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Your Clients - Friday Sessions

Friday 10:20 - 11:20

A1 - Guest Speakers:  Simon Confino & Nicky Forsythe

What clients really think of us: talking cures seen from the other chair

"Although accounts of the theory and practice of counselling are legion, descriptions of counselling by clients are relatively few." So wrote David Howe in his book On being a client, in 1993. Fifteen years later, the same predicament was echoed by Phoebe Lambert in the BACP journal June 2007: "There is very little counselling research focussing directly on the client perspective on counselling."

Last year the BACP commissioned Brainchild UK to address this gap in our knowledge by conducting perhaps the largest qualitative research study of its kind. The research provided a deep and wide-ranging understanding of clients' experiences and wishes. It also gained insight into how to make counselling and psychotherapy more customer friendly.

This will be the first public presentation of the research findings.

Participants attending this session will:

• Understand more about the experience of counselling and therapy from the customer's point of view
• Gain a client perspective on what makes therapy customer friendly
• Gain ideas for improving and developing their practice.

Friday 10:20 - 12:45

A2 - Workshop: Gill Tuckwell & Aileen Alleyne   

Working with Diversity in Counselling: A Strategy for Training

This workshop is aimed at trainers working with counsellors and therapists and will introduce a recently-produced training DVD focusing on aspects of diversity in counselling. The DVD consists of six vignettes of counselling interactions, each presenting a specific theme as a stimulus to explore attitudes and raise awareness of diversity issues. Each vignette is around ten minutes in length - long enough to open up the issues it depicts but short enough to be used as an effective teaching and learning session. Background information about each client together with suggested areas for discussion and additional information are enclosed with the DVD.

The aim of this workshop will be to:

• introduce the DVD ‘Working with Diversity in Counselling' as a teaching tool;
• facilitate discussion on the issues raised in the DVD and on how it may be used;
• share aspects of the process of creating and making the DVD;
• evaluate the response to the DVD.

Friday 14:50 - 17:15

FULLY BOOKED

A3 - Workshop: Simon Confino & Nicky Forsythe

The client's voice:  deepening our understanding

"It is only over the last 30 years or so that the consumer's view has been regularly sought. Even so, the pursuit of these views has never become a major component in the evaluation of counselling and therapeutic practices." (David Howe, 1993)

It is easy, as practitioners, for us to lose touch with the client perspective. Our practice becomes ‘the water we swim in', so we lose sight of how therapy might appear to users. Sometimes, things we do that seem everyday and benign to us can seem strange or even threatening to the client.

This is a chance to re-connect with the perspective of new clients, and to review our practice in the light of it.

Drawing on our own experiences, and on the learnings from Brainchild's research, we will review what it is like to be a new or relatively inexperienced client. We will work experientially with this insight, with the aim of enhancing our customer-friendliness.

Outcomes from the session:

• A deeper understanding of clients' concerns and hopes in therapy
• Insight into the difficulties clients may experience with therapy - especially at the initial stages
• Practical ideas on helping clients through the first stages of therapy: how can we make sure they stick with, and gain most satisfaction from, the process?
• An understanding of how to appropriately adapt your approach to individual clients' needs
• Fresh ideas on how to market yourself

The session will be part presentation format and part syndicate groups

Your Clients - Saturday Sessions

Saturday 09:50 - 12:15

FULLY BOOKED

A4 - Workshop: Simon Confino  & Nicky Forsythe

What clients really want - reinventing counselling and psychotherapy for emotional health

There is a widespread demand for the benefits of counselling and psychotherapy: many people nowadays wish for improved emotional wellbeing and better self-understanding. They also just want to be able to confide in a skilled and wise other.

However, counselling and psychotherapy services can be off-putting because they are associated with mental illness and distress.

How can we address this problem? How can we deliver counselling and psychotherapy so as to be more in tune with the idea of positive emotional health?

This session is about re-considering our service in the light of important client needs.

We welcome anyone with a progressive attitude to the delivery and the expansion of the talking cures.

Saturday 14:20 - 15:20

A5 - Seminar:  Keith Silvester

Lovers, hunters and soul companions: working with our sexual subpersonalities

A popular stereotype of LGBT people is that we engage heavily in casual sex and find it hard to form stable, long-lasting partnerships. It is not so long since gay relationships were referred to by certain politicians as ‘pretend families'. The advent of civil partnerships and easier adoption has certainly done much to change this view. Yet, LGBT people have always been in the forefront of pioneering different patterns of sexual relationship, where long-term sexual monogamy is not the only successful life choice. There is a recognition that the different sexual parts of us, or subpersonalities, each have validity and the need for expression. Although this can create complications for stable partnerships, it can also help them survive better and more honestly. This seminar will look at three of these subpersonalities and explore the implications for healthy relating and client work.

