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<strong>Issue</strong> no. <strong>111</strong> <strong>Summer</strong> <strong>2021</strong><br />

e-accord Association<br />

of Christian Counsellors and Pastoral Care UK<br />

Changing location<br />

but the work continues


<strong>Accord</strong> contact:<br />

Sue Monckton-Rickett<br />

024 7644 9694 Ext. 3<br />

email: chair@acc-uk.org<br />

ASSOCIATION OF CHRISTIAN<br />

COUNSELLORS<br />

Representing Christians who<br />

provide counselling and pastoral<br />

care, <strong>ACC</strong> is the only Christian<br />

UK wide counselling organisation<br />

holding an Accredited Register<br />

with the Professional Standards<br />

Authority.<br />

Any questions, contact<br />

registrar@acc-uk.org<br />

<strong>ACC</strong> Head Office<br />

Tel: 024 7644 9694<br />

email: office@acc-uk.org<br />

Web: www.acc-uk.org<br />

Chair<br />

Sue Monckton-Rickett<br />

email: chair@acc-uk.org<br />

CEO<br />

Kathy Spooner<br />

email: counselling@acc-uk.org<br />

Head of Membership Services<br />

Gillian Stuart<br />

email: gillian@acc-uk.org<br />

Registrar<br />

Dawn Sherry<br />

email: registrar@acc-uk.org<br />

Administration<br />

Heather Bennett<br />

email: office@acc-uk.org<br />

Finance<br />

Keith Payne<br />

email: accounts@acc-uk.org<br />

Pastoral Care<br />

email: pastoral@acc-uk.org<br />

Company Secretary<br />

Sue Monckton-Rickett<br />

email: chair@acc-uk.org<br />

Registered Charity Number:<br />

1018559 : SC039810<br />

Limited Company Number: 2791541<br />

ISSN 2635-1404<br />

This quarterly magazine can<br />

be purchased for an annual<br />

subscription as a Friend of <strong>ACC</strong>,<br />

which has additional benefits.<br />

Details can be found at<br />

www.acc-uk.org<br />

contents <strong>Issue</strong><br />

no. <strong>111</strong> <strong>Summer</strong> <strong>2021</strong><br />

Editorial 3<br />

Sue Monckton-Rickett<br />

Complex Trauma and Post-traumatic Growth 4-10<br />

Dr Heather Evans<br />

Holistic CBT- my journey to weave together faith and work 11-14<br />

Hilary Garraway<br />

Spirituality and support in the Deaf community 15-17<br />

Nikki Dhillon Keane & Sue Brown<br />

<strong>ACC</strong> News & Diary 18-19<br />

Meeting the Challenge, Providing the Opportunity 20-21<br />

Teresa Onions<br />

Counselling news 22-23<br />

Legal ban on conversion therapy 24-25<br />

Kathy Spooner<br />

Psalm 23 - A practical guide to caring 26-27<br />

Sue Monckton-Rickett<br />

Can we predict the types of people who are more likely to hold 28-29<br />

a positive or negative attitude towards children with autism?<br />

Anne Franks<br />

Autism & Pastoral Care 30-31<br />

Emma McCaffrey<br />

Who Cares? 31<br />

Bridgette Brooks<br />

Christian counselling – another approach 32-33<br />

Pat Brookes<br />

Integration of my psychology and my Christianity? 34-35<br />

Dr Martyn Baker<br />

<strong>ACC</strong> children and young people forum 36-38<br />

Elaine Bennett<br />

Meeting <strong>ACC</strong>EnT Forum Members 39-40<br />

Leroy Harley<br />

Pregnancy Loss 41-42<br />

Amanda Padley<br />

Supporting a nation in mourning 43-44<br />

Yvonne Tulloch<br />

Table Talk for wellbeing 45<br />

PLEASE KEEP US INFORMED<br />

Request from <strong>ACC</strong> Head Office:<br />

In Touch 45-47<br />

We would be very grateful you could inform us as soon as possible of ANY<br />

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want to make sure that you receive all of the information, news and updates<br />

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have up to date contact details, so please make any changes<br />

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editorial<br />

Editorial<br />

by Sue Monckton-Rickett<br />

I write this two days after <strong>ACC</strong><br />

has left it’s home at 29 Momus<br />

Boulevard, Coventry for the<br />

last time. At the closing event, I<br />

mentioned a prayer that was said<br />

when Coventry Cathedral (see<br />

photo below) was opened in 1962<br />

that “It (Coventry) would become<br />

the premier place of pilgrimage for<br />

an anxious, hoping and searching<br />

generation”<br />

Perhaps Coventry has not become<br />

a place of pilgrimage in the realms<br />

of Rome, Assisi or Santiago de<br />

Compostela, nor did we often<br />

find pilgrims queuing outside<br />

29 Momus Boulevard, but the<br />

work that has gone on there has<br />

certainly supported our members<br />

to care for “anxious, hoping and<br />

searching” people, who I think exist<br />

in every generation.<br />

The daily tasks, keeping the show<br />

on the road, have enabled 100s of<br />

1000s of people to be helped over<br />

the years and although we are<br />

now more dispersed, this work will<br />

continue and we pray grow and<br />

develop.<br />

The articles in this edition of accord<br />

certainly reflect how the work<br />

of counselling and pastoral care<br />

brings care to the “anxious, hoping<br />

and searching”.<br />

The articles by Heather Evans,<br />

Hilary Garraway and Pat Brooks<br />

show us how the hope of<br />

healing and restoration can be<br />

brought even to those who have<br />

experienced immense trauma, by<br />

providing a safe and creative place<br />

for counselling.<br />

The articles about Autism and the<br />

Deaf Community continue our<br />

theme of diversity and inclusion<br />

and hopefully help us to better<br />

understand the anxiety that<br />

exclusion can cause and how<br />

we can be part of bringing more<br />

inclusion for everyone. We also<br />

learn more about Leroy Harley,<br />

one of the founder members<br />

of the <strong>ACC</strong>EnT Group and his<br />

hopes for greater inclusion and<br />

understanding across racial<br />

barriers.<br />

The articles by Yvonne Tulloch<br />

and Amanda Padely explore the<br />

tragedy of loss and remind us<br />

of how people in grief are often<br />

searching for hope and meaning as<br />

part of their journey to life beyond<br />

loss.<br />

As counsellors and pastoral carers<br />

we are also part of that “anxious,<br />

hoping and searching generation”<br />

and need support for ourselves<br />

and our work and this is reflected<br />

in several of the articles, whether it<br />

be :<br />

• thinking through the<br />

intersection of professionalism<br />

and faith as explored in the<br />

article by Martyn Baker<br />

• the development of Pastoral<br />

Support Groups, as outlined<br />

by Teresa Onions, that we pray<br />

will provide support for Pastoral<br />

Care members.<br />

• being part of a mutual support<br />

group, such as Children and<br />

Young People’s Forum as<br />

described by Elaine Bennett<br />

We may not be based in Coventry<br />

as we have been in the past, but<br />

<strong>ACC</strong> is still very much part of caring<br />

for “the anxious, the hoping and<br />

the searching”<br />

Finally, coming back to that<br />

concept of pilgrims to Coventry.<br />

A pilgrimage is described as “a<br />

journey or search of moral or<br />

spiritual significance.” Although<br />

we nor the people we work with<br />

may be on a physical journey,<br />

we are all on a Life Journey,<br />

involving spiritual, emotional and<br />

psychological growth and each<br />

one of our journeys is significant for<br />

our well-being.<br />

We pray that we<br />

will know God<br />

walking beside<br />

us as we journey<br />

for ourselves<br />

and journey with<br />

others.<br />

www.acc-uk.org • www.pastoralcareuk.org accord <strong>Summer</strong> <strong>2021</strong> 3<br />

3


INTRODUCTION:<br />

Grace* was sexually trafficked as<br />

a young girl until the age of 22.<br />

Her first traffickers were her own<br />

family. It began with sexual abuse<br />

and moved to exploitation in child<br />

pornography. Soon after this, she<br />

was sold for sex in her suburban<br />

neighborhood. Her family sold her<br />

to friends and then eventually to<br />

complete strangers. Her father<br />

would have people brought<br />

into her home and at times she<br />

was taken to other homes. Sold,<br />

commodified, used, for the purpose<br />

of power and pleasure. Eventually<br />

she was also sold at motels and<br />

hotels and taken out of the country<br />

by another trafficker. At the young<br />

age of 17, she was trafficked for<br />

both sex and labour.<br />

During the time she was being<br />

trafficked, she did not receive<br />

adequate education. She was<br />

told that she was too stupid to do<br />

anything but be a prostitute. To<br />

add to the horrific details of this<br />

story, her family called themselves<br />

Christians and used the Bible as a<br />

weapon, telling her that children<br />

are to obey their parents and if<br />

they did not it was considered<br />

disobedience to God. Years later<br />

after escaping, she sought refuge<br />

in a church community. A woman<br />

befriends her and says she will<br />

become new family for her, a<br />

promise to meet a need, and<br />

contribute to her healing. Soon<br />

this woman would also betray<br />

her, recruiting to sell her to a sex<br />

trafficker.<br />

Grace’s story is one example of<br />

hundreds of thousands of cases<br />

of sex trafficking, when someone,<br />

through the use of force, fraud,<br />

or coercion, is brought into the<br />

commercial sex industry and sold<br />

for an exchange of goods or money<br />

(Department of State, 2020). If<br />

someone is under the age of 18<br />

and in the commercial sex industry,<br />

they are considered victims of<br />

sexual exploitation, without proving<br />

force, fraud, or coercion. (USA Law)<br />

Furthermore, her story is also an<br />

*name changed to protect identity<br />

Complex Trauma and<br />

Post-traumatic Growth:<br />

the impact and healing journey of survivors<br />

of sexual trauma<br />

by Dr. Heather Evans, LCSW<br />

illustration of the layered, complex<br />

impact of sexual exploitation and<br />

sexual abuse, particularly when<br />

spiritual abuse is interwoven.<br />

Victims of trafficking have at<br />

times been trafficked by socalled<br />

Christians, and some have<br />

experienced being bought by<br />

church leaders, including from their<br />

own faith communities. Though<br />

the church should be a shelter, and<br />

those in positions of leadership and<br />

authority should protect, care for<br />

and lead, too often the church is a<br />

setting for devastating damage, at<br />

times occurring within its doors.<br />

THE #METOO/#CHURCHTOO<br />

CRISIS:<br />

Emily Joy Allison, credited as<br />

serving as a catalyst for the<br />

#churchtoo movement, is another<br />

example, groomed and abused by<br />

a youth leader. On November 21,<br />

2013 she types this tweet on social<br />

media platform, Twitter:<br />

“I certainly didn’t know that a<br />

romantic relationship between a<br />

teenage girl and an adult mentor<br />

in a religious setting was illegal in<br />

several states and unethical in all<br />

of them. I trusted him explicitly. He<br />

was a godly man who had my best<br />

interests at heart. He told me that<br />

so many times (Allison, <strong>2021</strong>, p.8).”<br />

Her tweet was in the wake of<br />

the #metoo movement, a social<br />

movement against sexual abuse<br />

and sexual harassment where<br />

people publicise allegations of<br />

victimisation. The phrase ‘me too’<br />

was initially used in this context<br />

in 2006 by survivor and activist,<br />

Tarana Burke. It was reignited<br />

in 2017 after widespread sexual<br />

abuse allegations against Harvey<br />

4 accord <strong>Summer</strong> <strong>2021</strong> www.acc-uk.org • www.pastoralcareuk.org


feature<br />

Weinstein. Millions of individuals<br />

followed the lead of Weinstein’s<br />

victims, sharing their own stories<br />

of assault and abuse. Soon dozens<br />

of languages translated #metoo,<br />

making it a global movement.<br />

The church was not immune to<br />

these stories of abuse of power.<br />

Thus, Emily’s tweet quickly went<br />

viral and served as a catalyst for<br />

other survivors of abuse in church<br />

or ministry environments to<br />

share their stories, advocate, and<br />

connect with one another using<br />

the hashtag #churchtoo. In the<br />

USA, The Report I of the 40th<br />

Statewide Investigating Grand Jury<br />

(2018) revealed 300 abusive priests<br />

from six diocese in Pennsylvania,<br />

describing story after story of sexual<br />

and spiritual abuse of children. Boz<br />

Tchividjian of Godly Response to<br />

Abuse in the Christian Environment<br />

(GRACE) reported data gathered<br />

from top insurance providers for<br />

protestant churches who received<br />

260 reports a year of minors being<br />

sexually abused by church leaders<br />

or church members (Demuth,<br />

2019). Unfortunately, in many cases<br />

of abuse within the church, too<br />

often the perpetrator is protected<br />

at the expense of victims, who may<br />

not be believed and responded<br />

to, or may be blamed or forced to<br />

confront or forgive perpetrators.<br />

THE COMPLEX AND<br />

COMPREHENSIVE IMPACT OF<br />

ABUSE:<br />

What is the cost and impact of<br />

this abuse of power? Trauma is<br />

a response to a threat to one’s<br />

physical or mental wellbeing,<br />

resulting in one feeling helpless<br />

and fearful (American Psychiatric<br />

Association, 2013). Many victims<br />

develop symptoms of Post-<br />

Traumatic Stress Disorder.<br />

They relive the experience<br />

through flashbacks, dreams,<br />

images, and sensations. They<br />

may avoid reminders of the<br />

trauma, such as thoughts,<br />

feelings, memories, people, or<br />

environments, which may lead<br />

to dysregulation of emotion and<br />

reliving the trauma. They may be<br />

perpetually waiting for danger<br />

(American Psychiatric Association,<br />

2013). Trauma impacts decisionmaking<br />

and emotions, often<br />

leading to depression, anxiety, or<br />

other mental disorders. Females<br />

who are sexually abused are three<br />

times more likely to develop<br />

psychiatric disorders than females<br />

who are not sexually abused.<br />

Among male survivors, more than<br />

70% seek psychological treatment<br />

for issues such as substance abuse,<br />

suicidal thoughts, and attempted<br />

suicide (Rhode, et al., 2008; Dube,<br />

et al., 2007; Waldrop et al., 2007;<br />

Kendler et al., 2000; Voeltanz et al.,<br />

1999).<br />

The trauma of sexual exploitation<br />

and ongoing sexual abuse can be<br />

accurately described as complex<br />

trauma, a term formulated to<br />

capture trauma that is extreme,<br />

chronic, repetitious, interpersonal,<br />

and premeditated (Spinazzola, J,<br />

Blaustein, M, Kisiel, C, Van der Kolk,<br />

B., 2001)<br />

Complex trauma emphasises<br />

alterations in six areas: regulation<br />

of affect and impulses, attention<br />

or consciousness, self-perception,<br />

relations with others, somatisation,<br />

and systems of meaning<br />

(Spinazzola, et al., 2001).<br />

Regulation of Affect and<br />

Impulses: Victims of complex<br />

trauma may have difficulty<br />

managing their emotions, as if<br />

they are living on a level of survival.<br />

Trauma overwhelms one’s system,<br />

so one may appear to have extreme<br />

reactions to neutral or mild stimuli,<br />

and may have difficulty with selfregulation.<br />

Victims may appear as<br />

restless, angry, reactive or defensive.<br />

This ‘survival mode’ shifts the<br />

focus of the brain and body from<br />

learning, discovery and openness<br />

to anticipate, prevent or protect<br />

against damage. This hijacks<br />

development, thwarts growth and<br />

distracts from healing and freedom<br />

(Courtois & Ford, 2009). Trauma<br />

is not always visible, and may be<br />

hidden by symptoms, which are<br />

in fact forms of coping and often<br />

destructive, such as substance<br />

abuse or dependency, self-injury, or<br />

eating disorders.<br />

Disturbances in Attention or<br />

Consciousness: Individuals<br />

experiencing complex trauma,<br />

such as abuse or exploitation,<br />

report that they have coped using<br />

dissociation, or an involuntary<br />

separation from these experiences.<br />

When an experience becomes<br />

overwhelming, various elements<br />

(visual, somatic, emotional) may<br />

be involuntarily and reflexively split<br />

off from one another and from<br />

the individual’s personal narrative.<br />

These ‘split off’ parts of the<br />

experience are typically perceptual<br />

or sensory in nature. This means<br />

they have only been able to access<br />

some information related to the<br />

trauma. It is a form of survival, but<br />

it thwarts integration of memory,<br />

identity and perception (Spinazzola<br />

et al., 2001; Ross, et al., 2003) and<br />

may become an ongoing reflexive<br />

habit.<br />

Victims of complex trauma may<br />

be seen as numb, disconnected<br />

or emotionally shut down. It may<br />

be confusing to someone who<br />

doesn’t understand this aspect<br />

of trauma, because they may<br />

have gaps in their memory when<br />

explaining their trauma history to<br />

law enforcement, family members,<br />

or counsellors. There may be<br />

changes in their verbal narrative<br />

from meeting to meeting. Their<br />

facial expressions and affect may<br />

not match the horror of what they<br />

are sharing. These are indicative<br />

of dissociation, but may be<br />

misinterpreted as deception, denial<br />

or resistant behaviour (TC Institute,<br />

2014).<br />

Disturbances in Self-Perception:<br />

To experience trauma is to be given<br />

lenses which change one’s view<br />

of everything, including others,<br />

God, and one’s self. Abuse victims<br />

experience guilt and shame. They<br />

may minimise their experience and<br />

believe that no one will understand<br />

it. They may see themselves<br />

as damaged, undesirable and<br />

hopeless (Spinazzola, et al., 2001).<br />

It impacts identity. In a study of<br />

sex trafficking survivors, when<br />

asked how the exploitation<br />

impacted their identity, the<br />

majority of them hesitated and had<br />

www.acc-uk.org • www.pastoralcareuk.org accord <strong>Summer</strong> <strong>2021</strong><br />

5


difficulty answering this question,<br />

acknowledging that identity had<br />

been so lost or damaged, handed<br />

over to someone who remade<br />

them into commodities to be<br />

sold for someone else’s pleasure.<br />

They describe the ongoing<br />

journey that took time and effort<br />

to rebuild, including discovering<br />

their interests, hobbies and values<br />

(Evans, 2019).<br />

Disturbances in Relationships:<br />

Abuse shatters trust, particularly<br />

because the majority of victims<br />

know their offender (Department<br />

of Justice, 1997) and relationship<br />

and trust are used as tools of the<br />

abuser (Evans, 2019). When a victim<br />

tries to get help, they may not be<br />

believed or supported, thus further<br />

confirming the mistrust. While<br />

relationship and community are<br />

among their greatest needs, to a<br />

victim they may be experienced<br />

as threatening, overwhelming and<br />

re-injuring. Our good intentions of<br />

helping at times perpetuate lost<br />

voice and power when we assume<br />

we know what they want and<br />

need and act on their behalf. Our<br />

vocabulary such as ‘I care about<br />

you. You are safe here’ may mean<br />

nothing to them because their<br />

categories for what safe and care<br />

mean have been shattered.<br />

Biological Self-Regulation:<br />

Trauma invades on a biological<br />

level. Spinazzola et al. (2001) explain<br />

that many who have experienced<br />

chronic trauma suffer persistent<br />

physical complaints, some<br />

without medical explanation or<br />

intervention. Chronic exposure to<br />

stress results in a dysregulation of<br />

hormones produced in the stress<br />

response system. These hormones<br />

prepare the body to mobilise<br />

resources to respond to threat. In<br />

addition, trauma exposure affects<br />

the limbic system and its role in<br />

evaluation of emotion perception<br />

as well as encoding of memory.<br />

Trauma victims have general<br />

difficulties adjusting their level<br />

of physiological arousal, which<br />

can be described by having<br />

overactive sympathetic and<br />

parasympathetic nervous system.<br />

An example of this is an involuntary,<br />

exaggerated startle response. An<br />

overproduction of some hormones<br />

results in general feelings of<br />

anxiety, signs of hyperarousal,<br />

such as hypervigilance or difficulty<br />

sleeping. On the other hand,<br />

an underproduction of other<br />

hormones, such as serotonin,<br />

leads to increased reactivity and<br />

emergency responses. In summary,<br />

this loss of modulation may<br />

appear as heightened irritability,<br />

impulsivity, and aggression<br />

(Spinazzola et al. 2001).<br />

Some common complaints among<br />

individuals with a history of trauma<br />

include: Irritable Bowel Syndrome,<br />

chronic pelvic pain, headaches,<br />

and gastrointestinal challenges<br />

(Spinazzola, 2001). Van der Kolk<br />

(1996) also has brought attention<br />

to the loss of ability to put words<br />

to traumatic experiences and<br />

therefore, physical symptoms<br />

provide trauma survivors with a<br />

‘symbolic way of communicating<br />

their emotional pain’ (Spinazzola et<br />

al., 2001).<br />

Disturbances in Meaning Systems:<br />

Spinazzola et al. (2001) highlight<br />

that many who have experienced<br />

chronic trauma have a change in<br />

their worldview that leads to loss<br />

of belief in life having meaning<br />

6 accord <strong>Summer</strong> <strong>2021</strong> www.acc-uk.org • www.pastoralcareuk.org


feature<br />

or purpose. They may question<br />

spiritual belief or experience a<br />

profound sense of helplessness<br />

and loss of hope (TC Institute, 2014).<br />

These can significantly impact the<br />

capacity to formulate solutions,<br />

make choices, act on one’s own<br />

behalf or implement change in<br />

one’s life (Spinazzola et al., 2001).<br />

Herman (1992) describes the<br />

impact on beliefs for those who<br />

have experienced prolonged<br />

captivity, such as sexual<br />

exploitation. She states victims<br />

may be preoccupied with shame,<br />

self-loathing and a sense of failure.<br />

These alterations in the self and<br />

in relationships inevitably results<br />

in the questioning of basic tenets<br />

of faith. Furthermore, while some<br />

have a faith that remains intact<br />

or strengthened, the majority of<br />

people experience ‘the bitterness<br />

of being forsaken by God’ (p.94).<br />

This loss of belief contributes<br />

to depression that is prevalent<br />

amongst trauma survivors.<br />

Spiritual Impact: Trauma<br />

has capacity to shape and to<br />

shatter meaning. When abuse is<br />

perpetrated by a spiritual authority<br />

figure, there is devastating impact<br />

on the victim and the victim’s<br />

relationship with God. How can a<br />

child think of a heavenly Father<br />

as good and safe if that same<br />

child is abused by a ‘Father’ or<br />

spiritual authority at their church or<br />

school? They will inevitably see God<br />

through the lens of abuse.<br />

In a study interviewing sex<br />

trafficking survivors about the<br />

impact of trauma, almost all of<br />

the participants mentioned faith<br />

or religion. Half of participants<br />

credit faith/spirituality as a form of<br />

coping or means of survival during<br />

the time of being trafficked. More<br />

than half described how spiritual<br />

beliefs were a part of their healing<br />

process after the trafficking<br />

experience, describing additional<br />

spiritual growth as a result of the<br />

trauma. The majority also described<br />

struggles and questions related<br />

to their faith, including questions<br />

and doubts about God’s presence<br />

and purposes in their experiences.<br />

Some of them experienced<br />

exploitation at the hands of church<br />

leaders and so-called Christian<br />

parents, while some of them had<br />

experiences of re-traumatisation<br />

and re-exploitation within faith<br />

communities after they had been<br />

trafficked (Evans, 2019).<br />

For the individuals sitting in pews<br />

and Bible studies, how do they<br />

receive messages about God’s<br />

love? How do they understand<br />

concepts such as power,<br />

submission, and headship? What<br />

do they do when they hear God<br />

described as Father or hear<br />

sermons on forgiveness? What<br />

does he think when he hears that<br />

God is a refuge in times of trouble<br />

and will never abandon us? Or how<br />

does she feel when she never hears<br />

sexual violence or abuse referenced<br />

in teachings?<br />

Many victims believe they must<br />

be an exception to the promises<br />

of Scripture. They may want to<br />

believe in the Scriptures, but<br />

truth does not register because<br />

it is perceived as contradictory to<br />

their experiences. They come to<br />

the conclusion that these truths<br />

must not apply to them. They<br />

must not be worthy of God’s care,<br />

love, protection, and promises. The<br />

betrayal of abuse and the impact<br />

of trauma are barriers to Scripture,<br />

to Christian community, and to<br />

relationship with God. They may<br />

be wracked with shame, fear, guilt,<br />

hopelessness, or worthlessness,<br />

hindering them from Christian<br />

fellowship. Therefore, we must see<br />

the courage and desperation that<br />

it takes for survivors to show up<br />

at church services and activities.<br />

For those who experienced abuse<br />

within a church context, they have<br />

been taught lies about God.<br />

www.acc-uk.org • www.pastoralcareuk.org accord <strong>Summer</strong> <strong>2021</strong><br />

