worth Less?: Why Men (and Women) Devalue
                                                                                       Care-Oriented Careers. Frontier Psychology.
    “paternalism” in various kinds      show how society and politics                  https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2018.01353
    of enterprises–there also often     shapes our ideas of individuality              Colquhoun, M. (2020). Egress: On mourning,
    is, in a most concrete fashion,     and our attitudes to work. We are              melancholy and Mark Fisher. Repeater.
    a boss or hierarchic superior       permeable in our most intimate                 Delogu, A. (2020). One and many: Reflections
    behind the real father. In the      mental functioning; we are not                 from Bion. The Irish journal of counselling and
                                                                                       psychotherapy, 20:1, 4-7.
    unconscious, paternal functions     closed off. These attitudes affect
                                                                                       Federici, S. (2014). Caliban and the Witch:
    are inseparable from the            everyone, both therapists and                  Women, the body and primitive accumulation.
    socio-professional and cultural     clients. For therapists, we have               Autonomedia.
    involvements which sustain          a responsibility to not simply                 Fisher, M. (2009). Capitalist realism: Is there
    them” (Guattari, 2009, p. 201).     reiterate and reinforce this                   no alternative? Zero Books.

                                        social and political structure                 Fisher, M. (2021a, September 12). Good
                                                                                       for nothing. The Occupied Times. https://
   I often felt compelled, especially   but to create a space for radical              theoccupiedtimes.org/?p=12841
early in the therapy to intervene       reassessment of all assumptions.               F isher, M. & In Colquhoun, M. (2021b).
with anxiety management to              What has been in question here                 Postcapitalist desire: Mark Fisher the final
                                                                                       lectures. Repeater.
help Jeff to cope and continue          are ideas of individuality and how
                                                                                       Gertz, N. (2019). Nihilism. The MIT Press.
to work. However, I resisted            these may become pathological
                                                                                       Graeber, D. (2019). Bullshit jobs: The rise of
this compulsion. On reflection,         coupled with scrutiny of the                   pointless work and what we can do about it.
it would have been a mistake.           many social contradictions and                 Penguin Books.
Further, it was not Jeff’s goal.        attitudes to work.                             Guattari, F. (2009). Chaosophy: Texts and
Had I pursued this intervention,                                                       interviews 1972-1977. Semiotext(e).

it would have been based on                                                            Han, B.-C. (2015). The burnout society. Stanford
                                                                                       Briefs.
my assumption that helping Jeff
                                         Alex Delogu                                   Hari, J. (2019). Lost connections: Why you’re
to endure work was the correct                                                         depressed and how to find hope. Bloomsbury.
course of action. Though he                                                            Marino, G. (2004). Basic writings of existentialism.
wanted to work, I wondered              Alex is a pre-accredited                       The Modern Library.
whether this desire was socially        psychotherapist with a private                 Smail, D. (2001). Why therapy doesn’t work.
                                                                                       Constable & Robinson.
conditioned, or was it something        practice in South Dublin.
                                                                                       Standing, G. (2017). Basic Income: And how we
he wanted. His father valued work       He received his Masters in                     can make it happen. Pelican.
above all else. I tried to proceed      Philosophy from UCD in 2012 and                Totton, N. (2003). Body psychotherapy. Open
in a way that kept the possibilities    went on to get his BA (Hons) in                University Press.
of these questions open, at             Counselling and Psychotherapy                  Wang, E. W. (2019). The collected
least in my mind. To simply treat       from DBS. He has a strong                      schizophrenias: Essays. Graywolf Press.

8                                            Irish Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy
Journal of Counselling and Psychotherapy - Irish Association for Counselling ...
Volume 21   • Issue 4 • Winter 2021                                                                                      IJCP

Practitioner Perspective

    Let’s Talk about the F word!
    A reflection on fees
    By Brendan O’Shaughnessy

                                                                                           Finally in my work as a supervisor
                                                                                         with students I have become aware
                                                                                         that their expectations regarding
                                                                                         making a living may be too
                                                                                         optimistic. I share a financial model
                                                                                         with them that may provide a more
                                                                                         realistic view of private practice.
                                                                                         More on this later.

