"God is a belief that at our deepest level we are known and loved, even there the rays can penetrate. But the therapist is not God, not even a priest or a sage, and must prompt the suffer to heal himself through his own deities, and this involves finding them. Each person is different ...the myth that heals is an individual work of art."
Iris Murdoch, 'The Good Apprentice'

This also speaks to me of how formalised 'registration' procedures etc, whilst purporting to 'protect' clients from 'bad' practitioners, can utterly crush the evolutionary process described in the quote. It strikes me that it is often practitioners who might well be viewed with suspicion - as 'mavericks' and therefore potentially dangerous - by the 'safety via registration fans' (those who perhaps have not yet made conection with their own 'deities'?) - are the very ones who are most likely to know their place in the unfolding scheme of things and take on the unpredictable ' work of transmutation' with their clients. Such 'works of art' have never been bounded by number and length of sessions, the venue where the interaction might take place, nor the type of interaction.

17 October 1999 Scotland on Sunday (UK)
Paddington trauma counselling useless, says expert
By Tom Peterkin

A leading Scottish psychiatrist is to publish research which shows that counselling disaster victims such as those at Paddington does nothing to protect them from post-traumatic stress disorder.

Dr Chris Freeman told Scotland on Sunday: "After Paddington all the news programmes said counsellors would be on hand for the victims, but most people just want to go home to their families and do not want to talk with a counsellor about what they have been through." He added: "Debriefing probably does more harm than good."

Freeman, a consultant at Edinburgh's Royal Hospital says his study, which will be submitted for publication in the British Journal of Psychiatry, gives evidence to further question automatic counselling.

"Counselling is ineffective. We have pretty good evidence for that," he said. Freeman used 100 accident victims, who were admitted to casualty at Edinburgh Royal Infirmary for his study financed by the Mental Health Foundation and the Scottish Office.

Most subjects had been involved in road traffic accidents or had been assaulted. Half the sample was 'debriefed', where counsellors make them relive their ordeal within 48 hours of the incident. The remainder were left to cope without the help of a counsellor.

The participants were interviewed at regular intervals until six months after their ordeal. Freeman said that within three months it was possible to tell whether a patient would suffer from PTSD.

He concluded that the "de­briefing" counselling sessions played no role in preventing PTSD. "It made no difference whether they were debriefed or not," he said. 'After six months a small proportion did have post-traumatic stress disorder, but whether they had been debriefed or not did not make any difference.

The debate over counselling spiralled in the wake of the Lockerbie and Dunblane disasters.

Freeman added: "I think that the idea that we automatically counsel people after major trauma is going to alter. People are much better just going to see their GP around two or three weeks later," he said

"It is intrusive to start asking people questions at such an early stage. Most people have pretty powerful coping mechanisms and do pretty well on their own. Professional help may interfere with the natural process of healing.

"If you are good at blocking things out, good at forgetting what's happened to you then you should be left well alone."

Post-traumatic stress disorder has been around for centuries, though it has not always been recognised as a medical condition. It is also known as shell-shock or battle fatigue and can affect anyone who has suffered a major psychological trauma.

PTSD develops weeks after an event and is characterised by mental numbness. Sufferers experience flashbacks and have difficulty reacting to situations and people.