Editorial

The Editorial Board wishes all the readers of Inside Out a Happy New Year! We hope that you will continue to contribute to the journal in 2005, as you have since its re-launch in May 2003. If you feel a creative urge, but hesitate to commit your ideas to paper, contact us for encouragement at any stage of the process, from the germ of an idea to the full fruition of the completed text. Whether relating to the theory or practice of psychotherapy, your reflections on societal, global or ethical issues, or creative therapies, reviews of conferences or literature, or your creative expression in The Space…all are welcome.

In the past year, the scale of global disasters, both manmade and natural, has raised many questions for all of us, both as human beings and as therapists. Beslan, Darfur, the Tsunami in south-eastern Asia: how can we comprehend such horrific events happening on such a scale, whether they are the result of terrorism, war or global environmental change? Many questions arise: how can people cope and continue to survive in the face of such mass destruction of human life, property and natural resources? What is the psychological impact of such trauma on children and adults? What, if anything can we do about it that might be useful?

How do we as therapists deal with the questioning that such events naturally trigger about the meaning of life and death, and our own responsibility as human beings in our increasingly threatened global environment? How do we help our clients who are confronting the deepest pain and the deepest questions of life and death?

The high rate of suicide, especially among young men in Ireland, has caused acute distress in many local communities and inevitably triggers the question “Why?” In this first issue of Inside Out for 2005, Shirley Ward’s article casts light upon the possible hidden roots of suicide in pre and perinatal experience. Chronic illness, disability, and living with cancer bring those who experience them face to face with difficult questions about life, and in some cases, death: Victoria Lloyd, in conversation with Mary de Courcy, explores the experience of working with these issues for client and therapist.

December 2004 brought the untimely deaths of Vincent Humphries and Betty Crowley. Their individual personalities are affectionately remembered, and their professional commitment and contributions are celebrated in this issue.

“Our life is an apprenticeship to the truth that around every circle another can be drawn; that there is no end in nature, but every end is a beginning and under every deep a lower deep opens.” (Ralph Waldo Emerson)

This Spring issue, with its daffodil yellow title page, reminds us that with the arrival of St. Brigid’s Day we are moving again into a season of new growth, lengthening daylight and –hopefully-renewed energy. A vacancy which has arisen on the Editorial Board  creates an opportunity for another IAHIP member to become involved in Inside Out – an interest in developing the journal and the availability to attend evening meetings are the main  requirements. Anyone keen to take up a new challenge in 2005? Contact any member of the Board to discuss…