                                                                                         My own Background
                                                                                         My attitude to fees is strongly
                                                                                         influenced by my life experiences.
                                                                                         For most of my 40-year working life,
                                                                                         I held senior management positions
                                                                                         in several multinational electronic
                                                                                         companies. This experience
                                                                                         encouraged data analysis as
                                                                                         a prerequisite to developing
                                                                                         strategies. For 28 of those
                                                                                         years, I also worked as a part-
                                                                                         time counsellor with a charitable
                                                                                         organisation that offered low-cost
Introduction                               article is part of my reflection and          professional counselling to people

I n researching and writing this
  article I have become more aware
of the therapeutic, personal,
                                           an examination of my reasoning. It
                                           is my hope that this will be useful in
                                           your fee determination.
                                                                                         who may not otherwise have access
                                                                                         to therapy. In 2019, the charity
                                                                                         was dissolved and I set up my own
ethical, and business issues                  Coincidently, I was reading some           private therapy and supervision
involved with fee setting. I hope          comments on the Irish Association             practice. I also retired early from my
it will be a source of interest and        for Counselling & Psychotherapy               position in the electronics industry.
reflection for you, but first let’s look   (IACP) Facebook page (Irish                   I am in the lucky position to be able
at what prompted me to explore             Association for Counselling and               to work at therapy and supervision
this issue.                                Psychotherapy, 2021) about the                for two days a week and not be
   Prior to an initial meeting             commoditisation of therapy in                 reliant on it as my main source of
with a prospective experienced             Ireland. Therapy and Employee                 income. I realise that this is not the
supervisee, I sent a draft contract        Assistance Programmes (EAP)                   case for everyone and I recognise
and my fee scale for supervision.          providers are advertising low                 this influences my attitude to fee
Subsequently, we had a phone               rates and then paying therapists a            setting.
conversation where she expressed           portion of this. The comments were               We will explore the topic of fee
her shock at my concept of a               highlighting the conflict between             setting then in four sections; the
fee scale. We had a very open              making therapy more accessible                therapeutic bit; the ethical bit; the
discussion about this, and I               to more people and a race to the              research bit and the business bit. I
committed to reflect on how I came         bottom in terms of fees that may              will then conclude with my thoughts
to this method of fee setting. This        follow.                                       and observations on the topic.

                                                Irish Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy                          9
Journal of Counselling and Psychotherapy - Irish Association for Counselling ...
IJCP                                                                                               Volume 21   • Issue 4 • Winter 2021

