Editorial

‘I urge all who have authority and influence in different communities…to engage in dialogue and build a true alliance of civilisations, founded on mutual respect.’

Kofi Annan, Irish Times, 8^th February 2006.

As we open up the Spring issue of Inside Out we do so in a climate of world conflict concerning freedom of expression and recognition and honouring of difference. As we, as therapists try to find our voice through the pages of this journal we witness the global impact of the ‘heard voice’  as the waves of rage are unleashed across the Muslim world against the( perceived) insult caused by the cartoons published in a Danish newspaper last September. As therapists, working closely with those who struggle to express the true self, we are challenged to be aware of the responsibility that true expression can carry.

In this issue we are delighted to bring to you the heartfelt expression of Barbara Collins as she ‘…leads with the back leg’ in sharing her experience of Environmental Movement. Her article reminds us that ‘we are in intimate relationship with the world in all our moments’. The theme of relationship is explored again by Anna Davis as she reminds us ‘how terrifying and necessary love is to therapy’. Love and its unfathomable depths are again very present in Lindsay Mitchell’s existential exploration of the experiences of infertility and its resulting confrontation with one’s own mortality.

We welcome our international contributor Paul Rebillot as he puts before us the Story of Myth and its place in healing and we are encouraged to consider this theme again when it is taken up by Stephen Flynn in his piece exploring What Myths and Fairy Tales offer our understanding.

Last year we had the pleasure of meeting with and engaging in conversation with Tony Bates, Victoria Lloyd and Theo Dorgan who invited us to consider at a deeper level our relationship with such things as depression, feminism and cultural diversity. Inside Out was also hugely gifted in the many contributions by both national and international authors who contributed articles, reflections, reviews, letters and pieces of creative genius for ‘The Space’. The Editorial Board are very grateful for all these contributions and extend thanks to everyone who in 2005, made the journal the invaluable resource that it is for IAHIP members.

For this resource to continue to enrich the therapeutic arena in Ireland and abroad, we again encourage and invite all of you to consider what you might be interested in contributing to its pages this year. If you’re not interested in writing something yourself, you may know someone who would be interested and who may just need some little bit of encouragement or support. The Editorial Board are delighted to support anyone through the process of giving voice to their expression. There is a creative spirit in all of us, a deep thinker, a humourist, a visionary, a creator of unique artistry – we may only need some little encouragement from another to give our creative spirit form on the pages of Inside Out.