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When: Tuesday, 19th November 2024, 6:00 pm
Where: Onlinevents
Ticket price: Self Select Fee
Workshop Part Two (in a series of two parts)
Jeanine will read two extracts from her book 'You’re Not My F*cking Mother'. These readings will serve as prompts for our exploration of key themes in working with young adults.
The first reading is from Chapter 8: Doing beauty fully - which illustrates themes of female identity, models of femininity, beauty and internet dating.
The second reading is from Chapter 9: Rubbish man - which illustrates themes of male identity, models of masculinity and the impact of domestic abuse.
This workshop may contain swearing and themes of a sexual nature. Audience participation is greatly encouraged.
Learning Objective Participants Can Expect From This Event
An increased awareness of key themes of young adulthood
An increased acknowledgment of existing biases and blind spots connected to Gen Z themes
An increased capacity to engage with difficult to engage with themes
Who is This Workshop Appropriate For?
Psychotherapists, mental health practitioners working with children and young people, psychologists, teaching staff, social care staff, counselling and psychotherapy students, trainee psychologists; parents, guardians and carers.
How May This Workshop Impact Your Practice?
With an increased understanding and acceptance of key themes affecting Gen Z, participants will be better equipped to support young adults in their practice.
When: Tuesday, 12th November 2024, 6:00 pm
Where: Onlinevents
Ticket price: Self Select Fee
Workshop Part One (in a series of two parts)
Jeanine will read two extracts from her book 'Stop F*cking Nodding and other things 16 year olds say in therapy'. These readings will serve as prompts for our exploration of key themes in working with adolescents.
The first reading is from Chapter 4: In transition - which illustrates themes of gender identity, self-injury and the young person’s relationship with their body.
The second reading is from Chapter 5: W*nking - which illustrates themes of sexuality and sexual fetishes, and themes of identity including being a young black man and a child in care.
This workshop will contain swearing and themes of a sexual nature. Audience participation is greatly encouraged.
Learning objective participants can expect from this event
An increased awareness of key themes of adolescence
An increased acknowledgment of existing biases and blind spots
An increased capacity to engage with difficult to engage with themes
Who is this workshop appropriate for?
Psychotherapists, mental health practitioners working with children and young people, psychologists, teaching staff, social care staff, counselling and psychotherapy students, trainee psychologists; parents, guardians and carers.
How may this workshop impact your practice?
With an increased understanding and acceptance of key themes of adolescence, participants will be better equipped to support adolescents in their practice.
When: Thursday, 24th October 2024, 6:00 pm
Where: Online with Onlinevents
Ticket price: Free
Join Helen Kewell, author of Midlife: Stories of crisis and growth from the counselling room in conversation with Catherine Jackson
Helen Kewell will be speaking and answering questions about working therapeutically with people in midlife, the challenges they face but also the renewal and new beginnings that can be found.
Helen Kewell is a humanistic counsellor and supervisor with a private practice in Sussex, specialising in life transitions and ageing. She is also an educator and a management consultant specialising in people and organisational change. Her previous book, Living Well and Dying Well, is also published by PCCS Books (2019).
About the book
In this challenging and uplifting book, humanistic counsellor Helen Kewell takes a compassionate look at the challenges presented to us, men, women and non-binary folk alike, by our arrival at this major point of transition in adult life. Extending life expectancy and advances in medical science have given us many more years to life than was once the norm. The concept of the 'midlife crisis' wasn't even invented until the mid-1960s. Yet today, most of us in our mid-50s can expect another 30 to 40 years of life. Most of us retire from fulltime employment in our late 60s. We have many more years to live, and much still to contribute to society and to our families. Kewell's message is that these are indeed years to be lived to the full.
In these short vignettes fashioned from her casework with clients and her personal experience of midlife, Kewell crafts a story not of decline and disintegration but renewal, revival and new beginnings. With her skilful guidance, her clients unpick and come to terms with what has driven them thus far and throw off the shackles of old ways of being.
This sensitive, thoughtful and challenging book addresses a topic rarely discussed from this perspective, bringing to it a counsellor's wisdom, rooted in humanistic and existential theory and personal experience of being female, a mother and amid midlife.
When: Wednesday, 22nd May 2024, 7:00 pm
Where: ONLINE with Onlinevents
Ticket price: Free
Celebrating the World of the Person-Centred Therapies!
Join us online to celebrate the launch of The Tribes of a Person-Centred Nation (3rd ed), Edited by Mick Cooper and Published by PCCS Books
The event will begin with a short reflection on Pete Sanders, the previous editor, followed by a roundtable where Mick Cooper and the chapter authors will speak about their 'tribe'. The evening will finish with a short discussion and Q&A.
About the book
This classic text, now in its third edition, is essential reading for those training and embarking on a career in counselling. From its origins in the work and research of Carl Rogers in the 1960s to today’s world where myriad forms of counselling are on offer, the person-centred approach has resonated with the hearts, minds and experience of those looking to train as a counsellor. But it has not stood still, and in this book you will find descriptions of some of the many seedlings that have flourished from its root stock, fed by its core principles. The book’s title speaks of tribes, and person-centred approaches inspire a fidelity and sense of identity. From classical client-centred therapy and focusing through to pluralism and creative play therapy with children and adults, this book maps a vibrant nation that continues to have much to offer counsellors and their clients. Leading proponents in their fields offer succinct and inspiring summaries of the roots, theories, principles, practice and research of their specialist approach, supported with suggestions for further reading and resources.
Contents of the book
Introduction
1 Carl Rogers and person-centred therapy: a historical overview - Pete Sanders and Sheila Haugh
2 Classical person-centred therapy - Tony Merry and Sheila Haugh
3 The relational approach to person-centred therapy - Gina Di Malta, Mick Cooper, Rosanne Knox and Steve Cox
4 Focusing-oriented therapy - Campbell Purton
5 Emotion-focused therapy - Robert Elliott
6 Person-centred experiential counselling for depression - Richard Doyle and David Murphy
7 Motivational interviewing - William R. Miller
8 Existentially informed person-centred therapy - Siebrecht Vanhooren and Mick Cooper
9 Pluralistic person-centred therapy - Nicola Blunden
10 Person-centred creative arts therapies - Ani de la Prida
11 Pre-therapy and contact work - Dion Van Werde and Pete Sanders
12 Child-Centred Play Therapy - Dee C. Ray
Conclusion
When: Tuesday, 14th May 2024, 7:00 pm
Where: Online with Onlinevents
Ticket price: Free
Join us online to celebrate the launch of
You're Not My F*cking Mother and other things Gen Z say in therapy by Jeanine Connor
on 14th May at 7 - 8pm
Tickets - free
Register for tickets here
Please join us as we launch Jeanine Connor's book 'You're Not My F*cking Mother' and other things Gen Z say in therapy.
Jeanine will be in conversation with Catherine Jackson, Commissioning Editor at PCCS Books, discussing her new publication followed by questions from the audience.
Jeanine Connor is a psychodynamic psychotherapist, clinical supervisor and training facilitator in private practice, as well as Editor of BACP Children, Young People & Families and Reviews Editor for BACP Therapy Today. She is the author of one book about the human body and You’re Not My F*cking Mother is her third book about human thought and behaviour.
About the book
Modern life is tough on young people, and perhaps toughest on the generation whose adolescence and early adulthood has been indelibly marked by Brexit, the Covid-19 lockdowns, war in Europe, economic recession and the mixed blessings of social media. Beneath the looming shadow of the impacts of climate change, Gen Z, the so-called zoomers, are hanging onto the rails on a rollercoaster ride through the social, economic, environmental and political chaos of modern life, and their mental health is suffering. Psychotherapist Jeanine Connor turns her focus to this generation in another series of vivid portraits of what goes on behind the doors of her therapy room. We meet Stan, standing on the threshold of adulthood and grappling with love, sex and death; Preesha, the social influencer, whose life is being shaped by the demands of the media and its conflicts with her cultural family history, and Drew, whose vivid dreams hint at a sexuality that flies in the face of all his notions of masculinity. We sit alongside Keziah, who doesn’t ‘need’ therapy but whose (literally) f*cking mother provides the title (and connecting theme) for the book; Morgan, whose emotionless exterior belies a traumatic childhood, and Bea, the beauty, who wants the fairy tale ending, but not if it reduces her to the status of arm-candy on the biceps of the beast.
These therapeutic snapshots bring to life the theories pioneered by Freud and his descendants and make compulsive reading for all those concerned with the human psyche and the struggles of young adults in the Western industrialised world today. They illustrate how mothers show up in (almost) everybody’s psychotherapy, and how they, their and our own heritages and baggage shape us all.
#YNMFM
Endorsements
‘In a world where everybody is talking about mental health, psychotherapy still has an image problem. Though TikTok and Instagram have made psychology the Lingua Franca of today’s youth, what actually goes on behind the consulting room door still remains a mystery. Fortunately, You’re Not My F*cking Mother is not just another f*cking therapy book. Connor’s refreshingly frank dialogue and relatable stories wonderfully humanise what therapy (and being a therapist) is all about. Accessible, yet grounded in theory, this is a must read for all, from Gen Z to Gen X – and their f*cking mothers.’ Aaron Balick, psychotherapist and author
‘Not only is it a rollicking read, this book is a bang-up-to-date account of the real-world struggles that young people face today. Social media hell holes and the pandemic hangover are among the themes that Jeanine takes on, with the steadying foundations of Freud and our earliest experiences. Her writing is fresh and bold and never gets gummed up with ‘therapy-speak’. This is an essential book for anyone who works with, or cares for or about young people, which is all of us.’ Sally Donovan OBE, author of The Strange and Curious Guide to Trauma
When: Thursday, 4th April 2024, 3:30 pm
Where: Online Zoom
Ticket price: Free
PCCS Books invites you to the online launch of Counselling Pathways: developing your career
Edited by Rick Hughes
Thursday 4th April at 3.30pm - 5pm
We will be celebrating this new publication and hearing from some of the contributors.
Please join us on the day via the Zoom link here and rsvp to katie@pccs-books.co.uk
When: Friday, 8th March 2024, 9:00 am
Where: Onlinevents
Ticket price: This event has now been cancelled
**Unfortunately this event has now been cancelled**
Check back here on how to watch Bayo Akomolafe, Global Fellow at the University of California and founder of the Emergence Network, in conversation with Elouise Mayall, climate activist with the UK Youth Climate Coalition (pre-recorded event)
We will also announce any rescheduled workshops shortly.
Drawing on contributions to our best-selling book by the same title, PCCS Books, in association with Onlinevents, is pleased to present this one-day online conference for all counsellors, coaches, psychotherapists, psychologists and others concerned about how we support our clients’ resilience in the face of climate crisis.
The day opens with international speaker, psychologist, posthumanist thinker and essayist Bayo Akomolafe, Global Fellow at the University of California and founder of the Emergence Network, in conversation with Elouise Mayall, climate activist with the UK Youth Climate Coalition. Bayo and Elouise will discuss how communities worldwide can respond to the climate change challenge and its implications for all species.
Later, in our second keynote presentation, Linda Aspey, BACP Fellow and accredited psychotherapeutic counsellor,coach and facilitator and supervisor for the Climate Psychology Alliance, talks with therapist, trainer and founder of The Anti-Discrimination Focus (TADF), Mamood Ahmad, about equity and climate change, and the skills counselling professionals need to support clients in these challenging times.
With an offer of 11 workshops scheduled in three streams across the day, this is the go-to event for all counselling, psychotherapy, coaching and psychology practitioners and students seeking tools and confidence to respond meaningfully to their clients’ climate-related needs. There will also be opportunities for participants to come together to pause and ground themselves throughout the day.
Workshops with Bayo Akomolafe, Mahmood Ahmad, Farah Ali, Linda Aspey, Roger Duncan, Hetty Einzig, Fred Ehresmann, Caroline Hickman, Chris Johnstone, Elouise Mayall, Jo McAndrews, Andy Miller, Matthew Painton, Robin Shohetand + Maggie Turp.
Workshops focus on diverse topics including how we support children and young people, developing frameworks for therapeutic interventions, fear and forgiveness, radical hope, eco-fiction in therapy, motion validation coaching, solution-focused responses, transforming climate anxiety into action, and much more
Therefore, the delegates will have a choice of four workshops in two streams and three workshops in one stream and can watch the others on catch up.
Andy Miller’s workshop may run concurrently with the Q&A and will be live, not a pre-record. The Bayo Akomolafe interview is a pre-record.
The final Q&A will be a panel of all presenters who can stay around to take part and feature Q’s from participants.
RECORDING
This workshop will be recorded and you can use the ticket function to pre-purchase the recording before the event. This will be useful for colleagues who are not able to attend the event live and also for those who attend the event live and want to watch it again.
ZOOM
This workshop will be hosted on the Zoom meeting platform where we will use our cameras and microphones to interact with each other as a group.
___________________________
All the colleagues at ONLINEVENTS and the presenters we collaborate with are committed to working in a manner consistent with the BACP Ethical Framework, which can be accessed on the link below. When registering for this event you are agreeing to be present and interact in a manner that is consistent with this Framework.
https://www.bacp.co.uk/events-and-resources/ethics-and-standards/ethical-framework-for-the-counselling-professions/
When: Thursday, 11th January 2024, 7:00 pm
Where: Online - http://us02web.zoom.us/j/85397619301
Ticket price: Free
Join us online on 11th Jan (7pm - 8pm) as we launch Pater Barham’s new book
Outrageous Reason: madness and race in Britain and Empire, 1780-2020
Zoom link - us02web.zoom.us/j/85397619301
All welcome
RSVP to katie@pccs-books.co.uk
When: Thursday, 26th October 2023, 3:00 pm
Where: ONLINE with Onlinevents
Ticket price: Zoom Ticket - Self Select Fee - Guide price £20
The workshop will summarise the argument of the book - Different Bodies: that just as the problem with 'race' is whiteness, the problem with marginalisation in general is the concept of normality and its power to shape society.
The workshop is addressed to everyone who identifies as 'normal', or who has a part of them that does; its aim is to question that identity, to encourage you to move away from it and identify instead with your unique pattern of difference -- which is what we all have in common.
Learning Objective Participants Can Expect From This Event
Learning to question assumptions about normality and difference, and to relate better to these issues as they appear in therapy.
To challenge and also help the person who self-defines as ‘normal’– be they talking therapist, body therapist, client or anyone else.
Who is This Workshop Appropriate For?
Psychotherapists, counsellors, and anyone else interested.
When: Friday, 22nd September 2023, 9:00 am
Where: Online
Ticket price: Donation
A Disorder for Everyone! - The Online Festival 2023
22nd September 2023 - 9am
We are in assocation with PCCS BOOKS and supported by onlinevents.com
You can expect the usual dynamic, change-making energy, passion and wisdom from every one of them. They are all people who challenge the mainstream medicalised paradigm of emotional distress that labels and pathologises people’s suffering on a daily basis.
Our contributors this year:-
Lucy Johnstone / Jo Watson / Akima Thomas / Sanah Ahsan / Indigo Daya / Jacqui Dillon / Daniel Mackler / Mary Boyle / Joanna Moncrieff / Sami Timimi / Shoshana Levin Fox / James Barnes / Catherine Jackson / Anne Guy / Sarah Henry / Janet Tolan / Kate Silverton / Gabor Maté / Johann Hari / Nadine Denneth / Robert Whitaker / Karin Jervert / Marnie Wedlake / Peter Kinderman / Lasse Matilla / James & the disorders ft John Read / Viv Gordon / Clare Shaw
This is a donation only event to ensure that it is as accesible as possible to all so please pay what you can afford and what you are comfortable with.
Suggested donations are..
On benefits £5
Low Waged £15
Waged £40
High Waged £70
For group/organistion bookings please contact adisorder4everyone@gmail.com
The day will be recorded so that delegates who can't watch live can access in their own time.
This event is supported by Onlinevents
When: Wednesday, 19th July 2023, 6:30 pm
Where: Online Zoom
Ticket price: Free
PCCS Books invites you to the online launch of Therapists Challenging Racism + Oppression: The unheard voices
Edited by Neelam Zahid + Rachel Cooke
Wednesday 19th July 6.30 – 7.30pm
Please join us on the night on Zoom HERE
When: Saturday, 15th July 2023, 7:00 pm
Where: ONLINE with Onlinevents
Ticket price: £25 - £50
BAATN, Onlinevents and PCCS Books are delighted to announce a conference, inspired by the publication of the book Therapy in Colour: Intersectional, Anti-Racist and Intercultural Approaches by Therapists of Colour (Jessica Kingsley Publishers)
The online conference will run from 14-15th July 2023. It will offer a combination of keynote speakers, panel discussions and a wide-ranging choice of practical workshops.
Our aim is to provide a space for students, trainers, practitioners and researchers to explore and showcase best practice in:
With keynotes from Myira Khan, Eugene Ellis + Dr Dwight Turner
The conference will open in the evening of Friday 14th July with a panel discussion on the theme of "Student & Trainers Experience of Race in Training" , followed by a wider discussion with participants.
On Saturday, 15th July, there will be an opening keynote address, followed by workshops of between 45 and 90 minutes, organised in four streams to reflect the four primary sectors of interest:
Students / Trainers and lecturers / Practitioners / Researchers
Following a break for lunch, we will reconvene for a second keynote presentation, followed by a further choice of workshops across the same four streams.
The event will close with a keynote presentation and discussion forum where participants can reflect and report on what has arisen for them in the workshops and discuss ways forward for the profession.
When: Thursday, 23rd February 2023, 7:00 pm
Where: Online via Zoom
Ticket price: Free
Join us online for an evening of storytelling and reflection to launch
Weathering The Storm: Stories of love, life, loss and discovery in the time of covid
edited by Liz Rothschild
23rd February 2023 7pm – 8.30pm
Please RSVP to katie@pccs-books.co.uk to receive the Zoom link on the day of the event
The book has been described as 'Remarkable in its plainspoken eloquence and critical commentary, this book captures the panoramic impact of the global crisis as revealed in the lives of the healthcare workers, teachers, immigrants, youth and families who have “weathered the storm”. I recommend it to anyone compassionate, curious or concerned enough to dive deeply into the experience of trauma and resilience, tissues in hand, and open to cultivating a fuller humanity.’
When: Wednesday, 29th March 2023, 6:00 pm
Where: Online with Onlinevents
Ticket price: Free Tickets
Holding the Hope: Reviving Psychological and Spiritual Agency in the Face of Climate Change – Book Launch Event with PCCS Books and Onlinevents
You are warmly invited to the launch of
Holding the Hope: reviving psychological and spiritual agency in the face of climate change
Edited by Linda Aspey, Catherine Jackson and Diane Parker and published by PCCS Books
Catastrophic climate change, the destruction of our ecosystem and accelerated species extinction hang over us all. How can coaches, counsellors, psychologists and psychotherapists hold their own fears, let alone those of their clients?
