Our Barefoot Therapist project aims to support community mental health care by consolidating the skills of lay people who offer support to people in their communities, be it friends, family or via community groups.

The rationale came from both the obvious need, and the overwhelming evidence that complex training does not make effective therapists,  nor does length of training, or tertiary level training. While specialist services are overwhelmed with people who are suffering, it makes sense to resource the community to make a difference for people with milder levels of distress, as well as building confidence to include the more severely unwell people who are receiving specialist care in the community where healing and connection can be enhanced.

The qualities the person of the therapist brings to effective therapy are usually present before they embark on therapy training, and the overwhelming majority of programs do not focus on building those skills. In fact, it is not until recently that we had any evidence describing what those qualities are, and we merely relied on an intuitive sense that a warm and empathic person was likely to be better than a cold sociopath. Common sense, rather than evidence, drove conversations about therapist qualities.

That is beginning to change with more clinical researchers being interested in the question, and the lonely voices of clarity being joined by a crowd.

In contributing to members of our community who might want to become Barefoot Therapists we are putting the emphasis on the relationship that they build with their client, the expectancy or hope that they generate for improvement and their belief that the client can get through their difficulty. These three things continue to rise to the top of the pea soup that is outcome research.

I plan to blog about what we are producing as it happens and would welcome feedback. Our intention is that this will be online training with video talks, slides and demonstrations, and supported by video conference calls where there will be an opportunity to practice skills in virtual breakout rooms. We feel strongly that the training be free of charge, and would like to support therapists around the globe to provide it locally in their communities. We would expect therapists delivering training would increase their referral base as Barefoot Therapists are likely to refer more complex issues on. The supervision community that grows would also provide a wonderful opportunity to develop your edge.

If you are interested, or have any ideas or suggestions, please leave a comment.