PCI College Blog

“I can resist everything except temptation.”  Oscar Wilde, Lady Windermere’s Fan.

At this time of year, we often resolve to change some of our less healthy behaviours into more healthy ones – to watch less TV and walk more, to eat less junk food and more fruit and vegetables, etc. In this context, if you’re not already familiar with the concept of the Supernormal Stimulus, it’s worth knowing about…

Imagine that you have the choice of eating either:

a.    a bacon double cheeseburger
or
b.    a green salad

or of watching either:

a.    an episode of a crime drama series
or
b.    a documentary on national crime statistics over the past year

Ok, if you are going for choice “b” in either case, you’re spoiling my argument, but most people will say choice “a”, although they may add that they probably should be going for “b”. In fact, we often promise ourselves that we will do more of the b-type options, and then find ourselves yet again going for the bar of chocolate instead of the apple in the newsagents.

These hard-to-resist options, which seem to sap our ability to make healthy choices, are called “Supernormal Stimuli”. By this term we mean artificially enhanced stimuli which elicit particularly strong, highly-motivating, hard to resist, responses at all levels – in our thinking, our emotions, our physiological reactions, and of course our behaviour.

Wikipedia gives the following definition:

A supernormal stimulus or superstimulus is an exaggerated version of a stimulus to which there is an existing response tendency, or any stimulus that elicits a response more strongly than the stimulus for which it evolved.

For example, a moth will spiral into a flame because it is adapted to navigate by the sun (a much more distant light source). When it comes to eggs, a bird can be made to prefer the artificial versions to their own, and humans can be similarly exploited by junk food and pornography. The idea is that the elicited behaviours evolved for the “normal” stimuli of the ancestor’s natural environment, but the behaviours are now hijacked by the supernormal stimulus.

The concept is derived from ethology. Konrad Lorenz observed that birds would select for brooding eggs that resembled those of their own species but were larger. Niko Tinbergen, following his extensive analysis of the stimulus features that elicited food-begging in the chick of the Herring Gull, constructed an artificial stimulus consisting of a red knitting needle with three white bands painted round it; this elicited a stronger response than an accurate three-dimensional model of the parent’s head (white) and bill (yellow with a red spot).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supernormal_Stimuli

Other classic examples of supernormal stimuli are slot machines and video games. They are clearly designed to be super-normal, indeed the more so the better.<

Jokes are another example, according to one recent book:
“…jokes are prime examples of super-normal stimuli that take advantage of our natural propensity for humor-detection in much the same way that perfumes, makeup, artificial sweeteners, music, and art give us exaggerated experiences with respect to the natural world. Thanks to their refined designs, they tend to have the power to induce in us a far stronger and richer sense of the ludicrous than everyday “found” stimuli, however humorous. Few events in real life are so funny, on their own, as to be unimprovable into still funnier episodes with a few fictional touches.”

Hurley, M.M., Dennett, D.C. & Adams, R.B. Jr. (2011) Inside Jokes: Using Humor to Reverse-Engineer the Mind. Massachusetts: MIT Press.

And of course smartphones and iPads and Kindles are among the latest and greatest supernormal stimuli (and indeed deliverers of supernormal stimuli).

The relevance for New Year resolutions is that we should never underestimate the power of supernormal stimuli, or overestimate our ability to resist them. Supernormal stimuli are by definition artificially-enhanced (especially in relation to the simpler environment which the human species originally evolved to adapt to). Their purpose, even if we are not always conscious of this (advertisers are!), is to provide desirable emotional rewards in the form of better-than-average positive mood-alteration (pleasure, distraction, comfort, excitement, etc). They do this by subverting and hijacking evolved appetites/instincts/motivational systems, over-stimulating their associated neural pathways. This makes them hard to say “no” to.

Mood-altering drugs such as alcohol, caffeine, cocaine, heroin etc, do the same thing (i.e. over-stimulate the neural pathways associated with evolved appetites/instincts/motivational systems) in a more directly-targeted way. Alcohol, of course, is generally consumed in such a way as to also make use of the supernormal stimulus effect – we rarely ingest alcohol purely for its own sake (except at the chronic stage of alcoholism); rather we enjoy its taste, its branding, its setting. Even vodka, which probably has little going for it apart from the fact that it contains alcohol, is often marketed using terms such as “pure” and “distilled” – typical supernormal terminology.