In Holding the Hope, contributors from a range of cultural backgrounds and professional disciplines – coaches, counsellors, psychologists and psychotherapists – discuss our inter-relationships with the natural world, indigenous practices and understandings, our betrayal of our children and young people, maintaining a sense of meaning and agency and, above all, how to go on practising at the edge of despair.
To launch the book, contributors will be coming together to make short presentations about their chapters, followed by an opportunity for participants to talk in more depth in small-group ‘meet the author’ workshops.
We are delighted to welcome:
Roger Duncan
Roger is a registered systemic family therapist, systemic supervisor and author, and writes and lectures on systemic psychotherapy and the epistemology and practice of ecosystemic psychotherapy. He will be talking about ‘What your biology teacher didn’t teach you: Reclaiming a Western indigenous relationship
Niki Harré
Niki is a professor at the University of Auckland, specialising in community psychology and the psychology Her chapter is titled ‘Towards a sacred framework’ and explores the importance of coming together as communities to respond in practical ways to the climate emergency
Robin Shohet
Robin has written extensively on supervision. His approach to tackling climate change is a deep inquiry into our thinking and our ‘polluting’ thoughts, prompted by the question: ‘How green is your mind?’
Hetty Einzig
Hetty works globally in leadership development, facilitation and coaching, with individuals, teams and organisations. She is a writer, a coaching supervisor, a psychotherapist rooted in the transpersonal and psychoanalytic traditions, and executive editor of the AC global magazine Coaching Perspectives. Hetty will be talking about ‘Radical hope: A dimension of the rooted soul’
Nick Totton
Nick is a body psychotherapist, supervisor and trainer. He founded and for some years taught training in embodied-relational therapy and in wild therapy. He will argue that, in the current situation, hope is an unhelpful burden that needs to be let go of, and that therapists can offer a space for the client to express and experience the intensity of their despair, grief and anger.
Caroline Frizell
Caroline is a senior lecturer on the MA Dance Movement Psychotherapy at Goldsmiths and holds a PhD in posthuman, eco-feminist research. She will be presenting her chapter, ‘Coming home to a post-human body: Finding hopefulness in those who care’
Chris Johnstone
Chris is a resilience trainer, with a background in medicine, psychological therapies, groupwork and coaching. He will be talking about Active Hope Training, which he developed with Joanna Macy
Maggie Turp
Maggie is a psychotherapist who has published on psychosomatic health and self-harm, and in recent years has focused more on climate and ecological issues. She is a member of the editorial team of the Climate Psychology Alliance (CPA) journal Explorations. Her talk will be about the role of climate and ecology fiction (cli-fi) in fostering awareness and resilience
Pedro Oliveira
Pedro runs an English-speaking therapy service in Lisbon for international clients and is founder of a collective of eco-aware psychologists in Portugal. He will talk about his own therapeutic practice with individuals who come to him with ‘eco-anxiety’, using a case study as illustration
Matthew Painton
Matthew is a certified co-active coach and a co-founder of the Deep Adaptation Guides community. He will be presenting on his own model of deep adaptation coaching
Yasmin Kapadia
Yasmin is a transpersonal integrative counsellor and eco-therapist. She will discuss the need for a decolonising and anti-racist approach. She will describe how therapy can help cultivate qualities of kinship in our relationships which are foundational in our response to social and ecological injustices, including the climate crisis.
Fred Ehresmann
Fred is a registered mental health nurse specialising in working with children, young people and their families. He works at the University of the West of England as a senior lecturer in mental health, where he leads an undergraduate module in solution-focused practice. His focus will be on ‘solution-focused practice at the edge of despair’
Caroline Hickman
Caroline is a psychotherapist and lecturer at the University of Bath. She has researched and published widely on children and young people’s emotional responses to climate change and will talk about how to help them make meaning from their experience
Jo McAndrews
Jo is a training consultant, facilitator and qualified psychotherapist, specialising in working with young people, parents and professionals who work with children. She will talk about growing resilience in the face of crisis
Andy Miller
Andy is a climate coach in Vancouver, Canada, has an MSc in the business psychology of sustainable development and is a certified EFT coach. He will present his model of emotion coaching for parents of climate-aware children
When: Wednesday, 15th February 2023, 7:00 pm
Where: Online with Zoom. The link will be sent out on the morning of the event.
Ticket price: Free
PCCS BOOKS invites you to the online launch of Online Counselling: An Essential Guide
by Sarah Worley-James
Wednesday15th Feb at 7pm until 8pm via Zoom.
Please rsvp to katie@pccs-books.co.uk and join us on the night as we celebrate this recent publication.
Sarah Worley-James is a BACP senior accredited counsellor, supervisor and trainer with 25 years’ experience in the public, private and third sectors. She is former chair of the Association for Counselling and Therapy Online (ACTO), a senior tutor with the Academy for Online Therapy and Senior Counsellor at Cardiff University, where she set up the online service in 2011. She writes a regular column about online counselling in the BACP Workplace journal and published a series of articles about the process of setting up a university online counselling service.
'Reading Online Counselling made me realise just of how far online therapy has matured as a profession over the past 10 years. Sarah’s warm and inviting style of writing nails the subject of online therapy from page one. Any online therapist, whether experienced or not, will find so much in this book that will benefit them and, consequently, their online clients.'
Pip Weitz, Training Director, Academy for Online Therapy
When: Thursday, 11th May 2023, 9:00 am
Where: Online with Onlinevents
Ticket price: Ticket Prices are set at £25 / £37.50 / £50. Please select the ticket price that is affordable.
‘Putting The Politics (Back) Into Counselling’
PCCS Books 30th Anniversary Conference
Thursday 11 MAY - Online
9am – 5pm
It’s 30 years since PCCS Books published its very first book – a short guide to using counselling skills on the telephone. Since then, we have published more than 200 books on counselling theory and practice, critical psychology and mental health. The aim of this conference is to celebrate those 30 years, and all those books, and to pay tribute to our co-founder Pete Sanders, who died in 2022. Inspired by Pete’s vision, PCCS Books has always argued that the professional is political: that politics has a place in the counselling room and counselling has a role in the battles for social justice. This conference will be an opportunity to discuss and debate the challenges that face counsellors and mental health practitioners today – resisting the medicalisation of talking therapies; tackling social injustice; challenging racism in counselling training and practice, and fostering agency and hope in the face of climate change.
Join us online to debate the key professional and political challenges facing counselling in the 21st century.
Morning –
De-medicalising mental health
with Joanna Moncrieff, Lucy Johnstone and John Read
Politics, class and social justice in counselling
with Mick Cooper and Katy Woodger
Afternoon –
Decolonising counselling
with Neelam Zahid, Sarah Henry and Delroy Hall
Holding hope in the face of climate crisis
with Nick Totton and Linda Aspey
Tickets
Tickets are priced to enable a wide audience.
Ticket prices are set at £25 / £37.50 / £50.
Please select the ticket price that is affordable. The ticket prices includes access to the recording of the conference.
Speaker Biographies
Dr. Lucy Johnstone is a consultant clinical psychologist, author of 'Users and abusers of psychiatry' (3rd edition Routledge 2021) and ‘A straight-talking guide to psychiatric diagnosis’ (PCCS Books, 2nd edition 2022); co-editor of 'Formulation in psychology and psychotherapy: making sense of people's problems' (Routledge, 2nd edition 2013); and co-author of ‘A straight talking introduction to the Power Threat Meaning Framework’, 2020, PCCS Books) along with a number of other chapters and articles taking a critical perspective on mental health theory and practice. She is the former Programme Director of the Bristol Clinical Psychology Doctorate in the UK and has worked in Adult Mental Health settings for many years, most recently in a service in South Wales. Lucy was lead author, along with Professor Mary Boyle, for the ‘Power Threat Meaning Framework’ (2018), which outlines a conceptual alternative to psychiatric diagnosis and has attracted national and international attention.
Joanna Moncrieff is a Professor of Critical and Social Psychiatry at University College London, and works as a consultant psychiatrist in the NHS in London. She researchers and writes about the over-use and misrepresentation of psychiatric drugs and about the history, politics and philosophy of psychiatry more generally. She is currently leading UK government-funded research on reducing and discontinuing antipsychotic drug treatment (the RADAR study). She is author of numerous papers and her books include A Straight Talking Introduction to Psychiatric Drugs Second edition (PCCS Books, 2020), The Bitterest Pills: The Troubling Story of Antipsychotic Drugs (2013) and The Myth of the Chemical Cure (2009) (Palgrave Macmillan). Website | https://joannamoncrieff.com Twitter | @joannamoncrieff
Dr. John Read worked in the UK and USA for 20 years as a Clinical Psychologist and manager of mental health services. He joined the University of Auckland, New Zealand in 1994, where he became Director of the Clinical Psychology doctoral training programme. He held the same position at the University of Liverpool when he returned to the UK in 2013. He is currently Professor of Clinical Psychology at the University of East London and Chair of the Institute for Psychiatric Drug Withdrawal. He is the author of over 150 research papers, co-editor (with Jacqui Dillon) of Models of Madness: Psychological, social and biological approaches to psychosis (Routledge, 2013) and founding editor of the research journal Psychosis: Psychological, Social and Integrative Approaches.
Mick Cooper is an internationally recognised author, trainer, and consultant in the field of humanistic, existential, and pluralistic therapies. He is a Chartered Psychologist, and Professor of Counselling Psychology at the University of Roehampton. Mick has facilitated workshops and lectures around the world, including New Zealand, Lithuania, and Florida. Mick's latest of many books explores the contribution that counselling and psychotherapy theory and practice can make to wider social progress and justice. Psychology at the Heart of Social Change: Towards a Progressive Vision for Society is published by Bristol University Press, 2023.
Katy Woodger is a psychotherapist and supervisor in practice since 2009. Katy co-chairs the National Association for Trauma Specialists at the University of Nottingham and is also a member of an advisory board chaired by Sir Keir Starmer, which informs professional responses to sexual violence. Katy is about to complete a PhD at the Open University through the Grand Union doctoral training partnership between the Open University, Brunel University London and the University of Oxford. Katy’s research explores service user experiences of mental health organisations. Katy is a contributor in Counselling, Class and Politics: Undeclared Influences in Therapy (2018) and #MeToo Counsellors and psychotherapists speak about sexual violence and abuse (2020) both published by PCCS Books.
Sarah Henry is a published author, person-centred counsellor and counselling tutor. She is a contributor the book People Not Pathology: Freeing Therapy From The Medical Model, writing a chapter focused on the overmedicalisation of Black people. Sarah has also presented nationally about the impact of race and ethnicity within the counselling and tutoring relationship. Born in England to a Black British mother and Jamaican father, Sarah's formative experience was a notable dynamic of complementary and clashing norms. Elements of this disparity continue into adulthood and inform her work, both implicitly and explicitly.
Neelam Zahid - I’m an Integrative Counsellor, Psychotherapist and Clinical Supervisor accredited by the BACP and have worked as a therapist since 2003. I previously worked within higher education for over a decade and currently have my own private practice. I’m also the Deputy Course Leader for the Foundation year at the Minster Centre and teach on the Introduction to Counselling Skills Course. In addition to this, I’m currently a Visiting Lecturer at the University of Westminster teaching on the B.Sc. Psychology and Counselling and Introduction to Counselling Skills Course. My areas of interest are intersectionality, difference, and diversity and have contributed to the following publications: The Handbook of Transcultural Counselling and Psychotherapy (2001, eds Colin Lago) and Black Identities + White Therapies: Race, Respect + Diversity (2021, eds Colin Lago and Divine Charura).
Dr. Delroy Hall - Counsellor, Coach and Trainer with over three decades of experience, Delroy Hall is a trained counsellor, wellbeing practitioner, trainer, and independent scholar. Delroy has given lectures and academic papers nationally and internationally. He has extensive keynote speaker experience and has lectured at Harvard University and Boston College Massachusetts, USA. Delroy has coordinated mental health projects and is currently working with Birmingham Community Health Care Trust (BCHC) facilitating the Inclusive Leadership component on their ‘Inspire Leadership Programme. He is also coordinator for a Black Male Suicide Prevention programme under the auspices Sheffield Health and Social Care (SCHC).Since April 2020, Delroy has hosted live wellbeing sessions on Facebook and now it is shown on LinkedIn, Twitter and soon, YouTube. Delroy is the Chaplain for Sheffield United Football Club. As a former four hundred metre hurdler, ranked No 2 in Great Britain in 1979, Delroy keeps fit and is presently training for various aqua bike events in the UK.
Nick Totton has been a body psychotherapist for forty years, and a supervisor and trainer for nearly as long. He has written a number of books, including Embodied Relating: The Ground of Psychotherapy, Wild Therapy: Rewilding Inner and Outer Worlds, and (forthcoming from PCCS Books) Different Bodies: Deconstructing Normality. He is the founding editor of Psychotherapy and Politics International, and a previous chair of Psychotherapists for Social Responsibility and the Psychotherapists and Counsellors Union. Nick has a daughter and two grandchildren. He lives in Sheffield with his partner and grows vegetables.
Linda Aspey is a leadership coach, facilitator, psychotherapeutic counsellor, BACP Fellow, and activist. She works with people and organisations to support them in engaging and acting on climate, environmental and social crises.
Please Note - We at PCCS Books are sorry to say we have had to take the difficult decision to move this day to a purely online event, previously we had planned an in-person and online conference. The costs associated with hiring a venue and covering speakers’ travel mean that it is very expensive to organise such a day. Unfortunately, we have not been able to sell enough tickets, at the non-subsidised price, to get close enough to covering our costs, so we have been forced to rethink the day.
Thankfully Onlinevents have very kindly stepped in and agreed to facilitate the conference online on the same date as originally planned.
All our speakers have likewise been very accommodating and agreed to adapt their presentations to an online-only conference.
When: Friday, 17th February 2023, 10:00 am
Where: ONLINE with Onlinevents
Ticket price: Pay what you can - the guide price for this event is £20.00
PCCS Books and AD4E present Causes of Mental Health Problems with John Read
Friday 17th Feb 10am - 11.30am
Join us as Professor John Read explains what we know today about the origins of mental distress by drawing on the latest research from across the world.
What causes mental health problems?
Nature or nurture?
Brain and biology?
Genetic inheritance or social environment?
Learning Objective Participants Can Expect From This Event:
The origins of mental distress, drawing on the latest research from across the world
Understanding of the social determinants of mental wellbeing
How May This Workshop Impact Your Practice?
Raising awareness of evidenced based conceptualizations and treatements
Encouraging awareness of teh damage done by diagnosis and the importance of shared formulations
Dr. John Read
Dr. John Read worked in the UK and USA for 20 years as a Clinical Psychologist and manager of mental health services. He joined the University of Auckland, New Zealand in 1994, where he became Director of the Clinical Psychology doctoral training programme. He held the same position at the University of Liverpool when he returned to the UK in 2013. He is currently Professor of Clinical Psychology at the University of East London and Chair of the Institute for Psychiatric Drug Withdrawal. He is the author of over 150 research papers, co-editor (with Jacqui Dillon) of Models of Madness: Psychological, social and biological approaches to psychosis (Routledge, 2013) and founding editor of the research journal Psychosis: Psychological, Social and Integrative Approaches.
When: Friday, 16th September 2022, 9:00 am
Where: ONLINE with AD4E
Ticket price: Suggested donations: Unwaged £3 / Low Waged £10 / Waged £30 / High Waged £60
The 3rd annual AD4E festival will bring you a whole day of change-making talks, presentations, conversations, poetry from far and wide.
About this event
For the last 2 years AD4E has brought together wisdom, experience and passion for change in an online festival full of inspiring contributors who all challenged the mainstream medicalised paradigm of emotional distress that labels and pathologises people’s suffering.
The feedback we received in the weeks & months that followed both events was overwhelmingly positive and encouraging and it provided us with yet more evidence that the appetite for this discussion is growing exponentially.
Too many people have simply had enough of people’s stories and experiences being negated and dismissed by scientifically questionable labels. They want change, and they want to be part of a movement that is demanding change.
This September 2022 we are doing it all again. Please sign up to join us and please help to spread the word as much as possible.
Hosts: - Dr Lucy Johnstone, Jo Watson, John Wilson, Dr Akima Thomas
9am BST John Wilson - Open and welcome
Jo Watson - Introduction to the festival.
Dr Lucy Johnstone - The critique of psychiatcric diagnosis and why we need a better way forward.
Matt Ball & Indigo Daya - Activists for change in Austrailia
Dr Margot Sunderland - On trauma informed work in schools.
Panel discussion - Psychiatric Drugs
Prof John Read
Stevie Lewis
Zev Faith
Prof Joanna Moncrieff
Dr Rani Bora
Dr James Davies - The Politics of Distress - How the mental health sector came to serve Neoliberalism.
Dr Gabor Mate - A Conversation about Gabor's new book "The Myth Of Normal"
Panel Discussion - Is climate change making us crazy?
Dr Lucy Johnstone
Annie Mitchell
Gareth Morgan
Carla Denyer
Dr Khadj Rouf
Dr Akima Thomas OBE - Title to be confirmed
Bob Whitaker - The Scientific Collapse of the DSM's Model of Care
Panel discussion - Are we on the brink of change?
Prof Peter Kinderman
Rebecca Donaldson
Hári Sewell
James Barnes
Keynote presentation by Dr Jacqui Dillon - First Do No Harm - a keynote talk on iatrogenic harm.
Close of day - 5.30pm
Evening session 6.30pm ( no need to have attended the festival to come to this )
There will be a tribute to our dear friend, colleague and ally Pete Sanders who died in February. This will take place after the festival at 6.30pm and there is a separate link to access it. Sign up free via AD4E eventbrite.
When: Thursday, 25th August 2022, 12:00 pm
Where: Online - Webex
Ticket price: FREE
As part of the Completed Life Initiative 2nd Annual Summer Arts Festival!
Liz Rothschild presents Outside the Box –Everyday Stories of Death, Bereavement and Life
Starting life as Outside the Box – A Live Show About Death, Liz later adapted her one-woman show into a book. Drawing on the 350 stories Liz gathered through four years of touring, PCCS Books published Outside the Box – Everyday Stories of Death, Bereavement and Life in November 2020. Following the success of the book, Liz incorporated it into a new format for live performance. This latest version of Outside the Box, which we are excited to share with you next week, features readings from the book of the same name, interaction with the audience, and Q&A. Drawing on many stories from her personal and working life, from colleagues and from the audiences at almost a hundred performances, Liz has created a cornucopia of contradictory, funny, angry, sad, informative and uplifting stories.
