Working After Loss: How Bereavement Counsellors Experience Returning to Therapeutic Work After the Death of Their Parent

Despite increased interest in the impact of external events on counsellors, surprisingly little has been written on counsellor bereavement. To address the research question: How do bereavement counsellors experience therapeutic work after the death of their parent? Interviews were conducted with four bereaved counsellors who reflected on its impact on their work. Data were analysed using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA). Three major themes emerged; how decisions about returning to work were informed by colleagues and supervision; the benefits of returning to work and the use of ‘bracketing’; long-term implications for practice including heightened empathy with clients’ and disclosure of loss. In addition, participants felt they had insufficient guidance regarding fitness to practice. The possible limitations of the study were that self-selection may have introduced an element of bias to the results. These findings support existing literature and also revealed potential gaps in grief and loss training for counsellors and supervisors. A particular training issue for supervisors might be identifying and discussing fitness to practice issues with supervisees. There are also implications for counsellors in terms of the use of self-disclosure in therapy. Suggested further research to explore the use of self-disclosure in greater depth.

Contributions of Linguistics to the Study of Aphasias: Focus on Discursive Approaches

The chapter aims to present and discuss the contributions of Linguistics to the study of aphasias, especially regarding the power of discursive theories to subsidize language assessment and therapeutic follow-up with aphasic individuals. Jakobson, in 1956, based on Saussure’s approach and on Luria’s neuropsychological theory, was the first scholar to call for the participation of linguists in this field, once “aphasia is a problem of language”. Nonetheless, aphasia does not disturb only linguistic formal levels – phonetical-phonological, syntactic, lexical-semantic –, but also pragmatic and discursive aspects of language that are constitutive of meaning processes involved in the social use of language. Unfortunately, more traditional approaches to language assessment and to the follow-up work are exclusively based on metalinguistic tasks, which do not take into consideration the subjective and contextual aspects of language functioning. The experience we have acquired over more than thirty years within the field of Neurolinguistics has shown that qualitative longitudinal researches – mainly case studies – are a privileged locus to seek for evidences of how the linguistic levels are impacted in the several forms of aphasia. Such understanding, in turn, favor the therapeutic work towards more contextualized activities, in order to help the individuals to reorganize their linguistic-cognitive processes.

Errare Humanum Est (To Err Is Human): A Mentalizing Breakdown in the Therapeutic Work With an Adolescent

The therapeutic stance in therapies conceptualized by the two-person psychology (Wachtel, 2010) binds the therapist to genuine self-scrutiny. The concepts of transference and countertransference are viewed as jointly constructed endeavors between therapist and client, wherein the therapist needs to be aware of her contribution to difficulties arising in the therapeutic dyad. Different conceptualizations of this therapeutic technique have been eloquently described elsewhere throughout the years in terms of intersubjectivity (Stern, 2005; Aron, 2006), mentalizing (Fonagy and Bateman, 2006), mindfulness-in-action (Safran et al., 2001), rupture and repair (Newhill et al., 2003), and epistemic trust (Fonagy and Allison, 2014). These concepts will be presented interchangeably with a clinical vignette delineating a rupture in the therapeutic work with an adolescent. Finally, the article concludes with a discussion of identifying non-mentalizing modes (Allen et al., 2008) within the therapist to get back on track and restore epistemic trust (Fonagy et al., 2014) in the therapeutic relationship.

Emotional intelligence, indirect self-destructiveness and gender

Emotional intelligence may beneficially affect human life and psychological and social functioning, whereas indirect self-destructiveness exerts a rather adverse impact thereon. The aim of this study was to synthesise the results of research on possible relationships between emotional intelligence and indirect self-destructiveness, emotional intelligence dimensions and indirect self-destructiveness categories, as well as the gender differentiation of relationships between particular dimensions of emotional intelligence and the categories of indirect self-destructiveness. A population of 260 individuals (130 females and 130 males) aged 20–30 years (mean age of 24.5 years) was assessed using INTE, i.e. the Polish version of the Assessing Emotions Scale (AES) and the Polish version of Chronic Self-Destructiveness Scale (CS-DS). The level of emotional intelligence differentiated the intensity of indirect self-destructiveness and vice versa. Emotional intelligence and its factors showed many significant, mainly negative, correlations with indirect self-destructiveness and its categories. Relationships between particular dimensions of emotional intelligence and categories of self-destructiveness differed between women and men. One of the crucial differences was the association between the ability to recognise emotions and transgression. In general, low emotional intelligence can be said to correlate with poor psychological and social functioning, which in turn is associated with indirect self-destructiveness and its categories. It seems advisable to utilise emotional intelligence in the prophylactic and therapeutic work with those suffering from various types of disorders, especially the indirect self-destructiveness syndrome. Knowledge on the differentiation of the said relationships may help properly target prophylactic and therapeutic interventions, adjusting them to a given gender.