I am not trying to suggest that we should try to live without supernormal stimuli – it would be very difficult to live a human life that way, especially a normal modern human life, and the attempt would be have to be undertaken in rather extreme circumstances, like a Buddhist monastery, or an Amish community, or East Germany under Communism. Anyway, many supernormal stimuli are pretty harmless – Christmas tree lights, teddy bears, DVD box sets, cartoons, pop hits…

But many are harmful, not only to those individuals who may be contemplating their New Year resolutions, but also to society at large. “Junk” foods (i.e. highly processed foods containing large amounts of sugar or other refined carbohydrates, fat, salt etc, and low amounts of fibre) are the classic example, hence the current discussions with regard to a possible “Fat Tax” in this and other countries.

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/health/2011/1108/1224307199290.html

http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2011/dec/21/sugary-soft-drinks-obesity-tax?fb=native&CMP=FBCNETTXT9038

The argument over introducing such a tax often runs along the lines of freedom of choice versus government control (and revenue-raising), but the reality is that making supernormal stimuli less accessible is at least one effective factor in reducing their overuse. As I said above, we tend to underestimate the power of supernormal stimuli, and overestimate our ability to resist them.

So whatever else you do, at least don’t kid yourself that you can keep exposing yourself and resisting. Stay away from the biscuits aisle in the supermarket (where the products are not only highly processed to be sweet and crunchy, but packaged to look visually attractive, and supersized for added “value”). Don’t visit YouTube if you don’t want large amounts of your time to get used up before you know it. Don’t shop in the service station (apart from for petrol, obviously!).

By definition supernormal stimuli make great rewards/treats of course, so we can make positive use of them by doing the chores or the exercise or the meditation first, and then watching the thriller and having the chocolate biscuit (maybe not the cheeseburger). Hopefully we already know some of these common sense suggestions regarding keeping New Year resolutions, but maybe this time around they can be assisted by remembering that supernormal stimuli are supernormal, and we’re only normal, only human.

As Deirdre Barrett says (in Barrett, D. 2010, Supernormal Stimuli: How Primal Urges Overran Their Evolutionary Purpose. W.W. Norton.), “We don’t have to just ‘listen to our instincts’…”

Our instincts are sometimes reliable, but it’s clear that they can also be hijacked, fooled, subverted.

So watch out for supernormal stimuli, and have a Happy New Year!

Eoin Stephens
President, PCI College

“What, more shoes?”,says he. “More CD.s? ” says she. “But that’s different!!” protests he, in anguished tones.

For most of us, Christmas shopping is a pleasurable experience as we pick up little treasures and knick-knacks for loved ones. Shops are abuzz, lights aglow, and tunes as familiar as old friends waft over the airwaves lending an air of reassurance and wellbeing.

Much has been highlighted in the media over the years as to the dangers of excess around the festive season. For the first time road deaths are down in number and a cultural shift around drinking and driving has taken place. We see that a combination of education in tandem with legislation can effect a change for the better, not only in people’s attitudes, but in behaviour too.

So with these things in mind it’s worth spending a thought or two on how we are as a nation of consumers. We are well aware from the media that we overspent during the so called boom years and now it’s payback time. Economists struggle with trying to unravel the global impact of our spending habits, and as many of us strive to see through the haze to our fiscal future many people are wondering, ‘how did we get here?’

As we are surrounded by advertising, telling us that buying will make us happy and consumerism has become a measure of our social worth and a way of life for many people, many are curious as to when normal consumer behaviour in a market economy crosses the boundary into the more sinister realm of addiction.

An addiction to shopping or omniomania has been recognised as a disorder as far back as Kraeplin in the early 20th century. As with more recognised addictions, shopping, which is an essential part of everyday life, gravitates into a zone where it no longer is serving a primary function.

As with all addictions, shopping becomes the person’s main way of coping with stress, to the point where they continue to shop excessively even when it is clearly having a negative impact on other areas of their life. As with other addictions, finances and relationships are damaged, yet the shopping addict feels unable to stop or even control their spending.