When: Tuesday, 9th August 2022, 7:00 pm
Where: Onlinevents
Ticket price: Free
A Birthday Celebration for the Life and Work of Pete Sanders - Open to ALL
A chance for colleagues and friends to recount some of their favourite memories of Pete.
Join us for an Onlinevents get together on the evening of what would have been Pete’s 71st birthday
9th August, from 7–8:30pm UK Time
When: Saturday, 26th March 2022, 9:30 am
Where: ONLINE with Onlinevents
Ticket price: Donation - guide price £20
Psychotherapy & Counselling’s Contribution to Global Peace, Justice, and Wellbeing: What Difference Can we Make? An Emergency Summit
We live in terrifying times. The war in Ukraine has broken apart any semblance of global peace and security we might have had.
Many of us, as counsellors, psychotherapists, and psychologists, are asking what we can do—if anything? This Emergency Summit will bring together globally-leading theorists, researchers, and clinicians in the psychotherapy and counselling field to discuss the potential role that we can have in creating a more just and peaceful world: one in which all members of the global community have the opportunity to live full and satisfying lives.
Our talks will cover both the practical things that therapists can do, for instance working with war traumatised clients; challenging racism and a Eurocentric view of the world; and more theoretical explorations of the links between therapeutic ideas and conflict resolution practices.
Fundraising
All profits from this event will be donated to the UN Crisis Relief appeal to support the people of Ukraine. You can read more about UN Crisis Relief and make a donation on the link below.
https://crisisrelief.un.org/ukraine-crisis
All of the presenters are donating their time without charge. The event will be hosted by ONLINEVENTS LTD (OE) and OE will be donating all the team time to organise and host the conference. The Eventbrite fees, any sales tax incurred and the cost of using Zoom will be paid from the event income.
Confirmed Speakers:
Andrew Reeves
Dr Andrew Reeves is an Associate Professor in the Counselling Professions and Mental Health, a BACP Senior Accredited Counsellor/Psychotherapist and a Registered Social Worker. His practice experience spans over 35 years, when he first trained as a Samaritans volunteer at 18, before moving into social and work therapy. His research focus in working with risk in therapy, having experienced the suicide of a client during his training. Since then, he was published extensively in this area. He is previous Editor-in-Chief of Counselling and Psychotherapy Research journal, past-Chair of BACP and is Chair of the York St John Advisory Board Counselling and Mental Health Research Clinic. He supervises mostly doctoral research in counselling, psychotherapy and psychological trauma.
Carol Wolter-Gustafson
As a facilitator, therapist, and university adjunct, the person-centered approach has been her theoretical and experiential home-base since her first group encounter group with Carl Rogers. Carol has explored human wholeness, brokenness, and our power in our personal and social relationships. Her work is cultivating alternatives to the destructive, “us vs them” zeitgeist in her writing and Going Global Workshops.
Emmy van Deurzen
Emmy van Deurzen is a professor of Psychology and Psychotherapy with 18 books to her name, several of which have been translated into a dozen languages. She is the Co-Founder and Principal of the Existential Academy (www.existentialacademy.com), where she also runs post graduate courses through the New School of Psychotherapy and Counselling in partnership with Middlesex University (www.nspc.org.uk) and her private practice (www.dilemmaconsultancy.com). Born and raised in the Netherlands, she lived, studied, and worked in France before settling in the UK in 1977. Emmy has been instrumental in founding or cofounding numerous organizations, including the Society for Existential Analysis, the Federation for Existential Therapy in Europe and the World Confederation of Existential Therapy. She has helped people in facing their life problems and suffering for nearly half a century. Amongst her books are the bestsellers Existential Psychotherapy and Counselling in Practice (3d edition 2012), Psychotherapy and the Quest for Happiness (Sage, 2009), Everyday Mysteries (2nd edition Routledge, 2010) and Paradox and Passion (2nd edition, Wiley, 2015). Her book Rising from Existential Crisis was published with PCCS books in 2021. She is currently writing a book on Existential Freedom for Penguin.
Ernesto Spinelli
Professor Ernesto Spinelli was Chair of the Society for Existential Analysis between 1993 and 1999 and is a Life Member of the Society. His writings, lectures and seminars focus on the application of existential phenomenology to the arenas of therapy, psychology, and executive coaching. He is a Fellow of the British Psychological Society (BPS) as well as an APECS accredited executive coach and coaching supervisor. In 1999, Ernesto was awarded a Personal Chair as Professor of psychotherapy, counselling and counselling psychology. In 2000, he was the Recipient of BPS Division of Counselling Psychology Award for Outstanding Contribution to the Profession. And in 2019, Ernesto received the BPS Award for Distinguished Contribution to Practice. His most recent book, Practising Existential Therapy: The Relational World 2nd edition (Sage, 2015) has been widely praised as a major contribution to the advancement of existential theory and practice. His previous books include: The Interpreted World: an introduction to phenomenological psychology, 2nd ed (Sage, 2005); Demystifying Therapy (PCCS, 2006); Tales of Un-knowing (PCCS, 2006); and The Mirror and The Hammer: challenging therapeutic orthodoxies (Sage, 2001). Living up to the existential dictum that life is absurd, Ernesto is also the author of an on-going series of Private Eye novels, the first two of which are Scorpio's Children (2019) and Cruel Love Ways (2020).
Jaako Sekkula
Jaakko Seikkula, Ph.D. is a senior faculty member of the Institute for Dialogic Practice and a Professor of Psychotherapy at the University of Jyvaskyla, Finland. From 1981 to 1998, he was the chief psychologist at Keropudas Hospital in Tornio, Finland. It was during this time that he developed Open Dialogue. His clinical and research interests combine the further development of dialogical approaches with the systematic research analysis of their outcomes and process variables. Jaakko leads the International Meeting for Treatment of Psychosis Network and is a board member of the International Family Therapy Association (IFTA). He is also a member of the American Family Therapy Academy, the Society of Psychotherapy Research and the International Society for Psychological and Social Approaches to Psychosis (ISPS). Jaakko was awarded for his excellence in the field of research in family therapy and systemic practice at the European Family Therapy Association EFTA’s congress in Athens, Greece September 2016.
John McLeod
John McLeod is Professor Emeritus of Counselling at the University of Abertay Dundee. He is author of An Introduction to Counselling (Buckingham: Open University Press, 4th edn 2009), The Counsellor's Workbook: Developing a Personal Approach (Buckingham: Open University Press, 2nd edn., 2009), Case Study Research in Counselling and Psychotherapy (Sage, 2010), A Training Manual in Research Skills and Awareness for Counsellors and Psychotherapists (with Robert Elliott and Sue Wheeler) (BACP, 2010), Qualitative Research in Counselling and Psychotherapy (London: Sage, 2nd edn., 2011), and Counselling Skills (with Julia McLeod) (Buckingham: Open University Press, 2nd edn, 2011), as well as articles and chapters on a wide range of topics in the field of counselling and psychotherapy. He was the founding editor of the BACP research journal, Counselling and Psychotherapy Research, and is committed to the use of research and inquiry to enhance the quality of services offered to clients.
Mick Cooper
Mick Cooper is an internationally recognised author, trainer, and consultant in the field of humanistic, existential, and pluralistic therapies. He is a Chartered Psychologist, and Professor of Counselling Psychology at the University of Roehampton. He has facilitated workshops and lectures around the world, including New Zealand, Lithuania, and Florida. His books include Existential Therapies (Sage, 2017), Working at Relational Depth in Counselling and Psychotherapy (Sage, 2018), and The Handbook of Person-Centred Psychotherapy and Counselling (Palgrave, 2013). His latest work is Integrating Counselling and Psychotherapy: Directionality, Synergy, and Social Change (Sage, 2019). His principal areas of research have been in shared decision-making/personalising therapy, and counselling for young people in schools. In 2014, Mick received the Carmi Harari Mid-Career Award from Division 32 of the American Psychological Association. He is a Fellow of the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy and the Academy of Social Sciences.
Paul Gilbert
Paul Gilbert OBE qualified in clinical psychology in 1980 and is professor of clinical psychology at the University of Derby and has had a number of visiting international professorships. From his extensive clinical and research work he developed compassion focused therapy for people with complex mental health problems.
Peggy Natiello
Peggy Natiello’s professional life has focused on Client-centred therapy and the Person-centred approach. Her book, The Person- centred Approach: A Passionate Presence, was written to clarify the importance of Dr. Carl Rogers’s radical beliefs about psychotherapy, education, group work, organizational development, and life. Currently she is reflecting on the perfect fit between those beliefs and the dizzying changes confronting our global culture.
Windy Dryden
I am a CBT Therapist, Trainer, Academic and Writer. I am Emeritus Professor of Psychotherapeutic Studies at Goldsmiths University of London and have been working in the field of counselling and psychotherapy since 1975. I was one of the first people in Britain to be trained in Cognitive Behaviour Therapy and have trained with Drs. Albert Ellis, Aaron T. Beck and Arnold Lazarus. I have also trained at the University of Warwick where I was awarded an MSc in Psychotherapy. This was an eclectic course and gave me a very broad view of the field. What has been important and sustaining in my career has been variety. Thus, I work as a practitioner, trainer, academic and writer/editor.
Additional Confirmed Speakers
Colleagues from Ukraine
Digby Tantam
Jaako Sekkula
Lucia Berdondini
Maureen O'Hara
Mhairi Thurston
Nora Sveaass
Event Venue
This workshop will be hosted on the Zoom meeting platform where we will use our camera and microphones to interact with each other.
Event Tickets
Registration for this event is offered as a self-select fee.
The self-select fee is a radical inclusion policy to open learning for all colleagues. The guide price for this event is £20.00, however, we appreciate that income varies greatly in different locations and circumstances. Please contribute what you can to help us raise money to be sent to Ukraine.
There is a ticket for access to recordings made at the event which is available for £19.99GBP.
We are expecting that we will be able to record most of the contributions to this event, however, there may be contributions that are not appropriate for recording and will not be included in the recordings viewable following the event.
When: Thursday, 28th April 2022, 2:00 pm
Where: Online
Ticket price: Donation
Crucial Conversations is a series of 'A Disorder for Everyone' online events in which authors of recently published books that contribute to challenging the culture of diagnosis and disorder are invited to talk about their work.
In our 3rd event of this kind, AD4E welcomes Johann Hari and Lucy Johnstone to talk about their new books. There will be audience questions and a panel discussion afterwards.
Panel members confirmed so far include Sally-Ann, DrGabor Maté and Prof SamiTimimi. (Bios to follow)
About Lucy
Dr Lucy Johnstone is a consultant clinical psychologist, author of 'Users and abusers of psychiatry' (3nd edition Routledge 2021) and co-editor of 'Formulation in psychology and psychotherapy: making sense of people's problems' (Routledge, 2nd edition 2013), along with a number of other chapters and articles taking a critical perspective on mental health theory and practice. She is the former Programme Director of the Bristol Clinical Psychology Doctorate and worked in Adult Mental Health settings for many years, most recently in a service in South Wales. She is lead author, along with Professor Mary Boyle, of the Power Threat Meaning Framework (2018), a radical conceptual alternative to the diagnostic model of distress, which is attracting national and international attention. @ClinpsychLucy
About 'A straight talking introduction to psychiatric diagnosis'
'A straight talking introduction to psychiatric diagnosis' was first published by PCCS Books in 2013, and offers an accessible overview of the arguments in this complex area. Its core aim, which aligns with that of 'A disorder 4 everyone', is to offer people a choice of understandings of distress.In this second, updated edition, Lucy Johnstone revisits the revolution that is underway in mental health.
No one doubts that people’s distress is very real – but are they actually suffering from illnesses which need diagnosing? In our increasingly competitive, unequal and fragmented world, we are all struggling. We are told the answer lies in finding the right diagnosis. We are encouraged to talk about our ‘mental health’ instead of the conditions of our lives. And increasingly, we ourselves seek out labels which reassure us that our feelings of shame, failure and difference are not our fault. But there are better ways forward.
The book ends with a new, hard-hitting analysis of the political, economic and social forces that drive the diagnostic model. It demystifies one of the guiding myths of our age, and opens up hope and new ways forward for anyone who has taken on a diagnostic label.
The revised edition of Lucy's book will be published 23rd March 2022 - https://www.pccs-books.co.uk/forthcoming-books
Reviews from the first edition include:
‘Rigorously researched, powerfully argued and engagingly written, this thoughtful and valuable book empowers readers with something too often missing in statutory care – the knowledge and resources to make an informed choice.’ Eleanor Longden, Psychosis Research Group, University of Liverpool
‘This is a tremendously valuable book, punching holes in tradition and psychiatric conservatism, finding lights at the end of very dark tunnels, valuing the individual, giving them space and time and their story back.’ Polly Mortimer, Contemporary Psychotherapy
‘A Straight Talking Introduction to Psychiatric Diagnosis is a short, concise work which combines scholarship with humanity and compassion. It provides a unique resource for those of us who have been harmed by the workings of psychiatry and want to prevent future harm to others.’ Louise Gillett, Huffington Post
The Panel Contributors.
Joining Johann & Lucy for a discussion after their talks are...
SallyAnn - Survivor, activist & speaker
Prof Sami Timimi - Child and Adolescent Psychiatrist
Dr Sanah Ahsan - Poet & liberation psychologist
Dr Gabor Maté - Author & speaker
When: Thursday, 7th April 2022, 7:00 pm
Where: ONLINE with Onlinevents
Ticket price: Free
Join Dina Glouberman as we celebrate the launch of her new publication.
There will be saxophone music, an ImageWork experience and a chance to share your ImageWork stories or to ask Dina your questions. Don't miss the celebration!
About the book
The ImageWork approach offers a wonderful invitation to learn to imagine better.' So writes Dr Dina Glouberman, author of the bestselling The Joy of Burnout, in this powerful new book about the theory and practice of ImageWork, with a foreword by Robin Shohet. ImageWork is the unique approach she has created and developed over 40 years that harnesses the power of the imagination to promote healing, creative achievement, transformational insight and practical wisdom. It is used by practitioners worldwide to multiply and deepen the effectiveness of their work, and to enable their clients to make creative choices and profound changes.
This is a practical, comprehensive, beautifully clear and accessible handbook for practitioners, including therapists, counsellors, coaches, consultants, supervisors, spiritual directors, health professionals and every helping practitioner. It is packed with fascinating client stories, original theory, practical guidance, ImageWork exercise scripts, takeaway points, and practice sessions. Practitioners are also invited to apply ImageWork in their own lives, just as Dr Glouberman herself does every day - 'It's the best training of all.' Martin Rossman, one of the leading imagery authors in the USA, has said about ImageWork, "In my 50 years in the field, this is the best book I have read about working with imagery for healing, creativity and personal transformation. A landmark book."
Dr. Dina Glouberman
Dr. Dina Glouberman, psychotherapist, coach, facilitator and world-renowned expert in transformational imagery, is the visionary co-founder and co-director of Skyros Holistic Holidays, which has pioneered community-oriented holistic health holidays since 1979. She is the author of the classic books Life Choices, Life Changes; The Joy of Burnout; You Are What You Imagine, and Into the Woods and Out Again, and co-editor, with Yannis Andricopoulos, of Skyros: Sunshine for the soul. Dr Glouberman has been a pioneer for the past 40 years in creating, teaching and practising the use of ImageWork, which harnesses the imagination that guides our lives and enables creative life choices and profound life changes. More recently, she founded and directs the Aurora Centre in southern Italy, where she offers trainings in ImageWork to therapists, counsellors, coaches, consultants and health professionals, and also facilitates ImageWork retreats. She is a course leader on the Faculty of the MA (Clinical) in Psychotherapy of the Tivoli Institute in Dublin, and a member of the Board of Directors of the Association of Humanistic Psychology (Britain).
When: Friday, 15th July 2022, 7:00 pm
Where: ONLINE with Onlinevents
Onlinevents and PCCS Books are delighted to announce a one-day conference, in association with the editors of the recently published book, Black Identities + White Therapies (PCCS Books, 2021).
The online conference will run from 15-16th July 2022. It will offer a combination of keynote speakers, panel discussions and a wide-ranging choice of practical workshops.
Our aim is to provide a space for students, trainers, practitioners and researchers to explore and showcase best practice in:
challenging race discrimination and white fragility within the counselling professions
developing new ways of preparing students to work in our multicultural society
finding new ways to offer therapy to a diverse population
increasing access to talking therapies for people from minoritised racial groups
promoting black, Asian and minority ethnic presence within the profession at all levels
The conference will open in the evening of Friday 15 July with a panel debate on a topical issue, followed by a social gathering and party for participants.
On Saturday, there will be an opening keynote address, followed by workshops of between 45 and 90 minutes, organised in four streams to reflect the four primary sectors of interest:
Students
Trainers and lecturers
Practitioners
Researchers
Following a break for lunch, we will reconvene for a second keynote presentation, followed by a further choice of workshops across the same four streams.
The event will close with a keynote presentation and discussion forum where participants can reflect and report on what has arisen for them in the workshops and discuss ways forward for the profession.
We are seeking
submission of abstracts to run workshops from practitioners, trainers, students, academics and researchers. The workshops can be either 45 or 90 mins in length. Please send your abstract/proposal to…..
sponsorship for this event to enable us to reimburse all the speakers adequately for their time and keep the ticket prices low.
TRAINING PROVIDERS
We are asking all training providers to email their students details of this conference along with a link to the Student Discount.
To acknowledge your support for the conference we are displaying training providers logo’s here on the registration page, also in the resources pack that will be sent to all conference participants and included with the recordings from the conference.
Please email help@onlinevents.co.uk for the details to send to your student group and to share you company logo for the registration page.
STUDENT DISCOUNT
We have a special student discount ticket that is available for only £15.00.
This ticket is available via training providers.
Please send the contact details of your training provider to help@onlinevents.co.uk so that we can send the student discount details to your training provider to distribute to their student body.
Our intention is to let all counselling & psychotherapy students know about this conference as the learning will be vital for current training and future practice.
This workshop will be hosted on the Zoom meeting platform where we will use our camera and microphones to interact with each other as a group.
