My Work – Your Work: A Group Discussion
Frank Kelley and Paul Melia
Friday, 10 January 6.30pm-8.30pm, free to members and non-members
An incidental pleasure of our Friday Seminars has been the insight we gain into other members’ ways of working. We have come to know their therapeutic approaches, what they have learnt from experience and vignettes from day to day life in the therapy room. This seminar brings these pleasures into focus as the theme for the evening. Paul and Frank will offer a short introduction and are sure our members will join in this group discussion with their usual liveliness and expertise.
Working with Couples
Jim Davis
Friday, 14 February 6.30pm-8.30pm, free to members and £7.50 for non-members
Jim’s presentation will focus on some key theoretical and methodological ideas that
shape his practice in navigating the particular challenges in this area of work.Jim Davis BA (Oxon), MSc is a Teaching and Supervising Transactional Analyst, UKCP Registered psychotherapist, and training director of the Psyche Institute in Manchester. He is a regular workshop presenter and keynote speaker at conferences in the UK and abroad, and has been working with couples for over 20 years after an early training with Relate. His work is influenced by transactional analysis, gestalt and, over the past decade or so, relational psychoanalysis.
An Introduction to Transference-Focused Psychotherapy A Treatment for Borderline and Other Severe Personality Disorders
Frank Denning
Friday, 14 March 6.30pm-8.30pm, free to members and £7.50 for non-members
Transference-Focused Psychotherapy is a modified form of psychodynamic psychotherapy developed by Dr Otto Kernberg and colleagues to treat personality disorders. It is a manualised therapy with an evidence base. Frank is a Teacher and Supervisor of Transference-Focused Psychotherapy. He is certified by the Personality Disorders Institute of the Weill Cornell Medical College, New York and a Principal Adult Psychotherapist in an NHS Psychotherapy Service in Manchester.
On Self-Care: A Creative Approach
Paula Gillespie-Fotheringham
Friday 11 April, 6.30pm-8.30pm, free to members, £7.50 to non-members
As therapists we focus on the needs and wellness of our clients. Our role can sometimes lead to a depletion of our own energy. This seminar will give attention to how we can both care for ourselves and consider our clients. There will be an experiential element to the evening, no experience of art making is needed – just an openness take part in image-making and discussion. Paula Gillespie-Fotheringham founded Manchester Art Psychotherapy early in 2011. She has worked extensively with children and young people, particularly around issues of attachment, trauma and self-harm, together with adult work focusing on BPD, DID and attachment based difficulties. Paula worked for over 10 years in mental health settings, including the NHS and Social Services. Prior to building her private practice, Paula held the post of Head of Therapy at a private psychiatric hospital. She is an Art Psychotherapist registered with the Health & Care Professionals Council (HCPC) and accredited by the British Association of Art Therapists (BAAT) to work both as a supervisor and private practitioner.
How to do Structured and Focused Therapy without being Structured and Focused
Frank Kelley
Friday 9 May 2014, 6.30pm-8.30pm, free to members, £7.50 to non-members
Frank is a psychodynamic counsellor in the NHS. This is an account of counselling with a client who he was sure needed help with agoraphobia. There is no evidence that his exploratory approach is effective for this problem and what was really needed was a structured and focused approach such as cognitive behavioural therapy. However this preferred option had been closed off. For Frank this raised the question of how to do structured and focused therapeutic work while remaining committed to a person centred and exploratory approach.
If I Knew Where Poems Came From, I’d Go There…
Marie Naughton
Friday 13 June 2014, 6.30pm-8.30pm, free to members, £7.50 to non-members
So says the Irish poet Michael Longley. But even if we can’t actually get to that place, we can instead be attentive to the poems when they come to us. In this talk I’ll share the significance of poetry for me, both personally and in my professional life. I’ll say a little about how I understand creativity from a Transactional Analysis perspective, and offer some views on poetry’s role which I find helpful and enriching in my work. I’ve selected some poems for close reading with you which I hope will open up conversations about poetry’s potential as a transformational force in our lives. Marie Naughton is a psychotherapist and TA trainer and supervisor. She has practised in Manchester since 1996. She counsels students in an inner-city high school. Her poems have appeared in a range of magazines and have been placed in national and international competitions. She offers writing workshops and was recently awarded a Distinction for an MA in Creative Writing at the Centre for New Writing at Manchester University.
