Edith writes her own blog and, with her permission, I have pasted below an article that she has blogged about the pros and cons of blogging for counselling psychologists.
As Edith is relatively new to UEL, I have asked her to introduce herself, "Clinically, my main interest is in third-wave CBT, particularly ACT, DBT and MBCT, but I also draw on psychodynamic theory for reflection. My clinical work has been predominantly with clients with severe and complex mental health difficulties, particularly those diagnosed with personality disorders and psychosis. I obtained my doctorate in Psychotherapeutic and Counselling Psychology from the University of Surrey in 2011. My doctoral research was on ‘sense of presence’ experiences and meaning-making in bereavement; I am generally interested in integrating existential and socio-cultural perspectives. Prior to joining the course team at UEL at the beginning of 2014, I worked as an associate lecturer at the Open University for five years. I have also been a research supervisor and teacher at the New School of Psychotherapy and Counselling and a research fellow at the University of Surrey. Since 2012, I have been an associate editor of Counselling Psychology Review.
At
UEL, my responsibilities include teaching, leading clinical
consultation groups and acting as clinical tutor to a number of
counselling psychology trainees,
doctoral research supervision and examination. I am module leader for
one masters-level and one doctoral-level module. I would be interested
to foster social justice-driven community engagement and research
(dissemination) on a broad scale and to help increase
the output and impact of trainee research."
Caroline Edmonds
Out of the consulting room into the frying pan? can be found here
Widening our engagement
As
counselling psychologists we are motivated to engage with the ‘Other’,
to listen, to facilitate, to serve. The most common form for this
engagement is the one-to-one encounter with an individual client, a
particular type of meeting with an Other that — while being grounded in
specific historical and cultural processes — may more often than not
feel so natural to us that we stop considering other ways and forms of
engagement in which we can practise counselling psychology. Some of us
have moved towards systemic and family work, which could be seen as a
way of bringing more people into the existing set-up while widening
relational possibilities. Some of us have ventured out of the consulting
room, for example into organisational arenas (which may transport our
work into offices and board rooms, canteens and cafeterias, and, indeed,
corridors and lifts…), or they have moved beyond any kind of
four-walled enclosure, for example, in the shape of eco-therapy in open
spaces.
In his edited volume Therapy and Beyond: Counselling Psychology Contributions to Therapeutic and Social Issues,
published in 2010, Professor Martin Milton of Regent’s College, London,
a leading counselling psychologist, made a case for counselling
psychology’s engagement beyond the consulting room:
‘Of course, it [counselling psychology] is interested in psychological therapy, but its knowledge base is equally relevant to research, social policy and understanding the effects of oppression and exploitation. It is engaged with the personal and political, its knowledge and skills mean it has contributions to make at a therapeutic and policy level and with the overlap of the ethical and the scientific.’ (p. xxv)
Such
broader engagement undoubtedly includes some kind of presence that can
be perceived more widely and thus requires the use of media. While one
contributor to Milton’s edited volume, Lucy Atcheson, usefully sketched
out different forms of media engagement for counselling psychologists,
these mainly revolved around traditional media such as books, journals,
magazines, radio and television. 4-5 years ago, there was probably less
of a need to consider other forms of media involvement, but, as we are
all aware, time has marched on considerably in the last few years, and
if we want to keep up with and get through to our clients or, indeed,
the ‘Other’ in the shape of individuals, groups or wider networks of
people, it is incumbent on us to engage with if not embrace the social
media sphere of the 21st century.
Welcoming the 21st century?
Many
of us have been resistant to the changes that this century has brought.
As a critical discipline, we have rightly found much fault with new
forms of media, and for some of us, the first time we heard about
Facebook & Co was when a client reported virtual bullying,
harassment and abuse or an increased sense of loneliness on account of
the greater visibility of their social isolation. No wonder then that
many of us felt reluctant to cheer at the increasing dominance of social
networking sites in our clients’ lives. However, as a profession that
values a balanced perspective, we would also have acknowledged the
positive aspects of the changing media landscape, in particular its
democratic and creative potential. Many counselling psychologists are
now regular Twitterati, and many have become involved with Facebook
groups and networking groups on LinkedIn etc. However, when I was
looking for examples of blogs by counselling psychologists, I drew a bit
of a blank. Maybe I did not look carefully enough (and if readers of
this blog can point these out to me, I should be extremely grateful),
but the whole point of blogging should be that your penny’s worth can be
instantly accessed by whoever cares to look for it, or am I wrong?
No more fear of blogging
Perhaps, counselling psychologists are still a bit afraid of blogging, for a number of reasons:
- Firstly, they might wonder how clients would be affected if they read their blogs. -> A very good concern; we should always consider this when we put something out.
- Secondly, they might wonder what happens if their colleagues and employers read their more critical musings. -> Yes, it is no different from standing on a soapbox in a public square, so you need to consider this too.
- Thirdly, they might be concerned about people’s comments and that they make themselves vulnerable, or, they might be worried that no-one will read the blogs and that might be even worse! -> That’s no different from appearing in traditional forms of media.
- Fourthly, they might view it as a narcissistic exercise. -> Again, as in any of our engagements, we may have greater or lesser narcissistic baggage. However, even the most altruistic and humble counselling psychologist would probably agree that without an ‘I’, there is no ‘Thou’, and that engaging with the ‘Other’ requires a ‘Someone’ who is not afraid to make their voice heard.
- Last but not least, they might lack the belief in having something to say or making a useful contribution. -> Two responses: a) It may not be a bad thing to ‘think before you blog’ and wonder whether this is, indeed, something that may be of interest to others, although you won’t know until you try b) Perhaps, as in other forms of human-to-human communication, it is not only about content but also about process. Thus, a blog could lead someone else to pick up on a clumsily expressed kernel of a thought and turn it into something really interesting or useful.
No presence, no community
Most
of all, it strikes me that blogging could be a way of creating a
greater presence for our profession, raise awareness within and outside
of the discipline and enable us to share ideas, engage in conversation
and develop new plans for action. It is the (inter)action in between
many actors that creates a community.
Comments and responses welcome!
References
Atcheson, L. (2010). Counselling psychology and the media. In M. Milton (Ed.) (2010). Therapy and beyond: Counselling psychology contributions to therapeutic and social issues (pp. 277-291). Chichester: Wiley-Blackwell.
Milton, M. (Ed.) (2010). Therapy and beyond: Counselling psychology contributions to therapeutic and social issues. Chichester: Wiley-Blackwell.
Edith Steffen
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