Founded in 1982, the North West Regional Psychotherapy Association is an independent association of psychotherapists, counsellors and psychoanalysts of different backgrounds, training and clinical strengths.
We are a not-for-profit association run by volunteers who organise talks, seminars and workshops on Zoom for the second Monday of the month. Events are free to members and only £7.50 per event for non-members. Membership of NWRPA costs just £30 a year. Join at any time of year and your membership lasts for 12 months. Membership is open to qualified counsellors, psychotherapists, psychologists, psychiatrists and other professionals practicing or teaching in related fields. We meet online and have members from across the UK and overseas, so you do not need to be located in the north-west. NWRPA represents high quality, good value, CPD! Whilst most members are in practice, qualified or retired practitioners and those approaching graduation from accredited or registered (e.g. BACP, UKCP, BPS, HCPC, GMC) face-to-face practitioner training programmes are also invited to apply for membership.
NEXT MEETING
“Across the Cycle of Life”
We continue our series of linked discussions running from April to December 2026.
Our themes are based on different stages and ages of life, the issues, characteristics and challenges and their professional and personal relevance. The discussion will be opened up to personal and professional perspectives on the topic.
Monday, Sept 14 at 7 PM BST
Mid-Life
It might seem strange that we have so many stages and words to describe the first 20 years of life: newborn, infant, child, teenager. Eric Erickson devotes five of his eight life stages to the first 20 years of life and then three to the stages what comes next – young adult (19-40), midlife (40-65) then finally maturity (65+). Based on a cursory examination, one might conclude that not a lot happens after 40. Perhaps members might have something to say about this!
And so it is that our September meeting focuses on the challenges and lessons of midlife – for some of us at least, a time when as, experienced practitioners, personal experience intersects with professional responsibility. Questions that members may wish to discuss might include for example:
How do mid-lifers continue to grow and develop? Carl Jung stated: “wholly unprepared we embark upon the second half of life… We take the step into the afternoon of life with the false assumption that our truths and ideals will serve as before. But we cannot live the afternoon according to what we learnt in the morning… What was great in the morning will be little that evening, and what in the morning was true will in evening have become a lie” (Quoted in Staude, 1981, p. 92).
Can we forecast or predict midlife in much the same way as for example, earlier developmental stages?
How do we work with clients who present with a feeling that their sense of purpose is draining away? Maybe the kids have grown up and left home. Perhaps they have lost what they might have considered to be their “essential self”. Maybe biological changes such as the menopause
mean that everything feels different and they really don’t like those feelings.
Midlife presents us with lots of questions: why does time go by so quickly? Why do I fancy that person who is not even my type? Why am I so tired when doing the things I would once have done so easily? Can I accept the person I see in the mirror and if not, what can I do about it? Why do I suddenly want to purchase a sports car?!
As mature therapists ourselves – at least in some cases – how do we navigate client issues with which we ourselves may be struggling to come to terms? Or for younger members, can we work effectively with clients who are at a life stage that we have yet to attain?
We can’t promise answers to all these questions but, as ever, I think we can be reasonably sure of having a very enlightening conversation!
Look forward to seeing you at 7 PM on Monday, September 14. Don’t forget… You know what you’re like! Put it in your diary, just in case 😊