This session is suitable for experienced and less experienced counsellors and will involve some reflective work and group discussion.

Saturday 14:20 - 16:45

FULLY BOOKED

A6 - Workshop:  Michael Soth

Enactment as the central concept of relational therapy

Following on from BACP 2006 conference theme "It's the relationship that matters", it is commonplace these days that all counsellors and therapists do indeed 'relate' to their clients and that therapy is indeed a 'relationship'. This simple given can be interpreted through the lens of almost every approach without any modification of its traditional assumptions. A common one-sided notion of 'the relationship' understands it as an empathic, nurturing or re-parenting one. These are of course essential features, but they are not the whole picture. Most difficulties that arise in counsellors' actual therapeutic relationships, and the clinical impasses they get into, require the notion of 'enactment' in order to gain some understanding of the dangers, breakdowns and counter-therapeutic dynamics.
In simple terms: enactment means the replication or repetition of the client's negative patterns in and through counselling, often via the counsellor's well-intentioned interventions. There is a strong tendency in all counselling, regardless of approach, for this to occur, but enactment has not found sufficient attention in our theory or practice. How to recognise and handle enactment will be the crucial feature of relationally-based counselling that gives it the edge over CBT. I will use roleplay to help us recognise enactment in practice and explore a holistic notion of enactment by attending to it as a body mind process.

This session will include

• recognising the client's relational patterns, scripts or schemata
• recognising the client's perception of the therapeutic relationship through their relational pattern
• understanding the client's conflict: habitual mode versus ‘emergency'
• the ebb and flow of the working alliance: three kinds of contact in the therapeutic relationship
• the client's conflict becomes the counsellor's conflict: recognising enactment
• enactment as a bodymind process

Developing Your Toolbox - Friday Sessions

Friday 10:20 - 11:20

FULLY BOOKED

B1 - Seminar:  Gladeana McMahon  & Patrizia Collard

When Einstein Met the Buddha.  Mindfulness Based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT) and its Therapeutic Value

Mindfulness Based Cognitive Therapy is a powerful new development synthesizing what at first appear to be diametrically opposed philosophies (that of Cognitive-Behavioural Therapy and Buddhism). MBCT improves personal awareness, reduces stress, creates a sense of wellbeing and increases personal fulfilment. It is now being used successfully in dealing with Depression, Anxiety, Eating Disorders and Stress Management as well as in general therapeutic practice.

Friday 11:45 - 12:45

B2 - Guest Speaker: Julia Buckroyd

Eating disorders and disordered eating: underlying issues informing a generic approach

Recent research has suggested that diagnosis of patterns of eating behaviour into discrete 'eating disorders' may be both unreliable and relatively unhelpful. Most treatment currently available is directed at alteration of the eating behaviour without consideration of its meaning or purpose. Although recent developments in CBT have improved recovery figures, there is widespread agreement that further research and understanding is needed to address these troublesome conditions.

This presentation looks at research over the past 15 to 20 years and examines how there is now a substantial body of evidence suggesting that there are large commonalities across the spectrum of disordered eating. These are a history of poor attachment and/or trauma; a difficulty in developing an emotional language which implies a difficulty in reflecting upon experience; poor self esteem and body esteem which inhibit change; a mistrust of relationships which re-inforces the emotional use of food and inhibits the use of other people for emotional management.

This research strongly supports the counsellor in attending to these issues in therapy and in modifying therapeutic technique to take account of their implications.

Friday 10:20 - 12:45

FULLY BOOKED

B3 - Workshop: Phil Mollon

Psychoanalytic Energy Psychotherapy - inspired by Thought Field Therapy.

A workshop demonstration exploring the fascinating and profound discoveries regarding the energy system at the interface of the mind and body. By focussing therapeutic interventions at this level, rapid and deep shifts in dysfunctional patterns can be brought about easily. The workshop will address the following points:

• Why talking therapies (which address only the psyche) are often ineffective.
• How to enable the body to inform the therapeutic process.
• Rapid dispelling of emotional distress through simple energy interventions.
• Why energy psychology is often the safest approach for trauma.
• How to integrate energy psychology with conventional psychotherapy.
• The extensive research on energy psychology.