7


What then is our response?<br />

Our response has the capacity<br />

to perpetuate these lies or<br />

demonstrate truth that leads to<br />

freedom and healing.<br />

THE HEALING JOURNEY:<br />

In Counseling Survivors of Sexual<br />

Abuse, Langberg (2003) describes<br />

how abuse destroys the image of<br />

God—expressed through voice,<br />

power, and relationships—in<br />

human beings. Abuse silences<br />

voice, renders one helpless, and<br />

destroys the fabric of trust in<br />

relationship. Therefore, the healing<br />

of abuse must be the reversal of<br />

its impact. It must restore voice<br />

and power in the context of a safe,<br />

healing relationship. This means<br />

that everything we do and say, as<br />

institutions, leaders, and as loved<br />

ones, must be the reversal of the<br />

trauma and abuse of power.<br />

If trauma silences, then we<br />

promote voice, by asking, listening,<br />

believing and bearing witness,<br />

repeatedly and for as long as it<br />

takes. If trauma misuses power<br />

and results in helplessness, we<br />

empower those who have been<br />

victimised, by offering choice,<br />

promoting relational safety, not<br />

assuming we understand need but<br />

coming alongside them in ways<br />

that help them increase agency.<br />

We become a student of survivors,<br />

asking them what they need,<br />

connecting them with resources,<br />

and being willing to accompany<br />

them physically, emotionally, and<br />

spiritually.<br />

If the trauma of abuse shatters<br />

relationship, we represent God<br />

accurately in truth, love, grace,<br />

mercy, and compassion. We<br />

care more for the protection of<br />

survivors, than the reputation<br />

of a person or organisation. We<br />

become representatives of God to<br />

the survivor. Our work is to teach in<br />

the seen that which is true in the<br />

unseen. Our words, tone of voice,<br />

actions, body movements, response<br />

to rage, fear, failure all become ways<br />

that the survivor learns about God.<br />

We try to represent God, as the<br />

survivor struggles with questions<br />

about God (Langberg, 2003).<br />

Experts in complex trauma have<br />

outlined a three-phase treatment<br />

model that provides a foundation<br />

for trauma healing intervention.<br />

The safety and stabilisation phase<br />

is the foundation of treatment and<br />

a phase returned to repeatedly.<br />

Memory work is when a silenced<br />

voice is recovered and one begins<br />

to make meaning and find truth in<br />

the trauma narrative. Reconnecting<br />

or reintegration implies how a<br />

person recovers and lives after<br />

enduring the trauma (Spinazzola<br />

et al, 2001; Herman, 1992, Langberg,<br />

2003).<br />

POST-TRAUMATIC GROWTH<br />

Grace spent two years at a<br />

residential program for survivors of<br />

sex trafficking. It was here that she<br />

learned the definition of human<br />

trafficking and that ‘choice was<br />

not a choice.’ She learned about<br />

trauma, and began learning to<br />

regulate her emotions, stating it<br />

took at least five year to reach safety<br />

and stabilisation, the first stage of<br />

addressing complex trauma. She<br />

reports they had a dog, and she<br />

was able to first connect to the<br />

dog before she could connect with<br />

people. She was encouraged to get<br />

her education. Initially doubtful, she<br />

now has her master’s degree and is<br />

in a doctoral program, attributing<br />

education as giving her a reason<br />

to live. She got married, and is<br />

working through how to build trust<br />

and intimacy with another person.<br />

She needed medical intervention<br />

due to extensive issues resulted<br />

from the abuse. She describes<br />

being numb, dissociative, selfdestructive,<br />

angry, resistant.<br />

The healing journey is slow,<br />

incremental, repetitious, intentional<br />

work. It requires a community,<br />

not just one professional, but a<br />

comprehensive team of support.<br />

Among other survivors, when Grace<br />

is asked what was most helpful, she<br />

describes relationships, those who<br />

believed in her and encouraged<br />

her towards her gifts and talents,<br />

those who helped her discover her<br />

identity and goal and dreams, and<br />

then promoted her to reach them,<br />

and those who served as models for<br />

what healthy relationship should<br />

include.<br />

Grace is also an example of posttraumatic<br />

growth (PTG), defined<br />

as positive psychological change<br />

experienced as a result of the<br />

struggle with highly challenging<br />

life circumstances. PTG does<br />

8 accord <strong>Summer</strong> <strong>2021</strong> www.acc-uk.org • www.pastoralcareuk.org


feature<br />

not mean a return to ‘normal’ or<br />

baseline after experiencing trauma,<br />

but an experience of growth that<br />

for some may be deeply profound.<br />

It is distinct from the term<br />

resilience, which can be defined<br />

as ‘the power or ability to return to<br />

original form or positive after being<br />

bent, compressed or stretched’<br />

(Calhoun, L. G., & Tedeschi, R. G.,<br />

2006, p.11), where PTG describes<br />

a growth from where one was at<br />

before experiencing trauma. It<br />

is not necessarily a lessening of<br />

distress or symptoms, but rather<br />

that those who have experienced<br />

trauma are living richer, fuller,<br />

more meaningful lives. In a study of<br />

domestic sex trafficking survivors,<br />

all participants reported aspects<br />

of post-traumatic growth (Evans,<br />

2019).<br />

“While the<br />

impact of trauma is<br />

complex and multifaceted,<br />

there is often<br />

great evidence of<br />

posttraumatic growth<br />

The five domains of PTG include<br />

personal strength, new possibilities,<br />

relating to others, appreciation of<br />

life, and spiritual change (Calhoun,<br />

L. G., & Tedeschi, R. G., 2006).<br />

Personal strength refers to an<br />

individual identifying and being<br />

surprised by his/her power or<br />

strength. The phrase to summarise<br />

this area of growth is ‘vulnerable yet<br />

stronger’ or ‘I am more vulnerable<br />

than I thought, but much stronger<br />

than I ever imagined’ (p.5). Survivors<br />

learn to find voice, set boundaries<br />

in relationships and move from<br />

survival to living, set on their goals<br />

and dreams.<br />

New possibilities include the<br />

development of new interests,<br />

sometimes related to the trauma<br />

they experience. Grace has many<br />

examples, including discovering<br />

her interests, learning photography,<br />

receiving an education, and<br />

starting a nonprofit organisation to<br />

help other survivors.<br />

Relating to others refers to a greater<br />

connection to other people and<br />

increased compassion for those<br />

who suffer. Tedeschi and Calhoun<br />

(2006) report in their qualitative<br />

data that this increased experience<br />

of compassion translates into a<br />

greater degree of frequency of<br />

altruistic acts. It is common for<br />

survivors of abuse to desire to<br />

help others at some point in their<br />

healing journey, which seems to be<br />

a part of their own healing. Grace<br />

attributes the relationship with a<br />

couple, who became their adopted<br />

families, as the reason she was able<br />

to eventually trust and connect to<br />

her husband.<br />

An increased appreciation for life or<br />

a changed sense of what is of most<br />

importance may occur for those<br />

who have experienced threat or<br />

danger in their suffering. Survivors<br />

express a deeper appreciation even<br />

for the ordinary, overlooked aspects<br />

of life, a change in perception<br />

where they have a greater capacity<br />

to see and appreciate beauty,<br />

which seems to become a defiance<br />

against the dark, ugliness of sexual<br />

trauma.<br />

Finally, some individuals who<br />

have experienced trauma report<br />

increased spiritual or existential<br />

meaning in their lives (Little, S.<br />

G., Akin-Little, A, Somerville, M. P<br />

(2011). In fact, Tedeschi and Calhoun<br />

report that it is in this domain that<br />

they observe the most significant<br />

PTG. This growth reflects a greater<br />

sense of purpose and meaning in<br />

life, greater satisfaction, and greater<br />

clarity with answers given to<br />

fundamental existential questions.<br />

Grace acknowledges the ongoing<br />

journey of detangling her faith and<br />

spiritual beliefs from the sexual and<br />

spiritual abuse she endured, but<br />

attributes her faith as one major<br />

source of healing.<br />

CONCLUSION:<br />

While the impact of trauma<br />

is complex and multi-faceted,<br />

there is often great evidence<br />

of posttraumatic growth,<br />

particularly seen in individuals’<br />

deep appreciation for life, ability<br />

to see beauty and perceive deeply<br />

and finding greater meaning in<br />

experiences of life, particularly<br />

helping others. Furthermore, while<br />

relationships are most significantly<br />

impacted from abuse, they are also<br />

considered the greatest instrument<br />

of healing, through offering longterm<br />

commitment and belief in<br />

the individual. Finally, while there is<br />

significant loss for those who have<br />

endured abuse and exploitation,<br />

including trust, voice, power,<br />

identity and relationships, there is<br />

evidence of finding and utilising<br />

their voice and power in significant<br />

ways.<br />

www.acc-uk.org • www.pastoralcareuk.org accord <strong>Summer</strong> <strong>2021</strong><br />

9


References:<br />

Allison, Emily Joy. (<strong>2021</strong>).<br />

#ChurchToo: How Purity Culture<br />

Upholds Abuse and How to Find<br />

Healing. Minneapolis: BroadLeaf<br />

Books<br />

American Psychiatric Association<br />

(2013). Diagnostic and Statistical<br />

Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth<br />

Edition. Washington, DC: American<br />

Psychiatric Association.<br />

Center for Disease Control and<br />

Prevention (<strong>2021</strong>). Preventing<br />

Sexual Violence Fact<br />

Sheet. Retrieved from: https://<br />

www.cdc.gov/violenceprevention/<br />

sexualviolence/fastfact.html<br />

Courtois, C, Ford, J. (2009). Defining<br />

and Understanding Complex<br />

Trauma and Complex Traumatic<br />

Stress Disorders. In F. Courtois,<br />

Treating Complex Traumatic Stress<br />

Disorders (pp. 13-30). New York:<br />

Guilford Press.<br />

DeMuth, Mary (2019). We Too:<br />

How the Church Can Respond<br />

Redemptively to the Sexual Abuse<br />

Crisis. Oregon: Harvest House<br />

Publishers.<br />

Department of State, U. S. (2020).<br />

Trafficking in Persons Report.<br />

Washington, D.C.: Department of<br />

State.<br />

Department of Justice (1997). Sex<br />

Offenses and Sex Offenders: An<br />

Analysis of Data on Rape and<br />

Sexual Assault. Retrieved from:<br />

https://www.bjs.gov/content/pub/<br />

pdf/SOO.PDF<br />

Dube, S. A., Anda, R. F., Whitfield, C.<br />

L., Brown, D. W., Felitti, D. J., Dong,<br />

M., & Giles, W. (2005). Long-term<br />

consequences of childhood sexual<br />

abuse by gender of the victim.<br />

American Journal of Preventive<br />

Medicine, 28, 430 – 437.<br />

Evans, Heather (2019). ‘From the<br />

Voices of Domestic Sex Trafficking<br />

Survivors: Experiences of Complex<br />

Trauma & Posttraumatic Growth’<br />

Doctorate in Social Work (DSW)<br />

Dissertations. 126. https://repository.<br />

upenn.edu/edissertations_sp2/126<br />

Godly Response to Abuse in the<br />

Christian Environment. (2010,<br />

August 28). Amended Final Report<br />

for the Investigatory Review of<br />

Child Abuse at new Tribes Fanda<br />

Missionary School. Retrieved<br />

from https://www.netgrace.org/<br />

new-tribes-mission.<br />

Herman, J. (1992). Trauma and<br />

Recovery. New York: Harpercollins.<br />

Hill, H, Hill, M, Bagge’, R, Miersma,P.<br />

Healing the Wounds of Trauma:<br />

How the Church Can Help. New<br />

York: American Bible Society.<br />

Kendler, K., Bulik, C., Silberg, J.,<br />

Hettema, J., Myers, J., & Prescott,<br />

C. (2000). Childhood sexual<br />

abuse and adult psychiatric<br />

and substance use disorders in<br />

women: An epidemiological and<br />

Cotwin Control Analysis. Archives of<br />

General Psychiatry, 57, 953-959<br />

Langberg, Diane. (2003).<br />

Counseling Survivors of Sexual<br />

Abuse. Xulon Press.<br />

Little, S. G., Akin-Little, A, Somerville,<br />

M. P (2011). Response to trauma<br />

in children: An examination of<br />

effective intervention in response<br />

to Post-traumatic Growth. School<br />

Psychology International, 448-463.<br />

Office of Attorney General of the<br />

Commonwealth of Pennsylvania<br />

(2018, July 27). Report I of the 40th<br />

Statewide Investigating Grand<br />

Jury. Harrisburg, PA: Author.<br />

Rohde, P., Ichikawa, L., Simon, G.<br />

E., Ludman, E. J., Linde, J. A. Jeffery,<br />

R. W., & Operskalski, B. H. (2008).<br />

Associations of child sexual and<br />

physical abuse with obesity and<br />

depression in middle-aged women.<br />

Child Abuse & Neglect, 32, 878– 887.<br />

Ross, C, Farley, M, Schwartz.<br />

(2003). Dissociation Among<br />

Women in Prostitution. In M.<br />

Farley, Prostitution, Trafficking,<br />

and Traumatic Stress (pp. 199-<br />

212). Binghamton, NJ: Hayworth<br />

Maltreatment and Trauma Press.<br />

Spinazzola, J, Blaustein, M, Kisiel,<br />

C, Van der Kolk, B. (2001). Beyond<br />

PTSD: Further Evidence for a<br />

Complex Adaptational Response<br />

to Traumatic Life Events. Paper<br />

presented at American Psychiatric<br />

Association Annual Meeting, (pp.<br />

373-392). New Orleans.<br />

Institute, T. C. (2014). Utilizing<br />

Trauma‐Informed Approaches to<br />

Trafficking‐related Work. Brookline,<br />

MA: Trauma Center at Justice<br />

Resource Institute.<br />

Tedeschi, R. G., & Calhoun, L. G.<br />

(2004). Posttraumatic growth:<br />

Conceptual foundation and<br />

empirical evidence. Philadelphia,<br />

PA: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.<br />

Voeltanz, N., Wilsnack, S., Harris,<br />

R., Wilsnack, R., Wonderlich, S.,<br />

Kristjanson, A. (1999). Prevalence<br />

and risk for childhood sexual<br />

abuse in women : National survey<br />

findings. Child Abuse and Neglect,<br />

23, 579-592.<br />

Waldrop, A. E. Hanson, R. F., Resnick,<br />

H. S., Kilpatrick, D. G., Naugle, A. E., &<br />

Saunders, B. E. (2007). Risk factors<br />

for suicidal behavior among a<br />

national sample of adolescents:<br />

Implications for prevention. Journal<br />

of Traumatic Stress, 20, 869 – 879.<br />

Dr Heather Evans, LCSW<br />

About the author<br />

Heather will be<br />

at <strong>ACC</strong>’s “Four<br />

Winds” Online<br />

Conference in<br />

November <strong>2021</strong>.<br />

Dr. Heather Evans<br />

is a Licensed<br />

Clinical Social Worker with<br />

a private group counseling<br />

practice in Coopersburg,<br />

Pennsylvania, with 20 years’<br />

experience providing therapy,<br />

particularly specializing in sexual<br />

trauma and sex trafficking.<br />

Heather has authored two books<br />

from her research on complex<br />

trauma and posttraumatic<br />

growth in sex trafficking<br />

survivors. She is Co-Founder of<br />

Valley Against Sex Trafficking<br />

in Pennsylvania and adjunct<br />

professor of Global Trauma<br />

Recovery Institute, traveling<br />

internationally to train trauma<br />

healing caregivers.<br />

10 accord <strong>Summer</strong> <strong>2021</strong> www.acc-uk.org • www.pastoralcareuk.org


The beginnings of this journey tie<br />

in with the beginnings of <strong>ACC</strong>.<br />

Having completed a psychology<br />

degree, I decided to have some<br />

time out with YWAM (Youth With a<br />

Mission) before going on to further<br />

training. Having done the YWAM<br />

Discipleship Training School on the<br />

Anastasis ship with an amazing trip<br />

round the Caribbean and South<br />

America, I went on to the YWAM<br />

Christian counselling school in St<br />

Helens, Merseyside. My planned<br />

short “time out” turned into about<br />

10 years working with YWAM’s<br />

counselling schools and setting up<br />

a project in East London. This work<br />

was with Dr Mike Sheldon, who as<br />

a GP had a vision for developing<br />

whole person health care. Along<br />

with others, we developed an<br />

assessment process that explored<br />

people’s spiritual, psychological and<br />

medical needs to create a more<br />

holistic treatment approach.<br />

It was during this time that I<br />

remember joining Mike at the first<br />

<strong>ACC</strong> meetings in the early 1990’s,<br />

as he was one of the founder<br />

members. I often find myself at<br />

the beginning of things and I<br />

remember the excitement in the<br />

room of seeing the potential that<br />

<strong>ACC</strong> could become in making<br />

Christian counselling a credible<br />

and recognised therapy through an<br />

accreditation process.<br />

Fast forwarding this journey<br />

to the beginnings of the new<br />

millennium and I felt an increasing<br />

draw to work in an environment<br />

that would connect me with<br />

people outside of Christian circles.<br />

This led me to train as a clinical<br />

psychologist and moving into the<br />

NHS world of secondary mental<br />

health care which has given me<br />

the opportunity to offer therapy<br />

to those who wouldn’t come near<br />

a church. During my time in the<br />

NHS I have had an ongoing journey<br />

of how to integrate my faith with<br />

my work and to find a way of<br />

offering therapy within a secular<br />

environment which allowed space<br />

for clients to explore spirituality and<br />

faith. A key turning point was when<br />

I was reading Margaret Silf’s book,<br />

Landmarks, and I realised that<br />

every time a client makes progress<br />

in therapy they are moving closer<br />

to being in line with what God<br />

intended for them to be; each step<br />

is a step closer to reaching their<br />

God given purpose and potential.<br />

Looking back I can see that my<br />

own understanding of God had to<br />

broaden and my spiritual journey<br />

deepen from those early YWAM<br />

days to a more contemplative<br />

and inclusive path and over the<br />

years authors such as Margaret<br />

Silf, Richard Rohr and many others<br />

have been instrumental in shaping<br />

this expanding awareness of God. I<br />

now feel more motivated to share<br />

with others about my relationship<br />

with God than I did in my early<br />

evangelical days, knowing that my<br />

own spiritual understanding of God<br />

is an ongoing journey of discovery<br />

and none of us can really fully know<br />

the mystery we name as God.<br />

During my years of working in<br />

adult mental health as a CBT<br />

(cognitive behaviour) therapist and<br />

psychologist I have expanded my<br />

own CBT practice to include more<br />

of people’s contexts including their<br />

social and cultural experiences and<br />

acknowledging socio-economic<br />

and environmental influences. I’ve<br />

also included people’s spiritual<br />

beliefs about God, the demonic<br />

and, when working with Muslim<br />

clients, beliefs about jinn. Over the<br />

years the formulations I developed<br />

with clients became more holistic<br />

and focused more on people’s<br />

strengths and potentials as well as<br />

their problems.<br />

So about 30 years on from my<br />

early discussions with Mike and<br />

others about how to integrate faith<br />

and therapy, I feel I have found<br />

my own personal integration. This<br />

model of therapy has grown into<br />

what I have called Holistic CBT<br />

and is continuing to develop as<br />

I write more about it and share<br />

it with others. My foundational<br />

years of Christian counselling of<br />

fully listening to the client, and<br />

to listen out for glimpses of God<br />

within the conversation, are still<br />

the foundations of what I do. I<br />

have valued learning about CBT<br />

feature<br />

Holistic CBTmy<br />

journey<br />

to weave<br />

together faith<br />

and work<br />

by Hilary Garraway<br />

www.acc-uk.org • www.pastoralcareuk.org accord <strong>Summer</strong> <strong>2021</strong><br />

11


and using that model as a core<br />

framework but I have added in<br />

the concept of the human spirit<br />

to the formulations, at the heart<br />

of the CBT maintenance cycles<br />

of thoughts, feelings, physical<br />

sensations and behaviours.<br />

By introducing the concept of<br />

‘spirit’ to the model, this opens<br />

up conversations about how<br />

people see their true identity and<br />

it encourages people to connect<br />

with their God-given potential and<br />

deepest desires and strengths, that<br />

are in each person that God has<br />

created. Every person I see in the<br />

therapy room is made in the image<br />

of God, whether they are aware<br />

of it or not, and as a therapist my<br />

job is helping people to be all that<br />

God has made them to be; helping<br />

them to connect with their unique<br />

potential and purpose that God has<br />

planted in each one of us and that<br />

brings fulfilment and peace when<br />

we live within it.<br />

Having worked within the NHS<br />

in North and East London I<br />

have valued the opportunity of<br />

working with many varied and<br />

fascinating (and sometimes very<br />

challenging!) clients. I’m grateful for<br />

each one and for what they have<br />

taught me. Their stories and our<br />

shared therapeutic experiences<br />

have shaped my thinking and<br />

have helped me to find a way to<br />

integrate my work and my spiritual<br />

life.<br />

Having spent about 20 years now<br />

in this field I sense God calling me<br />

back into full time work in a more<br />

overtly Christian context. So it felt<br />

significant when, at a recent music<br />

event promoting mental wellbeing,<br />

I found myself speaking alongside<br />

Kathy Spooner, the CEO of <strong>ACC</strong>.<br />

This ‘random’ meeting brought me<br />

back to reconnecting with <strong>ACC</strong>. I<br />

was encouraged to see how much<br />

<strong>ACC</strong> has grown and developed<br />

into a mature ‘adult’ organisation<br />

from the toddler <strong>ACC</strong> I had left<br />

behind in the 1990’s. So it feels like<br />

I have been on a ‘quest’, leaving my<br />

Christian counselling home, to find<br />

the answers that I was looking for<br />

in my early <strong>ACC</strong> days and as I return<br />

it reminds me of the words of TS<br />

Elliott:<br />

“We shall not cease from<br />

exploration, and the end of all our<br />

exploring will be to arrive where<br />

we started and know the place<br />

for the first time.”<br />

I was going to write an article about<br />

HCBT but instead this has been<br />

a more self-indulgent personal<br />

reflection of my journey but I<br />

feel that this is coming from my<br />

gratefulness to God for the journey<br />

that He has taken me on to weave<br />

together so many rich strands of<br />

my life. It’s great to help someone<br />

to be less depressed or less anxious<br />

but nothing compares to helping<br />

someone connect with their true<br />

potential and God given identity.<br />

In discovering this I have found<br />

my own fulfilment in the purpose<br />

of God for my life. This purpose<br />

is encapsulated in a life mission<br />

statement I wrote for myself years<br />

ago to “reach my potential and help<br />

others to reach theirs.”<br />

However for those who are<br />

interested to know more about<br />

the Holistic CBT model here is the<br />

full HCBT formulation (see Figure<br />

1:HCBT formulation).<br />

12 accord <strong>Summer</strong> <strong>2021</strong> www.acc-uk.org • www.pastoralcareuk.org


feature<br />

This may look a bit confusing<br />

but the therapy takes a person<br />

through the different aspects of<br />

this model and gradually helps the<br />

client to develop a personal inner<br />

map of themselves focusing on<br />

their strengths and potential. The<br />

therapy helps clients to explore<br />

the helpful patterns that facilitate<br />

this potential and also to change<br />

the unhelpful patterns that hinder<br />

who they truly are. The therapy can<br />

be used as an individual therapy<br />

but I have also developed a group<br />

programme based on the model<br />

called ‘Free to be Me’ which is a<br />

16 week personal development<br />

course.<br />

Figure 1:<br />

HCBT formulation<br />

Holistic CBT uses generic spiritual<br />

language so that it is inclusive to<br />

all faiths and spiritualties, while<br />

still being a model rooted in<br />

Christian tradition and Biblically<br />

based. Clients are encouraged to<br />

use language that feels authentic<br />

to them and so some clients<br />

use terms such as identity or<br />

consciousness instead of spirit.<br />

Within the course I describe God<br />

as Life’s Source and Flow and some<br />

clients wish to use the term God<br />

whereas others use terms such as<br />

the Universe or the Divine. This feels<br />

a really important aspect of therapy<br />

particularly when it is used with<br />

people of all different faiths and<br />

with varied relationships with God.<br />

Having worked outside of Christian<br />

circles I have found so many people<br />

with genuine experiences of God<br />

and also people that have been<br />

very hurt by the church. Many feel<br />

a real sense of loss and spiritual<br />

abandonment that they do not feel<br />

able to connect with God through<br />

church because of these past<br />

hurts. So by not using names such<br />

as ‘God’ or ‘Jesus,’ which might<br />

trigger painful memories, people<br />

may be willing to talk about their<br />

relationship with the Divine and<br />

have a desire to reconnect, when<br />

these trigger words are removed<br />

but we are still talking about<br />

the same divine being. This was<br />

something I saw in the first Free<br />

to be Me group which I ran at a<br />

hospital in East London. We had<br />

a group made up of Christians,<br />

Hindus and Muslims and also a<br />

woman who emphatically told me<br />

she was an atheist. However by the<br />

end of the course she shared how<br />

her father had taken her to church<br />

as a child and she felt drawn to go<br />

back as a result of the course. This<br />

isn’t the goal of the course but is a<br />

side effect of people reconnecting<br />

with their spiritual side and<br />

wanting to be all that they are in<br />

God.<br />

So inclusive and welcoming<br />

language is an important principle<br />

of the Holistic CBT model. Another<br />

aspect is about developing a<br />

person and not just solving a<br />

problem; focusing more on<br />

potential and purpose rather than<br />

problems. By doing so, we find<br />

ways to overcome the problems<br />

indirectly because we connect<br />

with our God-given strengths and<br />

passions.<br />

Holistic CBT uses different<br />

modalities such as art and reflective<br />

writing to explore ideas and it<br />

recognises the importance of<br />

peer support, connecting with<br />

creation and connecting with the<br />

Creator. Holistic CBT has come<br />

out of my own spiritual journey<br />

and so it also draws from Christian<br />

contemplative traditions and<br />

encourages people to connect with<br />

the still centre within them and<br />

to respond from that place which<br />

www.acc-uk.org • www.pastoralcareuk.org accord <strong>Summer</strong> <strong>2021</strong><br />

