Maslow’s hierarchy of human needs.
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Thanks Michelle xx
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I really appreciate your posts ,they give me a clearer picture of what is going on politically, I genuinely enjoy reading someone else’s thoughts (thankfully very similar if not the same as mine!) If you can get a chance, look at Brighton and Hove’s cuts in their next Budget ! I can not believe how drastic the cuts are regarding disabled ,learning difficulty’s, and disabled kids ! This from a Labour Council who fought the exact cuts they have brought out! I am very sad Kitty as i really believed in Warren Morgan ,and the Labour party . It seems like there are Corbynites and anti Corbynites at force in the Brighton and Hove Labour party as well which in my eyes seem to be creating a bad atmosphere among some members ( friends) that I have spoken to. I left the Labour party partly because of this but after speaking to David Tangmer decided to stay in the end. I really want to believe in Labour as a united party not one that is divided by loyalties to one person or another! Loyalties should be to the party ! And the party should be loyal to its members and the country!
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Thanks for your positive feedback.
I’m glad you decided to stay. Brighton and Hove isn’t a Labour run council is it? I thought it was run by the Greens. But the cuts come from central office – government – and obviously a shortfall in funding is a shortfall in funding, which means there is no choice to be exercised at all, unfortunately. Even Cameron’s local authority are up in arms about the cuts they are forced to impose, and they are a Tory council, with less cuts in central funding than opposition councils.
I joined Labour in April 2015. But have always seen them as the only viable alternative to Tory rule. It’s the grassroots supporters that are amplifying a lot of the division, that’s why I’m working on unifying people at that level. I support Corbyn, have time for Andy Burnham, and feel that we are by necessity a broad church – that’s what democracy is all about! I don’t see what can ever be gained by perpetuating divisions and hostilities.
Upwards and onwards, eh? 🙂
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Thank you for your reply Kitty,I agree there has to be a United front by the Labour party. The divisions seem to be within local group’s perhaps they are annoyed because their candidate did not win,? Some of the shadow cabinet ministers are a bit hypocritical as well! I personally am fed up with the likes of Hilary Benn why does he seem to contradict Jeremy Corbyn? It seems like two party’s within one,Jeremy Corbyn for whatever reason was voted in(I voted for him) so as the duly elected leader party members including MPs should follow the manifesto that got him in in the first place( only my opinion) I don’t agree with all of his idea’s but with a true Democracy things are discussed then changes can be made ,folk should not throw their dummy out the pram just because they don’t get their own way. Brighton is a Labour council now Warren is the head of the council now, I have a lot of respect for him as he has been a great help to me in the past. I admit I am a little bit worried about the future due to my own disabilities, I have been lucky enough so far as my friends help me when possible, that way I don’t burden the council or the state any more than I can help.
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I’m also worried about the future, as a disabled person with a chronic and progressive illness, I worked until I couldn’t, and I hated having to give up my job. I have never been poorer since.
Glad Warren has been supportive.
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I have a skeletal degenerative condition, also Diverticulitis, I worked really hard until my disability, really frustrating, I have been diagnosed with PTSD and agoraphobic in the last two years, I think it is just frustration and anger tbh (angry at not being able to do the things I used to be able to do)
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kitty as ever really apprecitate your hard work on all our behalf.
Can I make a personal request:
Im trying to find objective critique of Dialectical Behaviour Therapy, but most of the stuff I can find is all singing and dancing in its praise. Gold Standard Praise etc!!!
I have found a report evaluating the research methods used on the Founders original experiments, which was very enlightening and pointed out a heap of statistical assumptions and flaws in the method and summary, but I can find nothing since then.
Neither can I find any critique from people subjected to the Therapy.
Any pointers or alternative perspective on this Behavioural Therapy would be of great help to me in understanding a predicament I find myself in.