Bringing Shame Out of the Shadows: Identifying Shame in Child Sexual Abuse Disclosure Processes and Implications for Psychotherapy

Child sexual abuse (CSA) has been described as a highly stigmatizing experience. Despite the recognition of shame as a significant contributor to psychological distress following CSA, an inhibitor of CSA disclosure, and a challenging emotion to overcome in therapy, limited research has explored the experience of shame with young people who have been sexually abused. This study is unique in examining the transcripts of 47 young people aged 15–25 years from a large-scale study conducted in Ireland and Canada and exploring manifestations of shame in CSA disclosure narratives. Using a thematic analysis of both inductive and deductive coding, the data were examined for implicit, as distinct from explicit, manifestations of shame. Three key themes were identified in this study: languaging shame, avoiding shame, and reducing shame. The study supports previous authors in highlighting the need for nuanced measures of shame in research that takes account of the complexity of this emotion. Conceptualizations in the literature of the distinction between shame and guilt are challenged when these emotions are explored in the context of CSA. Finally, recommendations for working therapeutically with young people who have experienced CSA are offered with a view to addressing shame in therapeutic work.

Challenges of Psychological Therapy Work With Autistic Adult

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD), as a neurodiverse developmental pattern, affects between one and two individuals in every 100 people. Autistic individuals experience different challenges in every decade of their lives. The difficulties in sensorimotor functioning, emotional codes, communication and cognition, albeit causing emotional distress, form a basis for developing a unique culture. Knowledge, understanding, respect and openness to neurodiversity are the fundamental prerequisites for Transcultural and Positive Psychotherapists and any professional who intends to deliver psychological therapy to autistic individuals. In this paper, we discuss the medical, psychological and sociocultural aspects of the autistic spectrum and present the basic goals of therapeutic work with autistic adults.

Therapist Materials for Countering Emotion-Driven Behaviors

The session in this chapter focuses on emotion-driven behaviors (EDBs) intended to escape from emotion. Such behaviors can be problematic when used exclusively for many emotions; when they become a self-perpetuating cycle; when they interfere with the opportunity to learn other healthy coping methods; and when they have negative physical consequences. The homework for this session is for the client to prepare to substitute opposite actions in place of the problematic EDBs. There are opportunities in this session to use mild imaginal exposures. The purpose of these exercises is to get in touch with urges, in order to examine the types of behaviors that happen in response to strong emotions, as well as the antecedents, consequences, and the way that moment felt to that client. This kind of insight-building exercise is extremely important therapeutic work for the clients to be doing.

Working with adolescents virtually during the Covid-19 period

In this article, the author proposes to present her therapeutic work with adolescents during the Covid-19 period carried out remotely using Skype. Based on the theories that allow us to understand adolescence as a process of growth and transformation, it was possible to acknowledge the changes that took place in three adolescents in different stages of a relational therapy. The imposition of working virtually created a new way of practising psychotherapy, where the notions of transference and countertransference were essential for the understanding of the intra- and inter-psychic processes that take place in the internal world. Skype was the tool that made it possible to continue the relational presence for working with adolescents.

Thinking Through Improvisation

As part of a larger research study investigating humour in music therapy with persons with dementia, this article details how music therapists perceive, embody and experience humour in their practice. Three focus groups with music therapists ( N = 9) were organised and resulting data analysed through arts-based reflexive methods. Building on Schenstead’s (2012) articulation of arts-based reflexivity, two distinct and overlapping forms of thinking through improvisation are highlighted; self-reflexivity and collaborative-reflexivity. Finlay’s (2011) phenomenological lifeworld-oriented questions are used to explicate dimensions of experiences of humour and frame broad thematic reflections. Particular correspondence between improvisation as a way of being and humour in music therapy are explored performatively through a group improvisation involving the first author. The findings from this synthesis offer insight into how music therapists conceive of humour in their work as supportive of relational bonding, and also experience humour as distancing and defensive behaviour. Along with the perceived risks of humour in relational therapeutic work, an intricate balance between playfulness and professionalism surfaced as part of a music therapy identity. Improvisation, while seemingly taken for granted as a part of spontaneous humour, is also problematised through the perceived seriousness of learning how to improvise as a music therapist aligning with a psychodynamic approach. The consequences of these findings are discussed in relation to music therapy pedagogy and practice along with methodological implications of thinking through improvisation.