Editorial

We come now to the end of another year. It has 
been an eventful one for the field of psychotherapy in 
Ireland. The growth of interest in the profession as indicated by mass media coverage and demand for 
training is continuing. Within the profession itself the
 year has seen the birth of the Irish Standing 
Conference for Psychotherapy to act as an umbrella
 body in the profession’s negotiations with European 
and government bodies as well as the development of
 standards of practice and training. Also we have seen
 the publishing of the first guide to therapy and counselling. Finally the Humanistic and Integrative
 Psychotherapy Association has been inaugurated and
 has set quantative criteria for accrediting psychotherapists. Other sections of psychotherapy have done or
 are doing likewise.

In a sense one could say that psychotherapy as a
 profession has finally placed itself on a public stage in 
Ireland. Inside Out are glad to have contributed to this
 publicisation and demystification of psychotherapy in
 the past year, through focusing in an in-depth way on
a variety of training courses, issues of practice such as 
European registration, supervision etc.

In this issue we hope to keep such topics at the forefront of people’s minds by our article on the legal issues
 inherent in psychotherapeutic practice. We feel that 
this issue brings together themes which have been important to us for some time, the themes of therapeutic 
practice and the European context. We further expand
 our focus on training by including a listing on short
 courses in the area, i.e. courses not offering a professional training accreditation.

Our other articles such as on the feminine, assertiveness and affirmations continues our policy of
 highlighting specific techniques to a wider public and
 to the professional who may wish to incorporate them
 in his/her existing repertoire.

We wish you all happy reading and an exciting 1992
 and hope that you will continue your contributions in 
the year ahead.