The Goldilocks Chair

Abstract

In addition to many other areas of prejudice faced by people with a learning disability there is a history of the disability itself being an exclusion criterion for psychotherapy. In 1993 Bender published an article entitled ‘The unoffered chair: the history of therapeutic disdain towards people with a learning difficulty’. Using the article as a frame of reference this paper will explore the challenges of working psychotherapeutically in the field of learning disability both for therapist and client. It will identify the barriers that exist prior to and during therapy and describe changes I have made to my practice as a result of these observations. There is a long history of negative attitudes towards people with a learning disability and I will suggest why this has continued and the changes that are necessary.