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Multi-talented, politically sharp women at the Maya Centre (providers of psychodynamic counselling and psychotherapy to disadvantaged women, N4) invited Jeremy Corbyn MP to become a patron in 2007. His early promise to arrange a parliamentary reception, coupled with his presence at the centre, spurred on some of its members to work hard to generate this parliamentary briefing. The timing followed front-page news that the Government would be pledging more money to get people back to work with short bursts of NHS-style therapy. The ‘Poverty and Mental Health’ briefing was held on Wednesday 11 March 2009 in the Boothroyd room in Portcullis House overlooking the Thames.
It was well attended by politicians, activists, administrators, researchers, and employees in the field of counselling and psychotherapy, and was chaired by writer and campaigner Melissa Benn. Three main speakers addressed the room: Margo Waddell, from the Tavistock, and Catherine Crowther, a Jungian analyst (Society of Analytic Psychology), each gave fascinating accounts of individual cases they had worked with. Dr Lisa Baraitser, from Birkbeck College, claimed evidence of efficacy and deftly avoided too rigid a definition of psychodynamic counselling and therapy. The case studies pressed the point that today's problems had roots in the past, and that one person's troubles could always be linked to those of the people they loved. Catherine Crowther argued that moaning has meaning, and described the transformation of her patient's patterns of self-punishment. This kind of work is mindful of responsibility, and uses the therapist's feelings to provide the patient with a gauge to measure her own painful choices. Margo Waddell voiced the unpopular truth that some women think their baby will give them the listening and loving that they lack in other parts of their lives, and that this could easily perpetuate a problem through generations in a family. ‘One does fear for all their futures’, she said.