The Therapeutic bit                        From a personal perspective my             communicate “any benefits, costs
From a client’s perspective fees can    earliest experience with fees was             and commitments that clients
be viewed positively and negatively.    when the charity I worked with began          may reasonably expect” (British
In writing about fees and the           asking for donations. Most clients            Association for Counselling and
therapeutic relationship McLeod         were happy to donate between                  Psychotherapy, 2018).
notes:                                  €5 and €10 and I became used                    The American Counselling
                                        to making this clear at the initial           Association (ACA) notes that
  Freud and other psychoanalysts        meeting with a client/clients. One
  have argued for the ‘sacrificial’     client whom I remember well was an              In establishing fees for
  nature of the fee. The assumption     older woman who suggested a €1                  professional counseling services,
  here is that, as a means of           donation. As I came to learn later              counselors consider the financial
  maximising the motivation of          this was not easy as she was in                 status of clients and locality. If
  the patient for therapy, and          difficult financial circumstances. At           a counselor’s usual fees create
  signalling the importance of their    the end of one of our sessions she              undue hardship for the client, the
  commitment to therapy, a fee          was searching in her handbag for the            counselor may adjust fees, when
  should be set that is the maximum     €1. I assumed she was not able to               legally permissible, or assist the
  affordable by the patient. This       afford it that week and I made the              client in locating comparable,
  implies that sliding fees should be   terrible mistake of telling her it was          affordable services (American
  operated: a fee that represented      OK not to pay for that session. She             Counselling Association, 2014).
  a major personal commitment for       fished out the €1 and let me know in
  one client might be insignificant     no uncertain terms that this was her            Due to the scant advice
  for another, more affluent client.    counselling, and she was paying for           above, I wonder if this reflects a
  (McLeod, 2019, p. 43)                 it. I came to treasure that €1 more
                                                                                      professional sense of “fee guilt”
                                        than any I have received since for
                                                                                      mentioned by McLeod above?
  This would seem to support the        what the experience taught me.
  notion of a fee scale.
                                                                                      The Business Bit
                                        The Ethical bit
                                                                                      When setting up in private practice,
    On the other hand, payment may      So, what advice as we get from
                                                                                      a personal challenge involved
also have a negative impact on the      codes of ethics on the topic of
                                                                                      challenging my own attitude toward
therapeutic relationship, as clients    fee setting? The IACP Code of
                                                                                      fees. Having spent the previous 28
may feel the therapist is ;only in      Ethics briefly mentioned fees in
                                                                                      years in a counselling organisation
it for the money; “he/she is only       section 2.3 where it mandates that
pretending to value me because they     therapists                                    that transitioned from no fees, to
are being paid” (Wills, 1982, p. 56).                                                 asking for donations to setting a
   From a therapist’s perspective         a) Take responsibility for the              minimum negotiable fee, I had little
fees can be also have different              setting and monitoring of                experience with how to ask clients
meanings. On the one hand fees               appropriate, boundaries                  for money. As I tend to be more
may be a tangible measure of how             within the practitioner/client           instinctive in my counselling life, I
the client and the therapist values          relationship, making these               did not make any detailed analysis
the service provided. However, as            explicit to the client.                  of fee setting but did start out with
McLeod noted “Some therapists                                                         a scale based on an evaluation of
experience ‘fee guilt’ arising from       b) Take responsibility for making           client’s income levels.
the conflict between being wanted            a clear contract with the client            Had I adopted my prior business
to be perceived as a ‘helper’ and            to include issues such as                approach (data analysis), I would
being involved in a business that            availability, fees, and cancelled        have completed several steps
involves making a living and a               appointments… (Irish                     before setting up my own practice.
profit” (McLeod, 2019, p. 152).              Association for Counselling and          So, for the purposes of this
On a more sinister note, “If a               Pyschotherapy, 2018)                     reflection, I now present the steps
therapist’s income is contingent                                                      which now guide my fee setting.
on a client remaining in therapy,         The British Association for
he or she might subtly find ways to     Counselling & Psychotherapy                      1. Budgeting: Prepare a budget
prolong treatment” (Kottler, 1988,      (BACP) makes no mention of fees,                    for practice running costs and
p. 154).                                but does suggest that therapists                    identify my income goals.

10                                           Irish Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy
Volume 21   • Issue 4 • Winter 2021                                                                                          IJCP

  2. Competition Comparison:            Budgeting Model:
     Discover what other therapists
     charge.                                                                                     Daily Weekly           Annual
                                                                                                          5        46         230
  3. Market Analysis: Investigate        Start Time                                                   09:00
     what can clients afford.            Finish Time                                                  18:00
                                                                                                       9.00
                                         Hours per Client                                              1.50
What do in need to charge
                                                                                                          6
(Budgeting)
                                         Clients per day
For illustration, I present a sample
                                         Plan                                                             6
budgeting model based on several
                                         Can't Fill/No Show/Cancellation etc %                         30%
goals and assumptions. Particularly,
                                         Actual                                                         4.2
with respect to income, the goal of
                                         Rounded                                                          4        20         920
earning the average Industrial wage
                                         Average Fee per Client                                      €69.08
as measured by the Central Statistics
Office (Central Statistics Office,       Income                                                €276       €1,382          €63,556
2021). Note: Microsoft Excel has a       Expenditure                                    Per Session
function called Goal Seek, where,        Room Rental                                            €12                       €11,040
based on your goal (in this case the     Professional Fees (IACP Membership)                                                 €410
average Industrial wage), you can        Training & CPD                        Sessions @ 30:1 Ratio Per Session             €500
calculate the fee you need to charge.    Supervision                                             31 €     70.00            €2,147
You will see this number highlighted     Office Supplies                                                                     €500
in the yellow cell in Figure 1.          Website and Advertising                                                           €1,000
  If anyone wants to adapt and use       Professional Indemnity Insurance                                                    €105
the budgeting model for their own        Bank Charges and Payment Processing fees                                          €1,274
circumstances, please email me           Heat, Light Power                                                                   €200
and I would be happy to share it.        Travel                                                                              €600
                                         Phone and Internet                                                                  €600
Competition Analysis: What do            Miscellaneous                                                                       €500
other therapists charge?                 Total Expenditure                                                                €18,876
The following analysis (Figures 2
to 4) is based on IACP website
“Find a Therapist” Section (Irish        Net Income                               Avg Industrial Wage                     €44,680
Association for Counselling and
Pyschotherapy, 2021) as of               Tax, PRSI. USC etc                                                               €13,404
July 11th, 2021. Of the 2,762
therapists listed 2,566 mentioned        Net Income                                                   €120      €601      €31,276
a fee. Many fees are negotiable,
but I assume this is interpreted as     Assumptions in the model
negotiable downwards rather than        1. 5 Day working week from 09:00 to 18:00.
upwards by most clients. 490 IACP       2. 6 Weeks allowed for holidays, Christmas, Easter, Training, and self-care.
members did not state a fee, but
                                        3. 55 Minute sessions and 35 minutes between each client to allow time for notes and
said fees were negotiable.
                                           preparation.

