IAPT and the medical model: Ideological fits and misfits. Are there alternatives?

Counselling, Psychotherapy and Trauma Studies Seminar Series 

Presented by Dr David Murphy, School of Education

The medicalisation of human emotional distress and suffering is the underpinning ideology of States response to helping people through the National Health Service. The medical model of distress has become so endemic in our society that policy makers, service designers and funders or commissioners seem unable to think of any alternatives. In this talk I shall present the medical model as a form of construal that is then acted upon with incognisance within psychological services. Using Fisher’s notion of Capitalist Realism I will suggest that ‘we’ in the psy professions are unable to make changes to our profession without radically rethinking our work. To  conclude, I shall argue that psychotherapy and counselling are a pedagogical process and not a healthcare practice.

This talk was given at the conference “The industrialisation of therapy: What is the impact of IAPT on counselling and psychotherapy?” London: 15^th June 2019 and is reproduced for the Centre for Research in Human Flourishing Seminar Series.

David Murphy is interested in applications of the person-centred experiential approach. He is the course director for the MA Person-Centred Experiential Counselling and Psychotherapy at the University of Nottingham. He is editor of Counselling Psychology: A textbook for study and practice (BPS textbooks).

Refreshments will be provided.

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