In this issue
Fragile foetuses (free article)
Graham Music discusses the effect of drugs – specifically alcohol – in the womb
Looking for parallels
An acceptance of parallel processes can enhance supervision, says Phyllis Coulter
Useful conversations with children
Jackie Bateman and Judith Milner believe solution-focused conversations help children achieve their potential
Reflecting on…
…hate in therapy. By columnist Jeanine Connor
Destination PhD
Val Taylor explains her Delphi study
Working with sexually harmful behaviour
Jackie Davies reminds us of preparation and provisos
Parent Child Interaction Therapy
Narelle Smith offers a no-frills version to desperate parents
EMDR for bereavement trauma
Lisa Mundell reports
How are your resources?
Suze Lopez Bradley focuses on what we have or might acquire
The practice research network for school-based counselling
Andy Hill and Aaron Sefi introduce SCoPReNet
Update
From the chair
Not all articles from this issue are available online. Divisional members and subscribers can download the pdf from the BACP Children, Young People and Families archive.
Editor’s welcome
Sometimes, it seems as if the articles in this journal are aimed at me. Not that I’m paranoid or anything. For instance, the idea of parallel processes is one we often ignore, and to which Phyllis Coulter draws our attention. Once we get into the world of serendipity, coincidence, intuition and synchronicity, we do open ourselves to possible accusations of weirdness, fluffiness and woo-woo. Yet we are dealing with minds, and minds don’t always answer to conscious reason.
And here’s the thing: I made a slightly urgent call to my supervisor recently to check something out, and this accurately paralleled the call made to me a short while later by the distraught parents, just before they were about to put into action our agreed plan to sort out the chaos at home. Was I nervous I was doing the right thing? Handling it correctly? Were they? I must have needed reassuring. Maybe they did. I understood their sudden doubts. I therefore knew what was needed – a good look in the cupboard to find some containment! Which I offered. As did my supervisor. And so the parallel processes march on. The implications stretch into all areas of our work and lives. Have a read and see what you think.
Having become involved in the Coach in Every UK City project for the Youth Coaching Academy (YCA), I’ve been reminded yet again how solution-focused therapy (SFT) is very much at the boundary of counselling and coaching – one of several models that look for workable solutions in preference to analysing what the problem has been. Our article by Judith Milner and Jackie Bateman concentrates on ways to communicate effectively with young people on their own terms and in their best interests, in search of a workable solution. The belief is that the young people have the seminal resources they need inside themselves, if we choose to hunt them down. I witnessed this in Bath recently, when I worked alongside girls from 11 to 15 years who are coaching their own peers, as certificated youth life coaches, trained by the YCA. When you see this resourcefulness in action, you know without doubt that the work we do – from the most difficult and complex counselling to the most future-focused and envisioned coaching – is absolutely crucial to the nation’s health.
Finally, some of you will know that the seven divisional journals are in the process of being redesigned. As the journals move to a big design firm, I would like to honour Fran Shall, who has worked on them, and on ours in particular, for much longer than I have been editor. She has been wonderful to collaborate with, unfailingly helpful, watchful for my omissions and willing to accommodate my frequent requests for a special page layout. We have delighted and laughed together over this journal. As they say in book dedications, the good stuff is all hers, the errors are mine! But I’ve received many emails of congratulations for the journal in our time together and will miss her hugely. The executive joins with me in saying thank you, Fran. We shall appear in our new finery in June. If I don’t mess up. Not that I’m paranoid or anything.
Eleanor Patrick
Editor