The process of purchasing gives shopaholics a sort of euphoria, excitement, and “high”‘ that seems to give their life meaning, while letting them forget about their sorrows; but there is usually a feeling of disappointment afterwards. Compulsive shoppers are prone to shop in secret as the condition worsens, debt increases, and relationships with family members and friends become strained.

Catalogues, dedicated television shopping channels, cybershopping, and online trading make the process of purchasing all the more readily available twenty four hours a day, seven days a week and the fallout includes significant emotional, social, occupational, and financial consequences.

For most people shopping is a healthy experience which is purposeful, goal-directed and to be enjoyed as part of the Christmas atmosphere. It is only really when we start accumulating beyond our means or find ourselves hoarding secretly that we needs to pay attention to our spending patterns.

Most of us have our little blind spot when it comes to consumption and can justify our spending on items that might seem unnecessary to others. Ponderings on ‘how many pairs of shoes are too many’, the author suggests referring to the philosophical question of how many angels can dance on top of a pin-head for further illumination. As to how many C.D.s? Well that’s just pure common sense. It’s a matter of space really. . .

Antoinette Stanbridge

PCI College Lecturer

Hello, I’d like to introduce our Student Services Team to you and talk a little about the Student Service visits around the Country and discuss behind the scenes in our Department.  I’m sure you may already have had some contact with Student Services; however there are a number of areas we cover that you may not be aware of.

In conjunction with offering Support Services to Students:

• We process all assignments
• We prepare all results presented at the Board
• We organise and usher the Graduation Service

The Student Services Team has 5 administrative staff, including myself:

Student Services Manager
Rhiannon Murphy

1 year working with PCI College, originally from Wales, is very proud of being Welsh! and has lived in Dublin for almost 6 years.

Student Services Co-ordinator
Debbie Brennan

5 years working with PCI College, loves animals and is just back from a lovely holiday in Tenerife

Student Service Secretaries
Nicole Lynch

3 years working with PCI College, loves kickboxing and volunteers delivering food parcels and presents to homeless people at Christmas

Amanda Dunne

4 years working with PCI College, has a young family and owns a husky.  Amanda is currently out of the office at the moment.

Lucia McGrane

6 years working with PCI College, has a grown up family and enjoys travelling.

Temporary Secretary/Receptionist
Ruth Dillon-Leetch

Ruth is a temporary member of staff with PCI and has just graduated in Marketing. Ruth enjoys travelling and has informed us she is hoping to win the lotto someday to facilitate this.

These are the faces that you may have seen on our visits around the country.

The Student Service visits are a new service we offer to allow us to support you whilst you are developing and growing with your learning experience.  We’ve made our first visits to the classes and venues around the country and will be visiting each venue again in the Spring Semester – so please have your questions ready!

A number of queries may arise whilst you are studying with PCI College and we are here to support you with those requests and enquiries.  Providing confirmation of documentation, showing students how to access the Student Intranet and dealing with confidential individual enquiries is all part of our service.

We hope from visiting students around the country we can build on the working relationship between the College and Students and provide a comprehensive service that provides more than our students expectations.

We hope you find these annual visits helpful.

PCI College’s students present from a broad social spectrum with ages varying from 23 to 64, studying on a part time basis often with jobs and family responsibilities. Finding the balance to support students who juggle many responsibilities as well as meeting College deadlines, is a challenging task which requires clear and concise guidelines available to all but also a degree of flexibility.

Here in Student Services we are committed to providing as much information as we can, as clearly as we can, to support students with their College experience. We have taken our first steps with the visits around the country, to make ourselves as accessible as possible to all students and have increased the amount of information available on the student intranet.

This means you will see ongoing changes to a number of areas including; documentation, updates of forms available and to the ‘Frequently Asked Questions’ page online. We will keep adding and updating the student intranet, so please use this as a source of helpful information.

You may also be interested to know we’ve made some recent physical improvements including the Low Cost Counselling Rooms here in Corrig House.

Here are some of your comments from 2011 which include our recent improvements and visits around the country:
‘Your friendliness and professionalism have played a very important part in helping me through my time at PCI’
‘Your cheerful assistance has been invaluable’
‘You are a pleasure to deal with’
‘The counselling rooms are absolutely gorgeous – very impressed and the clients love them too’

The Student Services Team would like to thank you for all your positive feedback and cooperation this year. We hope you like the improvements we’ve made so far and support us in developing our services to you in the future.