How many IACP Therapists work           4. 30% allowed for not being able to fill each slot each day or cancellations/no shows.
fulltime?                               5. Supervision is based on 30:1 ratio and at €70 per session
Based on the above analysis, it would   6. Room Rental is based on paying €12 per hour on sessional basis. Some people may
seem that most IACP therapists do          opt to work from a home office saving this cost, but work/life balance and safety issues
not earn the industrial average. So        ought to be considered in this case.
how do they survive? According to       7. So, if I want to earn my desired income, I need to charge €67.58 on average per
the IACP member survey (conducted          session.
during the Covid 19 pandemic) Figure
5, only 9% of members work more         Figure 1: Budgeting

                                               Irish Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy                                11
IJCP                                                                                                                 Volume 21   • Issue 4 • Winter 2021

                  Individuals – All Fees Reported                              than 26 hours per week (no change from a prior survey).
                                                                               The majority of respondents, 63%, worked less than 15
                                                                               hours per week before the Covid 19 member survey and
                                                                               67% since (Behaviour & Attitudes Limited, 2020).
                                                                                 This is consistent with the 2013 survey which noted
                                                                               “7 in 10 work in counselling/psychotherapy on a part
                                                                               time basis but fewer than a half (44%) have another
                                                                               occupation” (Irish Association for Counselling and
                                                                               Pyschotherapy, 2013)
                                                                                 It appears then that the majority of therapists are
Figure 2: Fees for Individual Therapy
                                                                               opting for the average industrial wage area of €60 to
                                                                               €69 per hour and work part time. It would appear that
                                                                               counselling is not therapists’ primary source of income.
                  Couples – Excluding Negotiable
                                                                               Market Analysis. What Can Clients afford?
                                                                               One of the things I have learned is that clients with higher
                                                                               incomes can usually claim a set number of session fees
                                                                               from their health insurance provider (Voluntary Health
                                                                               Insurance (VHI), Laya etc). Further, excess fees may be
                                                                               claimed as tax relief at 20%. It is worth acknowledging
                                                                               though that clients on lower incomes are unlikely to have
                                                                               Health Insurance or pay tax.
                                                                                 Figure 6 illustrates two extreme examples for the
                                                                               net cost to two couples. Example A is of a couple with
Figure 3: Fees for Couples Therapy
                                                                               a joint income of €100,000, good VHI plan and able
                                                                               to claim tax refund. Example B is of a couple with a
               Supervision – Excluding Negotiable                              joint income of €30,000, no health insurance and not
                                                                               paying any tax.
                                                                                 This brings up some interesting questions about
                                                                               social equity and the redistribution of wealth in Ireland.

