Editorial 

As we survey the varied contents of our Spring 2024 issue, we are struck by the synchronicity of certain correspondences between the contributions, fortuitous links of form and substance creating patterns among the otherwise random articles, papers, and poems. Are we just having a spell of apophenia, or do you see them too?

While the new year may be pregnant with possibility, the theme of birth also appears in two of our articles and a poem: Marika Mikulak writes about being a “Pregnant Therapist”, while Shirley Ward presents the second part of her groundbreaking work on pre- and perinatal psychotherapy, looking at pregnancy from the inside out and focusing on its potential lifelong consequences.

Birth may be followed by “Rebirth”, the title of Áine Hutchinson’s powerful poem, and poetry proves to be the salvation of the author of the “Blue Dragonfly” by the “accidental” poet and trauma survivor Veronica Ely, reviewed in this issue, in a dramatic example of how art can heal deep and grievous wounds.

Along with poetry there is music in the air, and even in the therapy room, as invited by Mike Moss, another medium to aid in mutual discoveries by himself and those clients who wish to share their personal favourites with his encouragement. And when the music’s over, and when words don’t break the silence, Susan Holliday listens for the pregnant pauses where inexpressible feelings may be lurking, afraid to speak until invited.

Some music and lyrics are also silent, as experienced by Mary Brigid Lawlor in her short and poignant tale of her “Inside Song”. The sad silence of abandoned and derelict buildings, and more importantly its effect on we passers-by, is examined by William Pattengill in “The Shadowy Side of the Street”. But silence is made to be broken, in a journal such as ours, with imperative messages such as “You have control” by Seamus O’Kane, and by the words carefully chosen, or intentionally omitted, in “Trainee Non-disclosure in Supervision” by Lorraine Dowdall. In her discussion of “Adulthood and Faith”, Anne Kelliher offers an inspiring look at how conversations about, and with, God can still provide fertile ground for transformation in therapy. Another form of inspiration in the face of the ongoing violence in Palestine is offered by Aine Hutchinson who asks the difficult question: “what do we do with the notion of the suffering of others?” and then proceeds to address that timely issue with redeeming hope and faith of her own.

We open the lens even wider with Mary Spring’s “Existential Perspective on Lifespan Development” which reminds us that actions not only speak louder than words, but in the words of Sartre, “human reality does not exist first in order to act later; but for human reality, to act is to be, and to cease to act, is to cease to be.”

May each of you find inspiration, illumination, and enjoyment with this issue, and we wish all a happy 2024.

IAHIP 2024 - INSIDE OUT 102 - Spring 2024