May we take this opportunity to wish you all a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Please note that the Student Services Department will be closed for enquiries from Friday the 16th of December 2011 until Monday the 9th of January 2012.

If you have any comments or suggestions for Student Services please email studentservices@pcicollege.ie we would be delighted to receive any feedback you may have.

Rhiannon Murphy
Student Services Manager

This year sees our 20^th year here at PCI College.  From the early days when the late Liam McCarthy, along with Josephine Murphy, had the foresight to set up training in the field of counselling and psychotherapy with one group, to where we are today with classes in Dublin, Kilkenny, Athlone, Limerick and Cork is quite a leap!  Liam and Josephine laid a solid foundation academically for students of what was then the Personal Counselling Institute, the basis for what was to become PCI College.



Josephine Murphy & the late Liam McCarthy, Founders of PCI

My own first experience of PCI was when I attended a module on Art Therapy in the early 2000s.  Even then PCI was cutting edge and provided options at a high academic standard for those seeking continued professional development in this subject.  It was back then that I first met Colm Early, who is now our Clinical Placements & Supervisor Coordinator.  I’m sure as we participated together in class, coming to terms with what our psyche was giving us to express through art, little did either of us imagine that we would be working together in our present roles with PCI College all these years later.  iPhones had not yet been invented otherwise I might have been able to provide a few images from back in the day. It was also at this time that I met Pauline Macey who I am pleased to say is still with PCI College today providing class participants with an experience of the exploration of personal awareness and self expression through art media.

Technological advances and their impact within the therapeutic space

When I reflect on what life was like twenty years ago compared with now, the first thing that comes to mind is the vast improvement in technology and the implications this has had for some of those presenting to us for counselling and psychotherapy.  In 1991 there were hardly any mobile phones, and the ones that were in existence might be somewhat similar to a brick in comparison to the sleek machines of today that allow instant access to people around the world.  Of course such continual access is not without its problems.  Cyber and text bullying is an unfortunate but common presenting issue for some people, especially younger people.  Twenty years ago bullying was present; however it was usually confined to the immediate environment one was in, such as work or school.

Bebo & Facebook login pages

With the improvements in technology, internet addiction is also a serious problem facing both young and old clients who may present for therapy.  Bebo (image 1) is a social networking site popular with younger people; it allows photographs and other personal information to be uploaded and to be saved to their page very easily.   Unless they are familiar with privacy and what that means many young people are leaving their information wide open to all that have internet access and the dangers that poses.  Parents may face a real problem if internet access is left unsupervised for their young person.   Facebook (image 2) is used by a wide age group and has fast become a social networking phenomenon.  Again, unless the user is familiar with privacy settings similar problems may emerge.  In one case a teenage female in the United Kingdom was murdered as a result of connecting with a stranger through a social networking site and then meeting them in real life.  It is very easy for unsuitable individuals to present on the internet as someone they are not.  The internet has many positive aspects too, such as easily accessible information at the touch of a button. The easy promotion of self through personal websites is now cheaper and very user friendly.

Sexting

Most people now have mobile phones that have the ability to connect to the internet allowing the user independent access to social networking sites as mentioned earlier.  This in turn may pose difficulties for parents or guardians who are attempting to monitor and limit the young person’s access to certain internet sites. These phones also take video and photographic images which gives the user ease of access to publishing these images on either their own social networking page or the pages of others.  Young people who are having intimate relations with each other have been known to take personal photos of each other believing this to be a private shared experience.  However, many of these “relationships” end badly and a number of these private photographic images have then been sent to multiple recipients, a trend known as ‘sexting.’

In 2009 in Pennsylvania USA a photograph showing a young teenage girl getting out of the shower and wrapped in a towel from the waist down was distributed to other students leading to a federal prosecutor seeking to charge the teenage girl (fourteen years of age) who was believed to have started this event with the full extent of the law, including the charge of possession of child pornography. Gil Kaufman (2009) reporting for MTV tells of three other incidents of young teenagers distributing sexually explicit images amongst peers and of one case where a young teen posted naked images of herself to a website for her boyfriend to view.  I believe It is important that psycho-educational space is provided for young people in order that they fully understand the implications for self and others regarding internet and phone use as outlined above.