All the colleagues at ONLINEVENTS and the presenters we collaborate with are committed to working in a manner consistent with the BACP Ethical Framework, which can be accessed on the link below. When registering for this event you are agreeing to be present and interact in a manner that is consistent with this Framework.
https://www.bacp.co.uk/events-and-resources/ethics-and-standards/ethical-framework-for-the-counselling-professions/
When: Saturday, 4th December 2021, 9:15 am
Where: ONLINE with Onlinevents
Ticket price: £20 minimum
Counselling & Psychotherapy in Times of Global Calamity
with workshops from Emmy van Deurzen, Nick Totton, Karen Izod, and Robin Shohet
Counsellors and psychotherapists are working in a time of multiple crises not encountered since, perhaps, the Second World War. In the past two years alone, we have experienced the rupture of leaving the European Union and finding we are split equally as a nation over the decision; the horror, terror and grief of the Covid-19 pandemic, with its resulting impacts on incomes, relationships and individual mental wellbeing, as well as widespread grief; today we are facing the multiple repercussions of both these on jobs, security and everyday life. And overshadowing it all is the ever-growing, ever-closer, ever more irreversible impact of global heating and climate change. There is little we can take for granted any more, even in our cosy Western world, and so many reasons to feel afraid, angry, lost, abandoned, bereaved, isolated, riven apart, and alone.
This is all the stuff of therapy at an individual level, yet it is happening at national and global levels too. What have psychotherapy and counselling got to offer the populations they serve and the individual in the counselling room?
In this one-day event, four leading therapists and writers discuss these issues, each from their own particular professional perspective and viewpoint: Emmy van Deurzen offers an existential perspective on living and learning through crisis; Nick Totton calls on us to let go of hope and validate despair; Karen Izod talks about attachment and place and their significance in times of upheaval and rupture, and Robin Shohet presents on fear as an inner ‘pollutant’.
Schedule for today:
9:15 Open Zoom
9:30 Start / Intro from PCCS and facilitator Caz Binstead
9:30 - 11:00 Emmy van Deurzen - Rising from Existential Crisis
11:00 - 11:15 Break
11:15 - 12:45 Nick Totton - Rewilding Hope: Therapy in the Anthropocene
12:45 - 13:45 Lunch
13:45 - 15:15 Karen Izod - Attachment to place: location and dis-location
15:15 - 15:30 Break
15:30 - 17:00 Robin Shohet - Fear as an Inner 'Pollutant'. How Green is your Mind?
17:00 - 17:15 Closing Comment and End of the Day
Emmy van Duerzen
Many of the emotional and mental health problems caused by the Covid-19 pandemic were related in some way to the fact that our usual frameworks of meaningful connections were suddenly broken apart and that we were not prepared for this. This was particularly true of children and teenagers who could no longer see their friends, their gang, their peers, to make life interesting. It was also strikingly true for those who lived alone, or who were elderly, chronically unwell and disabled, most of whom had to spend long months in isolation. But it was also true in the sense of our habits being broken, our work and travel patterns being interrupted and our relationships becoming more difficult. People had to create new ways of being and relating and much can be learnt from these experiences for how to work with people in such situations.
Emmy van Deurzen is a philosopher and professor of Psychology and Psychotherapy with 18 books to her name and whose work has been translated into as many languages. She is the Principal of the New School of Psychotherapy and Counselling and the Existential Academy (www.nspc.org.uk) (www.existentialacademy.com), in London, where she runs post graduate courses in partnership with Middlesex University as well as her private practice Dilemma Consultancy (www.dilemmaconsultancy.com). Among her books are the bestsellers Existential Psychotherapy and Counselling in Practice (3d edition 2012), Psychotherapy and the Quest for Happiness (2009), Everyday Mysteries (2nd edition, 2010) and Paradox and Passion (2nd edition, 2015). Her book Rising from Existential Crisis: Life beyond Calamity was published with PCCS books in 2021. She is currently writing a book on existential freedom. www.emmyvandeurzen.com
Nick Totton - Rewilding Hope: Therapy in the Anthropocene
Faced with the near certainty of environmental collapse, is hope a useful response, or an avoidance of reality? I suggest that our clients, will increasingly need something else from us: a validation of despair, fear and anger which denies nothing about our predicament, but finds room for life and love in the here and now. To be able to offer this, practitioners need to fully address our own despair, fear and anger. I believe that approaches like Wild Therapy can help us to achieve this; they also form part of a new kind of therapy which is emerging from many quarters. Covid -- itself a direct symptom of environmental stress -- has forced therapy to embrace outdoor work, online work and other 'frame breaking' methodologies, accelerating a process of rewilding which was already underway. I will try to describe some of the key elements of this therapy in and for the Anthropocene.
As a therapist and trainer with nearly 40 years experience. Originally a Reichian body therapist, I have explored widely in a number of therapy modalities, and now practice my own approaches, Embodied-Relational Therapy and Wild Therapy, having founded and handed on training courses in both. I have a grown up daughter and a grandson and granddaughter. I have written a number of books, including Wild Therapy, now in a new 2nd edition. I live in Cornwall with my partner and grow vegetables.
www.nicktotton.net
Karen Izod - Places evoke a line of thinking, resonate with particular memories, bring forth an array of emotions.’
(’Here is where I have presence’, Psychogeography and Psychotherapy: Connecting pathways (Chris Rose (ed); PCCS Books, 2019)
This session will offer a meandering journey between descriptions of places and deliberations on attachment to illustrate the formative nature of places – the inner landscapes of thoughts and feelings and external landscapes of places and the way we behave in them. We will explore the interplay between self and place against a backcloth of the Covid pandemic, in order to consider how our experience istransformed either through close familiarity or dislocation.
Karen Izod works as a consultant to organisational change and professional development. Questions of identity (who am I?) and place (where am I?) are frequent themes in her work, and she has brought her ideas on attachment to place to individuals in role transitions, organisations re-locating or merging, and in community and city planning. Karen has been consulting to individuals and organisations for more than 30 years from a background in social work and group and organisational dynamics. She now works as Course Lead for the Professional Doctorate in Consultation and the Organisation at the Tavistock & Portman NHS Foundation Trust. She also writes and performs poetry.
www.karenizod.com
Robin Shohet - How Green is your Mind ?
In this workshop, Robin will look at the concept of othering and how it creates and reinforces fear – a source of both psychological and physical pollution. 'How Green is Your Mind' asks us to examine and take responsibility for our thinking in order to help us to move beyond fear to a place of connection.
Robin Shohet has been working in the field of therapy for more than 40 years, and has written extensively on supervision in particular. HIs latest book,In Love with Supervision(PCCS Books, 2020), which he co-wrote with his wife, Joan, looks at supervision as a form of spiritual practice.
When: Tuesday, 16th March 2021, 1:00 pm
Where: ONLINE with Onlinevents
Ticket price: The self-select fee is a radical inclusion policy to open learning for all colleagues. The guide price for this event is £20.00
Clients – as well as therapists – often hope that gaining insight will smooth the path to making significant change. But all too often, even though gaining insight provides some relief, the therapeutic process remains stuck. This workshop will look closely at this type of therapeutic block, offer some ways of explaining it, and provide practical ideas for how to overcome it.
In particular, we will explore an analogy between achieving psychological change and acquiring complex practical skills, such as driving, sight-reading music, or playing tennis. In all these cases we recognize that just knowing the theory – the equivalent of insight – is not enough. To develop skills also requires practice. Usually, we have to attempt to exercise these skills “badly” before we’re able to exercise them “well”. Sometimes, as with tennis, to gain the skill we also need to practice with another person. I will make the case that the analogy has much to offer practitioners and their clients and, further, that therapeutic work can fruitfully borrow lessons from music, sport, and the learning of other complex skills.
In the workshop we will:
- share experiences of work where the gap between insight and change has arisen in the therapy room
- look at and discuss some case studies where the practical skill analogy has helped both practitioner and client make sense of and overcome stuckness
- learn about some specific techniques inspired by this way of thinking about insight, change, and stuckness
- reflect on some of the potential advantages as well as limitations of this approach.This workshop will be hosted on the Zoom meeting platform where we will use our camera and microphones to interact with each other as a group.
Matthew Elton, DPhil, PG Dip (TA Counselling), BACP Registered
Matthew Elton is a psychotherapist based in Edinburgh and has been in private practice since 2005 (www.extra-help.org.uk). He works with a wide range of clients and has a special interest in writers and artists. His formative training was in Transactional Analysis and he has since developed a strong interest in Narrative Therapy. Matthew regularly delivers talks and workshops in Scotland and across the UK on therapy practice and related matters. He has just published Talking It Better: From Insight to Change in the Therapy Room (PCCS, 2021) in which some of the themes and techniques covered in this workshop are explored in depth through stories of client work. Before becoming fulltime as a practitioner, Matthew was an academic working on the philosophy of mind at the University of Stirling, then a manager in the charity sector. He is the author of a well-received volume on the philosopher Daniel Dennett for Polity’s Key Contemporary Thinkers series, published in 2003.
To support practitioners in this time of extraordinary circumstances we are offering access to this group for a self-select fee.The self-select fee is a radical inclusion policy to open learning for all colleagues. The guide price for this event is £20.00, however, we appreciate that income varies greatly in different locations and circumstances. Please contribute what you can to help us maintain inclusive professional training.
When: Sunday, 28th February 2021, 9:50 am
Where: ONLINE in partnership with Onlinevents
Ticket price: Donation with a guide price of £20 (includes all workshops)
PCCS Books presents workshops with Art Bohart, Beverley Costa, Sheila Haugh and Nick Totton
Agenda
9.40 - Zoom Opens
9.50 - Start / Introduction from PCCS Books
10.00 - 11.30am - Sheila Haugh – Learning and Being, Person-Centred Counselling in Practice
11.30 - break
11.45am - 1.15pm - Beverley Costa - Other Tongues: Psychological Therapies In A Multilingual World
1.15 - 2.15 - Lunch
2.15pm -3.45pm - Nick Totton - Wild Therapy: Undomesticating Inner And Outer Worlds
3.45pm - break
4pm - 5.30pm - Art Bohart - Person-Centred Therapy And The Enhancement Of Human Possibility
Biographies
Art Bohart is one of today’s foremost theorists and practitioners of person-centred therapy. His work has influenced generations of person-centred students and practitioners, both here in the UK and in the USA, his home country
Beverley Costa grew up in East London in a family with three languages and two religions and cultural practices. After training as a counsellor, psychotherapist and group psychodramatist, she set up Mothertongue, a multi-ethnic counselling service, to meet a gap she observed in services for multilingual clients. In 2009 she created a pool of mental health interpreters within Mothertongue and in 2010 established the national Bilingual Therapist and Mental Health Interpreter Forum. Beverley founded The Pasalo Project in 2017 (www.pasaloproject.org) to disseminate learning from Mothertongue. She is a Senior Practitioner Fellow at Birkbeck, University of London
Sheila Haugh is a client-centred therapist, supervisor, and trainer with 25 years experience. She is a UK Council for Psychotherapy Registered Psychotherapist and teaches a Masters level programme in Contemporary Person-Centred Psychotherapy and Applications. She is a former Convenor for the British Association for the Person-Centred Approach (BAPCA) and a former board member of the World Association for Person-Centered and Experiential Psychotherapies (WAPECP). The book Learning and Being in Person-Centred Counselling by Tony Merry has inspired and guided thousands of counselling students since it was first published in 1999. In 2020 the third edition was updated by Sheila including a new chapter on recent developments in Person-Centred counselling.
Nick Totton has been a body psychotherapist for many years and has developed and taught on training courses in Embodied-Relational Therapy and Wild Therapy. He is the author of several books, including Embodied Relating: The Ground of Psychotherapy, Not A Tame Lion, and Wild Therapy. He was founding editor of Psychotherapy and Politics International, and a past chair of Psychotherapists & Counsellors for Social Responsibility and the Psychotherapy and Counselling Union.
To support practitioners in this time of extraordinary circumstances we are offering access to this group for a self-select fee.The self-select fee is a radical inclusion policy to open learning for all colleagues. The guide price for this event is £20.00. Please contribute what you can to help us maintain inclusive professional training.
Workshop Overview
Sheila Haugh - Learning and Being, Person-Centred Counselling in Practice
Where Person-Centred Therapy is today
- Classical and Experiential
- The myth of non-directivity
- The profundity of empathy and UPR
- What is congruence?
Power and the Person-Centred Therapist
The Future and The Challenges Ahead
Beverley Costa - Other Tongues
Language differences are surprisingly easy for therapists to ignore and yet they are relatively easy to embed into existing training and supervision models. In this 1.5-hour session we will begin to consider how people’s multilingual identities impact on emotional expression, experience of trauma and recovery and ethical practice.
The following are examples of topics we will cover.
- Communicating effectively across languages, beyond interpreting
- The impact of working in English as a lingua franca – the colonial legacy
- Concepts of linguistic agency, linguistic power/justice, linguistic empathy
- The multilingual experience in terms of emotional expression, identity, memory recall and trauma processing
- Participants will be introduced to a new, free online resource on mental health and multilingualism.
Nick Totton - Wild Therapy is an approach to bringing therapy into the wild, and wildness into therapy. It believes that therapy is inherently wild, but has become often disappointingly tame! Working outdoors with clients is one way to cast off the familiar frame and work more freely and spontaneously.This workshop will be an introduction to the theory and the practice of Wild Therapy, including some experiential exercises.
Art Bohart - Person-Centred Therapy And The Enhancement Of Human Possibilty
I. What Is Unique About Person-Centered Therapy.
A. The interventionist model versus the whole person dialogical model of person-centered therapy.
B. The idea that it is not either/or. There is value in both.
C. Expansion on the differences between the two models.
D. The unique value of the person-centered approach.
II. Self-Organizing Wisdom.
A. The basic idea that therapy promotes growth towards more wise ways of being and behaving.
B. How the idea of self-organizing wisdom fits into the idea of actualization.
C. A model of wisdom and how therapy promotes it.
D. How to promote self-organizing wisdom.
III. Empathy-Based Psychotherapy and Psychotherapy Integration
A. The nature of empathy from a person-centered point of view.
B. How one can practice integratively from a person-centered point of view.
When: Friday, 22nd January 2021, 6:00 pm
Where: ONLINE with Onlinevents
Ticket price: By Donation. Minimum £1.
This drop the disorder poetry evening is brought to you by A Disorder 4 Everyone and supported by Onlinevents.
Poetry and spoken word have played a major part in the A Disorder for Everyone events since the first one in October 2016.
This will be our 4th online poetry event.
We hope evening will connect us in friendship and solidarity.
Please note this is not an open mic night. The line-up includes some of our regular AD4E performers and plenty of new voices too. There will also be some more performances of poems that feature in the book ‘We are the Change-Makers - poems supporting Drop the Disorder!
This is a donation only event with a minimum fee of £1 to maximise accessibility. Please make a donation based on what you can afford.
When: Wednesday, 7th October 2020, 2:00 pm
Where: ONLINE with Onlinevents
Ticket price: Donation
Other Tongues Workshop - Psychological Therapies in a Multilingual World Beverley Costa
07/10/20 1pm - 3pm
Language differences are surprisingly easy for therapists to ignore and yet they are relatively easy to embed into existing training and supervision models. In this 2-hour workshop we will begin to consider how people’s multilingual identities impact on emotional expression, experience of trauma and recovery and ethical practice. We will also explore some of the complexities - the difficulties as well as the benefits - of working with interpreters. Throughout the workshop we will use case examples, interactive activities, film clips and ethical dilemmas to provide illustrations and provoke curiosity.
The following are examples of topics we will cover.
1. Communicating effectively across languages
2. The impact of working in English as a lingua franca – the colonial legacy
3. Concepts of linguistic agency, linguistic power/justice, linguistic empathy
4. The multilingual experience in terms of emotional expression, identity, memory recall and trauma processing
5. Power dynamics, insider/outsider status and the sense of inadequacy when working as a therapist/counsellor with an interpreter
Dr Beverley Costa grew up in East London in a family with three languages and two religions and cultural practices. After training as a counsellor, psychotherapist and group psychodramatist, she set up Mothertongue, a multi-ethnic counselling service, to meet a gap she observed in services for multilingual clients. In 2009 she created a pool of mental health interpreters within Mothertongue and in 2010 established the national Bilingual Therapist and Mental Health Interpreter Forum. Beverley founded The Pasalo Project in 2017 (www.pasaloproject.org) to disseminate learning from Mothertongue. She is a Senior Practitioner Fellow at Birkbeck, University of London. With Professor Jean Marc Dewaele, she won the 2013 BACP Equality and Diversity Research Award. Beverley has delivered training and supervision to statutory and voluntary sector health and social care organisations for the past two decades.
When: Friday, 2nd October 2020, 7:00 pm
Where: ONLINE
Ticket price: Donation with a minimum fee of £1
This online gathering is brought to you by A Disorder 4 Everyone and supported by Onlinevents.
Poetry and spoken word have played a major part in the A Disorder 4 Everyone events since the first one in October 2016.
This will be another great night of poetry, made even more exciting as we will be celebrating the launch of the new Drop the Disorder! poetry book ‘We Are the Change-makers’ which is being published on 18th September.
Confirmed contributors:
Jyl Anais
Jacky Power
Jenny Yates
Shayn McDonald
Vesper Moore
Toni hurford
Ruth Dixon
Kathleen Halley Angus
Mitzy Sky
Peter Gordon
Wendy Badger
Akima Thomas
Sanah Ahsan
This is a donation only event with a minimum fee of £1 to maximise accessibility. Please make a donation based on what you can afford.
When: Saturday, 7th November 2020, 9:30 am
Where: ONLINE
Ticket price: Tickets on a self-selecting basis from £20 for the day (4 workshops)
PCCS Books are pleased announce a CPD day for counsellors, psychotherapists and mental health workers.
The day will feature four workshops (6 hours CPD) from PCCS Books authors who are trainers and experts in their mental health, therapy and psychiatry fields.
Please note that the 3 ticket pricing options (£20, £30,and £40) all enable you to join the CPD day for all 4 workshops.
The prices work on a self-selecting fee, therefore you select the payment option you can best afford, with the intention of enabling the day to be more accessible.
Schedule for the day:
9:00 - 9:15 | Open Zoom Room [Start of Day]-
9.15 | Welcome from PCCS Books
9.30 – 11.00 | Rachel Freeth - Psychiatry and Mental Health: A workshop for counsellors and psychotherapists
11:00 - 11:15 | Break
11.15 –12.45 | Joanna Moncrieff - A Straight Talking Introduction to Psychiatric Drugs
12:45 - 13:30 | Lunch Break
13:30 – 15:00 | Helen Kewell - Living Well and Dying Well: Working therapeutically with an ageing population
15:00 - 15:15 | Break
15:15 – 16:45 | Professor Mary Boyle - The Power Threat Meaning Framework: An alternative to psychiatric diagnosis.
16:45 - 16:50 | Closing Summary
16:50 - 17:00 | End of Day
When: Wednesday, 6th May 2020, 7:30 pm
Where: McCance Building, University of Strathclyde, Glasgow
This is a University of Strathclyde Engage organised event and PCCS Books will be selling books on the night.
