The Fundamental Principles

The Arbours Association is a registered charity and was founded in 1970 to provide personal, psychotherapeutic support and places to live outside mental hospitals for people in emotional distress. The following excerpts from our first brochure present some of our motivating believes which we continue to hold today: 'We feel it more helpful and humane to give persons who been or could become mental patients a chance not to be seen as mentally ill, called mentally ill, or treated as mentally ill. There are important reasons for this approach. The "mentally ill person" tends to take on others' unsympathetic attitudes and adequate responsibility for this life to outside authorities and institutions, all to his detriment. He may become type-cast and see no possibility for himself other than to embark on a long-term career as a mental patient. 'Many people who might otherwise be trapped within an ill identity need the opportunity and encouragement to come to terms with their problems. We intend that Arbours should be a place where people may encounter selves long forgotten, where they can contain and regain their experiences, and achieve a sense of integrity and autonomy.' Since the first Arbours community opened in 1970, the organisation has slowly expanded to provide three Therapeutic Communities, a Crisis Centre, A Psychotherapy Service and A Training Programme in psychotherapy. Individuals and families who use our services include those who suffer from depressive or psychotic breakdown, self-mutilation, adolescent crisis, personality and eating disorders, sexual problems, anxiety, depression, relationship difficulties and well as problems relating to critical life events, such as marital breakdown and redundancy. The Crisis Centre 41 Weston Park London N8 9SY Tel: 0208 340 8125 Fax: 0208 342 8849 The Crisis Centre was established in 1973 to provide personal, physiotherapeutic support to individuals, couples or families threatened by mental and social breakdown. Our goal is not to simply alleviate mental pain or to stop bizarre or disruptive behaviour, but to contain it and to help people make sense of it. We believe an emotional crisis can be a turning point, an opportunity for growth and development. The Crisis Centre provides an immediate specialised response to sudden emergencies throughout its crisis consultations whether at the Centre itself or, when indicated at the caller's own home. The person(s) concerned are asked to meet with team of therapists in order to access the nature of the crisis and the kind of intervention that may be most useful. Non-Residential The consultation may in itself become a focused crisis intervention or brief psychotherapy which aims to help people quickly resume normal functioning and remain within the home environment. Residential When more intensive care may be useful, the Centre will invite the person concerned to come for a stay. This may be for a few days, several weeks or months. The Centre is unique because it is also the home for the therapists who live and work there. They are called the Resident Therapists. People who come to live at the Centre are their guests. the house can accommodate up to six guests at one time. Each guest is part of a team which includes a Resident Therapist and a visiting therapist (the Team Leader). The guests participate in three or more meetings of the team each week, plus a daily meeting of the entire house which include art and movement. The usual outcome is for a guest to return home. Alternatively some move to an Arbours long stay community. Around the kitchen table BOOK ABOUT THE ARBOURS CENTRE SANCTUARY THE ARBOURS EXPERIENCE OF ALTERNATIVE COMMUNITY CARE edited by Joseph H. Berke, Chandra Masoliver and Thomas J Ryan Sanctuary in not simply a physical place of safety. It is a state of mind. Since its foundation in 1979, the Arbours Association has been providing sanctuary for people in great emotional turmoil, without their having to be seen, called of treated as 'mentally ill'. It has grown to include three residential communities, a crisis centre, a psychotherapy service and a psychotherapy training programme. This collection commemorates 25 years of work of the Arbours. It includes historical accounts, and reflections by therapists, students, and residents about this highly original approach to providing refuge within specialised therapeutic communities for people in severe distress. The Arbours have often intervened on behalf of the most disturbed, the most chaotic, the most self-destructive individuals. They are often labelled 'borderline' or 'psychotic in conventional psychiatric classifications, people who other psychotherapists and facilities would not approach psychotherapeutically. One of the most striking features of this book is the detailed descriptions of individual, group and institutional dynamics that prove the foundation of the Arbours' practical and theoretical accomplishments. The distinguished psychoanalyst, Dr. Nina Coltart, who contributes the concluding chapter, has written, 'I continue to observe the growth of Arbours with great admiration. They build a thorough analytic training for their students, created a low fee clinic for patients, established and nurtured their community houses, ran the Crisis Centre and earned themselves a unique and respected place on the London therapy scene.' Process Press, London Available from the Arbours Office at £16.00 Order From: 6 Church Lane, London. N8 7BU Tel: 0208 340 7646

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