simon wharne
I am a Chartered Counselling Psychologist. I am currently the Deputy Course Leader for the DCPsych programme at the New School of Psychotherapy and Counselling. Previously I worked in community mental health services for over thirty years, holding various roles. I managed and audited services, maintaining budgets, providing leadership and supervising staff teams. I was involved in designing, setting up and developing services within the N.H.S. and Social Services, while also gaining experience within the voluntary sector. I have gained skills in research, leading to the publication of articles and chapters. I ran training events and workshops over many years, participating in national and international forums in the development of Assertive Outreach services. I currently hold the post of Deputy Course Leader at the New School of Psychotherapy and Counselling. I am available for consultation and counselling.
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Books by simon wharne
Resilience is conceptualised differently (Dunkel, Schetter & Dolbier, 2011), suggesting conflicting priorities. If it is gained by facing adversity, no rationale exists for providing compassionate welfare. If it is just bouncing back, there is no need to learn from trauma. However, if it is a pre-existing trait that some people lack, then these vulnerable people must be protected. With increasing demands and reduced funding, practitioners are under pressure to toughen up, making their work stressful and meaningless (Bazzano, 2016). Alternatively, existential resilience might enable an emotional engagement in which balance and meaning are retained. The study explores how mental health practitioners understand and experience resilience in the face of potential and actual client deaths, being held to account, while having limited control.
Seven semi-structured interviews were transcribed and analysed, following van Manen (1990).
Themes:
1: Not-disengaging in an emotional process. To not disengage, but to stay with feelings and concerns in the face of death. Being with, in the moment, under the pressure of time, often with conflicting expectations around risks and responsibilities.
2: Growth through enduring difficulties. Post Traumatic Growth leads to a desire to be closer to others, feeling stronger through self-understanding, valuing what they have and wanting to help others; in contrast to a resilience that relies on pride, control and imagined indestructibility; driven by fear.
3: Being human under the scrutiny of authority. While scrutinised, participants accept their flawed humanity. Resilience happens when they are mutually experienced as human and emotionally engaged. The unpredictable trauma of death can then be experienced as strengthening, as participants are pulled into being present and more engaged.
Recommendations:
Each practitioner’s will and personal desire to make a difference should be recognised as the driving force behind mental healthcare. Practitioners need regular supervision, support, with adequate time and space for reflection.
This book makes a valuable contribution to the field by addressing in depth a wide range of topics critical to the delivery of assertive outreach services that have previously received scant attention in the growing clinical lore on this approach and provides practitioners with a manual in which they can feed lessons learned from other teams for continuous service improvement. This book is an essential reference for anyone with an interest in assertive outreach and community treatment approaches in mental health.
Special features:
Provides a contemporary analysis of current service developments in the area
Written by experts in the field
Covers cross cutting issues relevant to all areas of community mental health care
Includes multiple perspectives: service user, researcher, service manager, commissioner, clinician and carer
Covers both service delivery and therapeutic interventions
Explores how the assertive outreach model is applied in the UK and Europe
From the Back Cover
"This book is a treasure trove for anyone with an interest in the nature, impact, and inner workings of assertive outreach teams."
—From the foreword by Kim T Mueser, Ph.D, Professor of Psychiatry and of Community and Family Medicine, Dartmouth Medical School
Papers by simon wharne
Background: Qualitative/phenomenological research approaches are popular in counselling psychology and psychotherapy post-graduate training. This article attends to
the experience of research supervision in this setting, where there is a need for containment, compassion, clarity and empathy (Counselling and Psychotherapy Research,
2021a, 22, 689).
Aims: This article aims to bring the philosophical development of qualitative/phenomenological research back into focus. It asks what extra value would be brought to the
supervision of trainees through existential awareness and phenomenological exploration. The authors offer ways in which existential awareness can be developed and
utilised in research supervision.
Materials and Methods: The results of a small survey into the experiences of students
are used to ground our observations in practice.
Results: A relational tension is implied, where trust and good communication are essential. An existential anxiety could be prompted, when a trainee's world shifts from
being homely, to uncanny and strange. In these experiences of groundlessness, the
world no longer provides a sense of certainty about one's possibilities, and one feels
estranged and uncomfortably self-aware. Fostering this awareness can mean that
teaching and supervisory relationships are experienced in their intersubjective, free
and creative dynamics.
