We hold talks, seminars and workshops on the second Friday of each month at the Manchester Institute for Psychotherapy in Chorlton, South Manchester.
Each meeting lasts from 6.30pm – 8.30pm and addresses our shared interest in theory and practice. Events are free to members (annual membership is only £30) and £7.50 for non-members. Light refreshments are provided.
Each event qualifies as two hours of continuing professional development.
Events 2019
What makes a trauma traumatic?
Owen Hewitson
Friday 8 February 2019, 6.30pm – 8.30pm
Trauma often appears to be a very broadly-spread notion in psychotherapy, leading ‘trauma’ to have been ascribed to all kinds of experience, from birth, to sex, to war, and even to love. Often we find ourselves trying to locate a single event, and one of a specific magnitude, at the aetiology of a trauma. And yet we know that this choice is always somewhat arbitrary if we cannot account for how that event was inscribed, metabolised, or worked-through by the individual. This talk will argue that trauma is never simply about a single event, and that talking therapies reach a limit if they attempt to deal with trauma through speech alone. We will consider what the conditions for a ‘traumatic’ experience might be, the mechanism behind its action, and the most effective techniques for its handling in clinical settings.
Owen Hewitson is a PhD candidate in Psychoanalysis at the University of Middlesex and runs LacanOnline.com
Details of events to be held March-July 2019 will be posted here in January 2019.
Events held in 2018
Understanding in Analysis
Greg Hynds
Friday 14 December 2018, 6.30pm – 8.30pm
Has understanding ever helped anyone get better? This evening Greg will talk about understanding in analysis, looking at Freud’s and Lacan’s ideas about ‘understanding’ and drawing out some of the clinical consequences.
Greg is a reader of Freud and Lacan, and member of both the Earl’s Court Clinical Group and the Earl’s Court Collective.
We are what matters… so who are we?
Robin Hobbes
Friday 9 November 2018, 6.30pm – 8.30pm
Someone said to me, “You psychotherapists are a bunch of faithless vicars”. I’m curious about this – its misgudedness and its truthfulness. Explore with me the complex social nature of therapist and client applying Wittgenstein’s notion of a “background picture” and Taylor’s “social imaginary”. Be prepared to explore a clearing in which a form of openess and constriction may result but we’ll definitely talk about who we are and what matters to us in being a therapist.
Robin spends his professional life teaching, supervising and practicing psychotherapy and counselling. He has been involved in Transactional Analysis for over 30 years, and since 1987 has been running Elan Training and Development.
A Lacanian Approach to the Treatment of Trauma
Julia Evans
Friday 12 October 2018, 6.30pm – 8.30pm
Julia is a practicing Lacanian Psychoanalyst and member of the London Society of the New Lacanian School. Her website is Lacanian Works. She is a member of the Earl’s Court Collective who are translating Jacques Lacan’s Seminar IV from unedited tapes, the Earl’s Court Clinical Group and a cartel exploring ‘Trauma’.
Is there a Good Death?
Mark Fisher
Friday 14 September 2018, 6.30pm – 8.30pm
Much highbrow comment until recently used to inform us that talk about death in modern societies is as repressed as talk about sex and sexuality was in Victorian times. Things have already changed now: death, living wills, euthanasia, do-it-yourself funerals are spoken about regularly and openly. What, however, is a good death? Is the ending of therapy a sort of death?
Mark Fisher’s introduction to psychoanalysis took place during the 1970s when he worked at Oxford University for eight years. After many years of teaching and practice, Mark resigned as NHS professional lead in psychotherapy during November 2013. In July 2014 he became a member of a new analytic grouping, The School of the Freudian Letter. He has a private practice in Liverpool.
The NWRPA does not meet in August.
Three Words in Therapy: Grief, Rage and Memorialisation
Friday 13 July 2018, 6.30pm – 8.30pm
This evening’s discussion of grief, rage and memorialisation will centre on two video clips: Judith Butler, the American philosopher and gender theorist, on grief and destructiveness; and, broadcast on the first anniversary of the Grenfell Tower fire, BBC Newsnight’s report on creating a memorial for the bereaved. Chaired by Paul Melia, therapist at Therapy in Manchester.
5 Things You Really Need to Know Before Working with Couples
Ian Tomlinson
Friday 8 June 2018, 6.30pm – 8.30pm
In this workshop Ian will talk through five things you need to consider before working with couples and provide a stop-by-step guide to being a confident couples’ therapist. Ian Tomlinson is an Advanced Clinician in Imago Relationship Therapy and a Certified Imago Workshop Presenter. He is the Director of the Affinity Centre, a therapy and training centre with branches in Wilmslow and Cheadle.
Therapy with Refugees and Asylum Seekers
Ashley Fletcher
Friday 11 May 2018, 6.30pm – 8.30pm
Clients with a history of forced migration are an increasing part of the demographic of the North West, the largest asylum dispersal area in the UK. Whilst at first sight appearing a discrete and distinct group, they present with the full diversity of the population at large and with complex traumas and needs. Ashley Fletcher has worked for the last 20 years in Manchester taking a Human Rights approach to therapy with migrant communities.
Psychodynamic Music Therapy: An Introduction
Rachel Swanick
Friday 13 April 2018, 6.30pm – 8.30pm
Rachel Swanick is senior clinical therapist for Chroma and is Artist in Residence at the Whitworth Art Gallery, Manchester. She has worked in many contexts including community mental health, recovery, special schools and hospitals. For further details see her website, Music Therapy Here
The Mirror Stage
Greg Hynds
Friday 9 March 2018, 6.30pm – 8.30pm
Lacan’s essay on the Mirror Stage is concerned with the formation of our sense of self – the ego – brought about by an identification with an image of ourselves. The resulting sense of self involves an experience of wholeness, mastery, jubilation, narcissism (in the Greek myth Narcissus falls in love with his reflection) and a misrecognition. Greg Hynds provides an introduction to this popular work by Lacan. Greg is based in London and is a founding member of the Earl’s Court Collective.
The Girl in the Mirror
Jessica Woolliscroft
Friday 9 February 2018, 6.30pm – 8.30pm
Jessica Woolliscroft will talk about trauma focussed psychotherapy in the context of changing physical and mental health diagnoses. Jessica is an EMDR Europe Accredited Consultant in private practice in Sandbach.