Here at PCI College I believe we are still at the cutting edge in the higher education training sector as internet addiction forms part of the curriculum covered here for those completing the BSc Degree in Addiction Counselling.  As one who led the way in Ireland with his forward thinking in this field I’d like to think that Liam would be pleased to see that the work he began twenty years ago is continuing and progressing with the ever changing times.

Linda McGuire
Programme Leader

As part of our 20 Year Anniversary Celebrations, we have organised a series of Free Public Lectures. Our Guest Lecturers are well-known within the Mental Health field and they are covering themes that we hope will be of interest to you. This year to add to the events, we will be having a drinks reception afterwards to give us all a chance to socialise and catch up.

Last October we had Rolande Anderson, The National Alcohol Project Director for the Irish College of General Practitioners discussing Problem Drinking and Mental Health. This lecture was very well attended and it touched on the fact that problem drinkers destroy not just themselves but their loved ones too. Millions of families are trapped by alcohol-related patterns of behaviour with devastating consequences for their mental health, well-being and safety. It was apparent from the Q&A session after the lecture that in mentioning the impact on the family, Rolande had touched on a prevalent issue within Ireland. With this in mind, we decided that as a matter of public interest, we would look at this topic again.

Hence, our first Public Lecture this year is with Stephen Rowen on Family and Addiction. Rowen is a native of Boston, Massachusetts where he grew up in an Irish American family. After studying History he then went on to earn a master’s degree from the Boston College Graduate School of Social Work where he was trained as a community organizer with a special emphasis on assisting local citizen groups mobilize for better health care.

His career in addiction services began in 1975 when was he selected to be the director of Day One, Maine’s first adolescent addiction treatment programme in Portland. Stephen and his family first lived in Ireland in 1978 when he was named administrator of Rutland Centre – the first Minnesota Model residential treatment centre in Ireland. His retirement as Director of The Rutland Centre in the summer of 2008 was with a view to devoting more time to teaching, training, clinical supervision & in order to establish a private psychotherapy practice. Stephen also continues to be a spokesperson on societal issues and public policy as these pertain to addiction and substance misuse in Ireland.

After Rowen appeared on an RTE programme High Society, Ian O ‘Doherty of the Irish Independent noted:

“The one notable exception to the dubious hyperbole was Stephen Rowen of the Rutland Centre……Rowen is an intelligent, thoughtful man, and by far the most interesting and reasonable figure on the anti-drug side. The only anti-drug campaigner who refuses to take the “Chicken Licken” approach, he has an undoubted and admirable concern for the victims of addiction. But he is also brave enough to admit that the vast majority of people who try charley go about their day perfectly well and that the proportion of people who become hooked could be as low as 1 in 12. Or it could be higher. As he said himself, we simply don’t know.”

Recent media reports that Ireland has the highest proportion of heroin users in the European Union – a recent report from the EU Commission has revealed that 8 in 1000 Irish people are heroin users compared to an EU Average of 4 in 1000 users – is indeed a shocking revelation . But if we are going to have a debate about addiction on the whole, we owe it to people to at least talk about it honestly and thoughtfully, rather than sensationalizing it. We must investigate the effect of addiction not just on the individual but on the Family and Society as a whole.

The amount of suffering experienced by Irish families due to addiction is immense. Struggles with various forms of addiction usually focus on the person who is directly in trouble with a particular chemical or behaviour. However, long ago researchers discovered that for each and every person in trouble with addiction there are usually four others who suffer as family or as close friends.

In the Irish Examiner, Rowen has warned that Society is in denial about the impact of addiction on families who regularly struggle to cope while the addict obtains professional help.  The “neglected majority” of people impacted by addiction were the addict’s family, and that while the family might be “in bits,” the overwhelming support was for the person either still addicted, or sober or in treatment.

“One of my points is, we need to shift the balance. We still have a society-wide attitude that if the addict is “fixed”, the family will be grand. You hear people saying “He’s a great guy, he’s off the drink.” The perception is once the drinking stops, everything is fine, but the reality is the spouse or the small child is often more damaged than the addict,” Rowen stated.