Dr Wendy Traynor presents the 2020 Mary Kilborn Lecture, which will address the application of Person-Centred-Experiential psychotherapy with people who present with psychotic or other unusual experiences.
Wendy will discuss her path into practice and research on this challenging client population, which includes people who hear voices or have unusual or psychotic experiences. Both therapist and client perceptions of helpful and unhelpful aspects of practice and possible impact will be discussed.
Key practice considerations will be highlighted as well as reflections regarding the complexity of the wider context of service provision, using examples from life, work and research.
Refreshments and the opportunity to network will be available at registration from 17:45. The lecture will begin at 18:30. After the lecture, at around 19:30, there will be a wine reception and an opportunity for further networking.
When: Thursday, 13th February 2020, 9:00 am
Where: Cornwall Offices Station Approach Victoria St Austell PL26 8LG
Ticket price: Sold out
"A Disorder for Everyone!" - Challenging the culture of psychiatric diagnosis and exploring trauma informed alternatives in association with The Women's Centre Cornwall
AD4E is coming to Cornwall!
This will be our 21st event and we are delighted to be supported by The Women's Centre Cornwall
Contributors include Dr Lucy Johnstone, Matt Ball, Dr Akima Thomas, Michelle Springer-Benjamin, Pat McArdle, Kate Atkinson, Maggie Parks, Viv Gordon, Nollaig McSweeeny and Jo Watson.
PCCS Books will be selling books on the day.
About the day
The event features not just professionals but people from a diverse range of backgrounds who have an essential contribution to make to the debate.
Lucy Johnstone presents the current debates and controversies about psychiatric diagnosis. It is increasingly acknowledged, even within the mental health establishment, that categories like 'schizophrenia', 'bipolar disorder' and 'personality disorder' lack validity. The assumption that distress is best understood as disease can have very serious consequences for the individual, their identity, and their path to recovery. In the morning Lucy will present alternatives to diagnosis which can help people to make sense of experiences of distress, however extreme, and which are based on working together to explore personal meaning.
Other Listed speakers will make up the rest of the day as well as an afternoon workshop.
Workshop 1
Title: An Introduction to the Power Threat Meaning
Framework
Facilitator: Dr Lucy Johnstone
Summary: Lucy will outline the key principles of the framework and show how it can be used in practice to understand and make sense of emotional and psychological distress.
Check out the trailer for the Power Threat Meaning Framework Launch
Workshop 2
Title: The Trauma informed approach and Beyond.
Facilitators: Dr Akima Thomas & Michelle Springer-Benjamin
Summary: This workshop will provide a space and an opportunity to reflect on promising practice and the integration of trauma informed principles. Akima and Michelle will facilite an open discussion where participants will be encouraged to think critically and creatively about trauma informed approaches to working with emotional distress.
When: Saturday, 28th March 2020, 9:00 am
When: Friday, 6th December 2019, 9:00 am
Where: Quay Place, Key St, Ipswich Ip41bz
Ticket price: Donation
"A Disorder for Everyone!" - Challenging the culture of psychiatric diagnosis and exploring socially informed alternatives
AD4E is coming to Ipswich! This will be our 20th event!
Speakers confirmed so far include:- Dr Lucy Johnstone, Dr Sami Timimi, Katie Mottram, Dr Akima Thomas, Dr James Davies, Dolly Sen, Sally-Ann, Matthew Morris, Nollaig McSweeney and Jo Watson.
We are delighted to be in association with Your Life Our Help - Ipswich
When: Monday, 11th November 2019, 9:00 am
Ticket price: £59.88
Challenging Attitudes to Child Sexual Abuse and Homelessness
A full day of talks and discussion exploring the relationship between Child Sexual Abuse and Homelessness: specifically attitudes which perpetuate victim-blaming.
The conference will highlight trauma-informed practice, values, attitudes and models that support SAY Women's working practices. It will involve professionals, practitioners and young people to showcase ways in which related communities can speak out about Child Sexual Abuse and Homelessness and the impact it has on individuals, communities and society.
Confirmed Speakers Include:
Dr Jessica Eaton
Dr Jessica Eaton (FRSA) is the founder and owner of VictimFocus, the VictimFocus Blog and The Eaton Foundation. VictimFocus is her independent business providing research, consultancy, writing and speaking in forensic psychology, feminism and mental health. The VictimFocus Blog has 1.2 million readers per year and provides a lively, funny and critical perspective on CSE, victim blaming, feminism and sexual violence.
Dr Jessica Eaton will discuss the way women and girls are blamed and pathologised by services and establishments after they have been abused, oppressed and traumatised.
Discussing her latest research, she will explore how common the victim blaming of women and girls really is, and how it affects service delivery for women.
Jo Watson
Jo Watson is a feminist, psychotherapist, trainer, activist and survivor with a professional history in the rape crisis movement of the 1990’s. She has worked therapeutically for the last 25+ years with people who have experienced trauma and adversity and has devised and delivered numerous training programmes and conferences for counsellors and psychotherapists, ‘mental health’ workers, teachers and other professionals who work with people in a therapeutic or support context.
Jo actively challenges the biomedical model both inside and outside of her work and links emotional distress to social causes.
Jo will speak about how the diagnostic and biomedical model of emotional distress is being widely criticised for its failure to offer evidence for its core assumptions or effective ways of healing. She will argue that psychiatric diagnosis is so often imposed and that our stories as women are often obscured and sometimes completely negated.
Jo will suggest that it is no coincidence that women survivors of gender based violence and women who experience homelessness are disproportionately labelled with psychiatric disorders.
Catriona MacKean, Head of Homelessness and Housing Support Scottish Government
Michelle Major, Change Lead Homelessness Network Scotland
Vicky Little, Police Scotland
Rosie Kane, Conference Host
To purchase a ticket please follow the link below to our Eventbrite page or contact Rebecca Grant rebecca@say-women.co.uk to arrange an invoice or alternative booking arrangements.
https://www.say-women.co.uk/news-and-events
When: Monday, 11th November 2019, 9:00 am
Where: Hereford Left Bank, Hereford, UK
Compassionate Mental Health is part of a growing worldwide movement calling for a more integrative approach to mental health – one that relies less on diagnosis and prescription drugs, and more on empowering the person and engaging their social networks. At the heart of the project is a belief that it is possible to begin to heal oneself and others through the power of community, connection, self care and solidarity.
Our key message remains that a mental health crisis can become a meaningful turning point and catalyst for change. We believe a culture of compassion and collaboration must replace our existing model of over medicalisation, coercion and restraint.
Along with many other critical voices – we are calling for a radical shift in the way we understand mental illness, changing the script, challenging stigma and raising expectations. This is a gathering and unconference, but there are key learning outcomes associated with service transformation, moving towards a more co-productive, psychosocial approach.
All our speakers and facilitators believe that with the right support recovery can happen and a mental health crisis can be a transformative process. Our next one day gathering is Surviving Uncertainty: Cultivating Change. We are living in uncertain times, but they are also times of possibility when we have the power to shape the future.
What it isn’t..
This isn’t an anti-psychiatry event, or one that proposes a right way to recovery, self management or service improvement. But – along with many other critical voices – we are calling for a radical shift in the way people understand and approach mental health issues.
Our goal is to be part of the global call for better, safer mental health services for all. We hope to do this by building bridges and growing understanding that people in crisis need more than just medicine. Feeling connected, finding meaning in crisis, and sharing tools for stability are all vital for a whole person approach.
There needs to be better funding for mental health services in all settings, and there will be opportunities during the day to share ideas for the future. Our hope is that we can all move forward together into a more collaborative, compassionate chapter.
When: Friday, 29th November 2019, 9:00 am
Where: Jurys Inn Cardiff, 1 Park Place, Cardiff CF10 3UD
Ticket price: £0 - £134
"A Disorder for Everyone!" - Challenging the culture of psychiatric diagnosis and exploring trauma informed alternatives in association with Platfform
Contributors include Dr Lucy Johnstone, Prof Richard Wilkinson, Ewan Hilton, Pat McArdle, Mica Gray, Sally-Ann, Nathan Flier, Dr Akima Thomas, Michelle Springer-Benjamin, Jo Watson & Nollaig McSweeney
When: Wednesday, 13th November 2019, 9:00 am
Where: University College Cork, Ireland
CHALLENGING MENTAL HEALTH SYSTEMS: CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES FROM INSIDE OUT AND OUTSIDE IN
IN ASSOCIATION WITH CRITICAL VOICES NETWORK IRELAND
13 AND 14 NOVEMBER 2019
SCHOOL OF APPLIED SOCIAL STUDIES AND SCHOOL OF NURSING AND MIDWIFERY
UNIVERSITY COLLEGE CORK, IRELAND
More information is available here - https://www.ucc.ie/en/nursingmidwifery/conferences/critical-voices/
When: Friday, 20th September 2019, 5:29 pm
Where: Nantwich Bookshop - 46 High Street, Nantwich CW5 5AS
Join Helen as she reflects on her experiences of working therapeutically with older people.
The event provies 1 hour of CPD and a certificate will be available to take away on the night.
Doors open at 6.30pm for a 7pm start.
Please reserve tickets by calling Nantwich Bookshop on 01270 611665
Tickets £7.50 - which includes £2.50 off the book price on the night and refreshments
When: Tuesday, 3rd September 2019, 6:00 pm
Where: www.onlinevents.co.uk
Event Details
Older people rarely feature in counselling literature, and the very old barely at all. When I was training, I was as perplexed about this as I was disappointed. Counselling older adults, and those at the very end of their lives, is challenging, life-affirming, and, with the rapid rate of ageing, vital work. With this interview, I hope to inspire others to come into this work, using my own experiences to bring it to life, and to open the debate with colleagues already experienced in this area about how we improve access to and uptake of this service.
About Helen Kewell
I am a humanistic counsellor with a private counselling practice in Sussex, and a specialism in working with older adults. I volunteer as a counsellor and supervisor for Cruse Bereavement Care
When: Thursday, 2nd May 2019, 4:15 pm
Where: University of Strathclyde, Glasgow
Generations of counsellors in Scotland and throughout the UK have read books written or published by Pete Sanders through PCCS Books, and have benefited from his support and strongly-worded advocacy for the PCA. In this lecture, Pete makes the case for the continuing relevance of the PCA in the face of the continuing medicalisation of psychological distress, the tsunami of cognitive therapy, and recent attempts to co-opt the PCA and re-package its central principles. Pete will argue that in order to be fit for the 21st century, the PCA must meet seven challenges. He will review how the PCA has fared over the past 10 years, concluding by presenting his new manifesto for counselling and psychotherapy.
Who should attend?
- Counselling Unit course graduates as well as supervisors, practitioners, and members of the public.
- Members the counselling practitioner community of Scotland (via COSCA and PCT Scotland) and beyond.
- Representatives of organisations that are current potential placement partners for our MSc course students or who may be potential funding partners.
- Current students on Counselling Unit postgraduate and BSc courses.
- Relevant academic staff at other universities in Scotland and former tutors on our various courses.
- Members of Mary Kilborn’s Family
Register here for tickets
When: Friday, 20th September 2019, 8:00 am
Where: Carrs Lane Conference Centre Birmingham B4 7SX
AD4E is returning to Birmingham for the 3rd time to launch the forthcoming PCCS book 'Drop the Disorder!'and we are delighted to be in association with PCCS Books & the Birmingham based charity RSVP who have contributed a chapter to the book.
All speakers at this AD4E event have also authored a chapter in the book. Speakers / Contributors confirmed so far include:-
Dr Lucy Johnstone
Dr Jacqui Dillon
Lisa Thompson RSVP
Prof John Read
Robyn Timoclea
Pete Sanders
Prof Emmy Van Deuzen
Dolly Sen
Dr Akima Thomas OBE
Sue Irwin
Jenny Taper
Jamie Tipping
Chris Coombs
Nollaig McSweeney
Jo Watson
Stalls by PCCS, RSVP, The Freedom Project, Mayday Trust, Bradford Soteria (and others to be confirmed
When: Saturday, 23rd March 2019, 12:56 pm
Where: Keele University Campus
Conference theme: 'What's love got to do with it?': Families and Intimate Relationships
The Keele Counselling and Psychotherapy team warmly welcomes counselling researchers, practitioners, and students, whether relatively new to the field or very experienced, who have an interest in issues related to families and intimate relationships.
Philip Teasdale, author of Inside Adoption; a parent's story, will be a keynote speaker addressing the question - ADOPTION: IS LOVE ENOUGH?
When: Tuesday, 19th March 2019, 7:30 pm
Where: www.onlinevents.co.uk
Keith Tudor, author of Psychotherpay: a critical examination, will be in conversation with John Wilson discussing the subjects of Education, Training, And Sustaining Professional Development.
When: Saturday, 15th June 2019, 8:15 am
Where: Resource for London, Holloway Road, London N7 6PA
Ticket price: £66 including VAT - Please note we will not be issuing tickets but names will be placed on a guest list for registration.
TICKETS SALES HAVE NOW ENDED
The industrialisation of therapy: What is the impact of IAPT on counselling and psychotherapy
Since 2008, the government’s Improving Access to Psychological Therapies (IAPT) programme has been rolled out across England. In the ten years of its existence, it claims to have transformed mental health services, bringing therapy to thousands of people experiencing depression and anxiety. But what has been the impact of IAPT’s tightly-regulated, medicalised model of mental health care on services and those who work in them? Can IAPT’s ‘factory’ system of care, driven by psychiatric diagnosis, fast through-put and quick outcomes really address the rising tide of mental distress?
This conference aims to bring together practitioners, academics, researchers and all those interested in the future of mental health services for a day of discussion and debate.
The date - Saturday 15 June 2019
Location - Resource for London, Holloway Road, London N7 6PA
Tickets cost £66 (vat inc), including lunch and refreshments.
Agenda
9.20 Registration opens.
9.50 Chair’s opening remarks.
10.00 The modern myths of IAPT
Rosemary Rizq starts by unpicking the ‘modern myths’ that underpin the rapid rise and expansion of the government’s IAPT programme. She will argue these myths serve to obscure rather than reveal the social, cultural, economic and political factors underlying the current rise in mental distress.
Rosemary Rizq is a BPS Chartered Psychologist and a UKCP-accredited psychoanalytic psychotherapist. She is Professor of Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy at the University of Roehampton.
10.40 What is neoliberalism and why does it matter?
Philip Thomas explores how neoliberalism has given birth to a ‘malignant individualism’ in our health services that blames the individual’s ‘faulty thinking’ for their anxiety and depression and fails to engage with the socio-economic adversity from which misery so often originates.
Philip Thomas worked as a consultant psychiatrist in the NHS for over 20 years, before leaving clinical practice in 2004 to write.
11.20 Coffee
11.50 IAPT and the medical model: ideological fits and misfits.
David Murphy questions whether we should be arguing for all therapies to be included within IAPT. Some, like CBT, are a good ‘fit’ with IAPT’s medicalised model; others are not. What are the principles at stake for these ‘ideological misfits’?
David Murphy is Associate Professor at the University of Nottingham where he is course director for the MA in person-centred experiential counselling and psychotherapy.
12.30 Break-out small group discussions.
13.00 Lunch provided.
14.00 Industrialising relational therapy: ethical conflicts and threats for counsellors in IAPT
Gillian Proctor and Maeta Brown ask if it is possible for counsellors to stay true to their relational training and beliefs when working within the IAPT system. They will explore the dilemmas and costs of attempting to straddle these conflicting therapeutic cultures.
Gillian Proctor is the programme leader of the MA in psychotherapy and counselling at the University of Leeds. Maeta Brown is a student on the MA in psychotherapy and counselling at the University of Leeds and has a background in radical, person-centred crisis work.
14.40 Surviving work in IAPT
Elizabeth Cotton explores how current NHS industrial relations policies are embodied in the IAPT programme and discusses the strategies practitioners can use to ‘survive work’ in the current policy climate.
Elizabeth Cotton is a writer and educator in the field of mental health at work. She teaches and writes academically about employment relations and mental health and is currently a senior lecturer at Middlesex University. She is founder of the Surviving Work in Health initiative to support people working on the frontline of NHS services.
15.20 Tea.
15.40 Panel questions and discussion.
16.15 Closing remarks and end.
The conference will mark the launch of The Industrialisation of Care: counselling, psychotherapy and the impact of IAPT, edited by Rosemary Rizq and Catherine Jackson. Copies will be on sale at the event.
When: Friday, 1st February 2019, 9:26 am
Where: Temple of Peace King Edward VII Avenue Cardiff CF10 3AP
Ticket price: £0-£129
AD4E is coming to Cardiff! It will be there 14th event!
And are delighted to be supported by Gofal
Contributors include Dr Lucy Johnstone, Pete Sanders, Dr Akima Thomas, Jo Watson & Nollaig McSweeney and Gofal
Who is the event for?
This day is for anyone who is interested in and concerned about the current debates in 'mental health.'
It provides a space to explore the critical questions of the day around the biomedical model and the narrative of 'diagnosis and disorder!'
Attendees from past AD4E events have included people who identify as the following :-
people with lived experience of emotional distress, supporters of people with lived experience, survivors, psychologists, journalists, activists, counsellors, service users, service refusers, psychotherapists, mental health support professionals, psychiatrists, managers and individuals with a general personal interest.
When: Saturday, 23rd February 2019, 9:21 am
Where: London - St Pauls
Hear from the experts…
Take the opportunity to hear from experienced practitioners who will be sharing valuable lessons they’ve learned while working as counselling professionals. They’ll also be sharing stories of the things they wish they’d known when graduating.
Each practitioner comes from a different background and offers a unique perspective on life working in the counselling professions.
When: Tuesday, 18th September 2018, 7:30 am
Where: Onlinevents - https://www.onlinevents.co.uk/event/psychotherapy-a-critical-examination-methods-and-practice-keith-tudor/
Ticket price: Register here -
John and Keith Tudor continue their discussion based on the recent book Psychotherapy: a critical examination and explore the chapter Methods, practise and praxis
Join the online live event at 8.30am on the 18th September.