Discussion: Attending to Threshold Concepts can support the transformational nature of professional training, which is often an experience of uncertainty. Likewise,
Socratic Questioning and irony contribute to the development of critical thinking, reflexivity and the harnessing of assumptions.
Conclusion: Existential awareness will enable the development of more authentic relationships across the therapeutic and educational encounters of training.
Resilience is conceptualised differently (Dunkel, Schetter & Dolbier, 2011), suggesting conflicting priorities. If it is gained by facing adversity, no rationale exists for providing compassionate welfare. If it is just bouncing back, there is no need to learn from trauma. However, if it is a pre-existing trait that some people lack, then these vulnerable people must be protected. With increasing demands and reduced funding, practitioners are under pressure to toughen up, making their work stressful and meaningless (Bazzano, 2016). Alternatively, existential resilience might enable an emotional engagement in which balance and meaning are retained. The study explores how mental health practitioners understand and experience resilience in the face of potential and actual client deaths, being held to account, while having limited control.
Seven semi-structured interviews were transcribed and analysed, following van Manen (1990).
Themes:
1: Not-disengaging in an emotional process. To not disengage, but to stay with feelings and concerns in the face of death. Being with, in the moment, under the pressure of time, often with conflicting expectations around risks and responsibilities.
2: Growth through enduring difficulties. Post Traumatic Growth leads to a desire to be closer to others, feeling stronger through self-understanding, valuing what they have and wanting to help others; in contrast to a resilience that relies on pride, control and imagined indestructibility; driven by fear.
3: Being human under the scrutiny of authority. While scrutinised, participants accept their flawed humanity. Resilience happens when they are mutually experienced as human and emotionally engaged. The unpredictable trauma of death can then be experienced as strengthening, as participants are pulled into being present and more engaged.
Recommendations:
Each practitioner’s will and personal desire to make a difference should be recognised as the driving force behind mental healthcare. Practitioners need regular supervision, support, with adequate time and space for reflection.
This book makes a valuable contribution to the field by addressing in depth a wide range of topics critical to the delivery of assertive outreach services that have previously received scant attention in the growing clinical lore on this approach and provides practitioners with a manual in which they can feed lessons learned from other teams for continuous service improvement. This book is an essential reference for anyone with an interest in assertive outreach and community treatment approaches in mental health.
Special features:
Provides a contemporary analysis of current service developments in the area
Written by experts in the field
Covers cross cutting issues relevant to all areas of community mental health care
Includes multiple perspectives: service user, researcher, service manager, commissioner, clinician and carer
Covers both service delivery and therapeutic interventions
Explores how the assertive outreach model is applied in the UK and Europe
From the Back Cover
"This book is a treasure trove for anyone with an interest in the nature, impact, and inner workings of assertive outreach teams."
—From the foreword by Kim T Mueser, Ph.D, Professor of Psychiatry and of Community and Family Medicine, Dartmouth Medical School
Background: Qualitative/phenomenological research approaches are popular in counselling psychology and psychotherapy post-graduate training. This article attends to
the experience of research supervision in this setting, where there is a need for containment, compassion, clarity and empathy (Counselling and Psychotherapy Research,
2021a, 22, 689).
Aims: This article aims to bring the philosophical development of qualitative/phenomenological research back into focus. It asks what extra value would be brought to the
supervision of trainees through existential awareness and phenomenological exploration. The authors offer ways in which existential awareness can be developed and
utilised in research supervision.
Materials and Methods: The results of a small survey into the experiences of students
are used to ground our observations in practice.
Results: A relational tension is implied, where trust and good communication are essential. An existential anxiety could be prompted, when a trainee's world shifts from
being homely, to uncanny and strange. In these experiences of groundlessness, the
world no longer provides a sense of certainty about one's possibilities, and one feels
estranged and uncomfortably self-aware. Fostering this awareness can mean that
teaching and supervisory relationships are experienced in their intersubjective, free
and creative dynamics.
Discussion: Attending to Threshold Concepts can support the transformational nature of professional training, which is often an experience of uncertainty. Likewise,
Socratic Questioning and irony contribute to the development of critical thinking, reflexivity and the harnessing of assumptions.
Conclusion: Existential awareness will enable the development of more authentic relationships across the therapeutic and educational encounters of training.