17 August 2016

The Use of Cannabis Extract in Treating Anxiety

I was sent the following press release which I found interesting and thought was relevant to this blog. It talks about the therapeutic use of the cannabis extract CBD (cannabidiol) for treating anxiety. Unfortunately, most of today's street-available cannabis tends to be hydroponically grown Skunk weed which has a proportionately lower amount of CBD (the calming chemical) than THC (tetrahydrocannabinol) which can induce anxiety and paranoia. So self-medicating might not be the answer in this case. There is also an interesting article on using cannabis to treat psychosis here.

CANNABIS EXTRACT TURNS ANY FOOD INTO COMFORT FOOD: NATURAL EXTRACT RELIEVES ANXIETY

- Natural cannabis extract CBD tackles symptoms of panic and anxiety

- One in three adults in UK will suffer from anxiety at some point

An entirely natural food supplement derived from the hemp plant could help thousands of people suffering from anxiety while reducing the need for medication. Cannabidiol (or CBD) is a naturally occurring extract produced from the cannabis plant which has been associated with a number of health benefits and has been found to have a positive effect on the symptoms of anxiety.

Numerous scientific studies have shown the beneficial effects of hemp extract on people suffering from anxiety. Anxiety is one of the most common neurotic disorders and affects a huge number of people every day. Around a third of people will experience episodes of anxiety or panic attacks at one point in their lives, while one in ten will be affected by severe symptoms.

Studies have shown that CBD extracts play an important role in reducing anxiety. In a double-blind experiment carried out at the University of São Paulo, the extract was given to a randomized group of people preparing for a public speaking event. Compared to the control group, those given CBD were found to feel significantly less anxious and more comfortable both in the run up to the event and during. They also reported thinking more clearly than the control group.[1]

Other studies using neuroimaging have shown that CBD can affect the limbic and paralimbic regions of the brain including the amygdala, which play a role in the fear response. When exposed to stressful situations, subjects who had been given CBD showed less activity in these parts of the brain and felt less anxiety.[2]

Neurologist Professor Mike Barnes said: “Anxiety is an issue that affects millions of people every day and CBD can have a real, positive impact on their lives. There is a great deal of scientific literature on Cannabidiol but it’s only in the past few years that we’ve begun to fully realise the potential. Much like the way Dopamine has revolutionised the treatment of Parkinson’s Disease, I am sure the role of Cannabis extracts will expand into modern medical practice. CBD is now credible and continues to surprise the scientific community. This is a very exciting time for Cannabis research and whilst international studies are ongoing, there is strong evidence to support the treatment of other major issues such as Epilepsy and PTSD. I believe we will see CBD becoming much more widely accepted as its beneficial properties are better understood.”

“There are so many misconceptions around this market and we’re a long way behind other places like the US where hemp extract has a mainstream acceptance.” said Tom Rowland, co-founder of CBD Oils UK. “Every week, we hear from customers that our products have improved their wellbeing. Whilst we would not advocate CBD as an alternative to professional advice, there is a growing weight of scientific evidence to support its use.”

It is estimated that the global CBD industry is already worth around $200million and the UK market is expanding rapidly. CBD Oils UK is the first company to offer high strength 40% (4,000mg) oil which adheres to strict UK regulations.

Tom added: “Some people may be concerned because the products are derived from cannabis but CBD does not have psychoactive properties and is entirely safe. It’s a fast growing market and we are proud of our products. The feedback from our customers has been overwhelming.”

Visit www.cbdoilsuk.com for more details.

[1] Cannabidiol Reduces The Anxiety Induced By Simulated Public Speaking In Treatment-Naïve Social Phobia Patients”

MM Bergamaschi, Department of Neuroscience and Behavior, School of Medicine of Ribeirão Preto, University of São Paulo, SP, Brazil.