                                                                                                                         Example A        Example B
                                                                                Annual Income                            € 100,000         € 30,000
                                                                                Weekly Income                            €    1,923        €    577
                                                                                Cost per Session                         €      105        €      60
                                                                                VHI Refund @ 80%                        -€        84       €    -
Figure 4: Fees for Supervision where specifically mentioned                     Tax refund @ 20%                        -€         4       €    -
                                                                                Net Cost                                 €        17       €      60
                                                                                As % of Income                                    1%            10%

                                                                               Figure 6: Affordability for clients
                                                                                                                                            € Per Session
                                                                               ItIncome
                                                                                   has Levels
                                                                                         also encouraged me to appreciate toIndividuals        the real Couples
                                                                               cost    to   clients   on
                                                                                 Income over €101k per year
                                                                                                           lower    incomes.        By  using a fee85scale 105
                                                                               based on clients’ incomes, it could be argued that
                                                                                 €51k to €100k per year                                            70       80
                                                                               clients on higher incomes are thus subsidising those
                                                                                 €31k to €50k per year                                             60       70
                                                                               on lower incomes. That seems fair to me.
                                                                                 Less than €31k or on Social Welfare                               50       60
                                                                                   Following discussion on this topic with my supervisor,
                                                                                 All Negotiable depending on family financial circumstances
                                                                               another interesting aspect arose. How do my fees
                                                                               reflect how I value what I offer to clients? By setting
                                                                               too low a fee am I saying my service is only worth
                                                                               x amount? By setting too high a fixed fee am I
                                                                               overestimating my value and excluding people who
Figure 5: Extract from IACP members survey on Covid 19                         can’t afford my fees?

12                                                            Irish Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy
Tax refund @ 20%                                  -€                4 €                -
                                                        Net Cost                                           €               17 €                60
Volume 21   • Issue 4 • Winter 2021                     As % of Income                                                     1%                 10% IJCP

  Finally, part of the why I do
                                                                                                                                     € Per Session
counselling is to assuage my
sense of social responsibility.                         Income Levels                                                          Individuals          Couples
I am lucky to be in a position                          Income over €101k per year                                                       85              105
where fees are not my only
                                                        €51k to €100k per year                                                           70               80
source of income. I learned
the hard way to value what                              €31k to €50k per year                                                            60               70
clients can pay and to be able                          Less than €31k or on Social Welfare                                              50               60
to structure my fees to make it
                                                        All Negotiable depending on family financial circumstances
more affordable for more people.
  The table in Figure 7 then,
provides an illustration of a                          Some observations on the above structure:
scaled fee structure.                                  GDPR: You are not collecting client income data. e.g., it is possible for someone on €40,000
                                                       income per year to have huge mortgage and only pay €50. To ensure you comply with General
                                                       Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) regulations you should only keep a record of the agreed amount
Conclusion                                             and not how it was calculated and as with all client data only use it for the purpose of the therapy.
So, what have I learned from
                                                       Practical Billing: I use payment platform to process payments from clients. Initially, I used a
this?                                                  debit/credit card reader for payment at the end of each session, but when I moved to online
   Broadly, our profession appears                     was able to use a billing feature of my payment platform to create an invoice which is emailed
primarily part time one and                            to the client with a link so that they can pay online. On resuming in-person work, I continued
                                                       this practice as it is easier for me to keep track of payments and saves time at the end of each
the range of fees offered vary                         session. It more secure than dealing with cash and less covid risky. I also believe this is a more
considerably. My own experience                        professional way of issuing receipts. Summary information can be extracted for accounting and
with supervisees would lead me                         taxation purposes. The cost of this service is currently 1.69% of each transaction.
to believe that few are fully aware                   Figure 7: Illustration of a scaled fee structure
if starting a private practice that
can be financially sustainable,
while also expressing a desire to                     Whether we use fee scales or
                                                                                                            Brendan O’Shaughnessy
work full time in counselling.                        fixed fees seem less important
   At the same time, it appears                       than how this reflects the cost                      Brendan is an IACP accredited
there are and will be more                            of the service we offer, both for                    Counsellor/Therapist/Supervisor in
companies setting up commercial                       ourselves and our clients. To                        private practice. He worked part time
counselling/psychotherapy                             provide a sustainable service to                     with the Cork Marriage Counselling
services which also impact on the                                                                          Centre for 28 years and has a Higher
                                                      clients, whether this be free, low
earning potential of therapists.                                                                           Diploma in Counselling from UCC.
                                                      cost or fee based, I think we have
   Fees are a far more complicated                                                                         Brendan has been on the board
                                                      a responsibility to consider the
topic that I had originally                                                                                of directors of various charities
considered. One that cannot                           costs involved so we can continue                    including the National Domestic
be ignored from a therapeutic                         to serve our clients.                                Violence Agency.
relationship or private practice                         I hope you have gained some
                                                                                                           Contact details:
perspective. Also found myself                        insight from this, and it has
considering social justice issues                     provided you with some food for                      brendanoshaughnessy@hotmail.com
and the concept of fee guilt.                         thought.                                             www.brendanoshaughnessy.org

