It is with great pleasure that we welcome you to the first quarterly issue
of INSIDE OUT. We want to share with you, briefly, the motivation that
led us to bring this journal to fruition, and our hopes for its future.

The primary motivation we felt was an awareness of a need for a regular
vehicle of communication in the fast growing field of psychotherapy in the
Irish context. We are especially aware of this need within the Humanistic
and Integrative section of psychotherapy which is our base. The growing
network of people involved and interested in this area is apparent to us
through the six years of training and clinical experience here at the Creative
Counselling Centre. Yet while our existing network is from this section of
the psychotherapy spectrum, we are hopeful that we will attract interest,
correspondence and articles from other sections, and thereby confirm our
belief in the value of integration within the field.

The journal will, we hope, serve two functions: firstly, to act as a resource
to those involved in psychotherapy; secondly, we hope that the existence of
INSIDE OUT will foster the development and growth of
psychotherapeutic practice and theory, through the stimulation of thinking
and discussion. However, we are also cognisant of the fact that a journal is
like other relationships and needs to involve a dialogue. We therefore want
to respond to what you, the readers want. On such response INSIDE
OUT’s continued existence and growth will depend. To foster this aim we
welcome your articles on issues of therapeutic practice and thinking, your
letters, your vignettes from therapeutic practice and your continued
advertising and support. We also warmly welcome articles written from the
perspective of the consumer of psychotherapy practice and training, which
we feel will offer important feedback and balance to our growing profession.

With these, and perhaps other ingredients as we progress, we hope to
offer you a means of contact where you may feel a sense of inclusion and
participation in this journal as it grows. We hope it will be a lively and
thought-provoking channel of communication in a field which by the nature
of our shared endeavour can serve to isolate rather than bring us together.
We hope that with the important issues that face us as our profession grows,
INSIDE OUT may be a valuable forum for dialogue in these exciting times
for psychotherapy in Ireland.