Friday 14:50 - 15:50

B4 - Guest Speaker: Sian Morgan

EMDR: Unlocking and unblocking the ties which bind us

Dr Francine Shapiro discovered the powerful effect of eye movements in 1986. She went on to research and develop a psychotherapeutic approach called EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitisation and Reprocessing), now widely acknowledged as a highly effective treatment for PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder). EMDR was validated in 2005 by NICE as a preferred treatment for PTSD. Although EMDR is best known as a treatment for trauma, it is also extremely effective as a tool in treating numerous presenting psychological problems, including phobias, anxiety based disorders and low self esteem.

This seminar will introduce participants to EMDR and its theoretical model of Adaptive Information Processing (AIP). This posits that all humans have a physiologically-based information processing system which has a natural tendency towards adaptive resolution and healthy psychological functioning. The effect of bilateral stimulation on memory networks in the brain and body through eye movements and other sensory modalities facilitate this process, where memories have been dysfunctionally stored due to trauma or cognitive immaturity. This enables the client to reprocess past traumatic or ‘touchstone' memories which have led to the establishment of unhelpful beliefs and responses which cause them distress or difficulty in their present functioning. AIP is informed by the field of neuro-psychology, which is increasingly developing our understanding of how we store and process memories.

With more than 6,000 mental health professionals now trained in EMDR in the UK and thousands more worldwide, it is becoming an important tool in the modern therapist's toolkit. It assists the client and therapist in unlocking and unblocking the ties which bind our present to the past. As such, it can be integrated into most therapeutic approaches and is at the cutting edge of change in the way we practice psychotherapy.

Through case studies and video presentations, participants will gain an insight into how EMDR can be integrated into their own therapeutic practice to enhance their skills as mental health practitioners.

Friday 16:15 - 17:15

B5 - Guest Speaker: Gladeana McMahon

Understanding coaching and its place as a means of self-enhancement

A number of therapists are also Life, Executive or Specialist Coaches, and there is a growing interest in the discipline of coaching amongst the therapeutic community. This workshop will provide an overview of coaching and consider the differences between coaching and counselling.

Friday 14:50 - 17:15

B6 - Workshop: Kaye Richards , Jenny Peel  & Barbara Smith

Outdoor Adventure Therapy: Why, what and how?

Over recent years outdoor adventure programmes have established an increasingly strong reputation as an effective form of treatment for a range of psychological problems. This form of psychotherapeutic intervention is commonly termed ‘adventure therapy', however, other terms are often associated with practice in this area, including outdoor therapy, nature therapy and ecotherapy.

This workshop will examine the general therapeutic principles and practical ways of working therapeutically outdoors and of using adventure experiences to create psychological benefits - it will explain how and why outdoor adventure therapy can be effective. Coming from the position that therapists can work alongside qualified outdoor leaders to create ethical ‘outdoor adventure therapy' practice, this workshop aims to introduce therapists and counsellors to the effective outdoor elements which lie beyond words; where mountains speak for themselves; where the logic of consequences is clearly spoken by nature and the elements; and where the use of fear and the choice to step beyond normal comfort zones quickly brings about changes that are lived, embodied and unforgettable.

Based on experience of researching, teaching and developing outdoor adventure therapy practice, the aim is to introduce experienced and trainee counsellors and psychotherapists from all modalities to the extraordinary therapeutic power of working in an outdoor environment. Participants will be invited to take part in safe, exploratory and experiential activities in which they can reflect for themselves on the seemingly simple, and yet complex, and unforgettable impact that outdoor adventurous activities can have on personal growth. The workshop will conclude with a consideration of how the counselling and psychotherapy community in the UK can continue to develop ethical practice in this unique application of psychological therapy.

Developing Your Toolbox - Saturday Sessions

Saturday 09:50 - 10:50

B7 - Guest Speakers: Pamela Woodford  & Maarit Brooks

An introduction to the human givens approach

As this is an introduction to "The Human Givens Approach" in counselling and psychotherapy, it is suitable for all levels of delegates with an open mind.

"Nothing is as powerful as an idea whose time has come" Emile Chartier

THE HG ORGANISING IDEA

What are the human givens and our innate resources?
Followed by a short exercise of an emotional needs audit (ENA)

THINKING CLEARLY

The autonomic nervous system: sympathetic and parasympathetic; medical perspective and emotional benefits.
THE IMPORTANCE OF STIMULATING THE RELAXATION RESPONSE
Short exercise

A FRESH LOOK AT THE BRAIN IN SOCIETY

Anxiety; Addictions; Depression; Post Traumatic Stress Disorder

OPEN DISCUSSION AND QUESTIONS

Saturday 09:50 - 12:15

FULLY BOOKED

B8 - Workshop: Maria Gilbert

The challenge of CBT - is it possible to integrate CBT into our existing models of practice?