Eco-Psychotherapy – Therapeutic Practice in Outdoor Natural Spaces
Hayley Marshal
Friday 11 July 2014, 6.30pm-8.30pm
Working psychotherapeutically within natural environments is a growing area of interest in the UK. This seminar will offer participants an opportunity to learn about this new field of psychotherapy practice. Through experiential exercises and discussion, we will explore the presence of a ‘living third’ in the relational dynamic.
Hayley Marshall MSc (TA Psych) CTA, PTSTA, is an indoor & outdoor psychotherapist, supervisor and trainer based in Buxton, and Stockport. She is a member of the TA training staff at the South Manchester Centre for Psychotherapy, and facilitates outdoor residential training and therapeutic journeys for the Wilderness Foundation UK and the Centre for Ecotherapy and Nature Based Psychotherapy.
8 August 2014: Summer break: No meeting
Donald Meltzer and Analytic Formation
Dr. Mark Fisher
Friday 12 September 2014, 6.30pm-8.30pm
Donald Meltzer (1922-2004) was a psychiatrist and Kleinian analyst who worked with both children and adults. He gained an international reputation not only through his clinical writings, but also for his work as a teacher and supervisor. This paper presents some of his thoughts on psychoanalytic training.
Mark Fisher’s introduction to psychoanalysis took place during the 1970’s when he worked at Oxford University for eight years. After many years of teaching and practice, he resigned as NHS professional lead in psychotherapy during November 2013. In July 2014 he became a member of a new analytical grouping called The School of the Freudian Letter. He has a private practice in Liverpool.
The Function of Phobia in Therapy
Paul Melia
Friday 10 October 2014, 6.30pm-8.30pm
Anxiety is the radical danger to be avoided at all costs: even a phobia is preferable to anxiety. So rather than regarding phobia as a purely negative phenomena this evening is given over to understanding phobia as a protective formation, one that transforms anxiety into fear by focusing on a specific object. Most of our time will be spent talking about an audio recording of a middle-aged comedian describing their life-long fear of spiders. And we’ll reflect on what’s involved when clients choose to ‘work-through’ their phobia in therapy.
Paul Melia is a psychotherapist at Therapy in Manchester
An introduction to Sociopathy
Amanda Onwuemene
Friday 14 November 2014, 6.30pm-8.30pm
The seminar takes an interest in individuals who whilst possibly devoid of a mental health diagnosis nonetheless display patterns of behaviours and thinking that can be termed sociopathic.
Amanda Onwuemene is the Director of Psychotherapy and Counselling North West and a Transactional Analyst with a private practice in Liverpool and Manchester.
Talking Points: A Symposium
Friday 12 December 2014, 6.30pm-8.30pm
Four therapists speak for 15 minutes each on a topic of their choosing. They’ll be plenty of time for questions and discussions, and light refreshments are available.
Why are we psychotherapists?
Ann Heathcoate
Ann will explore our reasons for beco1ming psychotherapists and counsellors by considering some of the literature regarding the psychological underpinnings of this choice of career. Ann is a certified transactional analyst (psychotherapy) and director of The Worsley Centre for Psychotherapy and Counselling, Manchester.
The client’s desire for change
Natalie Marshall-Shore
How many therapists does it take to change a light bulb? One – but the light bulb has got to want to change! How do clients arrive at this moment of change, and how do we help them seize it? Natalie is an integrative counsellor at Rise Above Counselling, Manchester.
Making faces
Patrick Wright
A talk about pareidolia – the seeing of faces or other meaningful patterns in apparently random phenomena – illustrated using stories drawn from British tabloid newspapers. Patrick Wright is a mental health worker and poet based in Manchester patrickiwright.co.uk
The hundred worlds of therapy
Frank Kelley
A few years ago Frank read a therapy article in which the author referred to projective identification as a therapeutically useful fiction. This started him thinking..! Frank is a psychodynamic counsellor in the NHS and secretary of the NWRPA