BackgroundChronic spontaneous urticaria (CSU) poses problems with respect to high prevalence, reduced quality of life, lack of long term efficacy, and expense of current treatments for severe intractable symptoms. There have been many reports suggesting ‘stress’ factors may be implicated, but there are no studies that explore the efficacy of treatments including a psychological perspective. A whole person treatment approach (WPTA), which addresses psychological factors has been used, with effect, for 6 years in the Auckland City Hospital Immunology Department.FindingsIn a pilot study to demonstrate feasibility of recruitment and treatment of CSU patients in a time-limited, whole person treatment approach, within a conventional immunology department, four patients (three CSU and one idiopathic angioedema) were recruited into a brief WPTA course based in non-dualistic concepts of mind and body connectedness, and utilising psychotherapy-derived listening skills for up to 10 h long sessions, once per week. Treatment efficacy rating, using Urticaria Activity Score and the Urticaria Severity Score, and reduction of drug usage, showed patients experienced long term resolution of urticaria and cessation of hospitalisation for angioedema and came off regular antihistamine medication.ConclusionsA clinician treating chronic spontaneous urticaria in an Immunology department, using a whole person treatment paradigm, can safely explore unique meanings and emotional states, in a process acceptable to patients, resulting in a significant clinical benefit for symptoms. A much larger study comparing the outcome of WPTA versus standard treatment alone is warranted.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s13601-015-0082-7) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Concerned with meaning-making and uncovering what the experience is like, hermeneutic phenomenology offers a way to understand shared, interconnected and embodied human existence. Poetry and poetic inquiry provide a powerful way to present nuanced, rich understandings, allowing space for play and ambiguity, revealing fresh and surprising ways of thinking about phenomena. Hermeneutic phenomenology often turns to the poetic for a suitably evocative language capable of bringing forth the richness and nearness of lived experience. Poetic inquiry, in turn, draws its nourishment from the foundational roots of hermeneutic phenomenology; however, this is often less obvious to the neophyte researcher. The paper provides an introduction to phenomenology and hermeneutics, showing how these qualitative approaches lend themselves to each other, and makes explicit a philosophical foundation for poetic inquiry. Whilst methodological frameworks provide vital scaffolding for researchers, they can become rigid; poetry can help researchers flex outside and around more established ways of thinking and writing. Together, hermeneutic phenomenology and poetic inquiry unsettle and disrupt familiar ways of doing, being and seeing our world, allowing the unexpected to emerge and bringing forth new potential understandings.

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Abstract Western – and Northern – psychology and psychotherapy stand accused of an over emphasis on the individual, ego, and self (“the Self”), autonomy, and self-development. These criticisms have been made from other intellectual, cultural, social, spiritual and wisdom traditions, but may also be found in critical and radical traditions within Western thought. In this article, exponents of ten different theoretical orientations within or modalities of psychotherapy reflect on one or two key aspects of their respective theories which, together, offer a holistic conception of the person; account for family/social/cultural context; provide an understanding of the human trend to homonomy (or belonging) alongside autonomy; articulate a relational understanding of human development, attachment to and engagement with others; and emphasise spirit, group, and community. As such, these psychotherapies – and critiques of Western psychotherapy – offer a wider vision of the scope and practice of psychotherapy and its relevance in and to Aotearoa New Zealand. Whakarāpopoto E tū ana te whakapae, e kaha rawa ana te whakapau wā ki te takitahi a te whakaora hinengaro o te Uru me te Raki i te takitahi, te whakaī, me te whaiaro (“te Whaiaro”), tino rangatiratanga, me te whanaketanga whaiaro. I ara ake ana ēnei kūrakuraku i ētahi atu tikanga hinengaro, ahurea, hapori, wairua, me te mātauranga, engari ka kitea anō hoki i roto i ngā tikanga arohaeheanga rerekē hoki o te whakaarohanga Taiuru. Kei tēnei kōrero, ko ngā tauira o ngā ariā tekau āhua mau ki roto, ki te āhua rānei o te kaiwhakaora hinengaro e whakaata ana i tētahi, ētahi tirohanga rānei o ā rātou ake aria, ā, ngātahi e tuku ariā tapeke ana o te tangata; whakaaturanga horopaki whānau/hāpori; whakarato moohiotanga o te ia o te tangata ki te whakaōrite (whai tūrangawaewae rānei) i te taha o te tino rangatiratanga. Ki te whakapapa mātauranga whakapā ki te ira tangata, tōna whakapiri ki me te whakapiri ki ētahi atu hoki, ā, ka whakatāpua wairua, rōpū, hāpori hoki. Koia rā, ko ēnei kaiwhakaora hinengaro – paearu kaiwhakaora hinengaro o te Uru  – e tuku tirohanga whānui ana o te matapae me te mahi a te kaiwhakaora hinengaro me ana whakapaanga katoa i Aotearoa nei.

This article offers some reflections on current clinical practice in online psychotherapies in the age of the coronavirus pandemic. Drawing on examples from the authors’ own clinical practices, and informed by relevant literature, the article focuses on the implications of the transition from the consulting room to online cyberspace with regard to five themes: transition, the dynamics of administration, therapeutic space(s), working with unconscious dynamics and processes, and uncertainty in a time of uncertainty. As such the article represents a heuristic self-study, enhanced by the authors who are practitioners, educators, and researchers working as a group, appropriately enough, online.