Neuropsychopharmacology, May 2011

[2] “Distinct effects of {delta}9-tetrahydrocannabinol and cannabidiol on neural activation during emotional processing”

P Fusar-Poli, Neuroimaging Section, Division of Psychological Medicine, Institute of Psychiatry, London

Archives of General Psychiatry, January 2009

16 August 2016

The Palace Gate Counselling Scandal - Why it was right to blow the whistle

2 years ago today The Mail on Sunday published an article exposing the scandal of the Palace Gate Counselling Service and the owner John Clapham's abusive behaviour as a therapist and owner of the service and that of his colleague/supervisee/employee/client Lindsey Talbott, whom he promoted to Director of the service in the midst of the crisis.

Tina and I braced ourselves for the backlash and the ridicule and more worryingly, the impact on our private practice. We also risked losing our homes as we were threatened with being sued.

2 years on I can gladly say that I wholeheartedly stand by the decision to expose this abuse and to protect others from enduring likewise.

Sadly, Palace gate Counselling, Clapham and Talbott are still operating. I'm happy to say that most of the referral sources are now obsolete. However, NHS Torbay Trust still signpost to the service, which is ridiculous and quite disturbing.

I am also pleased to say that the push for regulation is gaining momentum (thanks to joining forces with Philip Doré) and our paper on regulation via the campaign, 'Unsafe Spaces' and the Palace Gate case were referred to in Parliament.

I have also gained a bit of a niche speciality in working with people who have had abusive experiences in therapy. Some have found me via that article which gave them hope that they would believed and that I would get it. It is a shame that we live in a world where this niche area is required but sadly, without regulation, far too much of this goes on and remains in the shadows.

It's pretty much behind me but I must confess that the behaviour of Talbott in particular got under my skin. She knows what he did. She knows it was wrong. But chose to make mine and Tina's life as hellish as she possibly could and tell the world that we were liars. Very scary. And she's a therapist...out there...as is he...

The good news is that it wasn't only the BACP that validated our truth; the Catholic Church cancelled Clapham's imminent ordainment, the Rosen Method bodywork organisation cancelled his internship and the police, although unable to prosecute, were very validating.

And finally, my business is thriving and I have made this a viable and fulfilling career. As is Tina's. Some potential clients might read about my experience and be put off. However, many have stated that it is because of my stance and experiences that they chose me.

8 August 2016

For therapists; Compete or Collaborate? by Cathy Towers

This has been reblogged with kind permission from a blog by Cathy Towers published on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/compete-collaborate-cathy-towers-mbacp-senior-accred?

It is hard enough promoting yourself as a therapist ... then you see all the other therapists. Traditional marketing can make us look at all others as competition, but I think that causes huge stress for therapists who are, by the nature of the healing work they do, more inclined to creating relationships than competing.

I have had people interested in renting a room at my clinic then saying "oh, you already have a reflexologist/counsellor/life coach so we would be in competition". I believe this is a thought pattern which hinders us in the business of private practice. Our professions are already high up on the scale of isolated working, why add to that?

Look around the area you live: similar types of business congregate in the same street or industrial park. Restaurants cluster together, car sales cluster together. Yet they are in competition - so how does that work? Well that area of town gets known for cars, so it is the place that everyone goes to when they want a car. By having their sales units close together, they make it easy for the customer to look around, rather than give up and stick with what they have. It encourages a sale as the customer has choice. The decision is which car is right for me rather than shall I have a car or not?

I believe that together we therapists are stronger and better. I like to take things a step further - cooperate, be helpful to each other, share knowledge and expertise generously and it comes back to you. Collaboration is a professional way forward. My peer group has provided advice, supervision, cross-referrals, recommendations, ideas, emergency back-up... in fact a whole host of practical and emotional help.

The team at my clinic have also worked together at conferences, fairs, talks, written articles and peer-led learning. This also presents us as clearly client-focused, as we ensure that the right referral gets to the right person. Result? Happier client, better word-of-mouth reputation for the group as a whole.

Look kindly at your colleagues. I feel blessed to have such excellent 'competition'. Their support helps me raise my game, act with integrity and also creates a safety net for clients.