13


in Christian terms we may say is<br />

where the Holy Spirit resides. So<br />

really Holistic CBT isn’t unique but<br />

it perhaps brings together different<br />

strands in a unique way. It draws<br />

from various CBT approaches,<br />

Christian traditions and ideas<br />

from psychosynthesis, Jungian<br />

psychology and various other<br />

sources. One of the key quotes that<br />

underlies the model comes from<br />

the English Christian writer, Evelyn<br />

Underhill, who was also one of the<br />

first woman theologians to lecture<br />

in English universities. This quote<br />

has become a key benchmark, that<br />

I am seeking to live out, within my<br />

own life-<br />

“A spiritual life is simply a life<br />

in which all that we do comes<br />

from the centre, where we are<br />

anchored in God: a life soaked<br />

through and through by a sense<br />

of His reality and claim, and selfgiven<br />

to the great movement of<br />

his will.”<br />

So for those who want to know<br />

more about Holistic CBT I will be<br />

doing a half day teaching for <strong>ACC</strong><br />

on Thursday 14th October and I<br />

will also be joining you for your<br />

October conference next year.<br />

One of my dreams as a child was<br />

to write a book and this has now<br />

happed with a book on Holistic<br />

CBT published by Pavilion. There is<br />

also the 16 week group programme<br />

based on Holistic CBT called Free<br />

to be Me published by Pavilion as a<br />

manual that can be used to run the<br />

course as well as being a resource<br />

for offering individual therapy. For<br />

those wishing to know more or<br />

wishing to contact me, please visit<br />

my website – www.hcbt.co.uk<br />

References<br />

Eliot, T. S. (1942) Little Gidding.<br />

London: Faber and Faber.<br />

Underhill, E (1937) The Spiritual<br />

Life. Four Broadcast Talks. London:<br />

Hodder & Stoughton.<br />

Links to books<br />

https://www.pavpub.com/mentalhealth/holistic-cognitive-behaviourtherapy<br />

https://www.pavpub.com/<br />

mental-health/free-to-be-me<br />

Hilary Garraway<br />

About the author<br />

Dr Hilary Garraway<br />

is a consultant<br />

clinical psychologist<br />

and adult<br />

psychology lead in<br />

Enfield NHS mental health services<br />

and prior to that worked in Early<br />

Intervention in Psychosis teams.<br />

Hilary has worked in a range of<br />

settings including residential child<br />

care, youth work, primary health<br />

care and was with Youth With A<br />

Mission for about ten years. During<br />

her time with Youth with a Mission<br />

she completed the YWAM Diploma<br />

in Christian counselling and then<br />

worked alongside Dr Mike Sheldon<br />

(one of the founding members of<br />

<strong>ACC</strong>) helping to provide counselling<br />

training both in the UK and in<br />

Uganda, developing the concepts<br />

of whole person health care and<br />

establishing a community project<br />

based on some of these principles.<br />

Hilary describes her spirituality<br />

as Celtic contemplative and<br />

worships both in a local church<br />

and is part of Contemplative Fire.<br />

She was chair of the National<br />

Spirituality and Mental Health<br />

Forum and the spirituality lead<br />

for the British Psychological<br />

Society and is a trustee for Whole<br />

Person Health Trust. Her desire to<br />

integrate her faith and work has<br />

led to the development of Holistic<br />

Cognitive Behaviour Therapy<br />

which incorporates spirituality<br />

within CBT. Hilary has an interest in<br />

ecotherapy and creativity and these<br />

are also integrated within HCBT.<br />

She is trained in spiritual direction<br />

and is in the process of setting<br />

up a retreat house which she will<br />

be running with her husband, in<br />

Grenada.<br />

Tribute to<br />

Syd Platt<br />

In April very<br />

sadly, we<br />

learnt about<br />

the death<br />

of Syd Platt,<br />

who many of<br />

you will know<br />

from his time<br />

as South<br />

East Rep and<br />

a member<br />

of <strong>ACC</strong><br />

Executive<br />

and Board. Our thoughts<br />

and prayers are with his wife<br />

Marilyn and his family.<br />

Tony Ruddle knew Syd for many<br />

years and has paid this tribute:<br />

I remember Syd from the very<br />

first time at a Board gathering<br />

when I arrived as the North East<br />

Rep.<br />

He made me feel welcome from<br />

the outset and that care and<br />

attention to people was one of<br />

his gifts.<br />

Another was his quiet spirit in<br />

worship with careful thought of<br />

what to bring and say as well as<br />

having a deep conviction of God’s<br />

presence and so was someone<br />

who as a listener for what the<br />

Lord was saying you paid heed<br />

what he brought as comments<br />

in both prayer and meetings.<br />

He had a desire to see the<br />

Regions grow and their<br />

counsellors to develop in their<br />

gifts and numerical strength.<br />

With Clive Taylor they made a<br />

formidable pair and were mainly<br />

responsible for the Regional<br />

setup that served us very well for<br />

many years.<br />

His faithfulness and tenacity<br />

were greatly missed when he<br />

had to not just step down form<br />

the Board but the Region.<br />

14 accord <strong>Summer</strong> <strong>2021</strong> www.acc-uk.org • www.pastoralcareuk.org


feature<br />

Spirituality and support in the Deaf<br />

community<br />

by Nikki Dhillon Keane & Sue Brown<br />

‘Watching Signed readings,<br />

responses and prayers, we can<br />

feel at home with other Deaf<br />

parishioners.’ These are the words<br />

of Ian, a Deaf Christian who attends<br />

services at Caritas Deaf Service,<br />

which serves Deaf Catholics in<br />

the Diocese of Westminster. Ian<br />

is describing the experience of<br />

worshipping with other Deaf<br />

Christians as opposed to attending<br />

his local church where he would<br />

not be able to follow what is being<br />

said and cannot communicate with<br />

other parishioners.<br />

In the UK, one in seven of us have<br />

a significant level of hearing loss,<br />

but most of those will identify as<br />

hard of hearing. There are 87,000<br />

deaf people in the UK who use<br />

British Sign Language (BSL) as<br />

a first or preferred language. 1<br />

Although some can lipread, most<br />

would struggle to communicate in<br />

English without a BSL interpreter.<br />

The coronavirus pandemic has<br />

highlighted some of the difficulties<br />

faced by deaf and hard of hearing<br />

people in the UK. In addition to the<br />

communication barriers caused by<br />

wearing masks, the lack of access<br />

to information has been a serious<br />

problem. Unlike most other world<br />

leaders, the UK Prime Minister has<br />

not provided a BSL interpreter<br />

at any press briefings during the<br />

pandemic.<br />

Lynne Stewart-Taylor, founder<br />

of the #WhereIsTheInterpreter<br />

(#WTI) campaign, explained why<br />

it is important that ‘sign language<br />

citizens have access to the same<br />

information at the same time as<br />

hearing people’.<br />

She went on to describe how the<br />

refusal to provide an interpreter for<br />

vital safety briefings makes deaf<br />

people feel less valued: ‘[The] Sign<br />

language community have been<br />

telling me that the Government’s<br />

refusal sends a message to them<br />

to say “we don’t care if you deaf<br />

people live or die”. This is really<br />

impacting their mental health and<br />

wellbeing.<br />

LANGUAGE AND<br />

COMMUNICATION<br />

Access to information has been<br />

an issue for deaf people since long<br />

before the pandemic; a survey<br />

from the Royal Association for Deaf<br />

People found that one in two deaf<br />

people in London had no accessible<br />

information on important<br />

subjects like benefits. 2 For many<br />

deaf people, English, which is<br />

structurally very different from<br />

Sign Language, is a second or third<br />

language. As Sign Language has<br />

no written form, some deaf people<br />

struggle to understand written<br />

information.<br />

90% of deaf people grow up in<br />

hearing families, most of whom<br />

don’t Sign. 3 Having a different first<br />

language from the rest of your<br />

family can have profound effects<br />

on the development of family<br />

relationships, self-confidence and<br />

emotional wellbeing of deaf people.<br />

When a baby is diagnosed deaf, all<br />

the information given to parents<br />

is from a medical perspective.<br />

Deafness is viewed as an<br />

impairment which may or may not<br />

be able to be ‘cured’ with a cochlear<br />

implant, hearing aids, speech<br />

therapy: interventions designed<br />

to make the deaf child more like a<br />

hearing child.<br />

Rarely is there any introduction<br />

to the deaf community, and its<br />

rich culture. Historically, parents<br />

were advised not to Sign with their<br />

child, for fear of damaging the<br />

child’s capacity to develop spoken<br />

languages. In fact, we now know<br />

that the reverse is true; learning<br />

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15


an accessible language, such as<br />

BSL actually helps a deaf child to<br />

develop spoken language. 4<br />

As a consequence, generations of<br />

deaf people have been unable to<br />

communicate effectively with their<br />

families. Language deprivation has<br />

now been identified as a cause<br />

of higher rates of mental health<br />

problems among deaf people.<br />

Deaf children of deaf parents, who<br />

communicate fluently with their<br />

family, have equal rates of mental<br />

health problems as their hearing<br />

peers. Not deafness, but language<br />

deprivation causes mental and<br />

emotional distress.<br />

MENTAL HEALTH IN THE DEAF<br />

COMMUNITY<br />

BSL-using deaf people with hearing<br />

families are almost twice as likely<br />

as hearing people to have mental<br />

health problems. 5 Deaf people<br />

often face additional challenges,<br />

for example barriers to education,<br />

resulting in fewer opportunities<br />

to reach their academic and<br />

professional potential. This can<br />

result in feelings of frustration and<br />

low self-esteem.<br />

In addition to audism,<br />

(discrimination against deaf<br />

people) deaf people are more likely<br />

to be subjected to abuse; 50% of<br />

deaf women experience domestic<br />

abuse during their lifetime 6 , and<br />

deaf people are more likely to<br />

have been subjected to childhood<br />

abuse. 7 Yet in spite of increased<br />

need, access to linguistically and<br />

culturally accessible support can<br />

still be a problem.<br />

DEAF COUNSELLING AND<br />

PSYCHOTHERAPY<br />

January <strong>2021</strong> marked twenty<br />

years since Signs of Hope, a small<br />

deaf counselling service linked to<br />

Caritas Deaf Service, first opened.<br />

We welcome deaf clients from all<br />

backgrounds, but offer a Christian<br />

perspective for those who want<br />

it. Over those two decades we<br />

have seen huge changes in UK<br />

deaf therapy provision, with the<br />

development of Sign Health’s<br />

counselling and domestic abuse<br />

services, and Deaf 4 Deaf, a ‘by<br />

and for’ deaf counselling and<br />

psychotherapy service, offering<br />

remote and face to face therapy<br />

around the UK.<br />

There is a real need for these<br />

linguistically and culturally<br />

accessible services. Deaf therapy<br />

requires understanding of the<br />

oppressions experienced by deaf<br />

individuals living in a hearing<br />

dominated world. 8 In contrast<br />

to the medical view of deafness<br />

mentioned earlier, the social<br />

model understands that it is<br />

not the physical inability to hear<br />

which is disabling to deaf people,<br />

but communication deprivation<br />

and audism. Most importantly,<br />

the social model respects deaf<br />

language and culture as different<br />

but equal.<br />

Deaf therapy based in this model<br />

can be an opportunity to support<br />

clients exploring their own deaf<br />

identity from a non-medical<br />

perspective. In her well-known<br />

book ‘Counselling the Deaf<br />

Challenge’ (1994) Mairian Corker<br />

provides a template for working<br />

with Deaf clients, which is still<br />

relevant. Working with a Deaf<br />

practitioner can be an important<br />

opportunity for clients to do this<br />

within a safe and informed space<br />

with someone who has lived<br />

experiences of the challenges of<br />

being Deaf in a hearing world. It<br />

is heartening to see the numbers<br />

of Deaf professionals increasing,<br />

but access to training remains<br />

challenging for Deaf people.<br />

It is not always easy to secure<br />

funding for interpreters on training<br />

courses; Deaf trainees need to<br />

find accessible personal therapy,<br />

supervision and work placements.<br />

Postqualification CPD in Sign<br />

Language is hard to find.<br />

Deaf Christian clients may benefit<br />

from therapy that understands<br />

their deafness and their Christian<br />

spirituality. It is well understood<br />

that faith informed counselling<br />

can help clients who view their<br />

issues through the lens of their<br />

own spirituality, whether or not<br />

the issues themselves are directly<br />

related to faith. This is also true of<br />

deaf clients, and there is a need for<br />

increased provision of faith- literate<br />

deaf counselling.<br />

DEAF PEOPLE AND CHURCH<br />

Some deaf people have been<br />

fortunate to find accessible and<br />

welcoming communities where<br />

they can fully experience the life<br />

of the Church and the Christian<br />

family. Sadly, others are not so<br />

fortunate.<br />

Deaf Christian, Ian, described the<br />

stress caused by problematic<br />

attitudes within the Church.<br />

He spoke about experiences of<br />

priests refusing an interpreter<br />

because they believed it wasn’t<br />

necessary. He also spoke about<br />

the difference it makes when<br />

priests are able to Sign the Mass,<br />

and when deaf people have the<br />

opportunity to worship together as<br />

a community. Deaf services provide<br />

vital social contact for people who<br />

are often isolated, cut off from<br />

communication from most of<br />

society.<br />

Deaf worship is much more<br />

powerful when it is rooted in deaf<br />

culture, but that does not have to<br />

mean celebrating separately from<br />

hearing communities. Shell Roca,<br />

who works for Caritas Deaf Service,<br />

points out that making worship<br />

accessible to Deaf Sign Language<br />

16 accord <strong>Summer</strong> <strong>2021</strong> www.acc-uk.org • www.pastoralcareuk.org


feature<br />

users benefits everyone. ‘For deaf<br />

people, not having access to church<br />

life can be greatly damaging<br />

to their spiritual wellbeing and<br />

means that they miss out on many<br />

important social interactions, but<br />

it also means the wider Christian<br />

community are missing out. We<br />

all have a lot to learn from the<br />

deaf community and the strength<br />

that they gain from their shared<br />

experiences.’<br />

Lack of Sign Language<br />

communication, as well as lack<br />

of educational opportunities, can<br />

create barriers for deaf people<br />

wanting to learn more about or<br />

understand their faith; this can<br />

lead to misunderstanding and<br />

confusion. Christian counsellors can<br />

be very helpful in these situations,<br />

as can the Sign Language prayer<br />

groups and Bible study offered by<br />

some deaf church groups. Here,<br />

deaf people can explore spirituality<br />

in the context of deaf culture,<br />

making it not only accessible, but<br />

relatable and real.<br />

Social isolation and disconnection<br />

from hearing families can lead<br />

some deaf people to join religious<br />

groups or organisations, where<br />

they may be vulnerable to spiritual<br />

abuse or cults. Faith-informed<br />

counselling can sometimes help<br />

deaf people extricate themselves<br />

from damaging religious groups<br />

or relationships, helping to build<br />

an understanding of what healthy<br />

spirituality and communities look<br />

like.<br />

Although there are several other<br />

services like Caritas Deaf Service<br />

around the UK, there are still<br />

areas with no access to Christian<br />

services. For deaf people living<br />

in those areas, it will be even<br />

more important to have deafaccessible<br />

Christian counselling.<br />

In order to achieve this, we need<br />

more deaf counsellors with an<br />

understanding of Christianity, and<br />

Christian counsellors who can<br />

communicate with deaf people and<br />

who understand deaf culture and<br />

experiences.<br />

Perhaps, as a community of<br />

Christian counsellors, we can think<br />

about how to encourage access<br />

for deaf clients, practitioners and<br />

trainees. We can also think about<br />

how to make our churches and<br />

communities more welcoming<br />

places for deaf people. It may be<br />

surprising to find what hearing<br />

people can gain from reaching out<br />

to learn more about deaf culture<br />

and the beautiful expressiveness of<br />

British Sign Language.<br />

Notes<br />

1 British Deaf Association:<br />

statistics https://bda.org.uk/helpresources/#statistics<br />

(accessed<br />

18.1.21)<br />

2 RAD (2020) Do Deaf Londoners<br />

have enough access to advice<br />

in BSL? www.royaldeaf.org.uk<br />

accessed 16.1.21<br />

3,7 National Deaf Children’s Society<br />

www.ndcs.org.uk (accessed<br />

1.2.21)<br />

4 Hall WC (2018) What you<br />

don’t know can hurt you: The<br />

risk of language deprivation<br />

by impairing sign language<br />

development in deaf children<br />

Matern Child Health Journal<br />

21(5) 961-965<br />

5 British Society of Mental Health<br />

and Deafness www.bsmhd.org.<br />

uk (accessed 1.2.21)<br />

6 Women’s Aid www.womensaid.<br />

org.uk (accessed 1.2.21)<br />

8 Munro, L Knox, M and Lowe,<br />

R (2008) Exploring the<br />

Potential of Constructionist<br />

Therapy: Deaf Clients, Hearing<br />

Therapists and a Reflecting<br />

Team Journal of Deaf Studies<br />

and Deaf Education 13(3)<br />

307-23<br />

Nikki Dhillon Keane<br />

Sue Brown<br />

About the authors<br />

Nikki Dhillon<br />

Keane is a<br />

counsellor,<br />

supervisor,<br />

trainer and<br />

writer, working in<br />

English and BSL.<br />

She is a former<br />

director of Caritas Deaf Service<br />

and founder of Signs of Hope<br />

Deaf Counselling Service.<br />

She has developed a series of<br />

psychoeducational ‘Life Skills’<br />

courses and videos for the Deaf<br />

community as well as training<br />

courses for Deaf professionals.<br />

Nikki also specialises in working<br />

with domestic abuse in church<br />

communities, and works with<br />

the Catholic Church to develop<br />

faith informed support for<br />

survivors.<br />

Sue Brown is a<br />

counsellor with<br />

Deaf4Deaf and<br />

Signs of Hope<br />

where she also<br />

works as a trainer,<br />

in person and<br />

on their life skills<br />

videos. She is<br />

an advisor with deafPLUS and<br />

communication guide for deaf<br />

blind people.<br />

www.acc-uk.org • www.pastoralcareuk.org accord <strong>Summer</strong> <strong>2021</strong><br />

17


<strong>ACC</strong> Training Events<br />

Resourcing Pastoral Care Course<br />

(RPPCC)<br />

• Online 15 July – 16 September<br />

<strong>2021</strong>.<br />

This course will be run over the<br />

course of 10 Thursday evenings<br />

• Face-to-Face Course in Belfast<br />

24 August – 25 September <strong>2021</strong>.<br />

This 20 hour course will be run<br />

over the course of 7 days (a<br />

mix of Tuesday evenings and<br />

Saturday mornings)<br />

Understanding and Working with<br />

Traumatic Grief with Sue and<br />

Chris Monckton-Rickett<br />

Online on Tuesday 20 July <strong>2021</strong>,<br />

9:30-16:30<br />

Single-Session Therapy with<br />

Windy Dryden<br />

Online Saturday, 18 September<br />

<strong>2021</strong>, 10:00-17:00<br />

Understanding Unconscious Bias<br />

in Clinical Supervision Practice<br />

with Dr Aileen Alleyne<br />

Online Saturday, 25 September<br />

<strong>2021</strong>, 10:00-16:00<br />

An Introduction to Holistic CBT<br />

with Dr Hilary Garraway<br />

Online Thursday, 14 October <strong>2021</strong>,<br />

9:00-13:00<br />

More information and booking<br />

details for Training Events can<br />

be found on the <strong>ACC</strong> website<br />

https://www.acc-uk.org/<br />

professional-development/events<br />

Pastoral<br />

Care Support<br />

Groups<br />

On page 20 there is an article by<br />

Teresa Onions about a pilot for<br />

pastoral support groups. We will<br />

be starting a second pilot group<br />

in the Autumn and so if you are a<br />

PCUK Member and would like to<br />

be part of this or find out more,<br />

please email teresa@acc-uk.org<br />

<strong>ACC</strong> Affiliate Training<br />

Events<br />

The Manna House Counselling<br />

Service Northampton<br />

• Introduction to Christian<br />

Counselling<br />

One week <strong>Summer</strong> school,<br />

9 – 14 August <strong>2021</strong> or weekly<br />

sessions from 4 September – 20<br />

November <strong>2021</strong><br />

• Level 4 Diploma in Christian<br />

Counselling<br />

7 September <strong>2021</strong> – 18 July<br />

2023<br />

Courses to be held at Manna House,<br />

COVID-19 permitting. For more<br />

information visit the Manna House<br />

website.<br />

CCTS - Central Hall, St Mary Street,<br />

Southampton, SO14 1NF<br />

• Rewind Trauma Therapy<br />

Friday, October 8 <strong>2021</strong>, 10:00 –<br />

16:00<br />

• Introduction to Group<br />

Facilitation Skills<br />

Saturday, 13 November <strong>2021</strong><br />

Further information and tickets:<br />

https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/<br />

introduction-to-group-facilitationskills-tickets-144495149883<br />

NEW<br />

<strong>ACC</strong>REDITATIONS<br />

Our congratulations to the<br />

following Registered Counsellor<br />

Members, who have recently<br />

achieved accreditation<br />

Accredited Supervisor<br />

Lindsay Schofield.....Coulsdon<br />

Accredited Counsellor<br />

Sharon Hastings........Brentwood<br />

Jo Evans..........................Guildford<br />

Susan Taylor.. ..............Durham<br />

Susan Cussons...........Knutsford<br />

<strong>ACC</strong> Board<br />

and AGM<br />

Sadly, both Helen Vipan and<br />

Marlene Forsythe-Gidharry have<br />

felt that they have needed to<br />

step down from <strong>ACC</strong> Board for<br />

personal and health reasons.<br />

They have both been extremely<br />

valuable members of the Board<br />

over the past years, bringing<br />

skills, expertise and experience<br />

in counselling and pastoral care.<br />

We would like to thank them<br />

for all of their commitment and<br />

hard work on behalf of <strong>ACC</strong>. We<br />

are however, delighted that they<br />

both have expressed a desire to<br />

remain involved with <strong>ACC</strong> and<br />

PCUK and thankful for all that<br />

they will continue to contribute.<br />

At the <strong>ACC</strong> AGM two Board<br />

Members were re-elected Sue<br />

Monckton-Rickett, who will<br />

continue as Chair, and Tony<br />

Ruddle. In addition Gathoni<br />

Hamilton-Foster, who was coopted<br />

onto the Board earlier this<br />

year, was officially elected to the<br />

Board.<br />

We would like to thank all Board<br />

Members for all they do, the<br />

time that they give and the skills<br />

that they bring to support the<br />

work of <strong>ACC</strong> in so many different<br />

ways.<br />

Helen and Marlene stepping<br />

down means that there are<br />

some vacancies on the Board<br />

and we will be looking at the<br />

roles, skills and experience that<br />

are needed to enhance and<br />

strengthen the Board. However,<br />

if you feel that you have<br />

something to offer as a potential<br />

Board member, please contact<br />

Sue Monckton-Rickett<br />

chair@acc-uk.org to find out<br />

more about the roles, how the<br />

Board operates, expectations,<br />

etc.<br />

18 accord <strong>Summer</strong> <strong>2021</strong> www.acc-uk.org • www.pastoralcareuk.org


News & Diary<br />

New Head of Membership Services<br />

We are delighted to welcome<br />

Gillian Stuart as our new Head of<br />

Membership Services. As you will<br />

see from below Gillian brings to this<br />

role both counselling and pastoral<br />

experience and we look forward<br />

to working with her to develop all<br />

the service that we provide to our<br />

members.<br />

I am from Northern Ireland,<br />

but now live in Nottingham, via<br />

some time in London and then<br />

Edinburgh. Growing up in a<br />

Christian home, it seemed quite<br />

natural for me to engage in my<br />

own relationship with God at an<br />

early age and this developed, with<br />

lots of wrestling along the way, into<br />

an active and living faith in Jesus.<br />

My life has taken many twists and<br />

turns, but I know that wherever I<br />

find myself, I find God there too.<br />

I have joined the <strong>ACC</strong> staff team<br />

in the new Head of Membership<br />

Services role, and I feel very<br />

privileged to work with such a<br />

warm genuine and forwardthinking<br />

team. It is part of my role<br />

to manage the fantastic office team<br />

and to ensure that all the processes<br />

for members of <strong>ACC</strong> / PCUK run<br />

smoothly and effectively. We want<br />

your experience of being an <strong>ACC</strong><br />

/ PCUK member to be a valuable<br />

and worthwhile one, and we want<br />

to listen to our members as much<br />

as possible.<br />

Having been an ordained<br />

minister for 6 years, I really see<br />

the importance of good quality<br />

pastoral care and I wish that the<br />

training that is available now was<br />

around for me then. In the wake<br />

of the pandemic, the need for<br />

pastoral care in our churches has<br />

only been heightened and we want<br />

to support the people who are<br />

supporting the people.<br />

I am a person-centred counsellor<br />

who still manages a small case<br />

load of clients alongside my work<br />

at <strong>ACC</strong>. It is important for me to<br />

stay connected to the real work of<br />

counselling and it helps that I will<br />

be facing a lot of the same issues as<br />

our members, plus I really enjoy it.<br />

As someone who did not train<br />

at an <strong>ACC</strong> affiliated training<br />

provider, it has been great to find<br />

a professional home at <strong>ACC</strong>. When<br />

I was a newly qualified therapist,<br />

one of the team members at<br />

New Dawn Counselling Centre<br />

encouraged me to join <strong>ACC</strong>, telling<br />

me that I would be well supported<br />

and looked after. I am so glad I<br />

took his advice. Joining <strong>ACC</strong> as a<br />

member helped me find a place<br />

where I can be myself, both as a<br />

Christian and as a counsellor.<br />

Goodbye to Momus Boulevard<br />

On 28 June we said goodbye to<br />

Momus Boulevard, the home<br />

of <strong>ACC</strong> for 20 years. Covid-19<br />

restrictions meant that we had<br />

to hold our leaving event in a<br />

local park, but miraculously the<br />

pouring rain stopped (just British<br />

<strong>Summer</strong> a drizzle) and we were<br />

able to hold a time of reflection,<br />

share communion and have picnic<br />

lunch. It was great to have staff and<br />

Board members spanning nearly<br />

30 years (from David Depledge<br />

and John Nightingale, who were<br />

founder members to Gillian Stuart<br />

our newest recruit) join us to share<br />

memories and stories and give<br />

thanks to God for all that he has<br />

provided and enabled <strong>ACC</strong> to do.<br />

From now on all <strong>ACC</strong> Staff will be<br />

working remotely, our registered<br />

office will be changing to<br />

International House, 24<br />

Holborn Viaduct, London<br />

EC1 2BN, but please note<br />

THIS IS NOT OUR POSTAL<br />

ADDRESS. We would ask<br />

where possible please<br />

e-mail any correspondence<br />

and if you need to use post<br />

then for the time being<br />

please continue to use 29<br />

Momus Boulevard Coventry CV2<br />

5NA, all post is being re-directed to<br />

office staff. We will inform you of a<br />

new postal address in the coming<br />

weeks.<br />

Thank you to everyone, who helped<br />

to clear and clean the offices, it was<br />

an enormous task and to our staff<br />

who have adapted to the changing<br />

ways of working. This is a change<br />

that we believe will give us new<br />

opportunities to grow and develop.<br />

www.acc-uk.org • www.pastoralcareuk.org accord <strong>Summer</strong> <strong>2021</strong><br />