 REFERENCES
 American Counselling Association. (2014). Code of    Psychotherapy. (2021, April 1). Retrieved           therapists?co=&cat=
 Ethics. Retrieved from www.counseling.org.           from https://www.facebook.com/IACPdot.              Kottler, J. A. (1988). On being a Therapist. Jossey-
 Behaviour & Attitudes Limited. (2020). COVID-19      ie/?ref=page_internal: https://www.facebook.com/    Bass.
 Membership Survey. B&A Research and Insight.         groups/241219326763908
                                                                                                          Mallon, T. M. [Tracy]. (2021, April 1). Corporate
 British Association for Counselling and              Irish Association for Counselling and               health Ireland is a private business so no doubt
 Psychotherapy. (2018). Ethical Framework for the     Pyschotherapy. (2013). IACP Membership Survey
                                                                                                          their service provider will be asked to work for less
 Counselling Professions. Retrieved from BACP:        2013. Retrieved from IACP: https://iacp.ie/files/
                                                                                                          [Online forum post]. Facebook. https://www.
 https://www.bacp.co.uk/events-and-resources/         UserFiles/IACP-Members-Survey-Report-2013-1.pdf
                                                                                                          facebook.com/groups/iacpmembersgroup/
 ethics-and-standards/ethical-framework-for-the-      Irish Association for Counselling and
 counselling-professions                                                                                  posts/738648113687691
                                                      Pyschotherapy. (2018). IACP Code of Ethics.
 Central Statistics Office. (2021, 07 11).            Retrieved from IACP: https://www.iacp.ie/iacp-      McLeod, J. (2019). An Introduction to Counselling
 Earnings. Retrieved from Central Statisics Office:   code-of-ethics                                      and Psychotherapy: Theory, Researc H and Practice
 https://www.cso.ie/en/statistics/earnings/           Irish Association for Counselling and               (6th ed.). Open University Press.
 earningsandlabourcosts/                              Pyschotherapy. (2021, 07 11). “Find a Therapist”.   Wills, R. (1982). Insight-oriented marital therapy
 Irish Association for Counselling and                Retrieved from IACP.ie: https://www.iacp.ie/page/   [Treatment manual]. Detroit: Wayne State University.

                                                             Irish Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy                                             13
IJCP                                                                                                          Volume 21   • Issue 4 • Winter 2021

                    FLORESCENCE*
                Winter                                        You and I                            The Work of Group
          By Sian Williams                              By John Edward Basil                             By Eileen M Higgins
                                                             Keenaghan                                Seeing my life laid out on the floor
    The land laid bare as winter crept in,
Cleansing away the seasons of hurt and sin.                                                                    Seeing the things
   Gifted with these lands of beauty and                   I sit, listen and observe                       I had never seen before
                   wonder,                                   To all you say and do                       Reaching deep from inside
 But her expansive resources we chose to                          I take it all in                         Trusting all will coincide
                   plunder.                               To try and understand you                           Transported by time
                                                                                                          Whilst sharing the smiles
       Raping her of all she possessed                     I try not to judge or doubt                         Burdens there too
 Striving to make mankind tower above the                     To empathise if I can                            Veiled in our eyes
                     rest.                                    I sit with you in hope                            Taken to pieces
  We robbed for the lands, the plants, and                     To try to lend a hand                       And reassembled again
                    seas,                                                                                       Here to be found
   Listen now for the reaper is coming to                 You talk and tell your story                    Sorrow, joy, hope and pain
               collect his fee.                            To express how you feel                            There in that space
                                                            You cry laugh and gaze                                In every face
 Consumerism grew as a vague distraction                   To see what is revealed                 We’re putting the pieces together again
Now the separation of real soul connection                                                              Wholly rewarding an endeavour
             is holding traction.                         You then may pause awhile                For now, I know ‘me’ that little bit better.
Vast unsupported media truths are causing                      To let it all sink in
                  desolation,                            You reflect, repeat and relive
Watch the rivers run red as fighting kin fall in            To question, lose or win
              all great nations.
                                                            We then meet together                              The Word
    The wise Lakota spoke of a common                     Without a word being said
                   tongue,                                                                                By Margaret Walsh
                                                        To wander through this journey
   Where all who walked the land would be                   For a while we are wed
                     one.                                                                              Lost in thorns and brambles left with
Instead, we pushed against the free flow of                                                        deep wounds invisible to all, a moment of
                                                          We gently come to realise                change the words that captured me, “you
                  the tide.
                                                          That ease has just begun                are strong” thorns shifted in form, resulting
Blinded by ego mankind is drowning in greed
                 and pride.                               It may take a little longer               in soft moss. I could sit stop and think.
                                                           Until your song is sung.                   “Strong”, strength not weakness. But
    Too late, to late the wise one cried,                    But you are singing                    now new thoughts. I felt the cushioning
  And sadly, the earth she softly sighed.                                                            of the moss the warmth of its comfort I
 Because she trusts that seasons change,                                                             could stand again, not fully steady but I
           and the land will grow                                                                 could balance, and I knew I knew that took
 But mankind this wisdom will never know.                                                                            strength.

