The Therapeutic Milieu Under Fire

The Therapeutic Milieu Under Fire
Author: John Adlam
Publisher: Jessica Kingsley Publishers
Total Pages: 258
Release: 2012-06-15
Genre: Psychology
ISBN: 0857005340

This groundbreaking book explores the psychodynamics and socio-politics of the forensic therapeutic milieu, addressing some of the most difficult and complex issues facing practitioners. It sets out a psycho-social framework for understanding the predicament and the needs of those who live in and those who work in forensic mental health settings. It brings to life the thinking of those working on the frontline in an increasingly difficult and hostile environment, and draws together fresh and stimulating approaches to engagement with highly complex individuals who present challenges to traditional models of psychiatric assessment and treatment. Contributors with considerable clinical experience and expertise from a range of disciplines consider the ethical, emotional and intellectual challenges of their work, and describe ways in which genuine containment and change can be achieved despite numerous perceived assaults on therapeutic relationships, and on the therapeutic milieu itself. Combining clinical case studies with organisational perspectives and clear descriptions of theoretical processes, they explore key issues including the challenges of maintaining role-appropriate, 'boundaried' relationships; the tensions between public protection and individual confidentiality; questions of risk and responsibility; duty of care and respect for individual liberty; the challenges posed by inter-professional tensions and rivalries; as well as specific clinical dilemmas. The difficulties they experience in fulfilling specific therapeutic roles in the face of uncertainties about the funding and commissioning of their services are addressed, and the final part of the book outlines some of the ways in which individuals, particular services and whole organisations may protect themselves when under attack. This unique and highly original book is essential reading for all those working, or training to work, in both forensic and non-forensic inpatient therapeutic milieux and for academics and lay readers interested in the societal dynamics of inclusion and exclusion that are replicated and magnified in these settings.

Milieu Therapy

Milieu Therapy
Author: Jerome M. Goldsmith
Publisher: Psychology Press
Total Pages: 128
Release: 1993
Genre: Child psychotherapy
ISBN: 9781560244097

The writings and activities of Bruno Bettelheim have forever changed perceptions of the treatment of children in residential care. His concern with milieu, or the meaning of the environment for mental health, has contributed not only to the psychoanalytic treatment of troubled children and adolescents, but also to a theory of person and environment, fostering morale and enhanced personal integration. His emphasis on the importance of the hour by hour management of children's daily living experiences and his attribution of a critical therapeutic role to the caretaker have profoundly influenced treatment as well as the recruitment and training of child care counselors and caretakers. Milieu Therapy: Significant Issues and Innovative Applications, a tribute to Bettelheim, illuminates continuing efforts to further understanding of the caring process and its impact upon healing and repair measures for disturbed children. The contributing authors of Milieu Therapy have themselves been influenced by the work of Bettelheim. In this book they: distill and clarify Bettelheim's clinical legacy survey a select group of his political and clinical articles describe how communication can be fostered between residents and staff through the architectural design of the residence, holiday celebrations, and students'choices of reading material address management issues posed by youngsters with symptoms of character disorder and provide a description and examples of a three level style of response to these children discuss the impact of the milieu of college residence on the lives of students and the problems and opportunities of group life According to D. Patrick Zimmerman, one of the contributors, " . . . [Bettelheim] was instrumental in promoting a lasting concern about discovering the best treatment methods possible for emotionally disturbed children. . . . He taught many of us . . . to deeply care and think about the fate of even the most severely impaired children. His arguments . . . continue to stimulate us to unashamedly examine ourselves in our work with troubled youth." Professionals who work with children and are interested in the impact and influence of Bruno Bettelheim and his work will find a wealth of knowledge in Milieu Therapy: Significant Issues and Innovative Applications.

Art Psychotherapy Groups in The Hostile Environment of Neoliberalism

Art Psychotherapy Groups in The Hostile Environment of Neoliberalism
Author: Sally Skaife
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 182
Release: 2022-02-23
Genre: Psychology
ISBN: 1000529061

This book explores how ‘the hostile environment’ of neoliberalism affects art therapy in Britain. It shows how ambiguity in art and in psychoanalytically understood relationships can enable art psychotherapy groups to engage with class dynamics and aspire to democracy. The book argues that art therapy needs to become a political practice if it is to resist collusion with a system that marginalises collectivity and holds individuals responsible for both their suffering and their recovery. It provides accounts of the contradictions that are thrown up by neoliberalism in art therapists’ workplaces as well as accounts of art therapy groups with those affected by the fire at Grenfell Tower, in an acute ward, a women’s prison, a community art studio and in a refugee camp. Written by art psychotherapists for arts therapists and other mental health workers, the book will bring political awareness and consideration of resistance into all art therapy relationships, whatever the context and client group.

