Counselling, Therapy & Psychoanalysis, Levin, New Zealand. Dr Graham Bull

About

I offer counselling, therapy and psychoanalysis to those who are finding life difficult, upsetting and an occasion of suffering and who want some help with their problems.

Story

When I was studying at Victoria University New Zealandin the 70's I was fortunate to attend three lectures by R.D. Laing, sometimes known as an anti-psychiatrist, who was a psychoanalyst, psychiatrist who interpreted his work in terms of existentialism and phenomenology. I found his ideas fascinating.They are the foundation of my motivation and interest in therapy and analysis.

After a year in London studying Theology I entered my own psychoanalysis- group analysis and individual psychoanalysis. I came upon R.D. Laing again and the work of The Philadelphia Association (PA) that had been founded by Laing and others. I started attending seminars held at the PA and was fortunate to be able to attend some seminars run by Laing.

I returned to New Zealand with an interest in looking at the possibility of studying psychotherapy more intensely.There was no strong movement of psychoanalytic therapy in New Zealand at that time although I came upon other therapies and attended workshops in some of them. I decided to work as a psychiatric assistant in a psychiatric hospital. While there were aspects of the work that I enjoyed, the institutionalization of the hospital and psychiatric practice was not enjoyable and the hospital was hardly a hospitable place for those suffering.

At the same time as I was doing this work I did an MA in social anthropology. All through my analytic work I have had a strong interest in the social aspect of 'mental illness' and of therapy and analysis.

I returned to England and had some contact with the Philadelphia Association for awhile but decided to first undertake a social work course before carrying on with therapy training.

I then started a Diploma in Inter- cultural Psychotherapy at the prestigious University College London with the psychiatrist/anthropologist Professor Roland Littlewood and Jafar Kareem (the founder on Nafsiyat Inter therapy cultural Centre).

I worked as a counsellor/therapist at a Counselling Centre in Newham in the East end of London and in the last years working there had a position as a manager of the centre.

After this training I went on and did a full training in psychoanalysis at CFAR , The Centre for Freudian analysis and Research in London. This took the radical French psychoanalyst Jacques Lacan as central in its understanding of Psychoanalysis.

I have also worked as a therapist for refugees and also as a counsellor at a hospital social work /counselling centre and for nine years as a psychotherapist in a psychiatric hospital for teenagers, specializing in eating disorders and other psychiatric illnesses- not that I saw these problems as entirely illnesses.At the same time I studied for a PhD under Professor Rolland Littlewood at University College London, again taking up the theme of social/cultural aspects of therapy by way of looking at popular Chinese Taoism which had spirit possession at the centre of their religious rites. I also attended some lectures in short term dynamic therapy and also gained a Diploma in Mindfulness studies from Bangor University.



What is counselling, therapy and psychoanalysis

It is difficult to be precise about the differences between the three as in general there are huge overlaps but one could say that counselling to some extent is about having some help in helping to understand and to find solutions to problems of living. This is mostly conducted at a conscious level and is mostly short term. But most counselling also gets into therapy where the unconscious is being worked with and can also be long term.

Psychoanalysis is usually long term and is about working with unconscious processes allowing these to come to the fore by means of the process of free association- speaking what's on ones mind. Perhaps it is only in psychoanalysis where one can be entirely honest and say what is on one's mind.Psychoanalysis is not about fixing up particular problems but about finding what is underneath these problems that keep them in being. It demands a commitment over time but can be very beneficial..

Our job in life to some extent is to find some sense of being where we can live with ourselves, others and within a culture without being taken over by any one of them, including our sense of self which can be seen as an egoic construction, necessary but not to be dominate. Some of us have more trouble with this then others.This is where I see psychoanalysis as being able to help.Of course if our problems and sufferings are not just something happening in the brain/ mind then they are not mental illnesses in the accepted view of what a mental illness is and thus should not automatically be referred for 'medical corection for what is seen as a problem in the brain.. Neither should analytical practices be regulated by medical establishments.'.



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