Mike Rome is an artist who used to live only about 250 yards from the Practice so the new picture that now hangs in the Waiting room and which was originally spotted in the Tobacco Factory couldn’t really be more local.

With Pablo Reina soon to be joining the Practice we now have five languages other than English that are available for those people who feel more comfortable conversing in their native language.

Working in the native tongue is obviously an advantage because a second language (pretty much no matter how fluent) represents an obstruction that has to be overcome and when it comes to communicating, especially in a therapeutic setting, the easier, the more fluent and therefore more direct the process is, the better the understanding. And it’s not just the language that facilitates the exchange; native language sits within a shared cultural background which includes much more than a common and familiar knowledge of a country and background. Gesture and all the other subtle non-verbal aspects of communication flourish between native speakers so the process is simply that much more fluent.

So who speaks what at the Practice?

Bulgarian: Milena Nikolova, mainly working with Cognitive-Behavioural Therapy (CBT) and of course counselling.

Czech: Pavla Radostova, mainly working in an integrative way which means that she offers a range of styles and techniques.

French: Jessica Wallace, a certified Clinical Hypnotherapist with a Transpersonal approach

German (and Spanish): Claudia Schmidt, a Chartered Counselling Psychologist working with individuals and couples

Polish: Renata Königsman, using an Integrative approach but mainly using Cognitive-Behavioural Therapy (CBT).

Spanish: Pablo Reina: counselling with a humanistic approach; about to complete a diploma in Integrative Counselling.

Following a discussion at the Practice about some of the ways that depression can be addressed it was surprising how little mindfulness was mentioned. Bearing in mind that it is so very effective and bearing in mind that it can be ‘pharma-free’ and that it’s been around for so long – a few thousand years in its traditional form and about 20 years in its modern form wedded to CBT (cognitive behaviour therapy) –  and that it’s effective against some relapse, it should have been at the forefront of the discussion. It’s certainly one of the most prominent treatments and has even been called ‘fashionable’ (in which case it is a very classic fashion) which rather ignores the unusually convincing and solid evidence base.

A really good introduction to mindfulness-based cognitive therapy (MBCT), and one that can be listened to, rather than read, is provided in a series of podcasts by Prof Mark Williams of Oxford Uni’s Mindfulness Research Centre. He and Dr Danny Penman explore what depression is, what mindfulness and mindfulness-based cognitive therapy is, and its effectiveness as a treatment, backed up with research and evidence.

If you have access to an mp3 player the series is really worth a listen and, of course, you don’t have to be depressed to benefit from being mindful; listen to this series and you’ll see what we mean.

The New Psychology of Depression:   https://podcasts.ox.ac.uk/series/new-psychology-depression