Clinicians working in psychiatry – can we ever be good enough?

As clinicians in mental health we do years of study and supervised practice to establish a knowledge and skill base to be of use to people. Our work is often challenging and stressful and not particularly lucrative or prestigious. Most of us engage in it out of a desire to be part of alleviating suffering and enabling people to have more fulfilling lives.

Yet, despite our commitment, we face an anti-psychiatry lobby telling us the practices we work so hard at are pathologising and spirit-breaking. We are told to focus on strengths, but we are also told that to 'add strengths and stir' is not enough. What are we supposed to do?

That is what this website is about. It outlines an orientation with specific skills and strategies to enable meaningful collaboration combining our professional knowledge and expertise with the personal and experiential knowledge of the people we serve.

Johnella Bird’s ideas for therapeutic conversations are a rich resource which underpin these ideas. The authors have found that applying Johnella’s ideas to core mental health activities has revitalized our practice, increased our usefulness to people and our passion for our work.

Please do contact us with any feedback that you would like to give, either by email or by using our "contact form". If you know other people who would be interested, please encourage them to have a look at this website.