4 May 2016

Regulation of Counselling and Psychotherapy in the UK - Why we need it

Update Jan 2025 - this issue resurfaced in 2024. Please read this post for the update in my involvement in raising awareness of the lack of regulation of counselling and psychotherapy in the UK https://www.relationalbest.co.uk/2024/10/i-news-article-on-perils-of-lack-of.html

[PLEASE NOTE THAT A COUPLE OF MONTHS AFTER THIS POST WAS WRITTEN OUR UNSAFE SPACES REPORT WAS DISCUSSED IN PARLIAMENT.]

Followers of my blog will be aware that I have been campaigning for the statutory regulation of counselling and psychotherapy in the UK. Click on my articles link and you will see a number of posts under the heading "Regulation Issues".

Fellow blogger Phil Dore is the author of the blog unsafespaces.com. I made contact with Phil in 2013 whilst I was in the midst of the traumatic ordeal of raising a complaint about the therapist/clinical supervisor I had whilst in training, who abused his position of power with myself and several other counsellors who worked under him. I was relieved that somebody else cared so passionately about making counselling and psychotherapy a safer space and who shared my concern that being struck off a professional body is not enough to stop unsafe practitioners from continuing their unsafe practice unimpeded.

Since going public with my experience I have received a steady stream of enquiries from people who have been abused by their therapist. The current complaints procedures are expensive, daunting, stressful and pretty much useless.

In campaigning for statutory regulation I have approached my local MP Ben Bradshaw who has been very helpful, insofar as he is able. In a letter to Jeremy Hunt, Ben was told:

“We are not ruling out introducing further compulsory statutory regulation. However any decision to extend… must be based on a solid body of evidence demonstrating a level of risk to the public that warrants the costs imposed…”

Phil Dore and I decided to work together on this and have written the following paper. We have drawn upon existing research and research of our own to demonstrate that there is a need for statutory regulation.

Executive Summary

An increasing number of people in the UK, many of whom are vulnerable, are accessing counselling or psychotherapy services. However, almost uniquely among mental health professionals, neither counselling nor psychotherapy are subject to a statutory regulator, and neither the terms “counsellor” nor “psychotherapist” are protected titles. Voluntary registers exist, such as the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy and the UK Council for Psychotherapy, which have been granted Accredited Register status by the Professional Standards Authority. However, if such registers strike off a practitioner for misconduct, there is no legal requirement for this individual to stop practising.

To find out how many counsellors and psychotherapists continue to practice after being struck off, withdrawal of membership notices were downloaded from the BACP and UKCP websites for a ten year period. Internet searches were then completed to look for business websites for these individuals advertising counselling or psychotherapy services. From these searches, nearly one in four of those struck off during this period by the BACP or UKCP appeared to be still practising. For the UKCP in the latter five years of this time period, every single one of those struck off was continuing to advertise their services as psychotherapists. These included individuals struck off for very serious allegations, including serious sexual misconduct.

A case study is examined of Palace Gate Counselling Service in Exeter. This company was struck off by the BACP in 2014 after the director was found to have committed serious sexual misconduct against two women, a counsellor and a trainee counsellor at the firm who he was seeing for private therapy sessions. In addition, the director and his co-director (both of whom practice as counsellors and clinical supervisors for counselling trainees) were found to have conducted a sustained campaign of harassment and defamation against the two women after they complained. However, the company remained in business, and both individuals remained in their posts as directors and counsellors.

The case was the subject of media attention, including in the Health section of the Mail on Sunday, and a sustained effort was made by local activists to ask organisations not to signpost people to Palace Gate. Despite these efforts Palace Gate continued to be publicised by the NHS, churches and the voluntary sector. The two individuals continue to practice counselling at Palace Gate and in private practice to this day.

From this evidence, it is clear that, from a safeguarding perspective, the current system of accredited registration is a complete failure. It is simply not effective at removing rogue practitioners from the counselling and psychotherapy professions. This safeguarding failure is putting vulnerable people in danger of serious abuse, including sexual abuse.