Keith Tudor is Professor of Psychotherapy at Auckland University of Technology. I'm a qualified social worker and psychotherapist, a writer, and an activist. I hold several professional memberships, including being an associate member of Waka Oranga (an organization of Māori therapists and allies). I am also the editor of Psychotherapy and Politics International and, for the past six years, was the co-editor of Ata: Journal of Psychotherapy Aotearoa New Zealand. I'm the author and/or editor of a number of publications, including 15 books, the most recent of which are: Psychotherapy: A Critical Examination (PCCS Books, 2018)
When: Saturday, 20th October 2018, 8:00 am
Where: The Birchcliffe Centre, Hebden Bridge
Ticket price: £85 - For booking, travel arrangements and accommodation please contact: Hugh Knopf 07861463819 / hughknopf@rocketmail.com
Workshop Description
Regardless of the model adopted or the approach employed, current research indicates that the one consistently reliable variable impacting upon the beneficial outcome of therapeutic interventions is the relationship itself. This 1-day workshop will equip participants with an applied theoretical understanding of the major inter-relational qualities and skills derived from existential psychotherapy. This unique focus upon the interpersonal qualities will be of value to all practitioners, regardless of their specialist model or approach and will serve to deepen participants’ professional understanding and awareness of key factors arising in any therapeutic relationship.
The workshop provides participants with the unique opportunity to develop their understanding of, and ability to practise, existential therapy through the particular emphasis of the therapeutic relationship itself. The workshop is derived from Ernesto's textbook Practising Existential Psychotherapy: The Relational World 2nd edition (Sage, 2015).
Format
The workshop is made up of a combination of lecture, discussion, experiential exercises, and exploration of case material that participants are welcome bring to the seminars.
Location - Hebden Bridge
OVERVIEW OF SEMINAR
Morning 1 - An overview of existential therapy - theory and practice
This part of the seminar will introduce the key ideas of relatedness, uncertainty and anxiety and consider them within the context of an existential approach to therapy.
Morning 2 - The Existential Therapist as Idiot - Working with the client's worldview
Existential therapy places a great deal of emphasis on the exploration and clarification of the client's worldview. This part of the Workshop will explore the possibilities of working from a standpoint of un-knowing - a descriptively-attuned focus of investigation, clarification and challenge.
Afternoon 1 - The Existential Therapist as Fool - Working in 'the between'
Existential therapy emphasises the immediacy of the interactions and relations between therapist and client. In doing so, it urges the therapist to be willing to embrace the many uncertain possibilities and challenges that will arise within any therapeutic encounter. This part of the workshop will explore the notions of sedimentation and dissociation from lived, embodied experience
Afternoon 2 - The Therapist as Executioner - Endings: possibilities and disappointments
This final part of the workshop will focus on the impact on the client of attempting to bring insights and decisions arrived at during therapy into the wider world of the client's lived experience.
Professor Ernesto Spinelli was Chair of the Society for Existential Analysis between 1993 and 1999 and is a Life Member of the Society. His writings, lectures and seminars focus on the application of existential-phenomenology to the arenas of therapy, psychology, and executive coaching. He is a UKCP registered existential psychotherapist, a Fellow of the British Psychological Society (BPS) as well as an APECS accredited executive coach and coaching supervisor. In 1999, Ernesto was awarded a Personal Chair as Professor of Psychotherapy, Counselling and Counselling Psychology. And in 2000, he was the recipient of the BPS Division of Counselling Psychology Award for Outstanding Contribution to the Profession. Ernesto is Director of ES Associates, an organisation dedicated to the advancement of psychotherapy, coaching, and supervision through specialist seminars and training programmes. His most recent book, Practising Existential Psychotherapy: The Relational World 2nd ed (Sage, 2015) has been widely praised as a major contribution to the advancement of existential theory and practice. His previous books include: The Interpreted World: an introduction to phenomenological psychology, 2nd ed (Sage, 2005); Demystifying Therapy (PCCS, 2006); Tales of Un-knowing (PCCS, 2006); and The Mirror and The Hammer: challenging therapeutic orthodoxies (Sage, 2001).
When: Friday, 28th September 2018, 8:00 am
Where: Norton Park Conference Centre 57, Albion Road Edinburgh EH7 5QY
Ticket price: £0-£129
AD4E is coming to Edinburgh (again!)
Contributors include Dr Lucy Johnstone, Dr James Davies, Dr Jacqui Dillon, Jo McFarlane, Sally Fox, Prof Mathias Schwannauer, Time and Space, Jo Watson & Nollaig McSweeney
This event is in association with the Scottish Recovery Network.
When you buy your ticket please consider donating a small amount via our "donation" option to support free and cheap places for people who can't afford to pay.
When: Thursday, 6th September 2018, 8:00 am
Where: Amnesty International 25 New Inn Yard London EC2A 3EA
Ticket price: £0-£129
"A Disorder for Everyone!" - Challenging the culture of psychiatric diagnosis: Exploring trauma informed, non pathologising alternatives including The HER Model & The Power Threat Meaning Framework
In association with Mind in Camden & Women and Girls Network
AD4E is returning to London, this will be our 10th event.
Contributors include Dr Lucy Johnstone, Dr Jacqui Dillon, Prof John Read, Clare Shaw, Dr Akima Thomas, Laura Delano, Jo Watson & Nollaig McSweeney
When you buy your ticket please consider donating a small amount via our "donation" option to support free and cheap places for people who can't afford to pay.
When: Friday, 11th May 2018, 8:00 am
Where: Holiday Inn Kensington High Street, London
Ticket price: https://www.bacp.co.uk/docs/pdf/16266_booking%20form_research2018.pdf
24th Annual Research Conference
"Counselling changes lives: research that impacts practice"
11 & 12 May 2018, Holiday Inn Kensington High Street, London
Co-hosted by University of Roehampton
Pre-conference workshop facilitated by Professor Tim Bond and Dr Barbara Mitchells:
BACP’s New Guidance: Exploring Ethical Research Design and Ethical Problem Solving for Research in the Counselling Professions
6.00 p.m. – 7.30 p.m. Thursday 10 May 2018
Keynote presentation Friday 11 May - Professor Robert Elliott
"Evidence and politics in the humanistic-experiential psychotherapies: A love-hate story"
Keynote presentation Saturday 12 May - Professor Dr Pim Cuijpers
"Four decades of research on counseling for depression: Directions for the future
When: Wednesday, 18th July 2018, 8:00 am
Where: Devonshire Hall Leeds UK
Ticket price: http://adpcauk.events/home.html
This is a conference for people interested in the development of the person centred approach, founded by Carl Rogers in the 1940's. 18th - 22nd July 2018
The theme is 'Pride and Prejudice'.
We invite participants to register for the whole conference or just a day, by completing a booking form and then offer a workshop if you are interested in exploring any particular subject with a group of interested others. The pre conference event is a facilitated workshop and the main conference will be organised by the community. CPD certificates are available to attendees of any or part of the whole event.
We invite participants to offer workshops in advance and we will post these offers on the website (name, title, description under 20 words) along with the days of attendance of the workshop facilitator. If you have particular requests for attendance of certain workshops on certain days, let us know and we will pass on requests to workshop leaders. They will then take these requests into consideration when the conference begins and the community decides what will happen when (the democratic community process).
Workshops
Wednesday 18th July: Pre-conference event. - A day prior to the conference will be a facilitated workshop organised in advance and participants can attend this event without staying for the rest of the conference. The theme of the pre-conference is ‘Somewhere under the rainbow’.
Liddy Carver: Grappling with cultural difference in counselling training: Fear, safety and shared concerns. Attending Fri 20th and Sat 21st July.
Rather than seeing multicultural difficulties as isolated incidents, the 'training alliance' provides an inclusive construct that supports multicultural counselling competencies. We will explore: our own cultural competence; and our capacity to build a culturally sensitive ‘training alliance’. Small groups will critically reflect on four key examples, before a larger group discussion.
Steve Paul: Is therapy Love in another form?
A short presentation on what heals in therapy followed by an exploration of the place of love and loving. Attending whole conference.
Barbara Jukes: Retro fit
Join me for a blast from the past, to work your body as well as your mind. 80’s-style aerobics workout. Fun more than fit. All levels welcome. Attending whole conference.
India Amos: HIV related stigma: a discussion. Attending Sat 21st July
Stigma associated with HIV is considered a major stressor for people living with HIV/AIDS (PLWHA). The potential for positive outcomes, referred to as posttraumatic growth (PTG) and providing effective services may be inhibited by experiencing an HIV diagnosis in a potentially traumatic way due to stigma.
When: Friday, 20th April 2018, 8:00 am
Where: Carrs Lane Conference Centre Carrs Lane Birmingham B4 7sx
AD4E is returning to Birmingham, this will be our 9th event. We are delighted to be supported by RSVP
Contributors include Dr Lucy Johnstone, Dr Jacqui Dillon, Jessica Eaton, Clare Shaw, Jo Watson & Nollaig McSweeney, Chris Coombs
Who Attends?
This day is for anyone who is interested in and concerned about the current debates in 'mental health.'
It provides a space to explore the critical questions of the day around the biomedical model and the narrative of 'diagnosis and disorder!'
Attendees from past AD4E events have included people who identify as the following :-
people with lived experience of emotional distress, supporters of people with lived experience, survivors, psychologists, journalists, activists, counsellors, service users, service refusers, psychotherapists, mental health support professionals, psychiatrists, managers and individuals with a general personal interest.
About the day
The event features not just professionals but people from a diverse range of backgrounds who have an essential contribution to make to the debate.
Lucy Johnstone presents the current debates and controversies about psychiatric diagnosis. It is increasingly acknowledged, even within the mental health establishment, that categories like 'schizophrenia', 'bipolar disorder' and 'personality disorder' lack validity. The assumption that distress is best understood as disease can have very serious consequences for the individual, their identity, and their path to recovery. Lucy will present alternatives to diagnosis which can help people to make sense of experiences of distress, however extreme, and which are based on working together to explore personal meaning.
Other contributors will be presenting a range of dynamic and powerful presentations/workshops that add to and compliment Lucy's presentation. (Details to be added next to the individual speakers)
About Lucy - Dr Lucy Johnstone is a UK clinical psychologist, trainer, speaker and writer, and a long-standing critic of biomedical model psychiatry. She has worked in adult mental health settings for many years, alternating with academic posts. She is the former Programme Director of the Bristol Clinical Psychology Doctorate, a highly regarded course which was based on a critical, politically-aware and service-user informed philosophy, along with an emphasis on personal development.
Lucy has authored a number of books, (including 'Users and Abusers of Psychiatry, 2nd edn 2000) articles and chapters on topics such as psychiatric diagnosis, formulation, the psychological effects of ECT, and the role of trauma in breakdown.
Lucy was a contributor to the Division of Clinical Psychology 'Position Statement on Classification' 2013. She is currently convening a group of leading UK clinical psychologists and mental health experts who are working to develop an evidence-based and conceptually coherent alternative to the current diagnostic systems.
Lucy's book is available here: A Straight-Talking Introduction to Psychiatric Diagnosis & check out Lucy's articles for Mad in america here: https://www.madinamerica.com/author/ljohnstone/
Twitter - @ClinpsychLucy
About Jo - Jo Watson is a psychotherapist, trainer and activist who started out in the survivor and rape crisis movements of the 1990's. She has worked therapeutically for the last 20 years with people who have experienced trauma. Jo actively challenges the biomedical model in mental health both inside and outside of her work and links emotional distress to psycho-social causes. (Trauma, oppression, lack of positive attachment etc.)
Jo believes that in many cases the identification with a ‘diagnosis’ is damaging and counterproductive to a satisfactory healing process and that alternative routes to understanding distress should be offered.
Jo founded the facebook group 'Drop The Disorder!' in September 2016 as a place where the issues surrounding the biomedical model can be discussed. Jo is organising and promoting "A Disorder For Everyone!" which is presently making its way around the UK!
www.jowatsonpsychotherapy.co.uk / Twitter - @dropthedisorder / AD4E website: www.adisorder4everyone.com
Read about how the event came about in Jo's Mad in America' blog!
About Nollaig - Nollaig McSweeney qualified as a mental health nurse in the UK in 1997 and worked in acute psychiatry for quite some time before she realised that the so-called ‘science’ behind it was highly questionable. This insight was largely sparked by reading Rosenhan’s 1973 study – On Being Sane in Insane Places. Nollaig is a valued member and contributor of "Drop the disorder' facebook group and is an activist for change.
About Jacqui - Dr Jacqui Dillon is a writer, activist, international speaker and trainer. She has personal and professional experience, awareness and skills in working with trauma and abuse, dissociation, ‘psychosis’, hearing voices, healing and recovery. Jacqui has lectured and published worldwide and is a skilled facilitator in complex learning environments and has a track record of creating and sustaining user centred initiatives and of affecting change at all levels. Jacqui is also a voice hearer.
Jacqui on "Why did I go Mad?" - BBC2 Horizon 2nd May, 2017, BBC 2 9PM, See: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b006mgxfHorizon
Check out more about jacqui via her website here
About Clare - Clare Shaw has been described by the Arvon Foundation as 'one of the country's most dynamic young poets' and we are delighted that she will be performing her work for us at 'A Disorder For Everyone!' Clare's poetry often addresses political and personal conflict and it is fuelled by a strong conviction in the transformative and redemptive power of language. Find out more about Clare in her fab interview for Writers Aloud.
https://www.rlf.org.uk/showcase/wa_episode135/
About Jessica - Jessica Eaton is a national independent specialist in the psychology of victims of sexual violence, abuse, sexual trauma and the social phenomena of victim blaming. She is a doctoral researcher at the Centre for Criminological and Forensic Psychology at the University of Birmingham. She was shortlisted for the Emma Humphreys Memorial Prize for her work raising awareness of violence against women and girls – specifically for her work challenging the psychiatric diagnoses of women and girls who have experienced sexual traumas. She has recently developed and validated a new psychometric measure of victim blaming of women and girls, written the new CSE evidence review and published two studies exploring whether CSE training can change police officer and social worker attitudes towards victims of CSE.
About Akima - Dr Akima Thomas is a feminist activist and comes from a background in nursing and social work. Founder and Clinical Director of Women and Girls Network a holistic therapeutic service working with women and girls surviving gendered violence. Akima has pioneered working from a trauma informed approach and has developed a strengths based non pathologising clinical model; the Holistic Empowerment Recovery Model (HER) integrating healing of mind body and spirit. More recently Akima has researched women’s healing journey chronicling their strategies of resistance rebellion and resilience to ensure survival.
About Chris - Chris Coombs is studying to become a therapist. He is a suicide attempt survivor who has dealt with depression and anxiety on a personal level for over a decade. Over that timespan he has found those initially helpful labels to be increasingly redundant and has come to focus more on personal identity and meaning. He has recently begun blogging about his experience of internalised ableism and taboos from within the disability community. Chris will be sharing one of his powerful blogs.
About Shazia - Shazia Ali is black feminist activist a teacher, a peer support worker culture changer, trauma survivor and a co-founder of wellbeing cafe. She co- facilitates workshops around mental health and structural inequalities ‘seldom heard’ communities. Her background is in equalities and women and low pay. She has BA honours in Gender studies and PGCE.
About Eleanor - Eleanor Hope – Life Coach, trainer, speaker and activist. Background in Community Development and mental health, NHS & BAME communities and Peer Support facilitator. Workshop facilitator on structural inequalities and marginalised communities, Diversity and Wellbeing. Contributor to the Equality Act 2010 in Mental Health edited by Hari Sewell Founder and director of Hope Matters, a coaching and training personal development social enterprise.
AFTERNOON WORKSHOPS
The workshops will be facilliatatd by Shazia Ali and Eleanor Hope and The Rape and Sexual Violence Project
(Details to follow)
Venue - Carrs Lane Church Centre B4 7sx
Making this event as accessible as possible to people who are unable to afford the fee / full fee is a key consideration for us. As a result we have been as efficient as possible and do not provided lunch or programmes etc. It is a 'no paper' event and all resouces and presentations are made available via the website via passwords afterwards.
We hope you support the decision to run the event cost effectively for this reason.
FOR MORE DETAILS, BLOGS, REVIEWS, PHOTOS, VIDEOS ETC ABOUT THIS EVENT PLEASE CHECK OUT THE AD4D WEBSITE
*Our events feature numerous contributors and we cannot guarentee that every speaker booked will attend. If an advertised speaker cannot attend we will do our best to replace them with someone equally spectacular!
When: Saturday, 17th March 2018, 8:00 am
Where: Abertay University, Dundee, Scotland
This event is the first international conference which sees academics, practitioners and trainers come together to explore and discuss the full range of issues associated with the practice of Pluralistic Counselling and Psychotherapy. We are planning a jam-packed programme this year, with something on offer for everyone - from seasoned practitioners to beginning students - and look forward to welcoming you to Dundee, City of Discovery, in March 2018.
Our Keynote speaker will be Professor Mick Cooper, an internationally recognised figure in the areas of humanistic, existential, relational and pluralistic therapy. Mick's main area of research interest is school-based counselling, but he is also well as the author of ‘Pluralistic Counselling and Psychotherapy‘ and ‘The Handbook of Pluralistic Counselling and Psychotherapy’. We are excited and honoured that Mick will be making the long drive north to present to you all
Our plenary speaker will be Professor John McLeod, who is Emertus Professor of Counselling at Abertay University, as well as holding Professorial appointments at the Department of Psychology, University of Oslo, and the Institute for Integrative Counselling and Psychotherapy in Dublin. John is author of 13 books and over 100 articles and chapters, on a wide range of topics in counselling and psychotherapy.
When: Sunday, 8th July 2018, 8:00 am
Where: Vienna - Core OG Operngasse 12/8 A-1010
“Facilitating Hope – Personal and Societal Challenges“
With this theme we invite you to attend the 13th World Conference for Person-Centered and Experiential Psychotherapy and Counselling (PCE 2018), after New York and Buenos Aires for the first time taking place in Vienna, the heart of Europe! This important event takes place every two years under the patronage of the World Association WAPCEPC (World Association for Person Centered & Experiential Psychotherapy & Counseling - www.pce-world.org ).
During the Pre-Conference, July 6 – 8, 2018, we would like to reach a wider public to sensitize for the hot topic of “Facilitating Hope – Personal and Societal Challenges”. In this context the co-operation with public media (newspapers, TV and radio) and events open to the public is planned.
The Conference, July 8 – 12, 2018, will be a meeting of person-centered psychotherapists and counsellors from all over the world to conduct an international scientific discourse as well as to develop further the person-centered and experiential approaches. The operational Organization Committee and the Scientific Committee cordially invite interested persons to contribute to the Conference with papers of various kinds.
A key component of this World Conference is a continuous encounter-group, facilitated by experienced psychotherapists and counsellors. Alongside the scientific frame there will be the opportunity to enter into direct and close exchange with persons from all parts of the globe and of various “tribes” of the person-centered and experiential world.
Conference language is English. Key note lectures will be interpreted simultanuously into German, French and Spanish. We hope for the support of colleagues for translations during lectures, workshops etc. - at previous conferences we have experienced this as extremely helpful and connecting. We are looking forward to large support!
