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Access to
Psychotherapy
Historically
psychotherapy has been available to people who are 'psychologically
minded' and considered to be 'well' enough to respond to treatment.
Clients with psychiatric diagnoses are often deemed unsuitable
for treatment. However, The Bowlby Centre works successfully with people
who have been given diagnostic labels such as obsessive compulsive
disorder, psychosis, borderline personality disorder and dissociative
disorders. We are doing pioneering work with many other groups
traditionally excluded from psychoanalysis. For example, our
work with addictions challenges the widely held belief that
treatment can only begin after the client ceases substance
abuse and we work with people with significant learning disabilities.
Research
undertaken by MIND has identified that black and ethnic minority
communities are disproportionately excluded from talking therapies
and mainstream psychodynamic psychotherapy, in particular.
This is borne out by a government study, which came out on
11.1.05 revealing that people from black and ethnic minority
communities are less likely to be offered talking therapies
than their white counterparts. The Bowlby Centre is working to reduce this
disadvantage by promoting a more inclusive approach in our
work.
The
losses and traumas addressed by attachment-based psychotherapy
are not confined to the private world or early life. Groups
and society as a whole shape attachment relationships formed
by individuals. Experiences of abuse and loss, as a result
of structures, pressures and everyday experiences within wider
society, cannot be split off and left as a problem, separate
to those with which therapy concerns itself. The individual’s
experience in relation to race, culture, gender, sexuality,
class, age and disability can be worked with in a profound
way through attachment-based psychotherapy. The Bowlby Centre works with
clients who have lost their family, community, language, culture
and country of origin, including many immigrants. Many people
struggle against discrimination, racism, poverty and intolerance.
Understanding this may be an integral part of therapy.
Psychotherapy
has most readily been accessed by those who can, crucially,
afford to pay for private care. Yet nearly a quarter of London’s
households - that’s households, not individuals - exist
on a gross weekly income of £200, more than 10% on a
gross weekly income of £100 (London Councils, Key Facts).
We know many of these are the people who most need psychotherapy
and least likely to have access to it.
We have launched an innovative mental health project called
The Blues Project to provide long-term, low cost attachment-based
psychotherapy to people who are usually excluded from talking
therapies. With this project we aim to influence the future
of thinking about mental distress, within the fields of mental
health and psychotherapy as well as in the wider community,
in order to promote attachment and inclusion.
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