Balancing on Quicksand

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-xiv

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2. Introduction

   • Martin Milton

   Pages 1-7

3. What Place Authority?

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 9-11

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   2. Rolling in the Muck, Dancing with the Law: A Story of “Addiction” and the Remaking of a Self

      • J. P. Marshall

      Pages 13-24

   3. Breaking the Rules

      • Alison Greenwood

      Pages 25-36

   4. Disturbing the Peace: Madame X vs Westminster Council

      • Martin Milton

      Pages 37-45

4. The Reach of Reductionism

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 47-48

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   2. “Objective”-ication: Problems with Treating Judgement as Fact

      • Helen Damon

      Pages 49-57

   3. Animals: Aren’t They Great?

      • Dale Judd

      Pages 59-75

   4. Balancing on Quicksand: Making Sense of What “The Personal is Political” Means

      • Miltos Hadjiosif

      Pages 77-91

5. Judgement, Discrimination and Stigma

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 93-95

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   2. Drama of Phantom Hatred

      • Parizad Bathai

      Pages 97-101

   3. Reflections from a Junkyard Room

      • Yetunde Ade-Serrano

      Pages 103-114

   4. “I’m Not as Bad as You”

      • Carter Jacobs

      Pages 115-123

   5. Is There Something You Need to Tell Us?

      • Julia Brewer

      Pages 125-135

6. The Uncanny

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 137-138

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   2. Being a Refugee in a World Without Refuge

      • Anastasios Gaitanidis

      Pages 139-144

   3. An Uncanny Resemblance

      • Elena Manafi

      Pages 145-154

   4. Making the Invisible Visible

      • Martin Milton

      Pages 155-162

7. Back Matter

   Pages 163-170

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This book explores the precarious nature of life, and the ways in which power, binary ways of thinking and Othering create personal, social and political difficulties. By exploring an array of different concerns –including loss and grief, our relationship to other animals, race and sexuality - contributors explore how attention to our own subjective experience and relational ways of thinking can help manage these difficulties. The many contributing authors go well beyond formulaic academic discourse. They adopt a far more personal and reflective approach to their topic areas. As a result, some chapters are emotional, others political, and some professional. Throughout, readers are offered examples of how useful a reflective stance can be, to understanding some of the more meaningful things in life, or as a corrective to our power based, normative, instructive discourses. 

• applied psychology
• Reflective practice
• Self-reflection
• microaggressions
• Addiction
• relationality
• stigma
• imagination
• Person-Centred therapy
• cultural competence
• diversity
• anti-oppressive practice

“This book reads like the kind of writing we all want, really - an intimate conversation, riveting, unruly, a private “in” to other worlds of feeling, without instruction or the impositions of academia, a broader canvas, open and porous, gently meandering through art, fiction, memoir and therapy. “Balancing on Quicksand” is an inclusive act, (continuing to) disrupt the personal/professional boundary and psy-orthodoxies – the personal is (still) political, the political is (still) personal. Expect tears!” (Professor Isabel Henton, Regent’s University London, UK) 

“Prof. Milton and his colleagues offer us a deeply engaging, stimulating and thought-provoking collection of reflective essays that eloquently illustrate the value and significance of relational thinking towards attaining psychological and social health and social justice. Each contributor’s personal reflective journey of engaging with a key human dilemma in relation to power, politics and the relational is an invitationto the reader to reflect on our own stance and engagement with the key human dilemmas explored in this book.” (Dr Stelios Gkouskos, University of East London, UK) 

“Sometimes the release of a book comes at just the right time . . . after a year of social distancing and COVID quarantine, I can think of no better time to read about how relational thinking plays out in the real lives and lived experiences of practicing psychotherapists as they grapple with the professional, personal, psychosocial, and political.” (Dr Markus Bidell, Hunter College, City University of New York, USA)

• Regent's University London, London, UK

  Martin Milton

Martin Milton is Professor of Counselling Psychology at the School of Psychotherapy and Psychology at Regents University London, UK. He also runs an independent practice in psychotherapy and supervision. He is the author of books including, The Political is Personal: Stories of Difference and Psychotherapy (2018), and Sexuality: Existential Perspectives (2014). His interests include in the way that differences are constructed and experienced and the impact this has on people. Martin is an avid photographer and nature lover and has had photographs published in both photography and psychology publications.

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