The World Conference will be completed by a gala dinner with all participants invited by the mayor of Vienna to the Vienna City Hall.
We are looking forward to a Conference that will make visible all the various strands of the person-centered and experiential approach, with numerous aspects of the Conference theme being presented and discussed. With a schedule leaving much room for encounter and critical engagement we would like to support the possibility of developing something new together.
We do hope that we are able to share with you our excitement, enthusiasm and pleasure in organizing this Conference prior to the Conference itself – in any case we do hope to provide the opportunity allowing for your unique and unforgettable participation in the Conference in Vienna. We are already looking forward to seeing you!
When: Thursday, 30th November 2017, 5:00 pm
Where: Hilton Brighton Metropole Brighton BN1 2FU
Ticket price: free
OUR ENCOUNTERS WITH STALKING awareness-raising event will commemorate the 5th Anniversary of the Stalking Law Reform with the launch of an internationally available publication of creative writing, written by survivors and professionals drawing on their experiences of stalking.
Part of the PCCS Books `Our Encounters With...' Series, this is a powerful testimony of the destructive, sometimes fatal, effects of stalking on its victims. With an introduction by the author Peter James, himself a victim of stalking, the book foregrounds the experiences of those who have been (and are still being) stalked. It offers a unique insight into the commonalities of experience and a platform where people who have, in many cases, been driven into silence and anonymity are able to write openly and angrily about their battles to stay sane and re-establish a life free from their persecutor.
The aim of this event is to bring agencies, professionals and survivors in the community together to continue challenging the devastating nature of stalking and to identify ways of improving outcomes and partnership work.
This social event has been organised by Veritas Justice CIC, and supported by PCCS Books, Sussex Police, Sussex Police & Crime Commissioner, the University of Brighton and Brighton & Hove City Council, with thanks to the Hilton Brighton Metropole Hotel.
Tea, coffee and light refreshments will be offered, but unfortunately due to funding restrictions no alcohol will be provided. However, a cash bar will be available during and after the event.
The event will take place in the Clarence Suite at the Hilton Brighton Metropole Hotel, Brighton on 30th November 2017 from 6:00pm to 8:00 pm.
When: Friday, 3rd November 2017, 8:00 am
Where: Jurys Inn Newcastle, Scotswood Road, Newcastle upon Tyne NE1 4AD
AD4E is coming to Newcastle
Contributors include Dr Lucy Johnstone, Jo McFarlane, Sally Fox, Julie Leonovs, Jo Watson & Nollaig McSweeney
About the day
The event features not just professionals but people from a diverse range of backgrounds who have an essential contribution to make to the debate.
Lucy Johnstone presents the current debates and controversies about psychiatric diagnosis. It is increasingly acknowledged, even within the mental health establishment, that categories like 'schizophrenia', 'bipolar disorder' and 'personality disorder' lack validity. The assumption that distress is best understood as disease can have very serious consequences for the individual, their identity, and their path to recovery. Lucy will present alternatives to diagnosis which can help people to make sense of experiences of distress, however extreme, and which are based on working together to explore personal meaning.
A choice of workshops will be offered in the afternoon as well as a discussion question and answer panel (Details to follow)
What people have said about the event...
"The whole day has been a transformative experience. I have always been uncomfortable with labels but felt I had to go along with it. Now I feel empowered to offer the people I work with the option at least to explore alternative ways of understanding their pain." (Participant Birmingham)
"I feel like I am at the beginning of an exciting and liberating journey. Thank you Lucy" (Participant on Birmingham )
"I've been told I am ill for the best part of 20 years and given the 'meds' to go along with it. This has never felt right, now I know it isn't right." (participant Bristol)
"A Disorder for Everyone is not your average event. I have learnt that I need to unlearn! I am re-evaluating everything!" (Participant Birmingham)
"Everything about today has been validating, I really needed this course!" (participant Edinburgh)
"Lucy's straight forward, commonsense approach was just what I needed at the moment. Her message is simple: Listen to people, to their stories and help them make their own sense about their lives" (Participant Birmingham course)
"I have no idea what to make of it all, but I feel like i'm at the start of a mini personal revolution!" (participant London)
When: Friday, 8th December 2017, 8:00 am
Where: Methodist Central Buildings Central Hall Oldham Street Manchester M1 1JQ
Ticket price: £0 - £128
AD4E is coming to Manchester.
We are delighted to be supported by Manchester Rape Crisis
Contributors include Dr Lucy Johnstone, Jacqui Dillon, Dr Gary Sidley, Jo Watson & Nollaig McSweeney
About the day
The event features not just professionals but people from a diverse range of backgrounds who have an essential contribution to make to the debate.
Lucy Johnstone presents the current debates and controversies about psychiatric diagnosis. It is increasingly acknowledged, even within the mental health establishment, that categories like 'schizophrenia', 'bipolar disorder' and 'personality disorder' lack validity. The assumption that distress is best understood as disease can have very serious consequences for the individual, their identity, and their path to recovery. Lucy will present alternatives to diagnosis which can help people to make sense of experiences of distress, however extreme, and which are based on working together to explore personal meaning.
Jacqui Dillon's talk 'Rasing our Voices' will also take place in the morning session.
Gary Sidley, Lucy Johnstone and Jacqui Dillon will all be offering workshops in the afternoon
Who Attends?
This day is for anyone who is interested in and concerned about the current debates in 'mental health.' It provides a space to explore the critical questions of the day around the biomedical model and the narrative of 'diagnosis and disorder!'
Attendees from past AD4E events have included people who identify as the following :-
people with lived experience of emotional distress, supporters of people with lived experience, survivors, psychologists, journalists, activists, counsellors, service users, service refusers, psychotherapists, mental health support professionals, psychiatrists, managers and individuals with a general personal interest.
When: Thursday, 7th December 2017, 8:00 am
Where: The Quaker Meeting House 22 School Lane Liverpool L1 3BT
Ticket price: £0 - £128
AD4E is coming to Liverpool
Contributors include Dr Lucy Johnstone, T.O Walker, Prof Richard Bentall, Prof Peter Kinderman, Jo Watson & Nollaig McSweeney
About the day
The event features not just professionals but people from a diverse range of backgrounds who have an essential contribution to make to the debate.
Lucy Johnstone presents the current debates and controversies about psychiatric diagnosis. It is increasingly acknowledged, even within the mental health establishment, that categories like 'schizophrenia', 'bipolar disorder' and 'personality disorder' lack validity. The assumption that distress is best understood as disease can have very serious consequences for the individual, their identity, and their path to recovery. Lucy will present alternatives to diagnosis which can help people to make sense of experiences of distress, however extreme, and which are based on working together to explore personal meaning.
Joining Lucy in Liverpool are T.O Walker, Richard Bentall and Peter Kinderman
A choice of workshops will all be offered in the afternoon.
Who Attends?
This day is for anyone who is interested in and concerned about the current debates in 'mental health.' It provides a space to explore the critical questions of the day around the biomedical model and the narrative of 'diagnosis and disorder!'
Attendees from past AD4E events have included people who identify as the following :- people with lived experience of emotional distress, supporters of people with lived experience, survivors, psychologists, journalists, activists, counsellors, service users, service refusers, psychotherapists, mental health support professionals, psychiatrists, managers and individuals with a general personal interest.
More information is available here
When: Saturday, 23rd September 2017, 7:30 am
Where: Etc Venues - St Pauls, London EC1A 4HD
BACP Private Practice Conference 2017 - Identity: Can you tell me who I am?
This conference will explore a range of issues behind the question, including sexuality, gender, culture, bereavement and loss, abuse, and physical and mental ability. The emphasis will be on the issues you face as practitioners, and the newer challenges associated with our public and private selves: with social media, online identities and what lies beneath in the more private space of the therapy room.
Delegates can choose to attend two from a varied programme of workshops designed and tailored specifically for therapists working in private practice, including Mel Adisu on ‘the many layers of me’; Kate Anthony on the psychological aspects of online disinhibition and the effects on identity; Brian Charlesworth on working with a warrior’s identity in the therapy room; Debbie Clements on gender identity; Lesley Finney on archetypal defences and eating disorders; Jonathan Hartley on bereavement as a break in the ‘continuity of being’; Andelo Tabu Ngandi on spiritual identity; Tamar Posner on identity in later life; and Mary Louise Russell and Dr Gillie Jenkinson on helping ex-members of cults re-establish their identities.
The keynote speaker who has the opening session is keynote is Abigail Austen, the first officer in the British Army to complete gender reassignment from male to female. Closing the conference as the last keynote speaker is Adam Pearson, Adam is an experienced speaker and gave a talk as part of TEDxKalamata. He is also an ambassador for Jeans for Genes.
When: Wednesday, 30th August 2017, 5:30 pm
Where: Liverpool, UK
Can a conference be a catalyst for change? It is exactly this wish that inspired the title and theme of the 2017 ISPS international congress.
Sadly this is a wish born out of frustration. Attitudes, practices and services too often seem barely touched by the steadily developing understanding of psychological and social aspects of psychosis and of what is helpful for people who experience it. So we aim for this conference to be not only about the valuable sharing of new research, ideas and developments, but also, as in the title, about making real change happen. The large number of organizations who have given their support to this conference can be seen here.
We are delighted to be meeting in the exciting city of Liverpool. Carl Jung saw it as 'the pool of life' and we hope its rich heritage (not just football and music!) will make it an energizing setting for a conference thinking about change. Information about the conference social programme, including canapes at the Cavern Club and an evening aboard the ferry ‘cross the Mersey, can be found here http://www.isps2017uk.org/registration and also take a look at these ideas for other things to do in Liverpool..
Delegates at previous international conferences have often commented on how ISPS events stand out. They point to the unique mix of opportunities not only to learn from high quality presentations, but also to join a rich dialogue between people with a wealth of experience and expertise, a fertile mix of professionals from a wide range of disciplines, and people whose experience and expertise comes through personal experience of psychosis.
ISPS conferences have also traditionally been warm and welcoming gatherings, where people go away feeling inspired and reinvigorated. We hope this one will be no exception and look forward very much to welcoming you to Liverpool in August 2017.
Alison Summers, Chair of ISPS 2017 organizing committee
Jan Olav Johannessen, Chair of ISPS
30th August - 3rd Sept 2017
When: Thursday, 8th June 2017, 11:59 am
Where: Amnesty International UK, 25 New Inn Yard, London EC2A 3EA
Ticket price: £79 - £99
"A Disorder for Everyone!" - Exploring the culture of psychiatric diagnosis, creating change. (In association with Mind in Camden)
With Dr Lucy Johnstone, Jo Watson, Rai Waddingham & Pete Sanders
This one day Continuing Professional Development (CPD) event is for everyone who is interested in the current debates around mental health. It aims to attract psychologists, counsellors, service users, psychotherapists, mental health support professionals, psychiatrists, people with lived experience, managers and individuals with a personal interest.
Contributors include Dr Lucy Johnstone, Jo Watson, Rai Waddingham and Pete Sanders - it is a chance to discuss the critical questions of the day around the biomedical model in mental health.
Lucy Johnstone will summarise current debates and controversies about psychiatric diagnosis. It is increasingly acknowledged, even within the mental health establishment, that categories like 'schizophrenia', 'bipolar disorder' and 'personality disorder' lack validity. The assumption that distress is best understood as disease can have very serious consequences for the individual, their identity, and their path to recovery. Lucy will present alternatives to diagnosis which can help clients to make sense of experiences of distress, however extreme, and which are based on working together to explore personal meaning. The afternoon session will offer a choice of workshops.
About Lucy
Dr Lucy Johnstone is a UK clinical psychologist, trainer, speaker and writer, and a long-standing critic of biomedical model psychiatry. She has worked in adult mental health settings for many years, alternating with academic posts. She is the former Programme Director of the Bristol Clinical Psychology Doctorate, a highly regarded course which was based on a critical, politically-aware and service-user informed philosophy, along with an emphasis on personal development.
Lucy has authored a number of books, (including 'Users and Abusers of Psychiatry, 2nd edn 2000) articles and chapters on topics such as psychiatric diagnosis, formulation, the psychological effects of ECT, and the role of trauma in breakdown.
Lucy was a contributor to the Division of Clinical Psychology 'Position Statement on Classification' 2013. She is currently convening a group of leading UK clinical psychologists and mental health experts who are working to develop an evidence-based and conceptually coherent alternative to the current diagnostic systems.
Her new book, A Straight-Talking Introduction to Psychiatric Diagnosis, is available via the link below
http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/aw/d/1906254664/
https://www.madinamerica.com/author/ljohnstone/
Twitter - @ClinpsychLucy
About Jo
Jo Watson is a psychotherapist, trainer and activist who started out in the survivor and rape crisis movements of the 1990's. She has worked therapeutically for the last 20 years with people who have experienced trauma. Jo actively challenges the biomedical model in mental health both inside and outside of her work and links emotional distress to psycho-social causes. (Trauma, oppression, lack of positive attachment etc)
Jo believes that in many cases the identification with a ‘diagnosis’ is damaging and counterproductive to a satisfactory healing process and that alternative routes to understanding should be offered.
Jo founded the facebook group 'Drop The Disorder!' in September 2016 as a place where the issues surrounding the biomedical model can be discussed. Jo is orgainising and promoting "A Disorder For Everyone!" with Lucy which is presently making its way around the UK!www.jowatsonpsychotherapy.co.uk Twitter - @JWpsychotherapyRead about how the event came about in Jo's 'Mad in America' blog!
About Rai Waddingham
Rai is a trainer and consultant specialising in developing respectful approaches to supporting those who struggle with voices, visions, overwhelming beliefs and post-traumatic reactions. She managed the London Hearing Voices Project from 2007 - 2015, launching projects to support people in prisons and secure settings who hear voices, as well as Voice Collective - the young people’s hearing voices project. Rai hears voices, sees visions and - during her 20s - spent years in hospital diagnosed with schizophrenia/schizoaffective disorder. She credits the Hearing Voices Network with helping her make sense of her experiences and reclaiming her life. She no longer identifies with these diagnoses, and feels lucky to live a life that she loves. Rai is Chair of Intervoice, a trustee of the English Hearing Voices Network, an executive committee member for ISPS (International Society for Psychological and Social Approaches to Psychosis) and working with families as part of Open Dialogue UK. For more information, see www.behindthelabel.co.uk
About Pete Sanders
Pete spent over 35 years practising as a counsellor, educator and clinical supervisor. During that time he was the course leader on three BACP recognised courses, was centrally involved in establishing and running the BACP Trainer Accreditation Scheme. He has written, co-written and edited numerous books, chapters and papers on many aspects of counselling, psychotherapy and mental health. He has given keynote addresses at several UK and European conferences and continues to have active interest in developing person-centred theory, the politics of counselling and psychotherapy, and the demedicalisation of distress. He is a pre-therapy/contact work trainer and trustee of the Soteria Network UK.
Pete will be offering an afternoon workshop entitled...
'Does diagnosis have any useful place in counselling and psychotherapy?'
Record numbers of citizens are being diagnosed with depression and a burgeoning list of mental ‘illnesses’ and treated with chemicals. Until counselling and psychotherapy deal with the elephant in the room – medicalisation and associated apparatus like diagnosis – it will always be part of the problem, destined to forever be ambulance chasing instead of truly helping alleviate the distress of ordinary people. Can counselling/psychotherapy save itself? Let’s see if we can come up with a plan.
Pete Sanders
What people have said about the event...
"The whole day has been a transformative experience. I have always been uncomfortable with labels but felt I had to go along with it. Now I feel empowered to offer the people I work with the option at least to explore alternative ways of understanding their pain." (Participant on Birmingham course)
"Lucy's straight forward, commonsense approach was just what I needed at the moment. Her message is simple: Listen to people, to their stories and help them make their own sense about their lives" (Participant on Birmingham course)
"I feel like I am at the beginning of an exciting and liberating journey. Thank you Lucy" (Participant on Birmingham course)
When: Friday, 5th May 2017, 8:30 am
Where: University of Strathclyde - John Anderson Lecture Theatre
Ticket price: £95 until 30th March. £125 thereafter
Where the Centre Meets the Edge: Person-centred Foundations & Emerging Innovations
9.30am Registration: John Anderson Level 4
10.00am Welcome: John Anderson Lecture Theatre room 317 Douglas Brodie, Dean of the Faculty of Social Sciences and Health
Opening address to the conference.
10.20am Opening Panel: introducing the conference plan and themes, plus new developments in counselling training at the University of Strathclyde.
Facilitated by: Professor Robert Elliott, Counselling Unit Director; Lorna Carrick, Counselling Courses Programme Director; Anne Goldie, Manager Tom Allan Centre; & Professor Stephen Joseph, University of Nottingham.
There will be a brief space for questions/comments at the end of this panel.
11.10am Break: Room JA 412
Refreshments, networking and stalls: Advanced Professional Training with Aileen McCormack; Counselling Opportunities with Maggi McAllister-McGregor; PCCS Books; PCT Scotland. There will also be poster presentations showcasing research studies carried out by current and recent MSc and PhD students within the Counselling Unit.
11.30am -1.00pm Morning Parallel Sessions:
Option A: Authenticity: What It Is and How to Live It. Facilitated by Professor Stephen Joseph, University of Nottingham
Has anyone ever given you the advice to just be yourself? What does it mean to just be ourselves? Authenticity has become a topic for positive psychology research over the past decade but has a longer history as one of the core themes of humanistic psychology. In this workshop Stephen will discuss what it means to be authentic, the importance of living authentically, and will ask you to consider how you can build authenticity into your own practice.
Option B: Autism & Asperger’s and the PCA.
Presented by Anna Robinson, School of Education, University of Strathclyde
The person-centered approach has mostly ignored persons with autistic process, even though they suffer a lot of psychological distress. We present an innovative group therapy for people on the autistic spectrum, developed at the University of Strathclyde, with the support of the Counseling Unit and Autism in Scotland. In this workshop participants will learn about this approach, known as Emotion-Focused Therapy for the Autistic Spectrum (EFT-AS). EFT-AS uses video playback to help group members explore relational difficulties in order to improve self-awareness and acceptance and to activate empathy and compassion for self and others. Brief video clips will illustrate the beginning, middle and ending phases of therapy.
Option C: 10th Anniversary of the Counselling Unit’s Research Clinic: Practice-Based Counselling Research and Developing Effect Practice with Clients with Social Anxiety
Presented by Counselling Unit staff: Susan Stephen & Robert Elliott
This session will be devoted to translating our research in the Research Clinic into plain English. What research instruments are useful for supporting our practice as person-centred-experiential therapists and counsellors? How can we integrate research into our practice? What problems do our clients most often present with, and who do we have the best outcomes with? What have we learned so far about working with clients who present with social anxiety?
