Polyscribe Mike Fox

As a therapist I’ve spent a lot of time listening to fascinating life stories, many sad, many inspiring, quite a few both. As the fates conspired, many of the people I met fell into categories that previously, for one reason or other, had gone under the radar. For a while I ran a counselling service for older people who had alcohol problems, most of whom were not at all like the image that description might bring to mind. A number of my longer-term clients were kind enough to allow me to tell their stories in a book I co-authored with my wife, Lesley Wilson:

Counselling Older People with Alcohol Problems
January 2011 Jessica Kingsley publishers – co-author with Lesley Wilson

I also worked for a few years as clinical lead in a service that offered counselling to people with dementia, or others affected by dementia. This was very innovative at the time, and to try to create more general interest I wrote a series of articles describing the work and why it was felt to be important. Below are those I'm able to make available:

Older People and Transitions
January 2014
(BACP Health Care Professionals Journal)
To read click here

Counselling People with Dementia – Eliciting Memories
July 2013/October 2013
(Journal of Dementia Care and Australian Journal of Dementia Care)
To read click here

Enabling People with Dementia to Use Counselling Effectively
May 2012/July 2012
(Journal of Dementia Care & BACP Health Care Professionals Journal)
To read click here

Dementia Diagnosis and Beyond – A Counsellor’s View
April 2011
To read click here

Counselling People with Dementia and Alcohol Problems
September 2008
To read click here

Person-centred Advocacy for People with Dementia – Some Ethical Issues
June 2007

Person-centred Advocacy for People with Dementia
March 2007
(All in Journal of Dementia Care)

Before I finally left the world of therapy I spent several years at a major London hospital offering counselling to people affected by haematological cancer. During this time I met a number of people who had such a cancer as a child but who were now, for the first time, surviving into adulthood due to improvements in aftercare. Unsurprisingly the effect of their treatment and disruption it brought to their lives left them with many physical and psychological issues. Because their situation was unprecedented, no-one new how long they could hope to live, or what quality of life they could expect. Knowing this they felt very isolated. Fortunately, as treatment has also improved a lot in recent years, their experience is unlikely to be repeated, at least to the same extent. I discovered that nothing had been written about their very specific psychological needs, and so wrote this article with their kind permission:

Late Effects: Working with Life After Survival
January 2016
(BACP Health Care Professionals Journal)
To read click here

I also wrote this short article about repetitive dreams. Alas I think it's no longer available.

Dreaming the Same Dream: Lucidity, Volition and Resolution
March 2019
Lucid Dreaming Experience Vol.7 No.4