Architecture for Psychiatric Environments and Therapeutic Spaces

Architecture for Psychiatric Environments and Therapeutic Spaces
Author: E. Chrysikou
Publisher: IOS Press
Total Pages: 208
Release: 2014-12-18
Genre: Architecture
ISBN: 1614994609

Therapeutic architecture can be described as the people-centered, evidence-based discipline of the built environment, which aims to identify and support ways of incorporating those spatial elements that interact with people physiologically and psychologically into design. Architecture is an important factor in people's lives when they are well; when they experience ill-health and are less able to cope it becomes even more important. This book explores the design of specialized residential architecture for people with mental health problems. It sets out to show how building design can support medical and health related procedures and practices, leading to better therapeutic outcomes and an enhanced quality of life. Based on almost two decades of research, it aims to understand how architectural design interacts with the therapeutic milieu, the care programs, and actually living in the spaces. The book is divided into two main parts covering theory and research. Part one consists of three chapters: a brief introduction to old practices, current medical psychosocial and architectural thinking, and alternative thinking. Part two explores the research and conclusions derived from fieldwork. This book provides a fascinating insight into the effect that architectural design can have on all of us, but particularly on those with mental health problems. "Dr. Evangelia Chrysikou explains the many aspects of mental health and its relation to the quality of the built environment and I strongly recommend this very enjoyable book to anyone who would like to find out more about this important topic." - Prof. Alan Dilani, Ph.D. , International Academy for Design and Health "This book provides important, evidence-based data that will help to drive the design of new and refurbished psychiatric facilities and will no doubt become a highly-regarded resource for medical planners and architects." - Jo Makosinski , Editor, Building Better Healthcare

Opening Our Arms

Opening Our Arms
Author: Kathy Regan
Publisher: Bull Publishing Company
Total Pages: 246
Release: 2006-11-01
Genre: Psychology
ISBN: 1936693364

A bird's eye view of a group of people undertaking major change, this is the story of one child psychiatric unit and a profound questioning of the humanity of current practice in child welfare. It offers the experience of building, through collaborative effort, a child and family-centered care facility as an alternative to the existing model.

Professional and Therapeutic Boundaries in Forensic Mental Health Practice

Professional and Therapeutic Boundaries in Forensic Mental Health Practice
Author: Anne Aiyegbusi
Publisher: Jessica Kingsley Publishers
Total Pages: 292
Release: 2012
Genre: Psychology
ISBN: 1849051399

People who use forensic mental health services are defined by the fact that they have violated boundaries, often in many ways. This book provides a thorough introduction to the subject of professional and therapeutic boundaries and their particular complexities within forensic mental health settings.

Healing Trauma

Healing Trauma
Author: Marion F. Solomon
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
Total Pages: 382
Release: 2003-02-25
Genre: Psychology
ISBN: 0393703967

Born out of the excitement of a convergence of ideas and passions, this book provides a synthesis of the work of researchers, clinicians, and theoreticians who are leaders in the field of trauma, attachment, and psychotherapy. As we move into the third millennium, the field of mental health is in an exciting position to bring together diverse ideas from a range of disciplines that illuminate our understanding of human experience: neurobiology, developmental psychology, traumatology, and systems theory. The contributors emphasize the ways in which the social environment, including relationships of childhood, adulthood, and the treatment milieu change aspects of the structure of the brain and ultimately alter the mind.

Psycho-social Explorations of Trauma, Exclusion and Violence

Psycho-social Explorations of Trauma, Exclusion and Violence
Author: Christopher Scanlon
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 197
Release: 2022-01-06
Genre: Psychology
ISBN: 1000536246

The central theme of this book is the operation of intersecting discourses of power, privilege and positioning as they are revealed in fraught encounters between in-groups and out-groups in our deeply fractured world. The authors offer a unique perspective on inter-group dynamics and structural violence at local, societal, cultural and global levels, dissecting processes of toxic ‘othering’ and psychosocial (re-)traumatisation. The book offers the Diogenes Paradigm as a unique conceptual tool with which to analyse the ways in which those of us who come to be located outside or on the margins of dominant social structures are, in one way or another, the inheritors of the legacies of centuries of oppression and exclusion. This analysis offers a distinctive psycho-social redefinition of trauma that foregrounds the relationship between the inhospitable environments we generate and the experiences of un-housedness that we thereby perpetuate. Written in an engaging and accessible style, Psycho-social Explorations of Trauma, Exclusion and Violence directly addresses pressing global issues of racial trauma, human mobility and climate disaster, and offers a manifesto for the creative re-imagining of the places and spaces in which conversations about restructuring and reparation can become sustainable. This is an essential and compelling book for anyone committed to social justice, especially for all practitioners working in health, social care and community justice settings, and researchers and academics across the behavioural and social sciences.