Linda x
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There are some criticisms in this article, with hyperlinks to other articles – http://bjp.rcpsych.org/content/186/4/278
In particular, this one, but I currently have only access to the abstract, I need to subscribe – The empirical basis of dialectical behavior therapy: Summary, critique, and implications- http://cel.webofknowledge.com/InboundService.do?SID=Q1UdVADuJFUJLUpIjNk&product=CEL&UT=WOS%3A000085434200006&SrcApp=Highwire&action=retrieve&access_num=000085434200006&Init=Yes&SrcAuth=Highwire&customersID=Highwire&Func=Frame&IsProductCode=Yes&link_type=ISI&mode=FullRecord
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Thanks Kitty x
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I’m still exploring, working very slow today due to the thunderous lupus headache I woke with …
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This – https://thepsychologist.bps.org.uk/yoke-upon-necks-poor
Also there are some relevant critcisms in this, which is about CBT, but as you know, DBT draws on an CBT model – https://kittysjones.wordpress.com/2015/03/22/the-power-of-positive-thinking-is-really-political-gaslighting/
Poverty is linked with a higher risk of mental health problems. So a valid criticism of all therapeutic interventions would be that merely alleviating what may be regarded as a negative and probably normal response to damaging circumstances is contributing to pathologising people in poverty, it maintains the status quo, because the “symptoms” but not the causes are addressed.
“So we need to ask what are the circumstances that the government are expecting people claiming benefits to accept stoically. Sanctions? Work fare? Being forced to accept very poorly paid work, abysmal working conditions and no security? The loss of social support, public services and essential safety nets ? Starvation and destitution?
It’s all very well challenging people’s thoughts but for whom is CBT being used, and for what purpose? Seems to me that this is about helping those people on the wrong side of punitive government policy to accommodate that, and to mute negative responses to negative situations. CBT in this context is not based on a genuinely liberational approach, nor is it based on any sort of democratic dialogue. It’s all about modifying and controlling behaviour, particularly when it’s aimed at such a narrow, politically defined and specific outcome.
CBT is too often founded on blunt oversimplifications of what causes human distress – for example, in this case it is assumed that the causes of unemployment are psychological rather than socio-political, and that assumption authorises intrusive state interventions that encode a conservative moral framework which places responsibility on the individual, who is characterised as “faulty.”
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Another critique – https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/stop-walking-eggshells/201011/popular-bpd-treatment-not-miracle-cure
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The statement at the end of the above link: “I’m sorry that you cut yourself, you must have been in a lot of pain.” Instead it becomes, “You’re trying to punish/hurt/manipulate me.”
Is something I have experienced repeatedly in many different forms.
My Therapist comes accross as very cold and views my emotional experiences as irellevant much of the time. My emotional life is constantly invalidated.
I have not been diagnosed with BPD but DID with co consciousness.
I took myself to therapy. Knowing I had real relational difficulties and accept my difficulties can influence my relationships in an unfavourable way.
I had the desire to change.
To me the most important elements missing from my relationship with my Therapist was around empathy, and also helping to build on my strengths.
For me therapy has stripped away all the strengths I perceived I had and have been replaced with a sense of unworthyness because of my less desirable behaviours.
The whole experience has been around acceptance of my faults and inadequacies.
My therapist told me early on that because of my social standing I HAD NO POWER. And because of this, trying to assert my views would be harmful to me. She told me time and time again my behaviour was risky. It was not my job to challenge authority figures and that in order to become happier, I should accept my fate. It is her world view for instance, that as we voted the Tories in, then we need to respect the position we have given them, ie obey and comply with their policies etc.
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B*llocks to your therapist! I have no power either, but it won’t ever stop me trying to raise awareness and inspire strength in others. She clearly hasn’t read Allport’s scale of prejudice – a social psychologist’s research into how the Holocaust happened. Your therapist would have advocated a bystander position. Accept powerlessness and watch other people being destroyed. What a disgraceful approach to “therapy”, that proposes only the powerful can challenge, and that the powerful are free to abuse citizens, who must “accept” their position. I’d have frankly told her to kiss my ass. But that’s very difficult to do in a therapeutic relationship. I’m appalled and so sorry to hear about your experiences.
