The power of the therapeutic relationship: WMRSASC counsellor featured in Therapy Today.
We’re incredibly proud that WMRSASC counsellor Lydia Johnson has been featured in the September 2026 edition of the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy’s Therapy Today magazine.
In Surviving a violent attack, Lydia offers a thoughtful and deeply personal reflection on her work with a woman in her 60s following an extreme act of sexual violence. Referred for specialist counselling three months after the attack, “Alice” was living with significant physical and psychological trauma, frightening flashbacks and nightmares, and a profound sense of isolation from the people and world around her.
The article provides a rare insight into what specialist trauma counselling can look like in practice. Lydia explores the importance of grounding and psychoeducation, the complexities of working within pre-trial therapy conditions, the role of supervision in supporting practitioners exposed to traumatic material, and – above all – the power of a trusting therapeutic relationship.
As Lydia writes:
“My role as a counsellor is never to fix or rescue from suffering. I cannot do that, but I can offer a space without judgment, and meet clients with empathy and compassion.”
Perhaps most powerfully, the article also gives Alice a voice. She describes therapy not as someone telling her what to think or where to go, but as a process of following the threads of thoughts and feelings together, allowing them gradually to unravel.
Alice specifically wanted their work to be shared in the hope that it might encourage other survivors of violence, trauma and abuse to seek therapy – particularly those who fear their trauma is simply too great for them ever to move forward.
We are incredibly grateful to Alice for allowing her experience to be shared, and enormously proud of Lydia for sharing her practice with the wider counselling profession.
Subscribe to BACP’s Therapy Today magazine via the website.
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