19


Meeting the Challenge,<br />

Providing the Opportunity<br />

PC-UK Pastoral Support Group Pilot<br />

by Teresa Onions<br />

CHALLENGE<br />

At a recent Pastoral Care UK<br />

Open Forum, panellists and<br />

forum members considered the<br />

contemporary challenges and<br />

opportunities facing pastoral<br />

carers as we move from pandemic<br />

lockdown into a new world.<br />

The challenge of caring for others<br />

through a time when there has<br />

and continues to be so much need,<br />

when our usual human connection<br />

has been severely disrupted, when<br />

our safety and security has been<br />

significantly threatened, when<br />

complex loss has produced so<br />

much suffering, when mental<br />

health has and continues to be<br />

widely compromised and on a<br />

precipice, when the prevalence of<br />

injustice at so many levels and in<br />

so many ways, for so many people<br />

has emerged beyond the tip of the<br />

iceberg and when some of us are<br />

now rethinking how we do church<br />

and apply our personal faith, is<br />

evident among many of us.<br />

The challenge of caring for the<br />

carers has also been evident<br />

through stories of carers<br />

throughout the pandemic. To<br />

illustrate (using fictious names):-<br />

Katie who had had Covid and was<br />

suffering from long Covid herself,<br />

felt she was a ‘failure’ because she<br />

had not been able to respond as<br />

she would have wished to, to those<br />

she had pastoral care concern for<br />

in the church. She felt she had<br />

let these people down and was<br />

burdened with guilt.<br />

Debra had accumulated many<br />

people on her weekly ring round<br />

list, some of whom had become<br />

quite dependent on her in their<br />

isolation and losses and who were<br />

spending more time wanting to<br />

talk. She was struggling not only<br />

with the fear of making the right<br />

response but also with boundaries,<br />

exhaustion and feelings of<br />

resentfulness, as the calls were<br />

taking up so much time.<br />

Ian was overwhelmed by the<br />

poverty, despair and injustices in<br />

his deprived neighbourhood to<br />

the point of being ‘paralysed’ into<br />

inaction and confused about where<br />

God was in all this.<br />

The BIG challenge in all this is to<br />

look at how we might look after<br />

our failures, guilt, fears, boundaries,<br />

exhaustion, resentments, paralyses,<br />

confusion and faith in a way<br />

which keeps us healthy enough to<br />

sustain our pastoral care of others<br />

and indirectly, but nevertheless<br />

importantly, contributes to the<br />

overall health of the church<br />

community?<br />

OPPORTUNITY<br />

The opportunity for counsellors<br />

to receive regular support for their<br />

work, through clinical supervision,<br />

is inherently built into their Code<br />

of Ethics and Practice i.e. it is<br />

recognised as important enough<br />

to be mandatory. It is here that the<br />

counsellor’s practice can be kept<br />

safe and effective, where difficult<br />

feelings can be processed, where<br />

new perspectives can be gained<br />

and where encouragement can be<br />

received.<br />

The opportunity for pastoral<br />

carers to receive regular support<br />

for their work on the other hand, is<br />

recommended but not mandatory,<br />

may not always be understood or<br />

seen as a priority and may not be<br />

easy to access.<br />

NEW OPPORTUNITY<br />

A Core Group of us in PC-UK have<br />

therefore been exploring how we<br />

might enable our pastoral care<br />

members to learn about and access<br />

a place of regular support to meet<br />

the challenges of their work as we<br />

emerge from Lockdown.<br />

As part of that exploration we<br />

have undertaken a broad piece<br />

of research with our individual<br />

and affiliate members. Members<br />

were invited to complete a short<br />

questionnaire to ascertain what<br />

levels and type of pastoral support<br />

they currently had access to. They<br />

were also asked if they would like to<br />

be involved in an online, facilitated<br />

Pastoral Support Group with 3<br />

online basic Training Sessions<br />

covering Self-Care, Reflective<br />

Practice and a Pastoral Support<br />

Group, to precede this. The results<br />

are published here.<br />

20 accord <strong>Summer</strong> <strong>2021</strong> www.acc-uk.org • www.pastoralcareuk.org


pastoral care<br />

Current Support<br />

Numbers interested in Support<br />

20<br />

20<br />

18<br />

17<br />

18<br />

16<br />

16<br />

15<br />

14<br />

14<br />

12<br />

12<br />

10<br />

10<br />

8<br />

7<br />

8<br />

6<br />

4<br />

5<br />

6<br />

4<br />

3<br />

4<br />

3<br />

2<br />

2<br />

1 1 1 1<br />

0<br />

Support in place<br />

Individuals (n=23)<br />

Affiliates (n=5)<br />

No Support<br />

0<br />

Group & Training Group Only Training Only Training (Unsure re<br />

Group)<br />

Individuals (n=24)<br />

Affiliates (n=5)<br />

Unsure re Group<br />

Only<br />

One to one Pastoral Support currently<br />

experienced<br />

Group Pastoral Support currently experienced<br />

16<br />

14<br />

12<br />

10<br />

14<br />

20<br />

18<br />

16<br />

14<br />

12<br />

18<br />

8<br />

6<br />

4<br />

2<br />

7<br />

2<br />

2<br />

1<br />

1<br />

2<br />

10<br />

8<br />

6<br />

4<br />

2<br />

6<br />

2<br />

1<br />

2<br />

0<br />

Within Member’s<br />

church/organisation<br />

Outside Member’s<br />

church/organisation<br />

Within & Outside<br />

Member’s<br />

church/organisation<br />

Not experienced at all<br />

0<br />

Within Member’s<br />

church/organisation<br />

Outside Member’s<br />

church/organisation<br />

Within & Outside<br />

Member’s<br />

church/organisation<br />

Not experienced at all<br />

Individuals (n=24)<br />

Affiliates (n=5)<br />

Individuals (n=24)<br />

Affiliates (n=5)<br />

WHAT’S HAPPENING NOW?<br />

• With findings indicating a clear<br />

desire for involvement in both<br />

Training and Support Groups,<br />

PC-UK has now established a<br />

Pilot Project which will run until<br />

the end of Dec <strong>2021</strong>. The Pilot<br />

will be fully reviewed then with<br />

the hope of making the Pastoral<br />

Support Group Scheme more<br />

widely available and financially<br />

sustainable thereafter.<br />

• A Core Development Group is<br />

being formed to develop and<br />

deliver the training, to develop<br />

and offer the facilitation and<br />

to establish good systems and<br />

protocols.<br />

• The Pilot is open to our<br />

members and will be a<br />

Membership Benefit i.e. there<br />

will be no cost for the Training<br />

Sessions or Facilitated Group<br />

Support during the Pilot.<br />

• The Training Sessions will be<br />

offered during June/July.<br />

• Facilitated Groups will be<br />

formed over the summer and<br />

ready to be up and running in<br />

Sept. They will meet every 4-6<br />

weeks and it is anticipated no<br />

more than 10 times a year.<br />

This is A BIG OPPORTUNITY to<br />

meet with other pastoral carers<br />

regularly and to step back as<br />

Jesus did with his disciples, to off<br />

load the burdens, to bring our<br />

confusion and tiredness, to share<br />

and learn together and to gain<br />

support and encouragement for<br />

our work. It is also an opportunity<br />

to cultivate in a small community,<br />

what we hope we can foster in our<br />

larger communities not least our<br />

churches, where we might take the<br />

risk of saying ‘this is honestly how<br />

I feel’, where we love one another<br />

and develop quality relationships,<br />

where we learn and bring what<br />

we have as the Body of Christ for<br />

the service of the other, where we<br />

find healing and reconciliation<br />

and where we can be a hope-full<br />

people.<br />

If you would like<br />

to know more<br />

or indeed have<br />

any thoughts or<br />

comments please<br />

contact Teresa<br />

Onions, Project<br />

Leader,<br />

Teresa@acc-uk.org<br />

www.acc-uk.org • www.pastoralcareuk.org accord <strong>Summer</strong> <strong>2021</strong><br />

21


Counselling News<br />

SCoPEd<br />

We have had a very productive<br />

couple of months working closely<br />

with representatives from all the<br />

membership bodies which are now<br />

part of the expanded project. The<br />

work has involved reviewing the<br />

framework and producing a list of<br />

suggested changes to submit to<br />

the expert reference group for their<br />

approval. The suggested changes<br />

are those that can be brought<br />

within the parameters of the<br />

project – that is based on evidence<br />

drawn from existing competency<br />

frameworks and training standards.<br />

The next task for the technical<br />

group will be to work through<br />

the feedback from the public<br />

consultation on the last published<br />

version of the framework, to<br />

see if there is scope for further<br />

amendments. There is also a small<br />

commission being considered to<br />

source further information about<br />

the therapeutic relationship and<br />

common factors to ensure that<br />

the framework will take due<br />

account of these essential aspects<br />

of counselling theory and practice<br />

that may not sufficiently be<br />

covered in the existing framework.<br />

The expanded project is being<br />

governed by the Scoped Oversight<br />

Committee (SOC) which has<br />

recently appointed an independent<br />

chair Paul Buckle, previously the<br />

Director of Strategy and Policy at<br />

the General Medical Council. Four<br />

experts by experience have been<br />

invited to join the SOC and they<br />

bring a very welcome new client/<br />

patient perspective to the group.<br />

The SOC is focusing on articulating<br />

the benefits of the framework and<br />

these can be better communicated;<br />

how any agreed framework might<br />

be implemented, and how to<br />

meaningfully assess the impact of<br />

any finalised framework. SOC will<br />

also be looking at the issue of titles,<br />

considering whether there can be<br />

any accepted and clear distinction<br />

between the role of a counsellor<br />

and a psychotherapist.<br />

Just so our counselling members<br />

are aware, <strong>ACC</strong> have tended not to<br />

engage with groups active on social<br />

media about SCoPEd. It is good<br />

to have discussion and critique,<br />

but as is true for other topics on<br />

these platforms, the discussion<br />

trails can become conduits for<br />

misinformation, polarised views<br />

and sometimes hurtful comments<br />

about individuals. One of the<br />

counselling profession's ethics is<br />

to treat colleagues fairly and with<br />

respect – and whilst we might<br />

want to challenge what we see as<br />

misunderstandings– we are not<br />

convinced that this is the best<br />

way of engaging publicly. We are<br />

however very happy to discuss<br />

this important project with our<br />

members, to respond to questions<br />

and listen to concerns. Please email<br />

office@acc-uk.org if you would like<br />

to speak with someone.<br />

<strong>ACC</strong> ONLINE FOUR WINDS CONFERENCE<br />

5-7 NOVEMBER <strong>2021</strong><br />

The preparation for <strong>ACC</strong>’s first online conference<br />

is very much underway. We have received<br />

ideas and proposals from both members<br />

and non-members who work in counselling,<br />

psychotherapy and pastoral care. It has been<br />

exciting to meet with them over Zoom and<br />

discuss what they may see as the breath of<br />

the “four winds”, and the experiences and<br />

knowledge they can share with us all. We are<br />

confident that the conference will be a time to<br />

breathe new life into the care and support that<br />

we provide.<br />

We will share the full programme and open<br />

the booking soon. In the meantime, do put 5-7<br />

November <strong>2021</strong> in your diary and look out for our<br />

emails and social media posts for details.<br />

22 accord <strong>Summer</strong> <strong>2021</strong> www.acc-uk.org • www.pastoralcareuk.org


Counselling<br />

CHANGES TO<br />

MEMBERSHIP<br />

Registration Standard – Change<br />

to Guided Learning Hours<br />

We have recently discovered that<br />

accredited registers comparable to<br />

<strong>ACC</strong> (BACP, NCS and COSCA) have<br />

a qualifying training comprising<br />

of 300 guided learning hours as<br />

the minimum standard for entry<br />

onto their registers. This is for a one<br />

year full time or two year part time<br />

course with an integrative 100 hour<br />

placement and also meets other<br />

criteria in terms of content and<br />

mode of delivery. In comparison,<br />

<strong>ACC</strong> have 420 guided learning<br />

hours as a minimum standard.<br />

However, we accept into <strong>ACC</strong><br />

membership, counsellors who are<br />

on these other registers – so there is<br />

an anomaly.<br />

After discussions with the<br />

Professional Standards Authority<br />

and our Register Advisory Panel<br />

(see below), <strong>ACC</strong>’s Board have<br />

agreed that we can bring our<br />

register standards in-line with these<br />

other registers in relation to guided<br />

learning hours. Most members<br />

will have at least 420 hours of<br />

qualifying training, and the entry<br />

point for accreditation will remain<br />

as 450 hours. However, we hope to<br />

directly welcome some prospective<br />

members who have had no option<br />

but to join these other membership<br />

bodies before they can transfer to<br />

<strong>ACC</strong>.<br />

Christian Sponsor – changes to<br />

audit and accreditation<br />

<strong>ACC</strong> members are asked to<br />

provide a Christian sponsor when<br />

they apply for membership and<br />

at renewal. As an ecumenical<br />

organisation we welcome<br />

Christians from Protestant,<br />

Catholic and Orthodox churches. A<br />

Christian sponsor is not expected<br />

to comment on the strength of a<br />

member's faith or their adherence<br />

to doctrine. Their role is simply to<br />

confirm in good faith that they<br />

know the member as a person<br />

who describes himself or herself as<br />

Christian. The sponsor is normally<br />

a minister or church leader, but<br />

can be a spiritual director or a<br />

colleague.<br />

A member recently wrote in and<br />

expressed her thoughts and<br />

feelings about being asked as part<br />

of <strong>ACC</strong>’s audit for another reference<br />

from a Christian sponsor. This email<br />

prompted us to reflect further on<br />

the role of a Christian sponsor and<br />

how appropriate it was for us to ask<br />

for a Christian sponsor’s reference<br />

in relation to professional practice<br />

when we audit and accredit<br />

members.<br />

<strong>ACC</strong> have a responsibility to<br />

members of the public who are<br />

choosing to come to a counsellor<br />

on our register to have some<br />

means to verify a member's<br />

identity as a Christian. Relying on<br />

personal integrity and conscience<br />

is risky as arguably anyone could<br />

join our register if they wanted a<br />

competitive price for being on an<br />

accredited register and access to a<br />

market of Christian clients.<br />

However, we also recognise<br />

that asking about religious<br />

faith is sensitive – especially in<br />

a professional context. Faith is<br />

a complex and developmental<br />

process. Aspects of people’s<br />

faith beliefs and expressions can<br />

change over time – and these<br />

changes come out of questioning<br />

and challenge that can unsettle<br />

established relationships with other<br />

Christians. There may be periods<br />

when someone is temporarily not<br />

in fellowship with other Christians<br />

because they are re-locating, or<br />

are not in conventional church<br />

fellowships but are nonetheless<br />

part of a Christian community;<br />

or sadly times when a faith<br />

community has compounded<br />

feelings of hurt and loss and left<br />

individuals feeling isolated and<br />

vulnerable. All of these situations<br />

can give rise to anxiety when a<br />

member is having to select a<br />

sponsor to give a reference in a<br />

professional context.<br />

After internal reflection and<br />

discussion with the Register<br />

Advisory Panel, <strong>ACC</strong>’s Board have<br />

agreed that a Christian sponsor<br />

should continue to be requested<br />

from members when they join and<br />

renew membership. This is our<br />

check for members of the public<br />

that a counsellor has made some<br />

public declaration of Christian faith<br />

identity. However, as the processes<br />

of audit and accreditation are<br />

focused on professional counselling<br />

and psychotherapy practice,<br />

references from Christian sponsors<br />

are no longer going to be required.<br />

Diversity & Inclusion Coalition<br />

<strong>ACC</strong> along with most of the<br />

counselling and psychotherapy<br />

membership bodies, and other<br />

interested and committed<br />

organisations such as Place2Be,<br />

CPCAB, Psychotherapists and<br />

Counsellors for Social Responsibility,<br />

the Muslim Counsellors Network,<br />

and the Anna Freud Centre are part<br />

of a coalition that is committed<br />

to tackling issues of diversity<br />

and inclusion in the counselling<br />

profession. Some readers may have<br />

attended an event in February<br />

<strong>2021</strong> that focused on the training<br />

of counsellors. An outcome of<br />

that event that the coalition is<br />

progressing is the commissioning<br />

of a ‘tool kit’ of resources to inform<br />

training centres, trainers and those<br />

who design courses of issues of<br />

inclusion and diversity relating to<br />

minoritized communities based<br />

on ethnicity and/or race. It is hoped<br />

that these resources will be freely<br />

available in late <strong>2021</strong>/early 2022.<br />

Register Advisory Panel (RAP)<br />

The Register Advisory Panel (RAP)<br />

is an independent panel that acts<br />

a ‘critical friend’ to <strong>ACC</strong> about all<br />

issues relating to the register of<br />

counsellors. RAP members bring<br />

with them experience in senior<br />

positions of working in other<br />

regulated professions and serve<br />

for an initial period of three years.<br />

We are especially looking for one<br />

or more people to join RAP who<br />

can represent the client experience<br />

or perspective (sometimes known<br />

as experts by experience). If you<br />

know of anyone who would be well<br />

suited to this role, please contact us<br />

(office@acc-uk.org).<br />

www.acc-uk.org • www.pastoralcareuk.org accord <strong>Summer</strong> <strong>2021</strong><br />

23


Legal Ban on<br />

Conversion Therapy<br />

by Kathy Spooner, <strong>ACC</strong> CEO<br />

The government's intention<br />

to legally ban the practice of<br />

conversion therapy was confirmed<br />

on the 1st May in the Queen's<br />

Speech.<br />

THE STORY SO FAR: THE MOU<br />

As members will be aware <strong>ACC</strong><br />

are part of the Memorandum of<br />

Understanding on Conversion<br />

Therapy and are signatories to<br />

versions 1 & 2 of the MoU. Our<br />

experience is that the MoU<br />

has allowed counsellors and<br />

psychotherapists to support clients<br />

reach decisions and discern their<br />

own way forward when they have<br />

experienced conflicts between<br />

their sexual orientation and gender<br />

identity/ies, and their religious<br />

faith. Also, the perspective of<br />

intersectionality theory encourages<br />

us to look at other overlapping<br />

and conflictual aspects of identity<br />

such as ethnic, cultural and<br />

social contexts to help people<br />

better understand these differing<br />

influences.<br />

Operating within the MoU has<br />

enabled therapists to maintain two<br />

key ethical principles:<br />

• Do no harm by refraining from<br />

attempts to change a person’s<br />

sexual orientation and gender<br />

identity.<br />

• Respect the autonomy of<br />

the client by refraining from<br />

imposing the therapist's<br />

preferences and belief systems<br />

(in the MoU this is stated as not<br />

demonstrating a preference).<br />

As counsellors/psychotherapists<br />

who are Christian, many of us know<br />

that a client’s faith matters and<br />

impacts on choices in all areas of<br />

life – not just on a person’s sexuality<br />

and gender. Sometimes this leads<br />

to decisions that are at odds with<br />

the wisdom of the age about what<br />

constitutes a good life. One of our<br />

members encapsulated this in the<br />

following statement:<br />

At the core of all this would<br />

seem to be the right of the<br />

individual to work out their<br />

own salvation, identity and<br />

behaviour even if at times on<br />

counter-cultural terms; and<br />

the continuing role of the faith<br />

counsellor in understanding<br />

and supporting their positive<br />

mental health as they translate<br />

this in terms they can live<br />

with, in personal integrity and<br />

faithfulness to God as they<br />

understand Him to be.<br />

Christians can and do make<br />

different choices – to remain single,<br />

to be celibate, to fully enter into<br />

loving committed relationships,<br />

in civil partnerships or marriage.<br />

Similarly some Christians will<br />

undergo gender transition, others<br />

will choose not to. As we are all<br />

aware these different choices<br />

can give rise to debate about<br />

Christian theological positions<br />

on personhood, sexuality and<br />

relationships.<br />

NEW DEVELOPMENTS:<br />

COALITION TO BAN<br />

CONVERSION THERAPY<br />

Some member organisations of the<br />

MoU are also part of the Coalition<br />

to Ban Conversion Therapy, which<br />

was formed in July 2020. This is<br />

a mixture of LGBTQIA+ and faith<br />

communities and organisations<br />

and mental health practitioners<br />

who are calling on the government<br />

for a full legislative ban. At<br />

the moment no counselling /<br />

psychotherapy membership bodies<br />

are part of the coalition.<br />

The Coalition are asking the<br />

24 accord <strong>Summer</strong> <strong>2021</strong> www.acc-uk.org • www.pastoralcareuk.org


feature<br />

government to implement a full<br />

ban on conversion therapy, which<br />

would include:<br />

• Incorporating any intervention<br />

intended to change, suppress,<br />

convert or cancel sexual<br />

orientation, gender identity and/<br />

or gender expression, whether<br />

in public and private spheres,<br />

healthcare, religious and<br />

cultural/traditional interventions<br />

settings;<br />

• Protecting children and adults,<br />

and those who have been<br />

coerced as well as consented;<br />

• Banning advertising and<br />

promoting of such therapies<br />

both online and in public<br />

spaces;<br />

• Protecting those who are<br />

threatened with being<br />

sent overseas to undergo<br />

interventions.<br />

The ban would need to clearly<br />

distinguish from safe and<br />

supportive therapies, delivered by<br />

suitable qualified and regulated<br />

professionals, that assist people<br />

to explore and better understand<br />

their sexuality, gender identity<br />

and/or gender expression.<br />

The group are also promoting the<br />

need to help people who have been<br />

damaged by conversion therapy.<br />

The highlighted section suggests<br />

that the group will follow the<br />

precedent set out in the MoU –<br />

therapists will still be able to help<br />

clients work through conflicts.<br />

However, there is a concern about<br />

how “interventions intended to<br />

suppress” will be interpreted –<br />

which is a much wider problem,<br />

and one that Churches in the UK<br />

will need to consider.<br />

WHAT IS <strong>ACC</strong>’S POSITION<br />

ON LEGISLATION?<br />

<strong>ACC</strong> are often asked for its position<br />

on issues, which are contentious<br />

and complex. We try and maintain<br />

good relationships with people<br />

and groups, even where we<br />

disagree with them – so ‘position<br />

statements’ are not overly helpful.<br />

This is especially in an arena where<br />

many peoples’ lives have already<br />

been fractured by divisions in the<br />

Church as it wrestles with issues of<br />

sexuality and gender. Rather we try<br />

to dialogue and influence through<br />

maintaining good relationships<br />

– learning from others who have<br />

different perspectives along<br />

the way.<br />

Rather than have a ‘position’ we<br />

restate our commitment to the<br />

2010 Equality Act and the values<br />

and principles enshrined in our<br />

code of ethics and our guidelines<br />

for good practice in pastoral<br />

care. As a Christian professional<br />

membership body we promote<br />

the value of practitioners'<br />

spiritual formation alongside<br />

their commitment to continuous<br />

learning and the discipline of<br />

following best practice in their<br />

chosen fields, so that they are<br />

equipped to counsel and care<br />

well for people. Commitment to<br />

principles rarely means holding a<br />

static position on topic X or Y – we<br />

learn most when we are open to<br />

reflection about ourselves and<br />

on the lived experience of others,<br />

especially when experiences have<br />

been marginalised.<br />

If the Church has not resolved<br />

issues relating to sexuality and<br />

gender identity we wonder where<br />

the expectation comes from some<br />

members and others that an<br />

ecumenical Christian organisation<br />

can contribute, other than to be<br />

able to comment on what we<br />

know are the psychological and<br />

spiritual impacts on people living<br />

with inner conflicts in community<br />

with other Christians where there<br />

are various and changing views in<br />

the wider church. The safeguarding<br />

of children and young people in<br />

faith communities is an especially<br />

important issue to consider<br />

(remembering our previous articles<br />

on Lizzie Lowe).<br />

WHAT HAVE <strong>ACC</strong> BEEN DOING?<br />

<strong>ACC</strong> have been alerted by<br />

members and others to general<br />

fears about what legislation<br />

may mean for Christians and<br />

the practices of counselling and<br />

pastoral care, especially in relation<br />

to the word ‘suppress’.<br />

As a result <strong>ACC</strong> have been<br />

raising awareness of the critical<br />

importance of how any legislation<br />

is drafted so that it does not<br />

prevent Christians (and maybe<br />

people of different faiths) from<br />

living out their choices, which are<br />

often personally costly, with the<br />

help and support of counsellors<br />

and/or their faith community. While<br />

there is a growing consensus that<br />

efforts to change are harmful, the<br />

concern is that an outright ban on<br />

efforts to suppress could prevent<br />

people having access to help when<br />

they have made a choice to be<br />

celibate or to remain as a cisgender<br />

person.<br />

In this we have spoken to other<br />

organisations and journalists, but<br />

also by invitation to the Cabinet<br />

Office, who are drafting the<br />

legislation. We have had some<br />

discussions about how we might<br />

draft guidelines that help especially<br />

pastoral carers to distinguish<br />

between activities that have been<br />

experienced as harmful by LGBTQ+<br />

Christians from those that have<br />

been sustaining and supportive.<br />

In this we are especially thankful<br />

for the additional insights given to<br />

us by Ed Shaw and the Living Out<br />

group.<br />

When the government moves into<br />

a formal consultation phase we will<br />

be offering our views as a Christian<br />

professional body and we will share<br />

any submissions we make with<br />

you. We are also hoping to provide<br />

further training in this area in the<br />

near future.<br />

Hopefully it is clear to readers that<br />

<strong>ACC</strong> does not and should not also<br />

have ‘a position’ with regard to<br />

what living out being an LGBTQ+<br />

Christian should look like. Rather –<br />

it is in support of counsellors' and<br />

pastoral carers' ability to respect<br />

and support a variety of informed<br />

personal choices.<br />

www.acc-uk.org • www.pastoralcareuk.org accord <strong>Summer</strong> <strong>2021</strong><br />