                                        The Bridge on Glendermackin
                                                             By Paul Hewer

          Flowers know the way                         Blencathra was his grandmother                    Standing by the forever stone
   Always finding the best path home                 Only he knew her by another name*                    With a lantern’s brightness
Growing through earth's fractured spaces.                And I never really knew him.
                                                                                                        I sing you back to your bones.
   Three brothers came to the village              He knew every well and wall in the parish
 Over the mountain with Glendermackin                   And every country with a port                Come back from where you’re lost
          Pit gear on a donkey.                          But somehow he was lost.                        And grow whole again
                                                                                                           Like the sunflower.
   This is father's landscape not mine                  Always on the outside waiting
  He was the bridge to these ancestors                     Sitting on the front step
          But that has gone now.                         To come in, to come home.                                *Saddleback

14                                                      Irish Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy
Volume 21   • Issue 4 • Winter 2021                                                                              IJCP

Reflective Article

    Dark and Light – What Our
    Psychotherapy Heroes Reveal About
    Ourselves and Our Profession
    By Emma Redfern

                                                                                   Developmental Transformations
                                                                                   (DvT); and Robin Shohet founder
                                                                                   of the seven-eyed model of
                                                                                   supervision.

                                                                                   Living and working through the
                                                                                   pandemic
                                                                                   I count myself fortunate that
                                                                                   when the UK went into lockdown
                                                                                   in March 2020, I was already
                                                                                   working online with both clients
                                                                                   and supervisees, and I continued
                                                                                   to be able to do so. Add editorial
                                                                                   work and the usual CPD and I
                                                                                   had plenty to keep me feeling
                                                                                   productive, focused, and safe
                                                                                   enough. This article is a product
                                                                                   of that time.
                                                                                     I imagine I am not alone in
                                                                                   having been bombarded since the
                                                                                   beginning of Covid-19 with emails
                                                                                   offering countless opportunities
                                                                                   to learn new therapy skills, gain
                                                                                   extra and specialist qualifications,
                                                                                   while saving money on discounted
                                                                                   deals. Without already having
                                                                                   developed a sense of the
                                                                                   people whose thoughts, skills
                                                                                   and experience I value, I would
Introduction                          professional working in the field            probably have been ‘at sea’,

I n this article I introduce the
  concept of the psychotherapy
hero. I touch on why we might
                                      of psychotherapy. Three of them
                                      are American, one British; one
                                      is a woman and three are men,
                                                                                   feeling the pressure of grasping
                                                                                   as many opportunities as
                                                                                   possible, or feeling like a failure
have psychotherapy heroes and         all are white. They are: Byron               for letting countless opportunities
how having them can be helpful.       Katie, developer of The Work;                pass me by. Thankfully, when it
I encourage the reader to reflect     Richard Schwartz, founder of                 came to booking core CPD for
on who theirs might be and            Internal Family Systems Therapy              2021, I already knew what I value
what those choices say about          (IFS); David Read Johnson,                   learning about and from whom,
the chooser. I introduce four of      trauma specialist, dramatherapist            partly because I was already
my own current psychotherapy          and founder of an embodied                   aware of my psychotherapy
heroes, each of whom is a leading     psychotherapy known as                       heroes.