Family members often switched into “rescue mode”, protecting the addict from the natural consequences of their own condition.

“Sometimes, with absolute love and good intentions, families actually enable things to go on and get worse, instead of minding their own feelings and becoming aware of what’s happening to them. If they focus on minding themselves, the addict is more likely to hit rock bottom and the family will be freer to talk about their experience,”

Addiction is a “devastating illness” and society needs to find ways to spike the notion that it is an individual issue. But there is hope. Not only is change possible, it is highly likely if the addict enters the change process professionals and others refer to as recovery. With appropriate help, families can recover too, sometimes with the person who has the actual addiction and sometimes separately. Not only can they get their health back, it is possible for families of addicts to break out of the trap and regain control of their lives and aspirations

Stephen Rowen now co-facilitates The RISE Foundation’s Family Programmes with Frances Black. The RISE Foundation is dedicated to assisting families to understand the nature of addiction and the profound effects it has on relationships. Using a new programme of assessment, education, counselling and peer support, the RISE counsellors have designed an education programme to help change the way that addiction is understood in family systems.

PCI College’s Stephen Rowen Public Lecture, Family and Addiction will take place on Wednesday 7^th December in Hotel Isaacs, Store Street, Dublin 1 between 7-8.30pm. This includes a Q&A session.

This is a FREE lecture, however due to the popularity of these events, it is now necessary to book your place. If you would like to attend please book here.

Maria McGrath
Marketing Manager

Now that PCI College has been providing education and training in the field of Counselling/Psychotherapy and related areas for 20 years, I think it is an interesting time to take a look again at the issue of integration in our professional world. We are moving into the second decade of the second century of Psychotherapy, yet our field is still a fragmented one, divided into various schools and approaches, such as the Humanistic, the Psychodynamic, the Cognitive-Behavioural etc.

Even these broad schools are further sub-divided. Within the Humanistic camp can be found the Person-Centred approach, Gestalt Therapy etc. Some Cognitive-Behavioural therapists see themselves as primarily in the Rational Emotive Behavioural (Albert Ellis) camp, others lean more towards Cognitive Therapy (Aaron Beck), and so on. Not only that, Psychological Therapy of various kinds is often provided by other helping professionals apart from Counsellors and Psychotherapists, for example Clinical Psychologists, Psychiatrists, Psychiatric Nurses, Addiction Key Workers, Life Coaches, etc…

And of course there is no sign of agreement as to what the difference is between Counselling and Psychotherapy, if there is any…

This is confusing for those entering the helping professions, for those working in them, for the general public, and especially for prospective clients in need of help.

Statutory Regulation, whenever it comes, may help to clarify some of this confusion, but in the meantime I believe that we in the Counselling & Psychotherapy field need to put our own profession on a firmer footing, while also building solider links to allied professions.

What I believe would help clients, when they seek help for their life issues and mental health problems, would be if they met a more integrated set of options, and found themselves as quickly as possible working with the professional who can best help them (availability of resources is also an issue here, of course, but that is another story).

Whatever picture emerges, it will need to encompass a range of interventions (including psychological, pharmaceutical, and social) which can be applied to a range of problems, in a variety of circumstances, with a variety of personality types and developmental stages.

With regard to putting Counselling & Psychotherapy on a firmer footing, I would predict that when a more integrated picture does emerge, the principles and practices that become established will include only some of the elements of each of the schools of Psychological Therapy. Many aspects of each school will also have to be dropped, if they are not supported by scientific evidence and best practice guidelines.

With regard to building solider links to allied professions, it seems to me that the important distinction is not between such territories as Counselling, Psychotherapy, Psychiatry, Coaching, etc, but between what works reliably well in particular circumstances and what works less reliably well. For the moment, the process of defining such professions probably needs to continue, as a necessary stage in a process, but in the long term we may be more likely to see a softening of boundaries and more overlapping of these professions, rather than increasing distinctions.