You have power, you have excellent communication skills, challenging is a mightly strength, and so is empathy – it’s a quality that you should have pride in.You have a clear and commendable ethical and moral framework. You care about others. You have the capacity for critical thinking – essential for intelligence and personal development, which is more than can be said for your therapist.
You keep sight of yourself, your fine qualities and don’t allow her distortions and world-view to intrude on you xxx
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After a year in therapy with her, ‘she was also a private consultant brought in to the NHS Trust in order to shake things up’ She called me up to tell me that she was under investigation following a complaint, which alleged a patient had been harmed by her.
The outcome was, although the allegations were not wholly upheld she was sacked. Although because she had a private contract with the Trust they allowed her to continue in this capacity to finish her contract for the remaining 6 months. She was however banned from any patient contact.
This was a critical time for me as I too was very concerned about how things in therapy were going. I have diary inputs describing my fears of being controlled and brainwashed.
I fell apart. I did not want to believe my fears. It was me being distrustful. etc….. I had already started voicing my concerns to her in Therapy, and there were angry exchanges. However she usually managed to silence me.
The outcome was, I was distraut, I spoke to my GP who was very supportive, understanding my conflicting emotions and views. It felt like the abuse of my past was repeating itself, was this just projection and transference!!
The outcome was my Therapist offered, encouraged me to 2 years of private free therapy with her outside the institution.
The condition of me receiving this was for me to discharge myself from the NHS and to state I was pleased and happy of my progress.
I was made aware that she was regarded a the Best Psychotherapist in the Country by a lady she brought in to stand in for her for a couple of sessions.
I was also made aware that the NHS would have nothing more to offer me as I had already had beyond the usual quota of time.
The Psychiatrist who dealt with treatment assignment etc was a friend of my Therapist.
I did discharge myself in order to continue treatment. At the time I felt trapped. The Distress caused by having my Therapist accused of abuse was huge. She told me that she could help me and described it in the following way;
I am offering you the chance to metaphorically leave your father and start a new life with your mother. You need to leave the NHS behind and come with me so you can have a better life.
I have never been able to resolve the conflict this has created in me.
The two years is coming to and end….
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OMG. Blackmail and exploitation. She didn’t take a liberational approach, then
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“Patients must be highly motivated.” Most needing support in the first plave are unlikely to be highly motivated, so which people are being worked with??
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The empirical evidence used to promote this Therapy is flawed to say the least. Ive found a number of lectures by the Founder on YouTube, which only serves to support my own concerns about this treatment. She appears to be saying she writes the hypothesis and Training manual is such a way to enable her to be able to alter the Hypothesis, presumably in order to validate her findings and/or assumptions. Much of her research findings appear to be extrapolated from her original research findings to form a the illusion of success.
Her control samples are extremely dodgy and do not constitute valid controls.
The real concern is that this Manualised Therapy is being validated by IAPT, in a different form. Also the Founder is also developing a computerised model of Therapy, which flies in the face of her assertions that adherence to the Training Manual is fundamental to the success of Treatment.
I believe my own therapy over the last 5 years has incorporated much DBT without my knowlege. My therapist was sold to me as Psychoanalytic not as a Behaviorist. On reflection I believe the latter is more the truth.
I have been feeling brainwashed and bullied for years but unable to break free .
I often described my attachment to her as similar to Stockholm Syndrome. Which I have told her about.
Any attempts by me to voice my concerns about her methods, as they leave me feeling demoralised has been met with utter silence or ridicule.
I have recently found out that one of her Therapy businesses has signed up to IAPT to offer DBT to stage 2 referrals, which concerns me.
DBT appears to me via my own experience to be a Behavioural Modification Therapy designed to break down the Clients belief systems in order to reinvent them in the form representing the Therapists World View.
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Yes, that’s an important point, it’s profoundly disempowering because it’s about meeting the expectations of the therapist, ultimately.
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Here we are: The Empirical Basis of Dialectical Behavior Therapy – http://www.personal.kent.edu/~dfresco/CBT_Readings/CPSP_Scheel_2000.pdf
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