On not “Leading horses to water”: Promoting true engagement in psychological therapies by psychologising the referral process

Abstract

This paper presents a case for applying psychological principles concerning human motivation to the way in which referrals are made to psychotherapy and other mental health services. In part one it is argued that traditional referral procedures, based upon predominantly biological assumptions about human distress, undermine patient autonomy from the outset and exert a powerfully distorting influence upon the process of “engagement” by which some individuals and not others are induced to arrive at the therapists's door. In part two, the importance of setting a psychological context for psychological referrals is argued and, in part three, one particular method of attempting to do this is described.