1.00pm-2.00pm Lunch: Room JA 412
Lunch, networking and stalls.
2.00pm-3.30pm Afternoon Parallel Sessions:
Option D: Discussion: Growing the Person-centred Approach in Scotland: Innovations, Opportunities and Challenges.
Facilitated by Susan Stephen, Alison Reid & Maggi McGregor.
How are you growing the person-centred approach in Scotland? A facilitated group discussion in which participants can share what they are doing that is innovative within their work as person-centred practitioners (e.g. context, client group, creative methods) and together explore current challenges and potential opportunities for collaboration or mutual support.
Option E: Workshop: Working with Clients Who Exhibit ‘Difficult Process’: Social anxiety and Implacable Splits
Facilitated by Lorna Carrick & Robert Elliott. Counselling Unit, University of Strathclyde
In this workshop we would like to encourage participants to bring examples from their client work that they find challenging, difficult and at the ‘edge’ in terms of theory and practice. In this ‘no holds barred’ session we hope to explore the real working dilemmas that person-centred & experiential therapists are confronted by in practice.
Option F: Discussion/Workshop: 'Do person-centred counsellors need specific training in order to work with couples?: Where are the ‘edges’ of our competence?
Facilitated by Rosemary Mullen and Pam Richmond
The person-centred approach isn’t just for individuals, and counsellors are often called upon to see couples. In this discussion/workshop two experienced couples counsellors and trainers host an in-depth discussion of the opportunities and potential pitfalls that person-centred counsellors can encounter when they begin to move from working one-on-one to working with couples, including both practical issues of training, supervision, and practice and more difficult ethical dilemmas that can arise.
3.30pm - 3.50pm Break
3.50pm - 4.30pm Closing plenary: John Anderson Lecture Theatre room 317
Cost: Before Thursday 30th March 2017: £95 or After Thursday 30th March 2017: £125
Register via our online shop at: http://onlineshop.strath.ac.uk/
Contact: jan.bissett@strath.ac.uk or 0141-444 8415 for further information on this event
Please also see the link below for details of our annual Mary Kilborn Lecture on Thursday 4th May at 6.30pm
https://www.engage.strath.ac.uk/event/357
When: Wednesday, 28th June 2017, 9:00 am
Where: Manchester
Ticket price: Sold Out
28th June 2017, 10am – 5pm (Registration from 9:30)
The University of Manchester – Roscoe Building, Brunswick Street, Manchester, M13 9PL
The ‘ASYLUM: ACTION AND REACTION’ conference will be held in Manchester on 28 June 2017, 10.00am to 5.00pm (Registration from 9:30). Join us! We have some great speakers. The updated programme for the day is here.
This will be a very special event, a day conference in Manchester to celebrate over thirty years of ASYLUM: International Magazine of Democratic Psychiatry. It will be held in the University of Manchester on Wednesday 28 June 2017. It will be an all-day low-cost conference, with a lower rate for subscribers to Asylum Magazine which will cover refreshments on the day. The theme of the day will be ‘Action and Reaction’, and we have in mind by that title a range of possible meanings, which include the kind of political action we need to build to defend our rights and build better services, and the struggle against reactionary attacks on mental health provision, and we have mind the kind of action that we collectively take and responses to what Asylum has been doing so far.
We have a full programme for the Asylum conference, but still welcome posters for the day which will be in the main foyer for the conference, and we welcome stalls and literature, please contact asylumconference2017@gmail.com
The low registration charge for the conference will just cover the costs for the day. We are asking you to come to Manchester to be with us and many other activists, survivors and their allies. This will be a chance to take stock and discuss what we do next, and to share action about the many different kinds of networks you are involved in, to build those networks together.
Please let us know about any dietary requirements. The cost of registration will cover refreshments and lunches.
We have space in the University of Manchester booked for the event, and this means that we will limit numbers attending.
Tickets for this day event have now sold out (only ticket holders will be admitted on the day)
IN THE EVENING: 18.00- late: Asylum 30 years celebration - This event is free and open to everyone
It is organised by Alex Dunedin of the Ragged University at Gullivers, 109 Oldham Street,Manchester, M4 1LW (a large venue in the city centre with free food and drink and music)
Support us with a donation for the event at the crowd-funding link here! http://bit.ly/2svOkJi
Asylum website is at: www.asylumonline.net
Facebook event page is at: https://www.facebook.com/events/117183712033425/
When: Saturday, 6th May 2017, 8:00 am
Where: Chancellors Building, Keele University, Staffordshire ST5 5BG
Conference Theme:
Counselling and (non) normativity:
How we stay 'round and bouncy' in a 'straight and narrow'world.'
The Keele Counselling Psychology team warmly welcomes counselling practitioners, researchers, and students whether relatively new to the field or very experienced, who have an interest in issues of diversity, inclusivity and social justice.
Keynote Speakers
Eugene Ellis:
'The taboo of talking openly about race'
What racial differences impose on our minds and bodies as individuals and collectively as a society is challenging and complex. As we talk about race and need to talk, it gets harder to talk. We feel powerless and voiceless when we think about the impact of racial differences on individual's identity and mental well-being. This then leads us to feeling hopeless and to the question: "can we make a difference"?
I want to explore what happens in our minds and also importantly in our bodies in the midst of the race conversation and explore how a mindful approach to our physiological responses might help support us to stay at the contact boundary of our experience and find our voice.
Pete Sanders:
'The medicalisation of everyday life: ‘There is good money to be made in prolonging the problem’ (Larry Kersten, sociologist)'
Record numbers of citizens are being diagnosed with depression and a burgeoning list of mental ‘illnesses’ and treated with chemicals. Until counselling and psychotherapy deal with the elephant in the room (of medicalisation and associated nonsense like diagnosis), it will always be part of the problem - destined to forever be ambulance chasing instead of truly helping alleviate the distress of ordinary people. Can counselling save itself?
Luke Beardon photo 80 x 112
Dr. Luke Beardon:
'Autism is Not a Disorder – presenting a positive side of autism'
In this presentation a critical exploration of how valid theory actually is in relation to the autism experience will be expressed; current thinking is challenged and the notion of autism always being presented as a disorder is firmly debunked. The positive aspects of autism are identified and a model of autism within a positive paradigm will be the theme running throughout the presentation.
Dr. Lyndsey Moon "Towards a trans-therapeutics"
The aim of this presentation is to make the case for considering more fully an epistemology of therapy that works within a trans-positive epistemological framework. Most models of therapy are embedded in a cis-positive framework, assuming modernity, linearity, rationality, and the privilege of ‘ (hetero) masculinity’ while affect, irrationality and ‘femininity’ (all versions of ‘the feminine’) are downgraded and thought to be far too destabilising to warrant a serious threat to changing the heteronormative and cis-gender social order. Added to this, almost all therapies move towards identifying inner turmoil at the expense of social disarray. In this paper I am suggesting that unless we really place interarticulation (Butler 1997) at the heart of our thinking about the numerous forms of power (class, heritage, gender, religion, sexuality, age, levels of physical and mental ability) , and begin to gather together the silent stories that inform therapists about both micro and macro social processes then we are likely to misrecognise what is taking place within the therapeutic encounter where radical change for social transformation can operate if therapists are willing to re-articulate meanings for and about the social actions of their clients. In this outline, gender is taken as one example of the importance of contemplating interarticulation (for client and therapist) of gender as a form of social action within session how it impact on work with clients and the way these actions are understood. I want to begin with a story, a story that represents the biography of clients I work with quite often in my practice. It is the story of Jaden, a person who defines as ‘doing’ genderqueer and relationally polyamorous and uses the pronoun ‘they’ rather than ‘he’ or ‘she’.
Further information is here
https://www.keele.ac.uk/psychology/counselling/conferences/11thconference2017/
When: Thursday, 18th May 2017, 5:00 pm
Where: Crown Plaza, Chester
23rd Annual BACP Research Conference
'Research and reflective practice for the counselling professions'
19 and 20 May 2017
Co-hosted by the University of Chester
Pre-conference workshop, 6.00 p.m. - 7.30 p.m. Thursday 18 May 2017
http://www.bacp.co.uk/research/events/
Keynote presenter, Friday 19 May - Professor Clara E. Hill, PhD
"Therapist Self-Disclosure and Immediacy"
Keynote presenter, Saturday 20 May - Professor Stephen Joseph
"Are we measuring what matters in counselling and psychotherapy research?"
Over the past twenty years Stephen has pioneered developments in well-being, posttraumatic growth, and authenticity. In this talk he will discuss the added value of these developments and their implication for the counselling and psychotherapy research agenda.
Stephen is a Professor in the School of Education at the University of Nottingham where he is convenor of the counselling and psychotherapy cluster. He is a BACP registered counsellor, HCPC registered counselling psychologist, and a senior practitioner member of the British Psychological Society's register of psychologists specialising in psychotherapy. Originally he received his PhD from London's Institute of Psychiatry for his pioneering research into the psychology of traumatic stress. For the past twenty years he has been concerned with the promotion of human flourishing, and well-being and its evaluation, publishing numerous articles and chapters on these topics. His latest book is entitled 'Authentic: How to be yourself and why it matters.'
PCCS Books Student Prize 2017
The ‘PCCS Books Student Prize’ is open to any student undertaking research in person centred/humanistic counselling training. Selection of the winning paper will be made by the conference peer review group and the award is dependent upon the student presenting their research at the BACP Research Conference.
All trainees submitting a relevant abstracts to the Conference will be taken into consideration (there is no separate application to be considered for this award).
Generously sponsored by PCCS Books, the successful student will receive a cash prize of £500, presented at the Conference.
CPCAB Counselling Research Award
CPCAB have once again offered to sponsor the CPCAB Counselling Research Award, the aim of which is to assist with the dissemination of research that has important implication for counselling training or counselling practice.
Through highlighting significant research, documenting it on video and disseminating it for free on-line the CPCAB Award aims to make research accessible and engaging to all counselling trainees and practitioners. All relevant abstracts submitted to the Conference will be taken into consideration (there is no separate application to be considered for this award).
Selection of relevant abstracts will be made by the conference peer review group and the final selection will be made by the CEO of CPCAB. The award is dependent upon presentation at the BACP Research Conference.
Although there is no separate application forms for either of the above awards, submissions must follow the normal conference guidelines.
When: Thursday, 4th May 2017, 5:00 pm
Where: McCance Building, Level 3 - University of Strathclyde
Stephen Joseph: Building Bridges: Deepening the Connection between Person-Centred Therapy and Positive Psychology
Stephen Joseph, renowned expert on positive psychology, will deliver the 2017 Mary Kilborn Lecture. Stephen is author of many books on positive psychology, psychological trauma/posttraumatic growth, and person-centred psychopathology, his most recent being Authentic: How to be Yourself and Why it Matters (2016).
This lecture will also serve as the keynote for a day-long conference on Friday 5th May, during which Stephen will offer a workshop on Authenticity. Both the lecture and the day-long conference (Where the Centre Meets the Edge) will formally launch the Counselling Unit’s new academic programmes for September 2017.
Registration and refreshments will be available from 6pm with the lecture starting at 6.30pm. It will be followed by networking until 8.30pm.
When: Saturday, 25th February 2017, 8:00 am
Where: ETC Venues St Pauls 200 Aldersgate, St. Pauls, London EC1A 4HD
Ticket price: £30 for BACP Members £190 for Non Members
This unique event is tailored to the needs of students, providing the opportunity to proactively explore some of the options and openings available to them post qualification.
The 'Bridging the gap' event will incorporate a large selection of workshops, covering a broad spectrum of topics and a comprehensive exhibition with exhibitors who will be on hand to offer expert advice and information to students. Students will have the opportunity to book one to one sessions with key exhibitors where they will be able to discuss their own experiences on an individual basis and explore options available to them in the future. There will be taster sessions being delivered in the main exhibition area throughout the day.
When: Wednesday, 1st March 2017, 8:00 am
Where: Nottingham Conference Centre
Ticket price: To book tickets, please contact admin@harmless.org.uk, or call on 0115 934 8445 - £150 per place or 2 places for £200*
Conference details:
The theme of this year's conference is understanding and change.
Harmless recognises that self harm effects a broad range of individuals, facing many diverse experiences; reducing the number of individuals that self harm requires contributions from across society and includes education, prevention, intervention and postvention work.
This exciting event will bring together private, public, voluntary and community sector organisations, individuals with lived experience of self harm and practitioners & academics in the field of self harm in an ethos of joint working and shared experience.
The conference will address a broad range of skills and learning needs, and provide an opportunity to examine working with a broad client base including young people and adults.
The conference is themed around five strategic areas:
Collaborative partnership,
Service user representation,
Effective practice,
Driving change,
Overcoming stigma and discrimination.
Delegates can expect to take away from the conference a range of knowledge, inspiration and practical applications for the implementation in real life personal and professional situations. Learning from some of the leaders in the field, delegates will have access to interactive sessions that can drive change in the field of self harm.
When: Wednesday, 1st March 2017, 5:30 pm
Where: The Old Theatre, The Old Building, London School of Economics, Houghton Street, London, WC2A 2AE
Ticket price: Admission is free but please pre-register for the event by emailing: sociology.events@lse.ac.uk
Speakers -
Wedge, founder of LifeSIGNS: Self-Injury Guidance & Network Support
User-led Online Peer Support – Shallow, Deep & Vital
This presentation will explore the development of online peer-support and the ways in which the rise of social networks have impacted on it, highlighting the importance of self-expression and being heard.
www.lifesigns.org.uk @LifeSIGNS
Conor McCafferty, Business Director and psychotherapist, Zest, Northern Ireland, Chair of the Northern Ireland Suicide Strategy Implementation Body.
Noella McConnellogue, Clinical Director and psychotherapist, Zest, Northern Ireland.
The Impact of Alcohol on Self-harm
This presentation will examine the relationship between alcohol (mis)use and self-injury with reference to the impact of alcohol on emotional and physical well-being.
www.zestni.org
Kay Inckle, Department of Sociology, LSE
Self-Injury Essentials: Social Justice, Embodiment & Harm-Reduction
This presentation will draw from the book Safe with Self-Injury, and focus on three essential requirements for understanding and responding helpfully to self-injury: social justice, embodiment and harm-reduction.
When: Friday, 10th March 2017, 8:00 am
Where: The Melting Pot, Rose Street, Edinburgh
Ticket price: £0-£99
"A Disorder for Everyone!" - Exploring the culture of psychiatric diagnosis, creating change.
With Dr Lucy Johnstone, Jo Watson & Jo McFarlane
This one day Continuing Professional Development (CPD) event is for everyone who is interested in the current debates around mental health. It aims to attract psychologists, counsellors, service users, psychotherapists, mental health support professionals, psychiatrists, people with lived experience, managers and individuals with a personal interest.
Facilitated by Dr Lucy Johnstone, Jo Watson & Jo McFarlane. It is a chance to discuss the critical questions of the day around the biomedical model in mental health.
Lucy Johnstone will summarise current debates and controversies about psychiatric diagnosis. It is increasingly acknowledged, even within the mental health establishment, that categories like 'schizophrenia', 'bipolar disorder' and 'personality disorder' lack validity. The assumption that distress is best understood as disease can have very serious consequences for the individual, their identity, and their path to recovery. Lucy will present alternatives to diagnosis which can help clients to make sense of experiences of distress, however extreme, and which are based on working together to explore personal meaning.
About Lucy
Dr Lucy Johnstone is a UK clinical psychologist, trainer, speaker and writer, and a long-standing critic of biomedical model psychiatry. She has worked in adult mental health settings for many years, alternating with academic posts. She is the former Programme Director of the Bristol Clinical Psychology Doctorate, a highly regarded course which was based on a critical, politically-aware and service-user informed philosophy, along with an emphasis on personal development.
Lucy has authored a number of books, (including 'Users and Abusers of Psychiatry, 2nd edn 2000) articles and chapters on topics such as psychiatric diagnosis, formulation, the psychological effects of ECT, and the role of trauma in breakdown.
Lucy was a contributor to the Division of Clinical Psychology 'Position Statement on Classification' 2013. She is currently convening a group of leading UK clinical psychologists and mental health experts who are working to develop an evidence-based and conceptually coherent alternative to the current diagnostic systems.
Her new book, A Straight-Talking Introduction to Psychiatric Diagnosis, is available via the link below
http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/aw/d/1906254664/
https://www.madinamerica.com/author/ljohnstone/
Twitter - @ClinpsychLucy
About Jo
Jo Watson is a psychotherapist, trainer and activist with a professional history the rape crisis movement of the 1990's. She has worked therapeutically for the last 20 years with people who have experienced trauma. Jo actively challenges the biomedical model in mental health both inside and outside of her work and links distress and mental ill health to psycho-social causes. (Trauma, oppression, lack of positive attachment etc)
Jo believes that in many cases the identification with a ‘diagnosis’ is damaging and counterproductive to a satisfactory healing process and that alternative understandings should be offered.
Jo founded the facebook group 'Drop The Disorder' in September 2016 as a place where the issues surrounding the biomedical model can be discussed. Jo is orgainising and promoting "A Disorder For Everyone!" with Lucy which is presently making its way around the UK!
“For me at the very core of the therapeutic process is the telling of personal stories, the naming and acknowledgment of experience. It is, fundamentally a process of making sense of distress in a relationship that feels affirming, safe and containing. Why then are many counsellors and therapists seemingly accepting the movement towards labels and diagnosis that too often negate the experiences that clients have had. What impact is this having on therapeutic practice, on us as professionals and on the clients we work with? Surely this is a discussion that we need to have.” ( Jo )
www.jowatsonpsychotherapy.co.uk Twitter - @JWpsychotherapy
About Jo McFarlane
Jo is an Edinburgh based spoken word poet, activist and author. Jo has written exensively about her lived experience. Jo performs spoken word pieces and speaks about her experience of diagnosis.
Jo McFarlane - Poet
Poet & activist Jo McFarlane opening the Birmingham event with a powerful spoken word performance....
This event was piloted in Birmigham in October 2016
Click here to view photos and a slideshow of the amazing first event!
Read about how this event came about in Jo's article 'Get off the Sofa!'
What people said:-
"The whole day has been a transformative experience. I have always been uncomfortable with labels but felt I had to go along with it. Now I feel empowered to offer the people I work with the option at least to explore alternative ways of understanding their pain." (Participant on Birmingham course)
"Lucy's straight forward, commonsense approach was just what I needed at the moment. Her message is simple: Listen to people, to their stories and help them make their own sense about their lives" (Participant on Birmingham course)
"I feel like I am at the beginning of an exciting and liberating journey. Thank you Lucy" (Participant on Birmingham course)