In practice, this means that useful interventions should not be seen as all coming as a complete package, which is then given the name of Cognitive Behavioural Therapist, or Life Coach, or Psychoanalyst (with the accompanying training package). For the sake of clients, training in useful interventions should be provided, to the necessary level, to any helping professionals who can make use of them in the setting in which they work. These helping professionals could be psychiatric nurses, counsellors in private practice, GPs, residential addiction treatment staff (including, but not solely, addiction counsellors). Part of the emerging picture is that, along with general principles of good helping, different interventions are being found to work best for different problems, rather than generic solutions being the order of the day. This means that the distinction between areas of specialisation (addiction, relationship problems, sexual abuse, etc) may in the long-term be a more real and enduring one than that between Psychological Therapy professions and schools.

Some useful principles I would suggest, which might help to guide us, are as follows:

 
• Inclusiveness/pluralism; accepting that there are many approaches through which people in distress can be helped
• Interdisciplinary and inter-school cooperation
• Choice, through the provision of as many options as possible for those who look for help
• Broad (not territorial) education of clients as to the options available
• Broad (not purist) education of students of the helping professions
• Encouraging self-help wherever possible
• Sound professional ethics
• Multicultural perspectives
• Evidence-Based Practice, where possible, as one of the available options
• Mutual referral/cooperation arrangements between a variety of disciplines/schools/settings/specialities in the area of helping

 

The contribution of PCI College to this integration process in the Irish context has been significant.

Our Diploma/BSc in Counselling & Psychotherapy, designed according to the vision of Liam McCarthy, is one of the most integrative in the country, including an introduction to all the main schools, as well as looking at various aspects of psychology (Abnormal & Developmental), and providing students with options for studying specific areas such as Substance Addiction and Sexual  Abuse/Dysfunction. Our students come from a variety of professional backgrounds, and our CPD programmes in particular are designed to be of relevance to practitioners from many helping professions.

We plan to continue to be at the forefront of the move towards greater integration over our second 20 years – it promises to be an exciting time in the world of the Psychological Therapies!

Eoin Stephens
President, PCI College

Welcome back to all the PCI College Students to the new academic year, 2011-2012.  I hope you all enjoyed the summer break and are returning energised and refreshed to your studies. For those of you joining us for the first time, you are most welcome. May I also take this opportunity to reconnect with our many graduates and colleagues who are working throughout the country, and welcome you to this space. This is our new PCI College Blog where we will hopefully give you an insight into the inner workings and goings on here at PCI College. We will be rotating the blog writing among the team, so you should get a variety of posts from Student Services insights and graduation preparations, to CBT theories and family therapy issues, and much more!

This year is a particularly special year for PCI College. We are celebrating our 20th anniversary. To mark the occasion, we are launching a yearlong schedule of celebratory events beginning with a Dinner Dance on 12th November, where we will be celebrating our founders Liam McCarthy and Josephine Murphy. As some of you may know, we lost Liam early last year, but his legacy lives on in all of us who have been touched by his work through PCI College or otherwise. Josephine will join us on the night, so there will be ample opportunity to recognise both their contributions to PCI College and each of us who are or have been part of the PCI College journey. All are welcome, so please bring your friends and family, and spread the word to PCI College colleagues and graduates who we may have lost touch with. Remember, this is a not for profit event, and any surplus money will go to charity.

Throughout the year we will be presenting a series of free lectures, open to all with some very special guests. More details will follow soon, so watch this space! Personally, I am looking forward to these lectures, and to meeting many of you there. I have seen the line up and it certainly piques my interest!

Our year of celebrations will culminate in our first ever conference event in June 2012. We are all particularly excited about this event as we have such a wealth of expertise and knowledge among our colleagues and students, past and present and are really looking forward to gathering at our very own conference event.

I would like to give a special mention to a new bursary we are launching this year. In memory of Liam McCarthy, PCI College will be offering The Liam McCarthy Bursary, where we will support one deserving student by paying their full fees for the duration of their studies. Liam was passionate about counselling and psychotherapy, and equally passionate about adult education, so what could be a more fitting tribute to our esteemed founder and friend. Details of the bursary and how to apply will be revealed at our Dinner Dance in November. I look forward to seeing as many of you as possible at the events over the year, and look forward to celebrating and reminiscing together.

Lastly, I hope that you enjoy our new PCI College Blog. As always, we appreciate your feedback so please feel free to provide us with any suggestions or topics that you would like to see covered.

Joanna Byrne
Head of Operations & Development