Here’s a good subject to start the blog off on the revamped website.

A few years ago (2009) I came across an interesting bit of research. Personally, I have no doubt it’s accurate. Here’s an extract:

Research by the University of Warwick and the University of Manchester finds that psychological therapy could be 32 times more cost effective at making you happy than simply obtaining more money.

Chris Boyce of the University of Warwick and Alex Wood of the University of Manchester compared large data sets where 1000s of people had reported on their well-being. They then looked at how well-being changed due to therapy compared to getting sudden increases in income, such as through lottery wins or pay rises. They found that a 4 month course of psychological therapy had a large effect on well-being. They then showed that the increase in well-being from an £800 course of therapy was so large that it would take a pay rise of over £25,000 to achieve an equivalent increase in well-being. The research therefore demonstrates that psychological therapy could be 32 times more cost effective at making you happy than simply obtaining more money.

Governments pursue economic growth in the belief that it will raise the well-being of its citizens. However, the research suggests that more money only leads to tiny increases in happiness and is an inefficient way to increase the happiness of a population. This research suggests that if policy makers were concerned about improving well-being they would be better off increasing the access and availability of mental health care as opposed to increasing economic growth

A fuller description of the research is still up on the Warwick University website. That would be four lots of six sessions I suspect, today. You can do a great deal of work in that time.

Actually clients have told me that having a significant amount of therapy actually helped them make more money as well – promotions at work, greater self-confidence, that sort of thing. Sort of having your cake and eating it too, I suppose.