ABSTRACT
The public view of psychoanalytic psychotherapy is mixed with much understandable confusion, and within the profession there is often fierce debate on theoretical differences. On reflection, it is rather remarkable that there are so many individuals working with therapists in a reasonably settled and painstaking endeavour to understand them. This chapter outlines the various ways in which people come to the Clinical Service of the British Association of Psychotherapists (BAP). It considers these ways in detail, particularly the link with medicine and the primary health care teams. Sometimes there has been no idea of what psychotherapy would entail; for example, the thought of regular meetings, of months or years of therapy, is impossible to contemplate. It seems out of proportion, and "things are not that bad". Some media reporting gives a picture of counselling— and particularly psychotherapy— as an invasive process suggested as a solution for everything and encouraging dangerous dependence. This can cause understandable anxiety and antagonism.