25


The LORD is my shepherd;<br />

I shall not want.<br />

He makes me to lie down in green<br />

pastures;<br />

He leads me beside the still waters.<br />

He restores my soul;<br />

He leads me in the paths of<br />

righteousness<br />

For His name’s sake.<br />

Yea, though I walk through the<br />

valley of the shadow of death,<br />

I will fear no evil;<br />

For You are with me;<br />

Your rod and Your staff, they<br />

comfort me.<br />

You prepare a table before me in<br />

the presence of my enemies;<br />

You anoint my head with oil;<br />

My cup runs over.<br />

Surely goodness and mercy shall<br />

follow me<br />

All the days of my life<br />

and I will dwell in the house of the<br />

Lord forever.<br />

Psalm 23 – A<br />

practical guide to<br />

caring<br />

by Sue Monckton-Rickett<br />

Psalm 23 is probably the best<br />

known Psalm, whether the<br />

actual words or sung as a hymn<br />

(multiple versions). It is the one that<br />

many people, whether Christians<br />

or not, turn to in times of need<br />

and have read or sung at funerals<br />

and so is likely to have been heard<br />

thousands of times in the last year<br />

or so.<br />

However, it is only recently when I<br />

was preparing a reflection for our<br />

church newsletter that I realised<br />

what a practical guide it is to caring<br />

– both our own self-care and caring<br />

for others and perhaps especially in<br />

times of loss and crisis.<br />

The psalm starts with the words<br />

“The Lord is my shepherd” –<br />

present tense, there is an ongoing<br />

relationship, God is actively<br />

shepherding the psalmist, David.<br />

David himself was a shepherd and<br />

so the analogy was very real and<br />

very relevant. He knew how much<br />

sheep relied on the shepherd for<br />

comfort and security and how<br />

the shepherd cared for, sustained<br />

and watched over the sheep. To<br />

David these are not just beautiful<br />

words but a real and deep way of<br />

describing a relationship with God<br />

and the care that he (and all of us)<br />

needs both from God and others.<br />

The next few words describe what it<br />

means to have a caring shepherd “I<br />

shall not want” or “I lack nothing”.<br />

A good shepherd by their very<br />

nature will supply all the sheep’s<br />

needs. And what are those needs?<br />

• Rest and Food - “He makes me<br />

to lie down in green pastures.”<br />

A shepherd knows when his sheep<br />

need rest, even if as the words “He<br />

makes me”, imply that sheep may<br />

not. Apparently, until sheep have<br />

eaten sufficiently, they will mill<br />

around and nibble on bits of grass.<br />

But when their stomachs are full<br />

they will find a quiet place and lie<br />

down.<br />

This is such a practical reminder,<br />

when thinking about self-care and<br />

caring for others. How often do we<br />

find that we / they are not eating<br />

properly, not getting enough or<br />

good sleep or rest. The psalm<br />

reminds us how important it is to<br />

ensure / find ways to help to make<br />

sure that basic physical needs are<br />

met.<br />

• Drink, calm and peace - “He<br />

leads me beside the still<br />

waters.”<br />

Starting again with the basic<br />

physical need of drinking enough is<br />

vital, the impact of dehydration can<br />

be severe before we even realise<br />

that we have not drank enough.<br />

The word used for “lead” means<br />

26 accord <strong>Summer</strong> <strong>2021</strong> www.acc-uk.org • www.pastoralcareuk.org


feature<br />

“to lead gently.” There is a sense<br />

of calm and slowing down. Living<br />

quite near to the coast and by a<br />

river many clients talk to me about<br />

how watching the waves, the tide<br />

going in and out, the flowing river,<br />

etc. is in itself incredibly calming.<br />

Interestingly the theme of Mental<br />

Health Awareness Week <strong>2021</strong><br />

was “Nature” and a report was<br />

commissioned, which concluded<br />

that nature is vital in keeping us<br />

emotionally, psychologically and<br />

physically healthy. The report<br />

can be found at https://www.<br />

mentalhealth.org.uk/sites/default/<br />

files/MHAW21_NATURE%20<br />

REPORT_ENG_web.pdf. The<br />

reports talks of the importance of<br />

not just being in nature but being<br />

connected with it, taking time to<br />

observe it, allowing our senses to<br />

engage with it, slowing down in<br />

nature, as the Psalmist describes<br />

–“making me lie down” and “gently<br />

leading me”.<br />

The positive impact of green spaces<br />

on well-being has been recognised<br />

for some time, but increasingly<br />

studies are showing that the<br />

impact of “blue spaces” can be as<br />

much if not more beneficial.<br />

So in our self-care and care for<br />

others, how do we consider<br />

experiencing “the green pastures”<br />

and “the still waters”?<br />

• Spiritual refreshment – “He<br />

restores my soul.”<br />

Having received the physical<br />

restoration, David now looks at the<br />

relationship with the shepherd<br />

at a deeper level – the provision<br />

of spiritual nourishment, rest and<br />

restoration. We and our clients or<br />

the people we pastorally care for<br />

are often looking for souls to be<br />

restored, to find meaning, purpose<br />

and hope in life and much of what<br />

we do and indeed the way that we<br />

care and relate to them in and of<br />

itself enables this to happen.<br />

• Safety – “He leads me in the<br />

paths of righteousness.”<br />

One of the principal tasks of a<br />

shepherd, especially in the land<br />

and times of the Bible, where<br />

there were dangerous paths to be<br />

avoided, was to guide. The sheep<br />

needed someone to help them<br />

navigate the paths and determine<br />

which way to go. Although we as<br />

counsellors and pastoral carers<br />

would not be this directive, many<br />

people that we work with value<br />

having someone to help them<br />

evaluate different paths, to think<br />

through what are the dangers and<br />

benefits of different courses and to<br />

see ways through times of crisis.<br />

• Journeying with - “Yea, though<br />

I walk through the valley of<br />

the shadow of death, I will fear<br />

no evil; for You are with me;<br />

Your rod and Your staff, they<br />

comfort me.”<br />

Here David starts to use the word<br />

“You”, not “He” as though in dark<br />

times it is not enough to talk about<br />

what the Shepherd can do, but to<br />

talk to the Shepherd. God is not<br />

before him, like a Shepherd, but<br />

walking beside him. The rod and<br />

staff of a shepherd were used for<br />

protection, guidance and safety,<br />

whether to stop an attacking beast,<br />

to tap on rocks to assure the sheep<br />

of his presence or to gently nudge<br />

the sheep onto the safe path.<br />

We journey with the people we<br />

work with sometimes through<br />

the darkest times of fear and loss.<br />

Being a regular, consistent and<br />

reassuring presence is probably<br />

one of the most powerful things we<br />

provide as counsellors and pastoral<br />

carers to help people walk in and<br />

through the valleys.<br />

Being valued - “You prepare a<br />

table before me in the presence<br />

of my enemies; You anoint my<br />

head with oil; my cup runs over.”<br />

It was customary in the Bible times<br />

to anoint the heads of visitors and<br />

serve them with a glass of choice<br />

wine, which was carefully filled until<br />

it runs over. These actions showed<br />

that they were valued and special<br />

guests.<br />

We often work with people to<br />

restore their sense of self- worth<br />

and self-esteem – to make them<br />

feel valued again and to learn to<br />

value themselves. This may be<br />

done “in the presence of enemies”<br />

– whether that is others who have<br />

undermined and abused them or<br />

the internal voices that tell them<br />

that “they are a failure, worthless,<br />

etc." The way that we do this is not<br />

likely to involve oil and wine, but<br />

the principle and the importance of<br />

doing so is the same.<br />

Security and Safety - “Surely<br />

goodness and mercy shall follow<br />

me all the days of my life, and I<br />

will dwell in the house of the Lord<br />

forever.”<br />

The phrase “follow me” literally<br />

means “pursue me.” As a guest at<br />

God’s table, David is pursued by<br />

God’s goodness, instead of being<br />

pursued by his enemies.<br />

God not only walks before him and<br />

leads him to a place of rest and<br />

refreshment, but His goodness, and<br />

love follows him and will never stop<br />

and provides security.<br />

We cannot provide the people with<br />

life-long security, but providing a<br />

sense of safety is something that<br />

we try to do from the being of any<br />

therapeutic / pastoral relationship.<br />

Charles Spurgeon said “before<br />

one can truly say, 'The Lord<br />

is my shepherd,' they must<br />

first acknowledge and feel in<br />

themselves that they have the<br />

nature of a sheep. We have to<br />

admit that we need someone to<br />

guide, protect and take care of us.”<br />

Coming into counselling, asking<br />

for pastoral support can be scary<br />

and people may indeed feel quite<br />

“sheepish”. The psalm ends with<br />

this concept of safety and security,<br />

but in our work providing a safe<br />

place is both the starting point and<br />

an on-going necessity.<br />

We may never have thought of<br />

Psalm 23 as a model for counselling<br />

and pastoral care, but perhaps it is<br />

a good checklist for our own selfcare<br />

and how we care for others.<br />

www.acc-uk.org • www.pastoralcareuk.org accord <strong>Summer</strong> <strong>2021</strong><br />

27


Can we predict the types<br />

of people who are more<br />

likely to hold a positive or<br />

negative attitude towards<br />

children with autism?<br />

by Anne Franks<br />

“Autistic Spectrum Disorder<br />

(ASD) is a developmental disorder<br />

affecting an individual’s social<br />

interactions and the way they<br />

experience the world around them”<br />

(The National Autistic Society, 2018).<br />

In the UK there are currently<br />

around 700,000 individuals<br />

diagnosed with ASD, which<br />

accounts for over 1 in 100 people (1).<br />

However, the experiences of those<br />

with ASD can sometimes be quite<br />

challenging. For instance, one in<br />

three autistic adults experience<br />

mental health difficulties and only<br />

32% of autistic adults have a paid<br />

job, with just 16% in full-time paid<br />

employment (1). Furthermore,<br />

these difficulties can sometimes<br />

even start in childhood, with 34% of<br />

children with ASD claiming that the<br />

worst thing about being at school is<br />

being picked on, and 63% of autistic<br />

children not being in the kind of<br />

school their parents feel would best<br />

support them (1).<br />

Given the difficulties faced by<br />

children with ASD, it is important<br />

to better understand some of<br />

the ways in which this diagnosis<br />

will affect them – particularly the<br />

attitudes of the people around<br />

them who play a huge role in<br />

shaping their experiences (Jorm,<br />

2000). In fact, a lot of research has<br />

now been conducted on this area<br />

with multiple studies focusing on<br />

the attitudes of teachers towards<br />

children with ASD (Park and<br />

Chitiyo, 2010; Linton et al., 2013;<br />

Cassidy, 2011). For example, Park<br />

and Chitiyo (2010) used the Autism<br />

Attitude Scale for Teachers (AAST)<br />

to compare teachers’ attitudes<br />

across different variables such as<br />

gender, age of the teacher, age or<br />

level of the students they teach and<br />

the teacher’s knowledge of autism<br />

to see if any of these factors could<br />

be predictors of whether teachers<br />

would be more or less likely to hold<br />

a positive attitude towards autistic<br />

children. In line with other literature<br />

(Horrocks et al., 2008; Tilahun et al.,<br />

2018), they found that teachers who<br />

had attended autism workshops<br />

had more positive attitudes<br />

towards children with autism than<br />

those who had not. The researchers<br />

also found that the oldest age<br />

category (56 years and older)<br />

demonstrated the lowest levels of<br />

positive attitude towards children<br />

with autism. Lastly, they also found<br />

that female teachers displayed<br />

more positive attitudes than male<br />

ones, although, the gender ratio<br />

was very biased with just 9% of<br />

participants being male (Park and<br />

Chitiyo, 2010, pp. 71).<br />

However, there are a number of<br />

important limitations with the<br />

existing research. For instance, the<br />

majority of the literature comparing<br />

attitudes towards autism across<br />

gender tends to be dominated<br />

by female participants (Dachez<br />

et al. 2015; Park and Chitiyo, 2010),<br />

meaning that there are often so<br />

few male participants that the<br />

results cannot really be generalised.<br />

Additionally, much of the existing<br />

research on attitudes towards<br />

autism is focused only on teachers’<br />

attitudes. However, given that<br />

children with autism are integrated<br />

in much broader social networks<br />

within society than schools alone,<br />

I thought it was important to<br />

investigate the various factors<br />

which might predict attitudes held<br />

by the general population towards<br />

children with ASD, concentrating<br />

on four predictive factors which<br />

have previously been highlighted<br />

by similar attitude studies: age,<br />

gender, knowledge about ASD<br />

and lastly the amount of social<br />

interaction with children with ASD.<br />

I recruited 202 participants (100<br />

28 accord <strong>Summer</strong> <strong>2021</strong> www.acc-uk.org • www.pastoralcareuk.org


feature<br />

males:102 females) to complete<br />

my online survey which comprised<br />

both the Attitudes to Autism Scale<br />

(AAS) (Barnes-Holmes et al., 2006)<br />

and the Knowledge of Autism<br />

Questionnaire (KAQ) (Campbell<br />

and Barger, 2011) as well as a few<br />

demographic questions. The results<br />

of the multiple regression analysis<br />

demonstrated that Age was the<br />

most significant predictor of<br />

attitude, with younger participants<br />

correlating higher on positive<br />

attitude scores towards children<br />

with ASD than older participants.<br />

The predictive factor of Social<br />

Contact also met expectations<br />

from previous research (Dachez<br />

et al., 2015) since participants<br />

who reported higher levels of<br />

social contact with a child with<br />

autism also tended to hold a more<br />

positive attitude towards them.<br />

Unsurprisingly, a lot of the general<br />

population sample had had little<br />

to no regular social contact with<br />

a child with ASD, though the<br />

sample was large enough to be<br />

able to demonstrate a statistically<br />

significant correlation. The results<br />

for Gender showed that on the<br />

whole, female participants tended<br />

to hold a more positive attitude<br />

towards children with ASD than<br />

male participants. While this<br />

trend fits in with the current<br />

literature, it was found to be less<br />

statistically significant, which could<br />

be an indication that the gap in<br />

gender attitude might be slowly<br />

decreasing, especially since most of<br />

the previous research in this field is<br />

around 5–10 years old, though this<br />

claim needs further investigation.<br />

On the other hand, Knowledge<br />

of Autism (KAQ) was not found to<br />

be a good predictor of attitudes<br />

towards children with ASD. One<br />

possible explanation is that since<br />

the KAQ was first created in 2011 by<br />

Campbell and Barger, the general<br />

population has been exposed to<br />

more information about autism<br />

and as such, knowledge about<br />

the condition has increased to<br />

an extent where it is no longer a<br />

significant predictor of attitudes.<br />

Future research requires a scale<br />

capable of assessing more<br />

nuanced variation between<br />

individuals’ levels of knowledge<br />

about ASD designed for a general<br />

population sample. However,<br />

researchers have tried to achieve<br />

this but have so far struggled<br />

to create a successful measure<br />

of knowledge about autism<br />

(Flood et al., 2013). One possible<br />

reason for this is that autism is a<br />

spectrum disorder, meaning the<br />

symptoms and severity of autism<br />

vary from person to person, so the<br />

scale would need to be detailed<br />

enough to incorporate all aspects<br />

of the condition, including high<br />

functioning autism. Secondly,<br />

research has demonstrated that a<br />

large number of individuals with<br />

ASD also have other conditions,<br />

such as depression, bipolar and<br />

other mood disorders (Hedley<br />

and Young 2006; Munesue et al.<br />

2008; Simonoff et al. 2012) which<br />

can sometimes make it difficult to<br />

distinguish which symptoms are<br />

caused by which condition.<br />

“this study has<br />

bridged several<br />

gaps in the current<br />

literature on attitudes<br />

towards autism<br />

The main suggestions for further<br />

research include improving the<br />

scales used for measuring both<br />

attitudes towards autism and<br />

knowledge of autism. Any new or<br />

adapted scales for each variable<br />

would need to be able to withstand<br />

rigorous scientific testing for<br />

reliability and validity, but also<br />

take into account the ethical<br />

considerations of such a highly<br />

sensitive topic. In addition, the role<br />

of other possible predictor variables<br />

such as race, socioeconomic<br />

status or religion should not be<br />

overlooked, and future research<br />

may want to look at investigating<br />

some of these factors too to see if<br />

they have any bearing on attitudes<br />

towards children with ASD.<br />

In summary, this study has<br />

bridged several gaps in the current<br />

literature on attitudes towards<br />

autism by moving away from<br />

participant pools of teachers<br />

and parents and broadening the<br />

sample to one which aimed to<br />

be representative of the general<br />

population. This study is also one<br />

of the first studies in this field<br />

to achieve an even gender ratio<br />

– which is especially important<br />

when intending to compare the<br />

results from male and female<br />

participants. Furthermore, while<br />

previous research on age has<br />

sometimes been inconclusive, this<br />

study has applied attitude research<br />

to a much wider, well-distributed<br />

age range. Encouragingly, the<br />

results supported other similar<br />

literature in the field of attitude<br />

research, confirming that the factor<br />

of ‘age’ was indeed a significant<br />

predictor of attitudes towards ASD.<br />

Having said this, age remains a<br />

physiological factor that cannot be<br />

changed. Therefore, the finding<br />

that social contact is also a good<br />

predictor for attitudes towards ASD<br />

may have real-world implications<br />

for not only understanding the risk<br />

factors for potential discrimination<br />

but hopefully for potentially<br />

implementing interventions to try<br />

and reduce discrimination against<br />

unseen disabilities such as autism.<br />

(1) The National Autistic Society,<br />

2018.<br />

Anne Franks<br />

About the author<br />

Anne Franks<br />

graduated<br />

from the Open<br />

University in<br />

2019 with a<br />

first-class BSc in<br />

Psychology with<br />

Counselling. She<br />

is now currently studying for her<br />

Psychology PhD at the University<br />

of Essex.<br />

www.acc-uk.org • www.pastoralcareuk.org accord <strong>Summer</strong> <strong>2021</strong><br />

29


Autism and Pastoral Care<br />

by Emma McCaffrey<br />

My name is Emma and I<br />

attend the Salvation Army<br />

in Edinburgh. I sing with the<br />

adult choir (Songsters), the young<br />

people’s choir – though I probably<br />

should have retired by now – and<br />

I play tenor horn with the brass<br />

band.<br />

Outside of church, my mum likes to<br />

call me an ‘advocate’ or ‘activist’. I<br />

dabble in acting and video editing.<br />

During covid, I made a film for the<br />

Salvation Army to give to prisoners<br />

and also did some filming for<br />

my mum’s Sunday school. I am<br />

a member of a theatre company<br />

called Lung Ha and have been<br />

acting in theatre since 2013. I was in<br />

the National Theatre of Scotland’s<br />

production of a show called ‘The<br />

Reason I Jump’. I also volunteer for<br />

a charity called ‘get2gether’ where<br />

I film their work and also write and<br />

perform murder mysteries. I do not<br />

currently have a ‘job’ besides all<br />

that. I spend most days in my room<br />

and when not busy, I play video<br />

games like Fallout, Elder Scrolls and<br />

Hitman. I love roleplay games.<br />

I’m also autistic with learning<br />

difficulties.<br />

Autism is an individual disability –<br />

basically you’re not going to meet<br />

one person with the condition<br />

and suddenly you know what we<br />

are like. A lot of autistic people<br />

do not have learning difficulties<br />

and hold steady jobs as doctors,<br />

teachers, even church leaders etc,<br />

while others need extra care due<br />

to physical difficulties autism can<br />

cause.<br />

I’m in a unique situation as I was<br />

born into the Salvation Army. My<br />

parents met in the William Booth<br />

College and became Officers<br />

(church ministers). This meant<br />

that as an ‘officer’s kid’ – besides<br />

often helping my parents with the<br />

sermons – the word of Jesus was<br />

something I was very aware of, to<br />

the point it could get rather boring.<br />

Still, I liked Jesus – he was<br />

everything an adult should be.<br />

Kind, considerate – he wasn’t<br />

going to get mad at your sins; he<br />

knew if you were trying your best.<br />

And as an autistic kid who wasn’t<br />

diagnosed till 11, that was a big<br />

deal. If no one else could see my<br />

struggling and trying my best, at<br />

least Jesus could.<br />

Whilst I’m ok meeting new people<br />

of different faiths, being in new<br />

buildings of worship is a whole<br />

different animal to tackle. Along<br />

with new people, there’s the<br />

colours, the smell, and the fact<br />

I don’t know the building well. I<br />

have the same trouble going to<br />

new coffee shops or cafes – I end<br />

up rehearsing what I’m going to<br />

say and if my first encounter in a<br />

building isn’t at all pleasant, I don’t<br />

go there again unless I have to.<br />

That can be an issue when an<br />

autistic person of faith wants to<br />

join a church and some autistic<br />

Christian people end up staying<br />

home rather than facing a new<br />

building and/or new people.<br />

So why bother with church? I have<br />

found that Christians – in fact most<br />

people of faith – badly want to be<br />

the best person they can be. They<br />

do not in fact, want to feel hate,,<br />

but to love. A lot of autistic people<br />

feel the pressure to do good and to<br />

feel some acceptance is immense;<br />

it’s a lonely disability to have and<br />

finding friends that accept you for<br />

who you are is a rare find. I find<br />

acceptance in Christ. That makes<br />

the search for good friends easier.<br />

On the down side, society including<br />

religious groups can create harmful<br />

stereotypes for people with autism,<br />

because disabled people are often<br />

seen by others as lamenting their<br />

fate, in need of help, using their<br />

disability to gain power, or even<br />

worse their disability is seen as a<br />

‘symbol’ of their evil.<br />

I must point out that this is my own<br />

opinion. A lot of people reading this<br />

on the spectrum will disagree with<br />

my choice of language and opinion<br />

– people are different.<br />

My own relationship with Christ is<br />

both distant and close. I pray each<br />

night to keep my family, church<br />

family and friends safe and happy,<br />

but I do not really bring my religion<br />

up with friends or strangers. Nor<br />

do I read my Bible often – I watch<br />

videos and listen to music more<br />

often instead. As a matter of fact,<br />

the first time a friend finds out<br />

my religion is when I am invited<br />

to a pub and I have to explain as<br />

a Salvation Army member why I<br />

won’t be drinking alcohol.<br />

At my church, they are eager to<br />

let me know that I am wanted.<br />

I’m one of the younger members<br />

at 28. I like to talk to the children<br />

– I sing and play horn. I get a lift<br />

to and from church (pre-covid)<br />

and I am still in contact with<br />

members through Facebook and<br />

Zoom. I play and invent quizzes (I<br />

win most). Sometimes during a<br />

service, I will leave the room and<br />

sit outside to listen to the sermon<br />

rather than be in the same room<br />

if the lights are too bright, or I feel<br />

tired after an hour or two in one<br />

room full of people. My church<br />

family accept that this is what I<br />

do. I will sometimes even help<br />

in Sunday school or make sure<br />

biscuits are ready after the service.<br />

Outside of church, they attend my<br />

shows and invite me to dinner or<br />

cinemas. I don’t always fancy it,<br />

but the thought is appreciated.<br />

Despite my weird sense of humour,<br />

strong opinions and at times odd<br />

30 accord <strong>Summer</strong> <strong>2021</strong> www.acc-uk.org • www.pastoralcareuk.org


pastoral care<br />

behaviour (including the fact I still<br />

wear a polo shirt – the Salvation<br />

Army uniform isn’t the most<br />

comfortable for me) - I am still<br />

loved and accepted.<br />

Besides my obvious ‘talent’, I’m<br />

not sure what else I bring to my<br />

church. I know I must be a source of<br />

frustration, yet I am still welcomed<br />

with open arms. I guess it’s nice<br />

to be somewhere I don’t feel<br />

pressured to try too hard to make<br />

friends. The people in my church<br />

have done well to show I don’t need<br />

to be someone else to fit in.<br />

I still think things could be better.<br />

Not necessarily for me, but we<br />

could look at some rules that<br />

really shouldn’t be there anymore<br />

to create a better more open<br />

environment. Churches should<br />

be accessible for all – and not just<br />

for the disabled. A rainbow can be<br />

both God’s gift to the world and<br />

a symbol of acceptance. Perhaps<br />

Zoom can still be used ‘after’ covid,<br />

so on a bad day I could watch from<br />

my room. Perhaps me, myself,<br />

could reach out to more people<br />

and be brave enough to talk about<br />

God to strangers and be brave<br />

enough to do the right thing.<br />

I hope I will still do my church<br />

family proud.<br />

WHO CARES<br />

Who can predict life?<br />

Who knows where life will take you?<br />

You hope for the best<br />

You dream for the best<br />

You plan for the best<br />

You pray for the best<br />

Is it enough?<br />

Was it enough?<br />

Will it be enough?<br />

Who cares?<br />

Where have the years gone?<br />

2019 behind me<br />

2020 facing me, umm<br />

I remember the days I was in my prime<br />

I would run and dance in a fiery Sunday Service<br />

I worked hard for the Lord, really hard<br />

Even if I say so myself! But now…<br />

Who cares?<br />

I was the Sunday School Superintendent for many<br />

a year<br />

I opened the church door at 9.45am every Sunday<br />

morning, to start at 10.00!<br />

The door of the church that belonged to us,<br />

to our congregation<br />

Oh Lord, we worked night and day raising funds<br />

to purchase that church<br />

Praise be to God we have something to call our own<br />

I loved working on the Ladies committee,<br />

cleaning my church<br />

Bible study, prayer meetings, month of fasting<br />

Oh, how the church was alive back then (comfort<br />

laughter)<br />

taking part in open air evangelism, the abuse<br />

we endured<br />

we did win souls though, glory be to God (smile)<br />

No one but Jesus knows the full story, the sacrifice<br />

I made for my church but now...<br />

Who cares?<br />

Yes, I admit it was a struggle at times<br />

I cried at times<br />

Dark places found me at times<br />

My God gave me strength when I needed it<br />

I was a single mother looking after 4 pickney in the<br />

UK, 2 in Jamaica and another two overseas that did<br />

not belong to me<br />

Now my eyes are dim and my hearing is muffled, my<br />

legs are not so steady, my hands are shaky,<br />

my skin is sagging and my social circle has<br />

diminished (deep breath)<br />

I am living in a different world than the one I<br />

grew up in<br />

But through it all, one thing that hasn’t changed<br />

Jesus was born to save me and the world from sin<br />

He was mocked, stripped and tortured<br />

He gave his life for me<br />

He rose from the grave and lives in me today<br />

Who cares, Yes Jesus cares!<br />

They call me elderly, senior citizen, geriatric and all<br />

kinds of names<br />

He calls me His child, royal priesthood, holy, a saint,<br />

a mighty warrior<br />

Ouch my hips<br />

2020 here I come<br />

I possess the gift of age<br />

I am stronger than ever<br />

My vision is clearer<br />

My hearing is sharper<br />

My walk is stronger<br />

My hands are His extended<br />

I will not worry, I will not fret, whatever<br />

the challenges<br />

Come on my brother we can worship in the storm<br />

Come on my sister we can dance in the storm<br />

For I know, I know, I know – Jesus cares<br />

As Jesus cares we all care<br />

By Bridgette Brooks - 31/12/2019<br />

www.acc-uk.org • www.pastoralcareuk.org accord <strong>Summer</strong> <strong>2021</strong><br />