                                          Irish Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy                       15
IJCP                                                                                             Volume 21   • Issue 4 • Winter 2021

                                       B
  Each of the four psychotherapy                                                    idealised.
heroes I introduce has probably            yron Katie is
passed the standard UK                     not a trained                            What a psychotherapy hero is not
retirement age. Even without the      psychotherapist. Yet,                         My gratitude to these individuals
threat of Covid-19, they are not                                                    is not that of a victim saved by a
going to last forever (and neither    since hitting rock bottom                     superhero such as SpiderMan or
am I). I want to expose myself        and then experiencing                         Wonder Woman in comic books or
to more of their wisdom while         her own ‘awakening’ in                        films. The individuals I introduce
I can and while some of them                                                        are not saints or saviours, each
take advantage of online delivery     February of 1986, she                         is a regular Joe, or Joanna. White
(due to physical challenges, I        devised a powerfully                          and privileged, yes, yet also
don’t travel as well as I did).       therapeutic practice she                      knowing shame, trauma, healing,
Also, through this article, I want                                                  and transformation from the
to acknowledge to myself and          calls The Work.                               inside and having faced trials and
to others my gratitude to, and                                                      tribulations of their own. Each has
appreciation for them.                                                              feet of clay, and a shadow side
                                      reflect how much society and I                just like the rest of us.
Who I am influences my choice of      need healing.
psychotherapy hero                                                                  Someone who is pioneering
I have had different psychotherapy    What is a psychotherapy hero?                 Richard Schwartz has shown
heroes at different points in my      As a psychotherapist, I believe               courage in embracing the
journey. My top ten would include     that psychotherapy has great                  unwelcome failure of a family
Maya Angelou, Brené Brown, and        potential to benefit individuals              therapy trial with young people
Alice Miller - all of whom have had   and society. Perhaps every                    with eating disorders which was
a huge impact, from a distance,       therapist who has kept working                not giving the results he hoped
on my personal growth and/            throughout the stresses and                   for (Schwartz & Sweezy, 2020).
or professional development.          strains of the global pandemic                Instead, Dick became curious
(Note, my psychotherapy heroes        is worthy of being considered a               about his clients’ inner worlds
are not all psychotherapists          psychotherapy hero. However, I                which was largely verboten in his
themselves.) However, my current      am thinking on the scale of those             field at the time and, in response
psychotherapy heroes have all         worthy of receiving a lifetime                to what he learned, he rigorously
had a closer impact, not least in     achievement award because their               and scientifically ‘followed the
that I have completed in-person       professional careers in therapy               data’ to devise Internal Family
training with all bar Byron Katie     have conferred great benefit to               Systems therapy. IFS is currently
(though I did get to see her do       humanity.                                     one of the most rapidly expanding
The Work at a large event in            Over decades, these four                    and countercultural therapy
London once).                         professionals have made long-                 trainings in the world.
   Due to my history and personal     term, impactful contributions to                 David Read Johnson was
demographics (white, cisgender        mental health through therapeutic             a pioneer of dramatherapy
female, Western, educated,            work with people; training of                 with adults before the title
English speaking and privileged),     therapists; supervisors and                   dramatherapist even existed.
it makes sense to me that my          ordinary people; writing of articles          Like Schwartz, this meant
current psychotherapy heroes are      and books; and direct contact                 having the courage to go
all white, Western professionals.     with the public in person, through            against prevailing cultural tides
In addition, I position myself as     their websites, recordings, and               in society and the healthcare
a ‘wounded healer’, having had a      so on. Imagine, if you will, this             community. This is demonstrated
significant trauma history, and in    article is my nomination, using               by an experience earlier in his
my understanding, each of these       my own criteria, for each of these            career as a dramatherapist
people recognise, understand,         people. These are my criteria:                when he found that the nursing
welcome, and work with suffering,     a pioneering spirit, outstanding              home expected him and his
trauma, and the shadow within         achievements, admirable                       dramatherapy group to share a
us. While my choice makes             professional and personal                     room with a deceased resident
personal sense, it may also           qualities, and being real not                 being stored there temporarily

16                                         Irish Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy
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