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'DOES
THERAPY WORK?' - a full-length book first published
in 2011 by Troutbeck Press
Copyright © Jane Barclay
2011
ISBN 978-0-9567857-0-1
£12.99 + p&p
To order your copy click HERE
My aim is to demystify the practice
of therapy, drawing on my experiences as both therapist and as client.
In Part One, I examine the 'component
parts' of therapy and how they interact. I go on to
consider what might be the source
of all struggle and suffering.
In Part Two, I offer as demonstration
a narrative of my own story as client in therapy,
interweaving insights from my perspective
as therapist.
All relationships carry risk. In
therapy, the client is, by nature, vulnerable. The debate concerning regulation
of practitioners
heats up. What measures, if any,
can safeguard both parties and promote creative and pioneering practice?
‘Jane Barclay has written a highly
readable, passionate and personal account of the therapy journey, and skilfully
applies her learnings to the efficacy and values that inform her own professional
stance.’
Nick Duffell, author of The Making
of Them, co-founder of The Centre for Gender Psychology.
* * *
DOES THERAPY WORK?
INTRODUCTION
'Does therapy
work?'
The question
was fired at me late one evening at a party by a scientist friend. I started.
I had no succinct answer. By the time I'd taken a breath, the conversation
had moved on.
I awoke the
next morning humming with energy to put my own work as therapist under
the microscope. First, what did my friend mean by 'work'? What was this
thing called therapy? What exactly happened? How? What was my part?
Twelve years ago, as a student of
therapeutic counselling, I became a client in therapy myself. I wrote from
the start, both accounts of sessions and the jumble of feelings and thoughts
in between. Recognising the value of first-hand experience, I turned my
scribbled notes into a case-study of myself to present as part of my diploma.
But I didn't stop there; writing had become my lifeline. I clung to the
part of me who was able to remain curious, observing and recording my experiences
as I navigated my way through. I've drawn deeply from these earlier writings.
For the scornful ('self-indulgent
navel-gazing') and suspicious ('exploitative') I hope my book at least
evokes interest. I've written of human relationships in terms broader than
biological functions and chemical interactions but avoided therapy-speak.
I've examined and evaluated the work of therapy which stubbornly resists
precise measurement. In my endeavour, I've discovered both the limitations
of language and the border where proof tussles with belief; I've allowed
space for my own desire for clarity and love of mystery, for my hunger
to know and admiration for that which eludes capture, its presence significant
yet unnameable. Which makes therapy, in my view, a creative practice, and
as such both science and art.
If therapy is to be more widely
valued and respected as a response to both acute and chronic distress and
offered alongside our mainstream medical model of care, fuller awareness
and deeper understanding is vital. I'm hugely grateful to my friend for
his question, from which has grown this very considered reply.
* * *
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This page last updated on 1 Dec, 2011.