31


CHRISTIAN COUNSELLING –<br />

ANOTHER APPROACH<br />

By Pat Brooks, Director of Cardiff Christian Healing Ministry<br />

read with great interest the<br />

I articles in the last issue of<br />

<strong>Accord</strong> on the subject of Christian<br />

counselling, and in particular The<br />

Churchill Framework. A lack of<br />

definition has for some time been<br />

a real handicap. We fit best with<br />

Hood’s definition (Hood 2018:18)<br />

also quoted in Bukola James’<br />

article, in that we are in partnership<br />

with the Holy Spirit as we work<br />

from a Christian worldview. In<br />

this article I am putting forward<br />

our particular approach which I<br />

hope will add something to the<br />

discussions. Of necessity it is a brief<br />

overview and some reflections.<br />

Cardiff Christian Healing Ministry<br />

was set up in 1995 following a<br />

citywide mission, when it was<br />

realised that churches in south<br />

Wales were not in a position to offer<br />

a safe place for healing to happen,<br />

spiritual, mental, emotional and<br />

physical. There was a good deal of<br />

caution and reluctance to engage<br />

in this ministry.<br />

Initially we offered prayer ministry -<br />

time, a safe place to be listened to,<br />

to listen to God, and to be prayed<br />

for. We soon found that we needed<br />

to be better equipped to help with<br />

people’s issues and hurts, and took<br />

on training with Direction for Life.<br />

After 4 years we were qualified to<br />

Diploma level in a model which had<br />

its origins in the USA, but is not well<br />

known in the UK. Subsequently we<br />

developed this model into what we<br />

use today, and have also taught it<br />

to several hundred people to use in<br />

their own settings. Because we are<br />

all volunteers, we are able to rely on<br />

donations alone, and we can offer<br />

as many sessions as are necessary.<br />

The team consists of about 20<br />

people from all denominations<br />

from Anglican to Pentecostal,<br />

giving us very eclectic practice and<br />

experience.<br />

OUR CORE BELIEFS<br />

We start from a position of<br />

theological anthropology, where<br />

we are all made in the image<br />

of God. 1 We see in Scripture a<br />

blueprint of how we are meant to<br />

live in relationship with God, with<br />

others and with ourselves, free<br />

of the effects of rejection - guilt,<br />

pain, anger, loss etc. knowing<br />

with certainty that we are loved<br />

unconditionally. We believe that<br />

God makes no exceptions, and<br />

these absolutes apply to all people<br />

at all times in all places. We use the<br />

concept that love is a movement,<br />

giving and receiving, and that<br />

when the flow is interrupted<br />

rejection sets in, with all its<br />

consequences. We believe that<br />

rejection of self, others, and/or God,<br />

is at the heart of all our dysfunction.<br />

When we choose to forgive<br />

someone who has hurt us the<br />

negative emotions can be healed,<br />

and we restore the flow of love.<br />

OUR PRACTICE<br />

After establishing a therapeutic<br />

alliance, and allowing the client<br />

to talk about the issues, which<br />

may take some time, we begin<br />

the process which is at the heart<br />

of our practice. We start with<br />

inviting the client to use the Gestalt<br />

technique of the empty chair, and<br />

to begin to articulate the pain,<br />

hurt, rejection, its consequences,<br />

etc. to the person responsible. It<br />

is not about apportioning blame<br />

but recognising the reality in<br />

order to deal with these painful<br />

emotions. Having done that, the<br />

client can then choose to forgive<br />

the person for each one that has<br />

been expressed. Accepting the<br />

reality, surrendering it to God and<br />

choosing to love and pray for that<br />

person changes the wound into a<br />

scar, not forgotten but no longer<br />

having any effect on the client in<br />

terms of those relationships.<br />

Clearly many of these terms need<br />

32 accord <strong>Summer</strong> <strong>2021</strong> www.acc-uk.org • www.pastoralcareuk.org


feature<br />

explanation and clarification,<br />

because so much of what we<br />

are looking at is countercultural<br />

and counterintuitive, and this<br />

is where we have to be familiar<br />

with potential denominational<br />

differences. We use R T Kendall’s<br />

teaching on total forgiveness 2 ,<br />

and it can take a lot of patience<br />

and grace to enable someone to<br />

forgive long term devastating hurt,<br />

but it is well documented that<br />

unforgiveness/bitterness affects<br />

us deeply, both physically and<br />

mentally. Forgiving frees the client,<br />

and releases them from that ‘hook’.<br />

‘Love’ also needs explanation – it’s<br />

not an emotion, but a movement,<br />

a choice and a decision. It includes<br />

courage, gratitude, forgiveness<br />

and compassion 3 . However we<br />

never encourage people to return<br />

to an abusive relationship, or to<br />

look for any reciprocity. The search<br />

for justice is deeply embedded<br />

in everyone, and so intentionally<br />

choosing to hand over desires for<br />

revenge, for reparation, to God<br />

for His justice is also part of the<br />

process.<br />

This obviously works relatively easily<br />

with Christians, though many need<br />

to deal with self-disappointment<br />

and guilt, the belief that God is<br />

disappointed/angry with them, and<br />

that the concept of unconditional<br />

love does not depend on rules<br />

and so forth. We have not really<br />

experienced much difficulty<br />

with different denominational<br />

distinctives, since we are looking<br />

at the basic concepts of love and<br />

forgiveness which are at the heart<br />

of our faith.<br />

It can also be effective for non-<br />

Christians who are open to working<br />

with a Christian organisation.<br />

The language can be changed<br />

as appropriate and prayer may or<br />

may not be part of the process,<br />

always according to the client’s<br />

preferences.<br />

Many Christians suffer with<br />

depression, low mood, insecurity,<br />

a sense of being ‘a useless<br />

Christian’ and our vision is that<br />

every Christian should have access<br />

to counselling with some sound<br />

theology, and good practice, in a<br />

safe and well-ordered environment,<br />

from competent, loving and<br />

committed counsellors.<br />

Finally - at CCHM we are trying<br />

to engage with the dichotomy<br />

of psychology and theology, a<br />

relatively recent development,<br />

which has forced many of us to<br />

take sides. How do we combine<br />

a God-centred and Bible based<br />

orientation – a living intellectual<br />

tradition - with one that is secular<br />

and research based? 4 I believe that<br />

in what we do, and how we do it,<br />

we are making a good contribution<br />

to the debates.<br />

Notes<br />

1 Our approach comes from<br />

the World Council of Churches<br />

<strong>2021</strong> Faith and Order Paper<br />

199<br />

2 RT Kendall: Total Forgiveness,<br />

Hodder&Stoughton 2001<br />

3 From Choose Love, a<br />

foundation set up after the<br />

Sandy Hook shootings in the<br />

USA in 2012<br />

4 Eric L Johnson: Foundations<br />

for Soul Care, p221, IVP<br />

Academic 2007<br />

Pat Brookes<br />

About the author<br />

Pat Brooks is<br />

married with<br />

three children<br />

and three<br />

grandchildren,<br />

and came to Wales in 1992,<br />

after being involved in church<br />

planting and discipling. She<br />

has been a counsellor for 20<br />

years with Cardiff Christian<br />

Healing Ministry, a voluntary<br />

organisation, and 10 years ago<br />

was able to gain a Master’s in<br />

Missional Leadership. As Director<br />

of CCHM, her focus is now on<br />

navigating the changes required<br />

by the pandemic to ensure<br />

that the charity will be able to<br />

continue to offer ministry and<br />

counselling services.<br />

NHS Covid-19<br />

Staff Counselling<br />

Service<br />

We are delighted to announce<br />

that NHS England have<br />

confirmed that they will<br />

continue to fund the counseling<br />

service that <strong>ACC</strong> have been<br />

providing since April <strong>2021</strong>.<br />

Both the feedback that clients<br />

have provided to the service<br />

and directly to the NHS has<br />

shown how much staff have<br />

appreciated it.<br />

Our thanks once again go<br />

to all of the counsellors, case<br />

managers and service coordinator,<br />

who are working<br />

for the service. If you are a<br />

registered counsellor member<br />

and are interested in joining the<br />

service all of the information is<br />

available on our website https://<br />

www.acc-uk.org/news/hidden-<br />

holding-pages/ccss-volunteer-<br />

information.html<br />

The service provides<br />

counselling to:<br />

• NHS clinical and non-clinical<br />

staff working with COVID-19<br />

patients in a hospital setting<br />

• Ancillary staff working in<br />

COVID-19 areas in hospital<br />

settings including cleaners,<br />

porters and mortuary workers<br />

• Paramedics and anyone<br />

working within the<br />

ambulance services caring for<br />

patients with COVID-19<br />

If you know anyone who would<br />

qualify for counselling from the<br />

service, referral forms are also<br />

available on the <strong>ACC</strong> website.<br />

www.acc-uk.org • www.pastoralcareuk.org accord <strong>Summer</strong> <strong>2021</strong><br />

33


Integration of my psychology and my Christianity?<br />

A personal story of intersectional identity*<br />

by Dr Martyn Baker<br />

About thirty years ago, I<br />

remember thinking I had<br />

lapsed into something of a<br />

closet Christian in my work. Not<br />

fond of raising my head above<br />

the parapet, but felt I had to do<br />

something about it. I also felt I was<br />

the only Christian psychologist in<br />

the UK (you may be smiling, but I<br />

really did).<br />

Imagine my surprise, when: I<br />

read a book by Fraser Watts,<br />

who I knew was big in the British<br />

Psychological Society, and notice<br />

that the Preface was signed off<br />

something like, “Fraser Watts, St<br />

Swithins Day 1986”– I was curious.<br />

A colleague confirmed that<br />

Watts was indeed an ordained<br />

priest as was another well-known<br />

psychologist who he worked with<br />

at The Maudsley. Soon afterwards,<br />

a poster mysteriously appeared on<br />

a departmental noticeboard, for<br />

a day conference of the Network<br />

of Christians in Psychology (now<br />

BACIP). I promptly booked and<br />

went, and discovered more<br />

Christian psychologists. (One<br />

especially, who I had not seen<br />

since research assistant days, but<br />

had become a Christian in the<br />

intervening years.) The conference<br />

talks came in a decided second<br />

behind the simple encouragement<br />

of being there.<br />

From the mid-1990s, I was<br />

researching or supervising<br />

several sets of qualitative data on<br />

religious and spiritual (R/S) issues<br />

for psychological therapists and<br />

clients. In addition to my growing<br />

association with this research and<br />

BACIP, another part of asserting<br />

‘Christian visibility’ in the workplace<br />

might be in submitting for<br />

publication articles on R/S issues in<br />

a clinical setting.<br />

Several years later, having left<br />

university and the NHS , I finally<br />

used the launch of Christian<br />

Psychological Services London<br />

(CPSL, 2013) to more fully ‘hold<br />

myself out’ as a Christian clinical<br />

psychologist, working part-time for<br />

a Christian counselling charity, and<br />

then privately. It was at this point<br />

that a long-held personal ambition<br />

revived – to try to describe the<br />

activity of a Christian psychological<br />

therapist, without too much<br />

bible jargon, and based not upon<br />

aspirational ‘oughts’ or ‘shoulds’,<br />

nor upon illustrative case studies,<br />

but upon a straightforward account<br />

of what I actually do. However,<br />

after numerous unsatisfactory<br />

attempts to write this down, I gave<br />

up! Concepts seemed to elude<br />

me, and descriptive versions were<br />

folksy and unconvincing, fluffy and<br />

insubstantial.<br />

Below, is the version I have<br />

ended up with, based on the<br />

articles mentioned above, but<br />

perhaps more personal than I had<br />

envisaged., I have asked myself:<br />

“How have the qualitative research<br />

findings that I worked on, affected<br />

or reflected my experience of<br />

professional practice within CPSL<br />

over the last eight years?”<br />

[1] Some of the results of a study<br />

of Christian psycho-dynamic<br />

counsellors’ experiences of training<br />

and practice (Martinez & Baker,<br />

2000) produced quite a reaction<br />

in me, that I still remember some<br />

twenty years later. In comparison<br />

to my own personal impetus<br />

towards fuller expression of<br />

Christian faith in a work setting,<br />

the first analytic category,<br />

“Then and Now”, encompassed<br />

the experience of a majority<br />

of participants, where their<br />

pre-training had been more<br />

and expressively Christianity,<br />

but during training and postqualification<br />

this had diminished,<br />

gradually becoming less or not at<br />

all visible. I remember at the time,<br />

half-vowing to myself that this was<br />

not going to be my story! Another<br />

category “Information versus<br />

Intuition” showed that generally<br />

it was left to guesswork how clients<br />

became aware of their therapist’s<br />

R/S affiliation. Whereas for me, I<br />

felt this information should be as<br />

openly available as qualification<br />

and training, voice accent or<br />

surname. Since most CPSL clients<br />

are Christians, my reactions to both<br />

of the categories above accentuate<br />

the tricky professional issue of dual<br />

relationships. I sense myself to be<br />

simultaneously the client’s brother,<br />

just as much as their therapist –<br />

both real, neither to be explicated<br />

as, for example, part of the personal<br />

unconscious. I experience a merged<br />

identity.<br />

[2] This was a personal construct<br />

investigation of Christians’<br />

anticipations of the imagined<br />

assistance they think they might<br />

receive for emotional difficulties,<br />

if it were to come from a church<br />

helper (vicar, housegroup leader,<br />

etc), or from a professional helper<br />

(such as psychologist, secular<br />

counsellor, community psychiatric<br />

nurse) (Mitchell & Baker, 2000). The<br />

above issue of dual relationships<br />

grew more complex for me.<br />

Participants’ expectations seemed<br />

to be of polar opposites. Ideas of<br />

warmth, thoroughness and trust<br />

with the first group contrasted with<br />

34 accord <strong>Summer</strong> <strong>2021</strong> www.acc-uk.org • www.pastoralcareuk.org


feature<br />

feelings of coldness, superficiality<br />

and suspicion with the other.<br />

Stereotypes they might be, but<br />

suppose I feel the client reacts<br />

to me as these two extremes<br />

embodied in one person, it<br />

could be potentially volatile as I<br />

experience a polarised identity.<br />

In fairness, most of the time I find<br />

myself negotiating a wiggly line<br />

of integration, of middle ground<br />

between the merged sense of self,<br />

and the polarised sense of self.<br />

However, occasionally my identity<br />

switches involuntarily from one<br />

extreme or the other. One time, I<br />

polarised straight into a completely<br />

‘professional’ response to a non-<br />

Christian CPSL client’s request for<br />

in-session prayer: I said that that<br />

is more of a priestly function, not<br />

part of what I offer. Another time,<br />

without notice I switched over to<br />

the merged extreme – a moment<br />

of sudden I-Thou encounter as<br />

I listened deeply to a Christian<br />

client who was sure that he was<br />

bound for hell; I exclaimed, “if<br />

you’re not in heaven, then I don’t<br />

want to be there!” Being well<br />

schooled in professional practice,<br />

I asked myself “Am I losing it? Is it<br />

time to hang my boots up? Or is<br />

there somewhere a superordinate<br />

concept of which ‘merged’ and<br />

‘polarised’ are both exemplars?”<br />

[3] Researching the workplace<br />

values of Christian NHS clinical<br />

psychologists (Baker & Wang,<br />

2004), a noticeable extent of<br />

contradictory experience was<br />

reported, quite often within the<br />

transcripts of one participant’s data.<br />

Rather than conclude they were<br />

suffering from impaired cognitive<br />

ability or labile emotions (a more<br />

regular set of colleagues you could<br />

not have asked for), we concluded<br />

that when they spoke freely, they<br />

were reporting shifting senses of<br />

self; a kaleidoscope of experience.<br />

At the time, I construed the<br />

differences in the data – originally<br />

understood as contradictions –<br />

as indicating linear change in<br />

participants’ experience of their<br />

professional self over the course<br />

of, say, a working week, or day. It<br />

ought to be possible to measure<br />

their experience within one time<br />

block, followed by measuring the<br />

levels of a further time block, etc.<br />

(I even drew out from the very rich<br />

data, verbatim phrases of different<br />

levels of experience to calibrate<br />

the degree of change on particular<br />

value dimensions. Fully intending<br />

to study further the histograms<br />

thus produced, I… never got round<br />

to it.)<br />

So, how does all this have<br />

implications for my experience<br />

of myself working as a Christian<br />

therapist in CPSL? Well, it was not<br />

until more recently (for example,<br />

Diamond & Gillis, 2006; Kort, 2019)<br />

that I envisaged the notion of<br />

intersectionality (Crenshaw, 2008)<br />

as conceptualising a continuous<br />

perpetual motion in the sense of<br />

self of the therapist, not just of<br />

the client. ‘Intersectional identity’<br />

might be a way of re-thinking<br />

what I had been thinking of as<br />

changeableness and instability.<br />

Of course! No wonder, the<br />

intersection junctions of my<br />

journey along the Christian<br />

highway and my travel along the<br />

Therapist auto-route – without<br />

traffic lights, roundabouts or<br />

motorway interchanges – will<br />

almost necessarily arouse my<br />

experience of… (I was just about to<br />

say, professional instability… but I<br />

didn’t).<br />

Thank you for reading! If you have<br />

developed any ideas along similar<br />

lines, I would be pleased to hear<br />

from you. It may be time for me to<br />

call it a day, professional practice<br />

wise, but that doesn’t stop the need<br />

to continue thinking.<br />

*This article is adapted from a<br />

presentation within the Faith in<br />

psychotherapy? conference given<br />

by Christian Psychological Services<br />

London, hosted online by the<br />

British Association of Christians in<br />

Psychology, Saturday 20th March<br />

<strong>2021</strong>.<br />

References:<br />

Baker, M., & Wang, M. (2004).<br />

“Examining connections<br />

between values and practice<br />

in religiously committed UK<br />

clinical psychologists.” Journal of<br />

Psychology and Theology. 32(2),<br />

pp.126-136.<br />

British Association of Christians<br />

in Psychology. (<strong>2021</strong>). https://www.<br />

bacip.org.uk/ (accessed 9th June<br />

<strong>2021</strong>).<br />

Christian Psychological Services<br />

London. (2013). https://cps-london.<br />

co.uk/ (accessed 9th June <strong>2021</strong>).<br />

Crenshaw, K. (2008). “What kind<br />

of ally are you?” In: pp.7-11 of<br />

http://www.intergroupresources.<br />

com/rc/Intersectionality%20<br />

primer%20-%20African%20<br />

American%20Policy%20Forum.<br />

pdf (accessed 9th June <strong>2021</strong>).<br />

Diamond, S., & Gillis, J. (2006).<br />

“Approaching multiple diversity.”<br />

In: C. Lago (Ed.), Race, culture<br />

& counselling: The ongoing<br />

challenge pp.217-238. London: OUP.<br />

Kort, J. (2019). “Understanding<br />

intersectional identities.”<br />

Psychology Today. (25th June<br />

2019).<br />

Martinez, S., & Baker, M. (2000).<br />

“Psychodynamic and religious?<br />

Religiously committed psychodynamic<br />

counsellors, in training<br />

and practice.” Counselling<br />

Psychology Quarterly. 13(3),<br />

pp.259–264.<br />

Mitchell, J., & Baker, M. (2000).<br />

“Religious commitment and<br />

the construal of sources of help<br />

for emotional problems.” British<br />

Journal of Medical Psychology. 73,<br />

pp.289-301.<br />

Dr Martyn Baker<br />

About the author<br />

Dr Martyn Baker<br />

is with Christian<br />

Psychological<br />

Services Essex,<br />

and was deputy<br />

director of Clinical Psychology<br />

training at the University of East<br />

London.<br />

www.acc-uk.org • www.pastoralcareuk.org accord <strong>Summer</strong> <strong>2021</strong><br />

