Editorial

The move towards the establishment of psycho
therapy as a recognised profession is fast gathering
 momentum all over Europe as 1992 looms ever nearer. 
The main issue at stake is simply the question of who 
exactly will be able to call themselves psychotherapists?
 The first European Conference of Psychotherapy held in
 Amsterdam in October last year and reported in the
 Winter Issue of Inside out, stirred up a certain amount of
 anxiety by mooting the possibility that when the decisions are made and the dust settles only medical doctors 
- GPs and psychiatrists with some additional training – 
will be officially entitled to call themselves psychotherapists. Where, we asked, would that leave the rest of us?
 Clearly a lobby was required to argue the case of the
 somewhat ineptly named “lay” psychotherapists.

The response here in Ireland has been rapid and positive. In this Issue Ger Murphy reports on the founding of 
the Irish Association of Humanistic and Integrative
 Psychotherapy (IAHIP), a newly formed organisation now 
involved in the process of establishing its own standards
 of training, accreditation and practice. Also in this issue
 we print an article by Emmy van Deurzen-Smith of 
Regents College London again addressing the question 
of standardising the profession. This article, although 
specifically related to the situation in Britain, underlines 
the main issues at stake.

And lest we become too caught up in the excitement
 of becoming a recognised profession and the business of
 establishing standards, we have included in this issue
 two articles concerned with the real focus of psychother
apy – working with the client. An article on Totem Pole 
Workshops by Alan Mooney and one on Neuro-linguistic 
Programming by Aidan Moloney both offer ideas and 
approaches which can be used in sessions with clients.

In future issues of Inside Out we hope to maintain this balance by both continuing to keep our readers
 informed on developments in the ongoing ‘professionalisation’ of psychotherapy as well as continuing to look at
 approaches to client work. To the latter end we are plan
ning a series of articles profiling some of the different 
therapeutic approaches contained under the broad
 heading of Humanistic and Integrative Psychotherapy.