Contact/Practical Theologyat Fifty: Beacon or Mirror for a Changing Discipline?

Winifred Rushforth and the Davidson Clinic for Medical Psychotherapy: a case study in the overlap of psychotherapy, Christianity and New Age spirituality

“…The Clinic also facilitated the formation of the Scottish Pastoral Association (SPA), an initiative partly informed by the involvement of Margaret Allen (1893–1965), the deaconess of the Church of Scotland who was, from 1941 to 1962 ( Annual Report , 1962: 8), seconded to the Davidson Clinic as a lay analyst (P.S., 1965: 2). Although the SPA had ceased to exist as a distinct organization by 1975 (Lyall, 2010: 154), its journal Contact , which began in 1960, still exists and is now known as Practical Theology (Lyall, 2010: 151). The formation of the Scottish Pastoral Association, and successors such as Contact / Practical Theology and the Scottish Association for Pastoral Care and Counselling, indicates some degree of success for Christian psychotherapy.…”