35


<strong>ACC</strong> CHILDREN<br />

AND YOUNG<br />

PEOPLE FORUM<br />

by Elaine Bennett<br />

<strong>ACC</strong> has increasingly sought to<br />

develop support for members<br />

working with children and young<br />

people and promoted the two<br />

conferences in 2019. <strong>ACC</strong> has<br />

also commented on various<br />

consultations about young people’s<br />

mental health and emotional<br />

wellbeing and will continue to<br />

lobby for their needs, even more<br />

pertinent as we move forwards<br />

from Covid-19.<br />

As a further development we are<br />

now in the process of forming a<br />

small Steering Group to help us<br />

establish an <strong>ACC</strong> Children and<br />

Young People Forum. The vision<br />

is to support our members who<br />

counsel young people from 6–18<br />

years and the suggestions being<br />

considered are to:<br />

• hold quarterly Forum<br />

meetings as opportunities to<br />

discuss topical issues and be<br />

a supportive network, which<br />

Sharon Hastings has kindly<br />

agreed to facilitate,<br />

• devote a page within each<br />

edition of accord for relevant<br />

articles about issues which<br />

can arise when working with<br />

children and young people,<br />

• establish a section on <strong>ACC</strong>’s<br />

website which will have<br />

resources and links for Children<br />

and Young People Counsellors,<br />

• develop resources for the<br />

profession to assist counsellors<br />

working with CYP to encourage<br />

the innate spiritual capacity of<br />

the child (following Rebecca<br />

Nye and others) as therapeutic<br />

resources.<br />

We have developed a questionnaire<br />

which will be circulated to all<br />

members to ascertain how many of<br />

you work with children and young<br />

people and how you think the<br />

Forum could support you. We are<br />

also interested to know how many<br />

members may want to work with<br />

children and young people.<br />

The current members of the<br />

steering group are practitioners<br />

with a variety of experiences<br />

working with children and young<br />

people in different settings.<br />

Heather Barton is a qualified<br />

Counsellor, Play Therapist, Coach,<br />

Supervisor and Trainer. She has a<br />

BA in Integrative Counselling, and<br />

MAs in Play Therapy and Relational<br />

Counselling and Psychotherapy.<br />

Heather is currently close to the<br />

end of studying for a Professional<br />

Doctorate in Counselling and<br />

Psychotherapy Studies at Chester<br />

University. She has a private<br />

practice, and for the last fifteen<br />

years has also been working as a<br />

school counsellor/play therapist,<br />

working with CYP from four years<br />

old to eighteen plus, in many<br />

different settings.<br />

Vicky Bell is a CYP Counsellor<br />

and Supervisor of CYP counsellors<br />

for a large community based<br />

commissioned service on the<br />

South Coast. She also has a private<br />

practice working predominately<br />

with families and CYP, alongside<br />

providing Pastoral Supervision.<br />

Vicky provides these services face<br />

to face, online using video calling<br />

and text based (email and instant<br />

messaging) and over the phone.<br />

She qualified 13 years ago as a<br />

Person-Centred Therapist, later<br />

completing training including<br />

systemic family work, online<br />

working (pre covid-19), supervision<br />

and reflective practice. Vicky has<br />

worked in schools, community<br />

and 3rd sector settings. All<br />

have been non faith-based and<br />

included working for RELATE,<br />

Place2Be, YMCA, as well as smaller<br />

organisations.<br />

Elaine Bennett counsels children,<br />

adolescents and adults and has<br />

a private practice. She has a BA<br />

(Hons) Counselling and MEd (Child<br />

and Adolescent Psychotherapeutic<br />

Counselling). She has experience of<br />

working with children and young<br />

people in schools, with Place2Be,<br />

a London sixth form college, the<br />

BIG C cancer charity and young<br />

people’s counselling agency.<br />

Pete English is a school counsellor<br />

and is the project lead for<br />

ListeningPeople - from AtaLoss.<br />

org. He trains those who work<br />

with young people to understand<br />

how loss and bereavement has an<br />

impact.<br />

Ange Harris has an MA in<br />

Integrative Counselling from the<br />

University of Roehampton. She<br />

36 accord <strong>Summer</strong> <strong>2021</strong> www.acc-uk.org • www.pastoralcareuk.org


feature<br />

works two days a week as a school<br />

counsellor for the Norwich School<br />

and counsels adults and young<br />

people from age 13 in private<br />

practice.<br />

Christine Pinder has been<br />

counselling for more than 35<br />

years, starting in the eighties in a<br />

counselling agency working with<br />

young people, and more recently<br />

a group of us set up a much<br />

needed service in Suffolk offering<br />

counselling to 11–25 year olds. She<br />

also has a small private practice<br />

and in the other half of her life is a<br />

vicar in her local Anglican church.<br />

Sulette Snyman devoted 17<br />

years of her professional life to<br />

establishing Neurofeedback<br />

Therapy as a force to be reckoned<br />

with. Her first encounter with<br />

Neurofeedback was on a very<br />

personal level when her son was<br />

diagnosed with a concentration<br />

challenge. His remarkable results<br />

inspired thousands of parents to<br />

put their children through the<br />

programme. As franchisor to 60<br />

franchisees she was responsible<br />

for delivering more than 700,000<br />

hours of Neurofeedback Training<br />

sessions. Her passion is to help<br />

children reach their full potential.<br />

Sulette says there is nothing more<br />

satisfying as to see a child go from<br />

struggling to being a hero.<br />

Hannah Stanwell Smith is an<br />

integrative counsellor with<br />

experience of working with adults<br />

and young people in her private<br />

practice and has also worked as<br />

a school counsellor in a Norfolk<br />

School. Hannah has a First Class<br />

BA (Hons) Counselling degree and<br />

is trained to work with clients who<br />

have experienced trauma, having<br />

spent over five years working for<br />

an agency supporting survivors<br />

of childhood sexual abuse, rape,<br />

sexual assault and domestic<br />

violence.<br />

If you would like to be part of the<br />

Steering Group to develop the<br />

Forum please email Elaine Bennett<br />

on ebccss@acc-uk.org.<br />

As a Taster of what may come Pete<br />

English has prepared the following<br />

scenarios for reflection.<br />

A DAY IN THE LIFE OF A SCHOOL<br />

COUNSELLOR<br />

Sasha<br />

I could tell things weren’t good as<br />

soon as Sasha walked in through<br />

the door. She slumped down on<br />

the chair and stared at her thumb,<br />

blood red from where she had<br />

been picking at the skin.<br />

I allowed a few moments of silence<br />

to pass and tried my best not to<br />

interrupt it. ‘Mr Evans hates me.’ I<br />

reflected with a questioning tone<br />

at the end of my sentence. ‘Hates<br />

you?’ I enquired. ‘He does – he’s got<br />

it in for me. He never picks on Sarah<br />

or Charis, just me, and the boys<br />

get away with it,’ she explained<br />

whilst simultaneously ripping her<br />

appointment card into tiny pieces<br />

which fell to the floor.<br />

I made a mental note to ‘shelve’ my<br />

carefully planned session exploring<br />

Sasha’s loss of her grandad and<br />

continued to listen intently as my<br />

eye caught the growing pile of<br />

shredded card on the floor around<br />

Sacha’s non-uniform trainers.<br />

Sasha’s perception is that<br />

Mr Evans hates her. Is that a<br />

possibility?<br />

Sam<br />

I have never played Fortnite, but<br />

Sam has. He tells me that he is<br />

really good and I praise him for<br />

the skills that he is learning –<br />

patience, teamwork, endurance,<br />

no copyright<br />

infringement is<br />

intended”<br />

communication. I’m not sure that<br />

his mum sees it that way, especially<br />

when she sees the glow of a tablet<br />

as she passes his bedroom door<br />

at 2.30 on a school day morning.<br />

Sam admits that he is tired. ‘But I’m<br />

900th. I won some money!’ ‘Tell me<br />

about it Sam. Is there a new level<br />

out now? How do you feel about<br />

the world of Fortnite changing<br />

overnight?’ I ask. (How did you feel<br />

about your dad leaving suddenly<br />

overnight I want to say).<br />

How important is it that we<br />

understand Fortnite?<br />

COUNSELLING SPACE<br />

The new, very enthusiastic PE<br />

teacher, presses ‘play’ on the high<br />

energy music video that she has<br />

decided to use as a warm up in<br />

the hall close to the room I use to<br />

counsel in. I quite like the track<br />

and evidently so do the Year 8’s<br />

who are joining in with the chorus<br />

encouraging all of us to ‘funk it up’.<br />

The enthusiastic PE teacher is less<br />

enthusiastic when she realises that<br />

the giggling is from a group of boys<br />

who have amended the lyrics to<br />

something less appropriate!<br />

Rooms in school are at a<br />

premium. What can you do if the<br />

room you work in is unsuitable?<br />

Ellie<br />

I notice that Ellie is rubbing her arm<br />

and has pulled her sleeve down.<br />

‘Mum’s acting really weird again.’<br />

‘She’s never in the house and she’s<br />

got this new boyfriend.’ I listen<br />

www.acc-uk.org • www.pastoralcareuk.org accord <strong>Summer</strong> <strong>2021</strong><br />

37


intently and wonder whether the<br />

cuts on her arm are fresh. ‘Do we<br />

need to talk to Miss?’ I tentatively<br />

enquire. Ellie nods and looks down<br />

at the floor.<br />

Self-harming behaviour is just<br />

attention seeking. How would you<br />

respond to a comment like this?<br />

CASELOAD<br />

At lunchtime a teacher stops me<br />

as I walk over to the canteen. ‘Have<br />

you seen Jack today?’, he enquires.<br />

‘Any chance you can fit him in? I’ll<br />

send him over at 2.00,’ he says as<br />

he disappears through the Science<br />

laboratory doors.<br />

How flexible would you be to see<br />

an extra child at the end of your<br />

session? What are the pros and<br />

cons of doing so?<br />

VICKY BELL HAS SUGGESTED<br />

SOME RESOURCES FOR<br />

CHILDREN AND YOUNG PEOPLE<br />

COUNSELLORS BELOW.<br />

When Dinosaurs Die: A guide to<br />

understanding death, Lauri Krasny<br />

and Marc Brown<br />

https://www.amazon.co.uk/When-<br />

Dinosaurs-Die-Understanding-<br />

Families/dp/0316119555<br />

Many books for children about<br />

death are limited in the death that<br />

they consider. This book is different<br />

in that it explores many many types<br />

of deaths including those that are<br />

often not mentioned elsewhere<br />

or are more difficult to talk about,<br />

such as due to drugs and war.<br />

I believe it is so important that<br />

children can experience having the<br />

type of death that has impacted<br />

them mentioned in a universal<br />

format, thus acknowledging even<br />

if it is in a small way that there<br />

are others of their age who such<br />

deaths have also touched. Please<br />

don’t think that this book is only<br />

useful for these situations though.<br />

It considers all manner of deaths<br />

and types of relationships and ages<br />

as well as commenting on different<br />

practices and beliefs related to the<br />

body and death itself.<br />

This well illustrated book can be<br />

used by anyone who has contact<br />

with children, be they parents/<br />

carers or family members, youth<br />

and children’s workers, and I have<br />

also used it as a therapist.<br />

Help I’ve got an Alarm Bell going<br />

off in my head – How panic, anxiety<br />

and stress affect your body. K. L.<br />

Aspden<br />

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Help-<br />

Alarm-Bell-Going-Head-ebook/<br />

dp/B0167ILI0O<br />

This is what is said about the book.<br />

‘Designed for ages 9–12, the book<br />

aims to teach children who suffer<br />

from anxiety, stress or anger about<br />

the fight, flight or freeze response<br />

in their bodies and what can trigger<br />

it, and helps them to understand<br />

that it is something that everyone<br />

experiences. It also includes ways<br />

to manage the stress reaction and<br />

reduce feelings of shame. It is an<br />

invaluable resource for anyone<br />

supporting children who are easily<br />

triggered into anxiety or anger,<br />

including parents and carers,<br />

support workers, teachers, and<br />

therapists.’<br />

The book is simply written in an<br />

accessible way for children to<br />

read themselves and has large<br />

illustrations on each page to bring<br />

what is being said to life and make<br />

it accessible to even the most<br />

reluctant reader. I have used this<br />

book as a therapist and suggested<br />

it to parents to even use with their<br />

child or provide for their child to<br />

aid their own understanding and<br />

normalising of what is happening<br />

to their bodies, which they often<br />

find very concerning. The book<br />

provides a simple way of explaining<br />

how the brain and nervous system<br />

work and can lead to our bodies<br />

becoming over sensitive and<br />

setting off false alarms.<br />

A great book for parents/carers,<br />

youth and children’s workers and<br />

therapists.<br />

When a parent is concerned<br />

about Deliberate Self Harm or a<br />

young person is mentioning that<br />

their parent/carer is struggling<br />

to understand their DSH I often<br />

signpost them to this pdf<br />

https://harmless.org.uk/wpcontent/uploads/2020/09/Familyand-Friends-Leaflet-min.pdf<br />

I feel it addresses many of the<br />

concerns and unhelpful things that<br />

they can think and say and provides<br />

information and encourages a<br />

supportive approach with the<br />

young person.<br />

Elaine Bennett<br />

About the author<br />

Elaine Bennett<br />

is a child,<br />

adolescent and<br />

adult counsellor.<br />

In response to<br />

the ACE agenda<br />

together with Sir<br />

Norman Lamb<br />

she established the Norfolk<br />

Trauma Forum. This is currently<br />

developing proposals for early<br />

intervention programmes in<br />

schools, a local prison and the<br />

community and investigating<br />

the potential for rolling out<br />

trauma informed training<br />

in Norfolk. Elaine is a PhD<br />

candidate at the University<br />

of Cambridge hoping to<br />

research the impact of teachers'<br />

attachment styles on the<br />

teacher-student relationship.<br />

38 accord <strong>Summer</strong> <strong>2021</strong> www.acc-uk.org • www.pastoralcareuk.org


feature<br />

Meeting <strong>ACC</strong>EnT Forum Members<br />

by Leroy Harley<br />

was born in Hackney, East<br />

I London in 1958, I am the third<br />

oldest of a family of eight, five boys,<br />

sadly one died 15 years ago, and<br />

three girls. I am a father of five,<br />

two boys and three girls. I have<br />

been married for over 30 years to<br />

a wonderful woman. My first job<br />

after leaving school was in a bank.<br />

I was a youth worker for about 30<br />

years, both full and part time. My<br />

last job was as a teaching assistant<br />

in a special needs school, which I<br />

think was the job that I enjoyed the<br />

most. Sadly, I had to retire in 2019,<br />

the flip side is that I get to do more<br />

of what I enjoy, such as, counselling,<br />

riding my bike, walking, reading,<br />

and spending time with my 11 year<br />

old girl. I used to enjoy playing<br />

badminton, but an injury put paid<br />

to that.<br />

I got into counselling by accident.<br />

I found out from friends that I was<br />

a good listener. I was listening to<br />

friends in the hope this would<br />

help me find solutions to some<br />

of the issues I was going through,<br />

sadly that was not the case.<br />

Someone suggested that I do a<br />

basic counselling course, which<br />

I enjoyed, learning that I was a<br />

good listener, enjoyed listening to<br />

people and that I did not have to<br />

have all the answers. I went on to<br />

do a level 2/3 Christian counselling<br />

course. Through that course I learnt<br />

more about myself, including that<br />

sometimes I chose to help others<br />

as a way of not looking too hard<br />

at the issues I was going through.<br />

One thing I noticed was that race<br />

was never even mentioned or<br />

discussed on the course. At the end<br />

of this course, which my church<br />

paid for, they set up a counselling<br />

service, which I have been part<br />

of since 2009. It took a further 10<br />

years for me to take my Diploma in<br />

counselling and psychotherapy.<br />

“race could only<br />

be discussed if we as<br />

black people raised<br />

the subject<br />

One of the things that annoyed me<br />

was that looking at the programme<br />

for the two-year course was that<br />

race was on the agenda twice over<br />

the two years. <strong>Accord</strong>ing to some of<br />

the white students, race could only<br />

be discussed if we as black people<br />

raised the topic. This also meant the<br />

issue of race was not discussed with<br />

their black clients. They said they<br />

did not see colour and only saw the<br />

issue that the clients came in with.<br />

I became very concerned about the<br />

black clients they had and would<br />

encounter. As by denying their race<br />

you are denying who they are and<br />

that means you are denying me.<br />

In May 2020 I, along with others,<br />

watched in horror the murder of<br />

George Floyd on TV. Several things<br />

flooded my thoughts, such as my<br />

parents’ treatment when they<br />

arrived in this country in 1957, my<br />

harassment by police as a young<br />

man, the counselling course and<br />

what my white colleagues had said,<br />

the murders of others at the hands<br />

of the police or where the police<br />

investigations had been poor, both<br />

in this country and America, such<br />

as Cherry Groce, Cynthia Jarrett,<br />

www.acc-uk.org • www.pastoralcareuk.org accord <strong>Summer</strong> <strong>2021</strong><br />

39


Stephen Lawrence, Breonna Taylor<br />

and others. After being very angry,<br />

I decided enough was enough<br />

I could no longer stand by and<br />

allow such treatment to continue<br />

without taking action. I wrote a<br />

couple of emails, one to BACP and<br />

the other to <strong>ACC</strong>. I wrote to <strong>ACC</strong><br />

even though at the time I was no<br />

longer a member, I had left as I<br />

did not see myself represented in<br />

accord. To my surprise and delight<br />

I got a call from Kathy Spooner,<br />

from that phone call the Inclusion<br />

and Diversity group, now <strong>ACC</strong>EnT,<br />

was formed. The group was formed<br />

to ensure diversity is represented<br />

across <strong>ACC</strong>. Within months of the<br />

group forming we drew up a list<br />

of things we wanted to achieve,<br />

such as representation on the <strong>ACC</strong><br />

board, to act as a consultation/<br />

advisory group, to be able to share<br />

ideas and support each other, to<br />

increase the take up of counselling<br />

by exploring and devising ways to<br />

get more black men interested in<br />

counselling from both sides of the<br />

couch, and other things.<br />

Getting black men more interested<br />

in counselling has been a passion of<br />

mine for several years. Over the last<br />

15 years or so I have been meeting<br />

with a group of black men from<br />

various churches to sit, eat and have<br />

real, honest conversations. I started<br />

this group with a friend of mine,<br />

who I had been meeting with, and<br />

recognising how much we were<br />

getting out of our conversations,<br />

we decided to share the benefits<br />

with other black men. The group<br />

meets monthly, and conversations<br />

have been varied - marriage, raising<br />

children, racism in the church<br />

and society, the murder of George<br />

Floyd, issues with siblings, etc.,<br />

always considering what the Word<br />

of God has to say on the topic. The<br />

men who have attended the group<br />

have felt energised and go back<br />

into their environment, with added<br />

tools to help in their relationships<br />

at home and in their workplaces.<br />

Others have thought that they<br />

were the only ones going through<br />

the issues and were glad to hear<br />

that they were not alone.<br />

We were invited to a local church<br />

men’s group to talk about<br />

counselling and the benefits of this<br />

group. One of the comments made<br />

about counselling was, “why should<br />

we talk to strangers about our<br />

problems?”. They clearly recognised<br />

they were going through some<br />

issues and yet felt they could not<br />

or did not want to talk through the<br />

issues. I am aware of the message<br />

that I and other men got, when<br />

growing up, about “being a man”,<br />

“men are not supposed to cry”,<br />

“we are to suck it up”, “be brave”,<br />

etc. Sadly, these messages stay<br />

with us and I did bottle things up<br />

which was not good for me. One<br />

of the things that came out of the<br />

meeting with these men is that a<br />

few of them came for counselling<br />

as they recognised the need to talk.<br />

The murder of George Floyd<br />

came a few days before our<br />

monthly meeting. Having had our<br />

discussion I was able to excise a lot<br />

of the anger that I was feeling and<br />

it was this, and through listening<br />

to and expressing<br />

what was going on<br />

for me, that I came<br />

to know that I had to<br />

do something, hence<br />

the emails to <strong>ACC</strong><br />

and BACP. The other<br />

more challenging<br />

thing which I had<br />

avoided for a long<br />

time, was having<br />

the discussion with<br />

white people. I was<br />

far too angry with<br />

white people and<br />

just did not feel they<br />

“Why should we<br />

talk to strangers<br />

about our problems?<br />

cared enough to want to have the<br />

discussion. I have tried in the past,<br />

but comments such as “I’m not<br />

racist”, “I have black friends”, “I don’t<br />

see colour”, “Why is race an issue?”,<br />

have very quickly shut down any<br />

discussion. However, the Black Lives<br />

Matter protests across the world<br />

have made having the discussion<br />

on racism more accessible.<br />

Having spoken to several white<br />

people my assumptions were<br />

wrong. Whilst there are some<br />

who did not want to talk about<br />

racism most did, and that was<br />

healthy for both parties. I felt more<br />

encouraged after those discussions<br />

as it meant there is hope for<br />

the future. My supervisor and<br />

counsellor are both white and I was<br />

not sure if I was going to raise the<br />

issue with them. However, the first<br />

thing my supervisor asked me was<br />

'how was I feeling', - that was a nice<br />

opening question, as it showed me<br />

it was about me. Being honest with<br />

myself meant I was able to have<br />

some open and honest discussions<br />

with friends and family.<br />

I want to end with this from Dr<br />

Martin Luther King Jr<br />

“Our loyalties must transcend our<br />

race, our tribe, our class, and our<br />

nation; and this means we must<br />

develop a world perspective.”<br />

Leroy Harley<br />

Dr Martin Luther King Jr.<br />

40 accord <strong>Summer</strong> <strong>2021</strong> www.acc-uk.org • www.pastoralcareuk.org


feature<br />

Pregnancy loss<br />

by Amanda Padley<br />

Pregnancy loss affects around<br />

1 in 4 women and if not<br />

personally affected then most of<br />

us know someone who has been.<br />

Yet despite the high statistics, it<br />

remains an often taboo subject<br />

with women, partners and families<br />

struggling to find help. In April this<br />

year, the government announced<br />

that 26 new dedicated NHS hubs<br />

would be created to support<br />

thousands of pregnant women and<br />

new mothers who would be able to<br />

access specialist help and support.<br />

The 26 hubs will bring maternity,<br />

reproductive and psychological<br />

services together as part of the<br />

NHS long term plan. Around 6000<br />

women will be able to access care<br />

for a wide range of maternity and<br />

mental health services. The hubs<br />

are planned to be open by April<br />

2022. While there is a recognition of<br />

the devastating effect of pregnancy<br />

loss, nothing is mentioned about<br />

post-abortion support for women.<br />

My name is Amanda, I’m an art<br />

psychotherapist working for a<br />

charity in North Wales called<br />

IPAC Options. IPAC focuses on<br />

unplanned or crisis pregnancy and<br />

pregnancy loss, including abortion,<br />

and is part of the PCN (Pregnancy<br />

Centres Network), a network<br />

which has currently around eighty<br />

five centres across the UK and is<br />

expanding. Many centres have<br />

waiting lists, an indication of the<br />

need for the work. Along with<br />

crisis pregnancy and post abortion<br />

support, I have also met with clients<br />

who have experienced multiple<br />

miscarriages and also those who<br />

are going through the gruelling<br />

process of fertility treatment. The<br />

centres are not just for women but<br />

also their partners, as pregnancy<br />

loss can affect the wider family or<br />

be a secret invisible grief.<br />

ART THERAPY<br />

I think I have always had a<br />

fascination with the miracle of<br />

birth. The words of Psalm 139, ‘for<br />

I am fearfully and wonderfully<br />

made, knit together in the secret<br />

place,’ have always held an awe for<br />

me; so it felt natural to specialise<br />

in this area. For many years as<br />

an artist I had worked dyadically<br />

with women and children, but<br />

it was the women’s stories that<br />

captivated me rather than working<br />

with children, so when I began<br />

my placement I chose a women’s<br />

centre. Art therapy uses visual<br />

expression and art materials as the<br />

primary source of communication.<br />

Sometimes words are inadequate,<br />

particularly with trauma, so using<br />

symbols and metaphors enables<br />

us to speak from deep within<br />

and express ourselves through<br />

artmaking. That is not to say that<br />

art therapists don’t talk with their<br />

clients. I have primarily worked<br />

with adult women, and women<br />

like to talk! The women at the<br />

centre responded really positively<br />

to art therapy, and as they shared<br />

their stories, I became aware of<br />

how many had been affected by<br />

pregnancy loss and post abortion<br />

grief.<br />

A WOMAN’S CHOICE<br />

In this country it is a woman’s<br />

choice and legal right to terminate<br />

a pregnancy. However that does<br />

not mean it is a simple choice; often<br />

complications and coercement<br />

have influenced that decision. I<br />

have had clients confused and<br />

angry that no one had warned<br />

them about the negative<br />

consequences of abortion. They<br />

told me, ‘A friend had one and<br />

she was fine.’ Another recalled<br />

that they had seen a character on<br />

a soap opera have a termination<br />

and just move on; then why did<br />

they feel this way when it was only<br />

a bunch of cells? Confusion, grief<br />

and anger often accompany post<br />

abortion work. There is always the<br />

‘What if’ and the ‘What would have<br />

been’ at the back of the mind. For<br />

some women post abortion loss<br />

or trauma, is an unspoken secret,<br />

complicated and a disenfranchised<br />

grief, a taboo not recognised by<br />

society and difficult to find help<br />

for. Figures published by BPAS<br />

(British Pregnancy Advice Service)<br />

state 95% of women felt they had<br />

made the right choice, 5% did not.<br />

In 2019 alone 207,384 women had<br />

abortions (Dept of Health and<br />

Social care) so 5% means 10,369.2.<br />

Over ten thousand women did not<br />

feel they made the right choice.<br />

As Christians we have the biblical<br />

model of God’s recognition of<br />

unborn life, but the rights of the<br />

foetus are outweighed in our<br />

society by the rights of the mother<br />

www.acc-uk.org • www.pastoralcareuk.org accord <strong>Summer</strong> <strong>2021</strong><br />

