Psychology in the Real World: Community-based Groupwork - Softcover

The projects described in this book reveal how people can develop and recover through sharing an interest and developing knowledge and skills rather through abstract internal self-examination. Joanna Moncrieff, consultant psychiatrist and senior lecturer at University College London. This embodies a way of thinking and relating that challenges dominant ideas of mental health and that looks squarely at issues of power and difference - challenges the contemporary fixation upon short-term individual 'interventions', the medicalisation of distress and the diminishment of the NHS into a business venture. Chris Rose, Group Psychotherapist, Thearpy Today, June 2010 People will be encouraged to try things, and to step beyond the constraints of so-called evidence-based practice. Maybe they will be encouraged to be themselves, which would be a very positive outcome! David Smail, clinical psychologist

"Psychology in the Real World" describes groups, courses and projects that psychologist Guy Holmes has been involved in over the past decade. Many of the initiatives have been recognised nationally for their innovation and their importance as new ways to provide psychological services, combat stigma, bring people together, understand and escape toxic environments and to bring about service user involvement that provides real benefits. Guy's work has been described at many national conferences, and the book is a response to repeated requests to help set up similar projects across the UK.