“It’s gone… what it is…”
Amanda Onwuemene
Friday 10 February 2017
In this workshop Amanda invites us to pay attention to the power of language in the therapy room. Amanda Onwuemene is an integrative psychotherapist and clinical supervisor, and manages Psychotherapy and Counselling North West, a psychotherapy service based in Liverpool and Manchester.
Binge Eating: on the other side of the pleasure principle
Paul Melia
Friday 10 March 2017
We’ll listen to a 20-minute BBC radio programme of women in a therapy group talking about binge eating: As one woman comments, ‘I think the thing to realise is that [binge eating has] nothing to do with normal eating. It’s not a little bit extra, it’s not having a pudding when you shouldn’t or over indulging occasionally. It’s a kind of robotic, almost pleasureless loss of control…’ We’ll see how binge eating has nothing to do with instinct and everything to do with drive: that strange, silent world on the other side of the pleasure principle – indifferent to our happiness, indifferent to our well-being, indifferent to our life. Paul Melia is therapist and supervisor at Therapy in Manchester, a counselling and psychotherapy service in Manchester,
See https://therapyinmanchester.co.uk/
The radio programme – ‘I Wanted to Explode’ – is available here, http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p045vff0.
Zen and the Art of Gestalt Therapy
Rodney Hill
Friday 7 April 2017
Rodney will provide an overview of the theory and practice of gestalt psychotherapy. He will also consider the influence of (and parallels with) Zen Buddhism giving specific consideration to the gestalt concepts of the creative void, working at the impasse and Beisser’s Paradoxical Theory of Change, all of which reflect key elements of Zen practice. Rodney Hill is a qualified gestalt executive coach and is working to full accreditation as a gestalt psychotherapist. See www.yourtherapistmanchester.com
NB Because of the Easter holiday our April seminar is one week earlier than usual.
A long story: Impasse and change in therapeutic work
Frank Kelley
Friday 12 May 2017
It is true that we need to keep faith with our therapeutic approach, particularly at times of pressure and crisis in our therapeutic work. It is equally true that keeping this faith in our approach can lead us and our clients into an impasse. An impasse may be the sign that our approach imposes limitations on our work with particular clients, or groups of clients, and is a sign that we need to ask ourselves about changing our way of working. This is the story of that change and it is a long story. Like changes in therapy it happened quickly but also had a very long gestation.
Frank Kelley is now retired and was a psychodynamic counsellor in the NHS.
Compassionate Mind Focused Therapy
Friday 9 June 2017
Three Words in Therapy
Friday 14 July 2017
1. Storytelling
Maria Correia
Maria is an Integrative Transactional Analysis Psychotherapist in Training. She will differentiate between the ‘language of Imagery’ and the ‘language of thinking,’ and consider the place of storytelling for clients who struggle to articulate themselves. Maria will include a brief experiential exercise.
2. Abstinence
Paul Melia
A reading of Freud’s principle of abstinence – given in his ‘Observations on Transference-Love’ (1915) – illustrated with references to complaints received by BACP under its Professional Conduct Procedure of therapists seeking to satisfy desires for intimacy.
Paul Melia is psychotherapist at Therapy in Manchester
3. Boundaries
Frank Kelley
Boundaries provide structure and containment for both client and counsellor in therapeutic work. In this talk Frank will be more concerned with the way in which boundaries help make visible a client’s central conflicts. In doing so he will consider both the importance of keeping to boundaries and the judicious use of flexibility with these boundaries. This will be illustrated with clinical vignettes from the writings of Patrick Casement and Donald Winnicott and his own therapeutic work.
Frank Kelley is retired and was a psychodynamic counsellor in the NHS.
The NWRPA has a summer break and does not meet in August..
The Many Faces of Shame
Amanda Phillips
Friday 8 September 2017
Amanda will discuss how shame is experienced, the process of internalisation, the impact of this on our development and consider the therapeutic interventions open to us.
Amanda Phillips is a relational-centred Integrative Psychotherapist with 15 years experience of working with individuals, families and young people.
Lacan and Client Work
Amelia Mangani
Friday 13 October 2017
Amelia Mangani will consider the work of the psychoanalyst Jacques Lacan and some of the ways this might inform our work with clients. Amelia is a NHS Consultant Clinical Psychologist and Psychoanalytic Psychotherapist in private practice, Manchester.
“How are we doing?” Evidencing Experience
Alan Priest
Friday 10 November 2017
Our profession has become increasingly concerned with convincing others (like funding providers) that we do good work – that is, with establishing an ‘evidence-based practice’. This session will invite us to consider the process by which experience can become evidence, what we mean by ‘evidence’ and how it should be used. Alan will also explain how the nature of evidence is intertwined with the concept of ‘attention’ and will make a case for the value of ‘not knowing’.
Dr Alan Priest is a UKCP Registered psychotherapist, lecturer and researcher at the University of Salford with over 20 years experience in both NHS and private practice.
Three Words in Therapy: Affair, #metoo, Pain
Friday 8 December 2017
Three therapists speak for 15 minutes each on a word of their choosing. There will be plenty of time for questions and discussion.
Peter Lindsay on Affair
Peter considers affairs which can have many reasons and differing outcomes. Peter trained as a relationship counsellor with Relate and now works with college students as well as in private practice.
Hannah Legge on #metoo
Since October 2017 millions of people have used the hashtag #metoo on social media to publicise their experiences of sexual abuse. Hannah will consider the effects of this sharing on a world-wide scale. Hannah is a Transactional Analyst Psychotherapist (CTA) and Person-Centred Counsellor. She has been in private practice in south Manchester since 2003.
Kieran Nolan on Pain
Kieran considers pain by drawing on the work of the philosopher Emmanuel Levinas for whom pain creates consciousness. Kieran has been working as a psychotherapist in Chorlton since 2002.