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Abstract
The article aims to apply psychodynamic thinking in the context of psychological consultation to hostel staff, who were offering support to people experiencing homelessness in a residential hostel setting. The article focusses on how Rey’s claustro-agora-phobic dilemma was used to help staff to think about one resident and their dog, whose escalation in behaviour threatened the safety of everyone in the hostel. The article concludes with a reflection on the challenges and opportunities of offering psychological consultation in this sector, with some recommendations for commissioners and staff.
Acknowledgments
I would like to thank the Psychologically-Informed Consultation and Training (PICT) team of Camden and Islington NHS Foundation Trust who offered their thoughts on this case.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.
Notes
1. Identifying details have been changed to form a composite.
Additional information
Notes on contributors
Jonathan Day
Jonathan Day is a qualified and registered Counselling Psychologist (HCPC). He practices clinically in the NHS within a specialist Mentalisation Based Therapy service. His current professional interests include; health inequalities, complex trauma, critical psychopathology, psychosocial understandings of distress, contemporary clinical psychoanalysis and relational psychoanalysis.