Introduction

It is probably true that all societies have had something akin to counsellors and psychotherapists whatever labels they have operated under and in whichever context their work has occurred. We are aware of the dramatic social changes occurring in our world – the impact of the internet, climate change, globalisation and the impact and aftermath of the world banking crisis – and how these changes directly impact on all people and therefore affect and alter therapeutic practice. An inevitable consequence of these changes can be experienced as a distinct loss of control over life events, potentially problematic where the focus in Western nations is on the self-determining individual whose fate lies in their own hands. For the majority of the world’s population a ‘collective’ perspective on the self is challenged when dominant financial markets and cultural models influence the control and distribution of global resources, these in their turn being subject to interpretation from national political management and differing regional worldviews/belief systems. In these circumstances the wellbeing of people within both ‘developed’ and emerging nations can be perceived as coming under increasing stress, particularly when meanings are subject to ‘truths’ via social media and the internet.