41


and the subject of abortion is highly<br />

emotive. To work professionally we<br />

must be impartial and for me it is<br />

simply a case of meeting people<br />

where they are at, just as Jesus did,<br />

and trusting God for the bigger<br />

picture.<br />

MISCARRIAGE<br />

Most people associate baby loss<br />

with miscarriage, which affects<br />

around 1 in 4 women. While some<br />

women accept this as something<br />

that just happens, others can find it<br />

devastating. Even the terminology<br />

of miscarriage, a pregnancy<br />

miscarried, being ‘lost’, may make<br />

the Mother feel at fault somehow<br />

and she may develop complicated<br />

feelings towards her body which<br />

impact on her self esteem. Access<br />

to the Miscarriage specialist groups<br />

is very patchy across the country<br />

and only after three miscarriges<br />

will it be medically investigated.<br />

Early miscarriage can be just as<br />

devastating as a later loss, the<br />

number of weeks a woman is<br />

pregnant does not equate to<br />

her feelings of loss and grief, nor<br />

indicate how far the bonding of<br />

parent and infant has progressed.<br />

An infant loss after 22 weeks has<br />

both a birth and death certificate,<br />

but very often miscarriage is an<br />

invisible loss with nothing to<br />

commemorate the life.<br />

ART WORK<br />

Using art I have worked with clients<br />

creating memory boxes filled<br />

with precious mementos, letters<br />

and even certificates of life, all<br />

preciously stored and contained<br />

within. Clients have also designed<br />

jewelry, painted stones, written<br />

poems and planted gardens. These<br />

are all ways of commemorating<br />

and expressing emotion. I have<br />

asked clients to form a clay bulb<br />

and used this as a focus for<br />

guided imagery, where we plant<br />

the bulb safely within a beautiful<br />

garden that is watched over by<br />

a gardener. Clients have found<br />

this particularly powerful and by<br />

introducing the gardener there is<br />

a spiritual element that the client<br />

may choose to explore. Art creates<br />

a visible tangible focus for what is<br />

often an invisible unacknowledged<br />

grief. By creating an object, it holds<br />

and legitimises the feelings – this<br />

happened, it mattered, I matter. I<br />

have been a witness of grief and<br />

a keeper of secrets, some clients<br />

choosing to leave their objects with<br />

me, while others take them home<br />

and treasure. The act of creation<br />

is the opposite of loss and life<br />

affirming while allowing the client<br />

to authentically express their grief.<br />

Working creatively also offers the<br />

client personal agency at a time<br />

when they may feel out of control<br />

and overwhelmed by their loss.<br />

ART IN A PANDEMIC<br />

In this time of pandemic I have<br />

sent out art materials and I have<br />

also used therapeutic journaling,<br />

talking through an art directive<br />

and asking the client to reflect<br />

and journal, which engages them<br />

psychodynamically. I have found<br />

advantages working remotely<br />

in being able to offer greater<br />

accessibility and the clients have<br />

responded positively with this<br />

new way of working. At a time<br />

when it feels all<br />

resources<br />

are being<br />

directed<br />

towards coping with the pandemic,<br />

women are still facing unplanned<br />

pregnancy and pregnancy loss.<br />

Isolation can make it even more<br />

difficult for those seeking help. This<br />

is vital work. I hope to train others<br />

about pregnancy loss and raise<br />

awareness to break the taboos of<br />

societal silence.<br />

Reading:<br />

Grief unseen, Healing Pregnancy<br />

loss through the Arts, Laura Sefel.<br />

Therapeutic Arts in Pregnancy,<br />

Birth and New Parenthood,<br />

Susan Hogan.<br />

Pregnancy & Abortion<br />

Counselling, Joanna Brien & Ida<br />

Fairbairn.<br />

Complicated Grief, Attachment &<br />

Art Therapy, Briana MacWilliam.<br />

Amanda Padley<br />

About the author<br />

I’m an Art<br />

psychotherapist,<br />

wife, mother,<br />

writer and potter,<br />

who lives near<br />

Wrexham in North Wales,<br />

halfway up the first mountain.<br />

After working for many years as<br />

a community artist and being<br />

interested in spiritual art, I<br />

achieved a twenty year dream of<br />

studying art therapy and finally<br />

went to University aged 42. I<br />

loved the training and felt drawn<br />

to working with adult women<br />

and women’s issues. I have<br />

three miniature pekin chickens<br />

which make wonderful garden<br />

companions and a she-shed<br />

where I enjoy the calm discipline<br />

of working on a potter’s wheel.<br />

It feels the opposite of working<br />

with clay in therapy. If all that<br />

sounds very busy, I am forced to<br />

take very good care of myself as<br />

I also live with MS and disability.<br />

I am currently also studying<br />

part-time for my PGCE. I hope<br />

to go to teach and train other<br />

professionals about pregnancy<br />

loss.<br />

42 accord <strong>Summer</strong> <strong>2021</strong> www.acc-uk.org • www.pastoralcareuk.org


feature<br />

Supporting a nation<br />

in mourning<br />

by Yvonne Tulloch<br />

wonder how much you think<br />

I about death? Does it scare you?<br />

Do you expect it to happen?<br />

You may, sadly, be grieving yourself.<br />

The pandemic of the past year has<br />

brought us up sharp, with death a<br />

constant reality.<br />

Before March 2020 few of us in<br />

Britain gave death a thought.<br />

Decades of medical advances,<br />

lengthening lifespans and people<br />

dying distanced from daily life, in<br />

hospitals, care homes and hospices,<br />

led to what many termed a ‘deathdenying<br />

society’– subconsciously<br />

thinking that death only happens<br />

when we’re old and is not<br />

something to be addressed now.<br />

We have learnt to push death to<br />

the back of our minds and to avoid<br />

anything connected. The legacy<br />

of this is a tendency to dismiss the<br />

only certainty there is in life – that<br />

sooner or later, we all will die – with<br />

widespread ignorance of grief and a<br />

general unpreparedness for death.<br />

I’ve been involved in bereavement<br />

support for nearly ten years now.<br />

My husband’s sudden death in<br />

2008 made me realise the lack of<br />

understanding in our country of<br />

the impact of bereavement and<br />

how hard it is to find support.<br />

As a minister in the Church of<br />

England I had been used to taking<br />

funerals and I thought I knew<br />

about grief. But when I experienced<br />

bereavement myself, I discovered<br />

how little I did.<br />

THE NATURE OF GRIEF<br />

Bereavement affects every area<br />

of life; grief is a roller coaster of<br />

emotional responses, and death<br />

presents a minefield of practical<br />

challenges and changes that have<br />

to be addressed. The combination<br />

can knock us physically, mentally,<br />

relationally, even spiritually, and<br />

leave us in deep despair. For most<br />

people, the deep pain is felt some<br />

while after the death, when the<br />

reality of the loss has sunk in. But by<br />

then the support of those around<br />

has often dwindled and the journey<br />

to recovery can be a long and<br />

isolated road.<br />

However, grief is necessary. Grief<br />

is the natural, human response<br />

to loss – a journey that has to be<br />

travelled – a darkness that has<br />

to be faced, in order to reach the<br />

light and hope of a new normal<br />

and a healthy, secure tomorrow.<br />

God created us for relationship<br />

and when relationship is lost, we<br />

feel it keenly. And if support is not<br />

found, bereavement can lead to<br />

further problems: the breakdown<br />

of the relationships we have, anger,<br />

addiction, job loss or debt, to<br />

name just a few. Importantly also,<br />

without help the darkness can be<br />

prolonged and lead to depression,<br />

or other mental health issues. Also,<br />

a number of people, when not<br />

supported, will carry on however<br />

they can, suppressing their grief,<br />

only for problems to emerge later.<br />

For those bereaved since the<br />

start of the pandemic there is a<br />

greater risk of grief being put on<br />

hold. Lockdown and the social<br />

restrictions of the past year have<br />

meant that many bereaved people<br />

have been denied the things that<br />

normally enable acceptance and<br />

the start of the processing of the<br />

loss; not being able to see or speak<br />

to loved ones before they died, or<br />

be comforted by family and friends,<br />

or attend the funeral to say their<br />

goodbye. With over 600,000 deaths<br />

usually each year to add to those<br />

from Covid-19, the consequence of<br />

this is a nation in mourning – some<br />

10 million people not knowing what<br />

to do with their grief, or where to<br />

turn. This is a problem that needs<br />

to be faced up to and aided if<br />

we’re to avoid large scale negative<br />

outcomes for years to come.<br />

BEREAVEMENT WORK BORN<br />

OUT OF GRIEF<br />

When my husband died, I<br />

found things bad enough. In<br />

a matter of days, I went from<br />

being a highly capable person to<br />

utterly dysfunctional. The sorrow<br />

weighed heavily, like a physical<br />

weight. I couldn’t eat, I couldn’t<br />

sleep, I couldn’t think straight or<br />

remember what had been said or<br />

what I needed to do. So, I couldn’t<br />

do my job. People around me<br />

wanted to help but they seldom<br />

knew how. Practical assistance,<br />

cards, flowers and kind messages<br />

www.acc-uk.org • www.pastoralcareuk.org accord <strong>Summer</strong> <strong>2021</strong><br />

43


“Reaching out to<br />

help those in need<br />

is our calling as<br />

Christians<br />

of love kept me going. But to my<br />

further pain, some people chose<br />

to keep away to ‘give me space’<br />

and others crossed the road to<br />

avoid speaking. Day by day, week<br />

by week, although many people<br />

did their best to help, life collapsed<br />

around me, and six months later I<br />

was at my wits’ end.<br />

It was through finding, but only<br />

by chance, two Christian support<br />

services that I was able to turn<br />

my situation around: Care for the<br />

Family’s Widowed Young Support,<br />

providing weekends and days for<br />

those who lose a partner young<br />

and Holy Trinity Brompton’s The<br />

Bereavement Journey course. There<br />

I met people who understood grief<br />

and who helped me to navigate the<br />

challenges I was facing. I discovered<br />

that my oscillating emotions and<br />

reactions were normal, and in<br />

finding others who had survived<br />

what I was going through I saw<br />

hope.<br />

Out of that experience my work<br />

in bereavement was born. I<br />

determined there and then to<br />

do what I could to ensure that<br />

bereaved people across the country<br />

could access understanding<br />

support quickly and would not be<br />

left grieving alone. By 2016, I had<br />

formed the charity AtaLoss.org,<br />

to provide a signposting website<br />

for the bereaved. This now has<br />

over 900 services – both local and<br />

national, a wealth of information<br />

and an online counsellor chat<br />

service, and has become the UK’s<br />

central, ‘go to’ place when someone<br />

dies – a lifeline for many over this<br />

past pandemic year.<br />

However, I also wanted to enable<br />

Christians to support the bereaved.<br />

Christians are no different in being<br />

influenced by death denial and we<br />

can avoid people we hear of who<br />

have been bereaved for fear of<br />

saying or doing the wrong thing.<br />

Bereavement also naturally raises<br />

the big questions of life: about<br />

purpose, the afterlife and nature<br />

of God – the very questions we<br />

want people to ask. Yet because<br />

of our death denial, we miss the<br />

opportunity of addressing these.<br />

Those of us who do step in can also<br />

fall victim to platitudes and cliches<br />

if we’re not careful, or we may offer<br />

Scriptures or spiritual ‘reassurances’<br />

that things will be better, when we<br />

need to affirm the struggle and<br />

come alongside the person in their<br />

pain. This means that bereaved<br />

people quite often find churches<br />

hard places to be.<br />

Reaching out to help those in need<br />

is our calling as Christians and is<br />

in itself the message of God’s love.<br />

Interestingly, ‘helping widows and<br />

orphans in their distress’ is how<br />

the New Testament describes<br />

authentic church (James 1:27) and<br />

Jesus is ‘a man of sorrows and<br />

acquainted with grief’. But we<br />

have been reluctant to become<br />

acquainted with grief ourselves.<br />

LOSS AND HOPE<br />

One of the consequences of<br />

the pandemic is that things are,<br />

thankfully, changing. Its constant<br />

focus on death has disturbed us<br />

all, reminded us of our mortality<br />

and stirred us up to seek to help<br />

those who grieve. One of the<br />

projects I’m involved with is Loss<br />

and HOPE, a coalition project<br />

launched at Lambeth Palace on<br />

what turned out to be the very day<br />

the first UK Covid-19 death was<br />

announced. With the Church of<br />

England’s Life Events Department,<br />

Care for the Family and HOPE<br />

Together we are seeking to equip<br />

churches to support the bereaved.<br />

Before the pandemic the National<br />

Bereavement Alliance called<br />

for a 3-tiered approach across<br />

Britain to build capacity to meet<br />

the burgeoning demand. They<br />

argued that if first, information<br />

and signposting could be offered,<br />

and then second, understanding<br />

community support could be<br />

found, then the third level of<br />

specialist intervention could be<br />

reserved for the prolonged or<br />

complex needs. Our desire was for<br />

the local support to come from<br />

Christians and the Church.<br />

Consequently, The Bereavement<br />

Journey course that helped me<br />

so much years ago is now being<br />

promoted to churches across the<br />

UK as a church-wide response to<br />

the pandemic. Offered with all the<br />

resources, training and support<br />

needed to make it easy for any<br />

church to run face-to-face or online,<br />

it is a six-session course of films<br />

and discussion groups for people<br />

bereaved in any way, to enable<br />

them to process their loss. The first<br />

five sessions deal with issues of<br />

bereavement that are unrelated<br />

to faith, making it accessible for<br />

anyone of any faith or none, and<br />

a sixth optional session offers my<br />

own Christian response to the faith<br />

questions I find are commonly<br />

asked. The Loss and HOPE website<br />

aims increasingly to offer resources<br />

to enable Christians to discuss<br />

and prepare for death, support<br />

bereaved people as individuals and<br />

provide a comfortable environment<br />

for those who grieve. It is our hope<br />

that in so doing many thousands of<br />

grieving people across our land will<br />

experience the love and comfort<br />

of God and find new meaning and<br />

hope through the Church.<br />

Yvonne Tulloch<br />

About the author<br />

Yvonne Richmond<br />

Tulloch is Founder<br />

and CEO of<br />

AtaLoss.org, the<br />

UK’s signposting<br />

website for the<br />

bereaved:<br />

https://www.<br />

ataloss.org/<br />

For more information see<br />

https://www.lossandhope.org/<br />

44 accord <strong>Summer</strong> <strong>2021</strong> www.acc-uk.org • www.pastoralcareuk.org


In Touch<br />

Table Talk for Wellbeing – Creating<br />

space to talk about Mental Health<br />

Over the past couple of years<br />

we have witnessed a rise<br />

in people talking about mental<br />

health in the public domain<br />

like never before. Across TV<br />

programmes, social media feeds,<br />

magazine articles and radio<br />

shows, we continue to hear that<br />

mental health matters and that<br />

when life gets tough it is vital to<br />

reach out and talk.<br />

“However encouraging people to<br />

talk and enabling them to talk<br />

are two very different things”.<br />

The current emphasis on<br />

wellbeing provides us an<br />

opportunity to help people<br />

from all walks of life join<br />

the conversation. For some,<br />

the counselling room is the<br />

right place, but for many the<br />

conversation can start elsewhere.<br />

There are those who may not<br />

need, or are not ready for,<br />

counselling but are looking for<br />

an opportunity to talk about<br />

wellbeing. Others may feel like<br />

they need permission to start<br />

exploring the topic and some, we<br />

just need to get the conversation<br />

going for the first time.<br />

“Table Talk for Wellbeing<br />

provides an opportunity for<br />

people to start exploring<br />

wellbeing for themselves,<br />

wherever they are at”.<br />

During 2020, The Ugly Duckling<br />

Company teamed up<br />

with the charity Renew<br />

Wellbeing and mental<br />

health experts to explore<br />

what a resource around<br />

wellbeing might look<br />

like. The aim - to start a<br />

conversation around Mental<br />

Health in an accessible way<br />

and to encourage people<br />

to explore ways to live well.<br />

The result was ‘Table Talk<br />

for Wellbeing’, a pack of<br />

question cards containing<br />

six themes built around<br />

the “Five Ways to Wellbeing”<br />

which was developed by The New<br />

Economics Foundation with the<br />

Government's Foresight report<br />

in 2008. The “Five Ways” are<br />

Connecting, Keeping Learning,<br />

Getting Active, Taking Notice and<br />

Giving.<br />

Using the Five Ways provides a<br />

shared language to talk about<br />

wellbeing across care systems and<br />

faith and community groups and<br />

to share good habits.<br />

The sixth theme in the pack is<br />

a picture round and provides<br />

an opportunity for a more<br />

open ended discussion; to form<br />

our own questions, talk about<br />

emotions or keep it light hearted.<br />

The questions and pictures are<br />

designed to promote good chat<br />

about wellbeing and the picture<br />

pack makes it accessible to<br />

anyone of any ability.<br />

Table Talk is a great resource<br />

to connect with people in our<br />

churches and communities and<br />

with restrictions being lifted in all<br />

sorts of settings in homes, cafes,<br />

pubs and churches. Table Talk is<br />

fun as well as encouraging good<br />

honest chat.<br />

Table Talk for Wellbeing is<br />

available for £20.00 (plus P&P)<br />

from<br />

www.theuglyducklingcompany.com<br />

Counselling Service<br />

42a Warwick Road, Carlisle CA1 1DN<br />

Christian counsellors providing<br />

professional, confidential<br />

counselling in Carlisle and<br />

North Cumbria.<br />

Borderline urgently needs<br />

qualified voluntary counsellors,<br />

please get in touch if you can<br />

help.<br />

For more information contact<br />

Anne Fearon<br />

01228 596900<br />

info@borderlinecounselling.co.uk<br />

www.borderlinecounselling.co.uk<br />

www.acc-uk.org • www.pastoralcareuk.org accord <strong>Summer</strong> <strong>2021</strong><br />

45


Offering online and phone services:<br />

Counselling, Clinical Supervision,<br />

Mentoring, Coaching, Christian<br />

counselling and multicultural<br />

(inclusive of all backgrounds/<br />

cultures).<br />

(face-to-face counselling within<br />

Southeast London, Bromley will<br />

resume post-pandemic).<br />

<strong>Issue</strong>s worked on range from<br />

emotional and mental health<br />

issues, relationships issues and life<br />

management related problems.<br />

Clinical supervision: individuals and<br />

groups (qualified and trainees) to<br />

review their work with clients or<br />

service users.<br />

Counselling fees: based on<br />

income (full-time & part-time &<br />

concessionary)<br />

Supervision cost: £48.50 per 1 hr.<br />

(£38.50 for Trainee Counsellors /<br />

Therapists<br />

Availability: Weekdays & evenings<br />

Contact: 0784 762 0103<br />

PART OF UCHM<br />

Huddersfield<br />

Christian<br />

Counselling,<br />

College and<br />

Resource Centre<br />

Trinity Training<br />

Level 3 Intermediate Certificate<br />

in Counselling<br />

Starting September 13th <strong>2021</strong><br />

The course integrates theory, basic<br />

counselling skills, counselling process<br />

and biblical theology<br />

Level 4 Advanced Diploma<br />

in Counselling<br />

Starting September 14th <strong>2021</strong><br />

The course teaches an integrative<br />

counselling model and within this a<br />

person centred framework is used<br />

to develop each counsellor's own<br />

integration<br />

UCHM Training Courses are<br />

accredited by<br />

For further information please contact:<br />

Tel: 01484 461098<br />

Email: training@uchm.org<br />

BARNABAS<br />

COUNSELLING<br />

TRAINING<br />

Lively, illustrated,<br />

dynamic<br />

CHRISTIAN COUNSELLING<br />

COURSES<br />

ONLINE SUPERVISION<br />

TRAINING<br />

Level 5 Intermediate Diploma<br />

in Counselling Supervision<br />

(CPCAB accredited)<br />

MODULE 1-2: 15/16 October <strong>2021</strong><br />

MODULE 3-4: 12/13 November<br />

MODULE 5-6: 10/11 December<br />

MODULE 7-8: 21/22 January 2022<br />

MODULE 9-10: 25/26 February<br />

contact Julie Allday<br />

tel: 01243 543403<br />

Email: info@barnabastraining.com<br />

www.barnabastraining.com<br />

We seek to help and support those<br />

who are suffering emotional and<br />

personal issues helping them find a<br />

way forward through their difficulties.<br />

Particularly in the following areas:<br />

Bereavement * Trauma * Loss * Stress<br />

* Physical / Mental / Sexual Abuse *<br />

Depression * Drug/Alcohol Abuse<br />

* Gender * Sexuality * Relationships<br />

* Marriage * Anxiety * Loneliness<br />

Counselling is carried out by<br />

professionally trained counsellors<br />

using a range of recognised models of<br />

counselling.<br />

Tel: 078 1710 6295<br />

The Olive Tree Centre, Eastwood<br />

Baptist Church, Nobles Green Road,<br />

Eastwood, Leigh on Sea,<br />

Essex, SS9 5PY<br />

enquiries@olivetreecentre.org.uk<br />

www.olivetreecentre.org.uk<br />

Registered Charity - Number 1075617<br />

Manna House Counselling Service<br />

CHRISTIAN COUNSELLING<br />

COURSES <strong>2021</strong><br />

Providing <strong>ACC</strong>/OCN training for<br />

pastoral workers and trainee<br />

counsellors<br />

L2 - Introduction to Christian<br />

Counselling<br />

<strong>Summer</strong> School 9 th – 14 th August/<br />

6 x Saturdays 4 th Sep - 20 th Nov <strong>2021</strong><br />

L4 - Diploma in Christian<br />

Counselling 2yrs p/t<br />

7 th September <strong>2021</strong> - 18 th July 2023<br />

For further information visit<br />

www.themannahouseonline.com<br />

Tel: 01604 633304 or email<br />

Training@mannahouse.org.uk<br />

Safeguarding for Counsellors<br />

Church Safeguarding Consultancy provides a<br />

professional consultancy service to churches, faith<br />

communities, counselling agencies, missions,<br />

charities, and not-for-profit organisations to assist in<br />

safeguarding children and adults.<br />

Our aim is to make our faith communities<br />

safer places for all.<br />

We offer support and advice, safeguarding training<br />

in child and adult protection, writing policies, review<br />

current & non-recent cases, audit, management<br />

investigation, risk assessment and supervision.<br />

For more information, please contact:<br />

Church Safeguarding Consultancy<br />

9 Shawbrook Close, Euxton, Chorley, PR7 6JY<br />

Telephone: 07761 486 764<br />

Email: Info@churchsafeguarding.com<br />

www.churchsafeguarding.com<br />

46 accord <strong>Summer</strong> <strong>2021</strong> www.acc-uk.org • www.pastoralcareuk.org


In Touch<br />

Do you have a<br />

female friend or<br />

family member who<br />

is in need of some<br />

support?<br />

We’re here to help.<br />

www.waterlilyproject.org.uk<br />

The Water Lily Project is a registered<br />

Christian charity, who support women<br />

through divorce, bereavement, illness,<br />

depression/anxiety, financial difficulties,<br />

addictions, domestic abuse or mental<br />

health issues. During Covid-19 we can offer<br />

the following:<br />

• Online FREE 1:1 support, signposting to<br />

other organisations where needed<br />

• Online Prayer support or Companion<br />

Calls from Christian Volunteers<br />

• Craft/Card packs delivered to door to<br />

relieve boredom through lockdown<br />

• Online access to art/craft sessions, Cafe<br />

Church, Book Clubs etc.<br />

Based in Christchurch, Dorset<br />

For support call: 07507 890116<br />

Or email<br />

support@waterlilyproject.org.uk<br />

Counselling Together, is a Christian<br />

counselling service currently<br />

offering face to face and online<br />

counselling to clients in and around<br />

the New Forest. As a registered<br />

charity, we work closely with local<br />

churches to support the clients<br />

across the New Forest.<br />

We currently have spaces to take<br />

on new clients, face to face and<br />

remotely via Zoom. We also have a<br />

bursary fund that can be applied<br />

for subject to availability and<br />

assessment.<br />

For further details of what we can<br />

offer you, please contact us on<br />

07983 320450 or email<br />

counsellingtogether@yahoo.com.<br />

To see our full range of services<br />

please head to our website<br />

www.counsellingtogether.co.uk<br />

RESTORATION FOR<br />

ABUSED PEOPLE<br />

(R.A.P)<br />

COUNSELLING &<br />

ADVICE<br />

‘road to restoration’<br />

For the abused &<br />

Deprived from 14yrs RESTORATION & above. Within FOR<br />

Greater London ABUSED PEOPLE<br />

(R.A.P)<br />

COUNSELLING<br />

TO BOOK AN APPOINTMENT for<br />

&<br />

counselling in areas of physical, ADVICE<br />

sexual, mental, spiritual, emotional<br />

Within Greater London<br />

abuse.<br />

With CBT/Person–centred/ TO BOOK AN APPOINTMENT for<br />

Integrative/Biblical Counselling<br />

in areas of<br />

approach<br />

OR<br />

For the abused & Deprived from 14yrs & above.<br />

Physical, sexual, mental, spiritual, emotional abu<br />

With<br />

CBT/Person –centred/Integrative/Biblical Counselling app<br />

Advocacy on human rights & spiritual<br />

OR<br />

abuse – Regionally & internationally<br />

TEL: 0203 488 1847<br />

Mob: 0796 017 2928<br />

Email: info@rapcharity.co.uk<br />

Advocacy on Human rights & Spiritual Abuse –<br />

Regionally & internationally<br />

TEL: 020 – 34881847<br />

Mob: 07960172928<br />

Email: info@rapcharity.co.uk<br />

WWW.rapcharity.org./ co.uk<br />

WWW.rapcharity.org./ co.uk<br />

OPEN: TUES – THURS (10am – 4pm)<br />

Venues: Across London Borough of<br />

Newham (By appointments only,)<br />

Bear in mind! !! !!!<br />

We, are here as a shoulder to cry<br />

on. To listen & aid you out of your<br />

deprivation.<br />

OPEN: TUES – THURS (10am – 4pm)<br />

Venues: Across London Borough of Newham<br />

(By appointments only,)<br />

Bear in mind! !! !!!<br />

We, are here as a shoulder to cry on.<br />

To listen & aid you out of your deprivation.<br />

A friendly<br />

Counselling Centre for the<br />

wellbeing of the community<br />

Affordable counselling<br />

offered by a team of<br />

Christian Counsellors in<br />

Cheltenham Gloucestershire<br />

Email:<br />

Julie@ccccheltenham.org.uk<br />

for appointment or enquiries<br />

about our services.<br />

Welcome<br />

Counselling<br />

Service<br />

Based in<br />

Witney, our<br />

counsellors<br />

provide a<br />

professional<br />

service to people throughout<br />

Oxfordshire. They work with<br />

clients experiencing:<br />

Bereavement, Marriage <strong>Issue</strong>s,<br />

Anger, Addictions, Low Self-<br />

Confidence, Eating Disorders,<br />

Stress and Anxiety as well as<br />

other issues.<br />

For more information see<br />

www.thewelcomechurch.org.<br />

uk/counselling<br />

counselling@<br />

thewelcomechurch.org.uk<br />

The Haven<br />

Counselling<br />

Centre<br />

Ashby de la Zouch & Loughborough<br />

Registered Charity no. 1082850<br />

Patrons: Babette Rothschild and<br />

Divine Charura.<br />

Professional, confidential, shortand<br />

long-term counselling and<br />

therapy.<br />

Placements for students on 2nd<br />

year of degree or post graduate<br />

diploma courses<br />

(Level 5 and above).<br />

Full team positions for qualified<br />

therapists.<br />

www.thehavenashby.org.uk<br />

for details and application forms<br />

or contact: 01530 560921<br />

thehavencounselling@btconnect.com<br />

www.acc-uk.org • www.pastoralcareuk.org accord <strong>Summer</strong> <strong>2021</strong><br />

47


Be ready to experience the difference<br />

MA in Therapeutic Counselling and Psychotherapy<br />

MA in Counselling<br />

Diploma in Counselling Supervision<br />

MA in Spiritual Formation*<br />

Postgraduate Certificates in:<br />

Chaplaincy<br />

Spiritual Direction<br />

Mentoring and Coaching*<br />

Pastoral Care<br />

Online<br />

Open Day<br />

Visit our online Open Day<br />

waverleyabbeycollege.ac.uk/online-open-day<br />

We are happy to answer your questions:<br />

Email: admissions@waverleyabbeycollege.ac.uk or call 01252 784731<br />

* On successful completion, students are able<br />

to apply for accreditation with the European<br />

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We hold the EQA conferred by<br />

the EMCC for the Coaching<br />

and Mentoring module of the<br />

Spiritual Formation programme.<br />

QAA Reviewed<br />

Quality Assurance Agency<br />

for Higher Education<br />

waverleyabbeycollege.ac.uk<br />

Waverley Abbey College is the<br />

education division of CWR

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