Opponents of regulation suggest that counselling and psychotherapy are difficult to define, and that if “counsellor” and “psychotherapist” became protected titles, practitioners could avoid regulation by simply changing their job titles. To test this, we surveyed 151 people to ask which professional titles they would look for and accept a service from when seeking treatment for a mental health problem. 64.93% said they would look for a psychotherapist and 60.43% would look for a counsellor. By comparison 50% would look for a cognitive-behavioural therapist and 24.41% would look for a psychoanalyst. For a life coach, this number dropped to 7.09%. This suggests that certain other titles may need to be protected alongside “counsellor” and “psychotherapist”, but also that this need not be an infinite number of titles to have an impact.

The protection of titles would be made more robust if combined with a restriction that only professionals with a protected title can offer psychological therapies for mental disorder. A survey of 50 adverts for counsellors and psychotherapists found that every one of them advertised their services as being for mental disorder. These often included serious and debilitating conditions such as eating disorders, bipolar disorder and obsessive-compulsive disorder.

If the professional titles were protected, and only professionals with protected titles were permitted to offer psychological therapies for mental disorder, a practitioner could indeed avoid regulation by using a different title and not suggesting that they can treat mental disorder. However, these two surveys suggest that if they were to do so, they would incur a serious loss of business and they may find this to be not commercially viable.

It is therefore recommended that:

“Counsellor” and “psychotherapist” should become protected titles and these titles should be subject to a statutory regulator.
Consideration should be given to also protecting certain other titles, for example “cognitive-behavioural therapist” or “psychoanalyst”.
The provision of psychological therapies for mental disorder should be restricted to professionals who have a protected title and are subject to a statutory regulator.

Download the full report here

6 April 2016

When Someone Strays by Duncan E. Stafford

This post about affairs in monogamous relationships is published with the kind permission of Cambridge based BACP Accredited therapist Duncan E. Stafford and taken from his blog http://therapy-place.org/2016/04/02/when-someone-strays/ which I highly recommend.

Most people – whether through experience or empathy – can understand the range of feelings that go through someone’s mind and body when they discover their partner has, or is currently having, an affair. The event more often than not is experienced as a catastrophe by at least the wronged partner and it is common for all blame for the situation to be
heaped on the straying partner.

From the therapist’s chair, affairs often look rather different. An affair, almost without exception, is actually a specific form of communication. In supposed monogamous relationships the fact that an affair has arisen suggests there might be evidence to support the idea that this is a relationship that has issues – and the underlying issues have probably developed over time. While it is very difficult to look beyond the pain of the immediate situation, couples who find their way to the consulting room tend to be providing themselves with an opportunity to really deal with their immediate and more longstanding problems.

One of the difficulties couples have to overcome when starting work, if an affair is the presenting issue, is avoidance. Avoidance is a strategy that rarely works in relationships and, while I don’t have space to go into any detail about it in this blog, it might be obvious to most people that avoiding an issue doesn’t mean it goes away. Indeed, a wide range of strategies of avoidance gets used between couples. One thing to bear in mind is that avoidance restricts resolution.

If you have discovered that your partner is having an affair, then I suggest you move more slowly with things than you might immediately feel driven to do. If you leave the relationship straight away you limit your opportunity for understanding what has happened and ultimately for your own repair.

Find yourself space. You are unlikely to want to go on sleeping in the same space as your partner for a while, but if you move too far away this is likely to fuel your anger and indignation. Try to reach a civil agreement that can work for a short time about how to use the space in your home.

Seek out some help, but be careful of other people’s moral judgements or advice. Therapists can be useful at a time like this because we don’t have to take sides. We tend to try to open up the picture so that understanding of the situation can be brought to bear, and the non-judgemental position can help make sense of the anger and rage that is commonplace at a time like this.

The process of working things through is actually just as likely to make you a stronger and closer couple than it is to split you up, providing you both want to work on the issues and are happy to look at not just your partner’s actions but also your own. Sadly, not every relationship can be brought back from the brink, but in thinking and talking together it is likely that even the decision to split will bring some positive benefits.

by Duncan Stafford

Amanda Williamson Coaching and Counselling Service in Exeter, Devon

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