Psychologist works with people having deep distress. He is trained to make them feel well and to help them cope up. The findings of the British Psychological Society’s “most comprehensive ever” survey highlighting the increasing pressure under which psychologists must now work. According to Professor Paul Gilbert, the Derby-based clinical psychologist who founded compassion-focused therapy, “Psychologists should be praised for their sensitivity to distress and hardship and their commitment to trying to relieve it”, he believes. “It’s courageous to turn towards suffering and not turn away. But it can be painful – especially if you allow your inner critic to take over when you believe that you have failed. Anxiety and anger are both very sticky emotions – and if used against yourself, can quickly create a permanent threat system”. As a strategy for this, psychologists benefit from the feeling that their work is having an impact. That requires a systemic approach, according to Julia Faulconbridge, vice chair of the division of clinical psychology at the BPS. “No doubt individuals have devised coping mechanisms to manage stress but a truly meaningful solution has to be systemic,” she tells to the investigators.
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