Hi – not really sure I understand your comment fully? I’m certainly not saying that the distress isn’t real! The distress and suffering are only too real. However I think there are infinitely better ways of responding to distress and suffering than assigning a label that has been created around a table! Also there are many people who are critical of diagnosis are very open about their own lived experience. That one suffers is not seen as a failure, in my opinion it’s quite the opposite. Jo
I’m an advocate of humanistic trauma informed approaches that validate experience and provide people with a safe context to in which to tell their stories but I don’t believe that therapy is or should be the only route to healing (or whatever term a person wishes to use)
Yep ‘homosexuality’ removed from DSM early 70’s (’73 i think?)
They generally do what they want, they respond to whatever suits them (sometimes public opinion may influence) but much more often it’s the pharmaceutical industry.
Sadly, as I say in the article I think a lot of therapists have internalised the ‘illness like any other’ message and have adopted the language of disorder. This of course makes no philosophical sense as there is no psychotherapeutic theory that is compatible with the medicalisation of distress! But as we know the lies run deep and effect everyone. One of the primary objectives of the events that me and Lucy Johnstone are running is to challenge the collusion with the biomedical model by counselling & psychotherapy. It’s good to hear you are having a positive experience of therapy, & I love the analogy with Dylan Thomas’s poem – Powerful, Jo
Hi, thanks for your comment , I completely agree Facebook isn’t for everyone. For this reason we are in the process of talking about a web site like this one. It’s an exciting time – watch this space! Jo
Thanks Matt, totally agree , we have a lot of work to do to counteract the narrative of illness. My experience in the U.K. is that the majority of the population have absorbed the myths of chemical imbalance, genetic ‘predisposition’ and all the rest of it as fact. This of course is rubbish and yet many people live their whole life taking drugs to ‘treat’ said ‘imbalance’ whilst never giving any time or attention to the trauma / experience / circumstance that actually caused the distress. I will add your links to the group and look forward to seeing you there! Jo
Ps – hi to DC but not to those guys around the table!
Yes, stick a label on it assign the corresponding drugs , it’s all mapped out , no thought required. How can proper healing ever happen in these circumstances!? Thanks for the comment and the good luck wishes, jo
Hi, thanks so much for you comment and for sharing your struggle, it’s a travesty , really is. I wish you all the best with both the recording of your journey and the funding request. Jo
You write such powerful and painful words.
Thank you for reading it
Jo
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Hi – not really sure I understand your comment fully? I’m certainly not saying that the distress isn’t real! The distress and suffering are only too real. However I think there are infinitely better ways of responding to distress and suffering than assigning a label that has been created around a table! Also there are many people who are critical of diagnosis are very open about their own lived experience. That one suffers is not seen as a failure, in my opinion it’s quite the opposite. Jo
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Agree, we should be running far away from the DSM! Well, running away but fighting against it too- we have a long way to go!
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I’m an advocate of humanistic trauma informed approaches that validate experience and provide people with a safe context to in which to tell their stories but I don’t believe that therapy is or should be the only route to healing (or whatever term a person wishes to use)
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Yep ‘homosexuality’ removed from DSM early 70’s (’73 i think?)
They generally do what they want, they respond to whatever suits them (sometimes public opinion may influence) but much more often it’s the pharmaceutical industry.
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Absolutely! – I have a severe case 😉
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Sadly, as I say in the article I think a lot of therapists have internalised the ‘illness like any other’ message and have adopted the language of disorder. This of course makes no philosophical sense as there is no psychotherapeutic theory that is compatible with the medicalisation of distress! But as we know the lies run deep and effect everyone. One of the primary objectives of the events that me and Lucy Johnstone are running is to challenge the collusion with the biomedical model by counselling & psychotherapy. It’s good to hear you are having a positive experience of therapy, & I love the analogy with Dylan Thomas’s poem – Powerful, Jo
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Hi, thanks for your comment , I completely agree Facebook isn’t for everyone. For this reason we are in the process of talking about a web site like this one. It’s an exciting time – watch this space! Jo
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Thanks Matt, totally agree , we have a lot of work to do to counteract the narrative of illness. My experience in the U.K. is that the majority of the population have absorbed the myths of chemical imbalance, genetic ‘predisposition’ and all the rest of it as fact. This of course is rubbish and yet many people live their whole life taking drugs to ‘treat’ said ‘imbalance’ whilst never giving any time or attention to the trauma / experience / circumstance that actually caused the distress. I will add your links to the group and look forward to seeing you there! Jo
Ps – hi to DC but not to those guys around the table!
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Yes, stick a label on it assign the corresponding drugs , it’s all mapped out , no thought required. How can proper healing ever happen in these circumstances!? Thanks for the comment and the good luck wishes, jo
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Fantastic! Come and say hi
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Hi, thanks so much for you comment and for sharing your struggle, it’s a travesty , really is. I wish you all the best with both the recording of your journey and the funding request. Jo
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