The Anxious Self
Amanda Onwuemene
Friday 8 February 6.30pm-8.30pm, free for members, £7.50 for non-members
We will consider the physiology of anxiety, the many ways the child and the adult learn to manage anxiety, and the role of the therapist in working with the anxious client.
Lacan is Always for Beginners
Ian Parker
Friday 8 March 6.30pm-8.30pm, free for members, £7.50 for non-members
The psychoanalyst Jacques Lacan has mystified many in the English-speaking countries, but over half of psychoanalysts in the world now use his ideas in their clinical practice. This talk explains why his ‘return to Freud’ is simpler than it seems, and why some difficulty is necessary to understand how we try to understand ourselves. I will explore some key concepts in Lacanian psychoanalysis and look at why there may be different ways to begin to approach this innovative work.
Silent Psychotherapy with John Cage
Robin Hobbes
Friday 12 April 6.30pm-8.30pm, free for members, £7.50 for non-members
John Cage – an American composer described as a charlatan, as mad, and as one of the most important of 20th century composers – explored the musicality of silence. I propose to allow Cage to throw us into an exploration of silence and musicality in psychotherapeutic conversations. We are likely to explore the psychotherapist as a charlatan, as mad, as a composer and as an explorer of silence.
Working in miniature
Dr. John Casson
Friday 10 May 6.30pm-8.30pm, free for members, £7.50 for non-members
Since the emergence of homo sapiens, people have been fascinated by miniature objects. When clients are struggling with difficult material, working with small objects empowers them to make progress and manage overwhelming feelings and experiences. Developing both theory and practice during his work with survivors of abuse and research with people who hear voices, John will demonstrate various methods and offer an experience of ways of working that also empower and enable therapists to manage and explore complex and difficult areas. Dr. Casson is a dramatherapist and psychodrama psychotherapist.
Where Truth Lies – The Postmodern Turn in Psychotherapy
Helen Rowland
Friday 14 June, 6.30pm-8.30pm, free to members, £7.50 to non-members
Whilst postmodernism has been an influential philosophy in social and cultural studies for more than four decades now, it is only relatively recently that we have begun to feel its impact in the day to day practice of psychotherapy. In this talk I will explore the postmodern critique of truth, reality and the nature of the self and identify some of the core assertions of postmodernity. I will invite you to explore what a postmodern psychotherapy might look like in the consulting room. Helen is a psychotherapist, trainer, supervisor and Clinical Director of The Lightwell Practice in Skipton, North Yorkshire. She is a transactional analyst with a particular interest in body Psychotherapy.
The Function of Money in the Analytic Treatment
Amelia Mangani
Friday 12 July, 6.30pm-8.30pm, free to members, £7.50 to non-members
There are two exchanges in the therapy room: words and money. Does money talk and, if so, what does it say? What the therapist has to offer is paid for, but more money doesn’t buy more of it. So what is it we value when we value money? Amelia Mangani is a consultant clinical psychologist and a psychoanalytic psychotherapist in private practice in south Manchester.
There’s Nothing to Cure: Psychotherapy as Rhetoric
Paul Melia
Friday 13 September, 6.30pm-8.30pm, free to members, £7.50 to non-members
Paul’s approach is rooted in the psychoanalytic theory of Jacques Lacan and the antipsychiatry associated with thinkers like Michel Foucault and Thomas Szasz. He begins with Sigmund Freud’s view that analytic training does not require medical qualifications – and so if there is nothing to cure then what becomes of therapy? The answer involves a consideration of the art of rhetoric for, as Lacan and Szasz both assert, the psychotherapist is a rhetorician. Paul is a psychotherapist in private practice in Manchester (therapyinmanchester.co.uk), is co-facilitator of the Manchester Counsellors’ and Psychotherapists’ Reading Group, and plays an active role in the NWRPA.
OCD: The Research
Kieran Nolan
Friday 11 October, 6.30pm-8.30pm, free to members, £7.50 to non-members
Kieran presents a heuristic research project on OCD using narrative analysis and poetic re-representation. He is a Transactional Analyst and UKCP Registered Psychotherapist, Group Therapist and Experienced Supervisor and Trainer. He is currently studying for a PhD at the University of Manchester, researching Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder.
Self in Relation: on being a Gestalt Psychotherapist
Peter Philippson
Friday, 8 November 6.30pm-8.30pm, free to members, £7.50 to non-members
Peter practices Classical Gestalt Psychotherapy, a field-relational offshoot from psychoanalysis. It is based on a theory of self and other emergent from contact, which puts the emphasis on how I become I and you become you in our encounter. The therapist cannot be an objective observer of the client’s activity, but is inevitably part of the action. Any solidification of the self process, whether it is a support for living or a fixation painfully out of synch with the client’s current life, is an achievement rather than a given. The therapist cannot be the same therapist for different clients, a client does not appear the same to different therapists. Therapy for both therapist and client is an act of courage and creativity. Peter Philippson, M.Sc. (Gestalt Psychotherapy) is a UKCP Registered psychotherapist and trainer, a Teaching and Supervising Member of the Gestalt Psychotherapy & Training Institute UK, and a founder member of the Manchester Gestalt Centre. Peter is the author of ‘Self in Relation’, Gestalt Journal Press, ‘The Emergent Self’ Karnac/UKCP and ‘Gestalt Therapy: Roots and Branches’ Karnac.