This session will look at the challenge of integrating CBT into existing models of practice
Questions that will be addressed to the audience include:

• How feasible do practitioners consider this process?
• What is the attitude of clinicians from differing modalities?
• How does the underlying philosophical stance of CBT fit with your own philosophy of practice?

There will be brief comparative input on classical CBT, on Schema-focused CBT and on Positive Psychology and their possible contribution to an integrated model of practice.

Participants will be involved in small group discussions involving case examples and experiences from their own practice. Participants will be encouraged to reflect on the interface between their own philosophy of practice and that of the CBT model. We will also reflect on the use of CBT with diverse groups of clients.

This workshop is aimed at practitioners at all levels who are currently engaging with this challenge of integrating CBT into their practice or who are in the process of contemplating it.

Saturday 14:20 - 15:20

B9 - Guest Speaker: Chris Purnell

Working with attachment in psychotherapeutic practice

• An overview of styles of attachment (dynamic-maturational model)
• How styles of attachment may manifest as part of a psychotherapeutic relationship.
• Formulating approaches to treatment based upon clients' styles of attachment.
• Some clinical material will be used as part of the presentation

Saturday 14:20 - 15:20

B10 - Guest Speaker: Kym Winter

Shifting boundaries, second lives and virtual selves

How does our increasing and ubiquitous engagement with technology and on- line relationships through such forums as MSN, on-line games, virtual worlds and social networks such as MySpace, Bebo and Facebook both influence and reflect the shifting nature of relationships in contemporary society? When considered in the context of a societal shift towards complex, blended family units, this talk explores the implications for an emerging technology-savvy generation familiar with shifting, fluid and multiple significant relationships both - ‘virtual' and ‘actual' - as the new norm. In addition, it discusses what the implications may be for the way in which we as counsellors and therapists practise with this new generation, and how we might need to both revisit and revise more traditional attachment theories when working with this next generation.

This presentation is suitable for both student and experienced practitioners and does not require any particular familiarity with computing technologies or forums - just a curiosity about them.

Saturday 15:45 - 16:45

B11 - Guest Speaker: Maggie Turp

Encountering self-harm in counselling and psychotherapy practice

We will begin by looking at DVD clips and extracts from service user testimony, taking time to think together about what individuals say about their self-harming behaviour, the meanings it holds for them and the functions it serves.
Moving to the clinical realm, I will present case study material that illuminates the multifaceted nature of self-harming behaviour, highlighting in particular the neglected area of ‘self-harm by omission', where serious harm arises from a failure to act rather than from an action. I will outline how these clinical phenomena might lend themselves to being understood in terms of psychodynamic theory concerning skin containment and psychic skin functioning.
The session will conclude with a presentation of some ideas from neuroscience on self-regulation and interactive regulation and a brief exploration of denial of dependency as an obstructive factor in clinical work with patients who self-harm.

This session will explore:

• symptoms and causes of symptoms: the function of self-harming behaviour for the patient
• relationship between self-harm by commission (active self-directed violent acts), self-harm by omission (harm resulting from striking failures to ‘take care') and ‘cashas' (culturally accepted self-harming acts/activities)
• dependency issues in clinical work with patients who self-harm
• value of working with the whole person, attending to all aspects of his or her self-harm and self-care.

Saturday 15:45 - 16:45

B12 - Master class: Pamela Gawler-Wright

NLP as a profound, integrative psychotherapeutic model and experience

In this brief introduction to the often misunderstood model of NLP, Pam Gawler-Wright will demonstrate a basic Neuro-Linguistic process that everyone will be able to try and integrate into ways they work currently. Although breath-takingly simple, this process will be located in case histories of profound healing in conditions ranging from performance anxiety to attachment deficit, compulsive obsessive patterns and recovery from addiction and eating disorders. Through this process participants can experience NLP as a model which, in the hands of the skilled and ethical psychotherapist, can

• Invite your client to take up ownership of their emotional processing to enable new responses
• Enable your client's self-efficacy in areas of fear and avoidance
• Organically facilitate the client's innate self-balancing resources
• Create client confidence in the efficacy of therapy and the possibility for beneficial change
• Integrate new practices with your existing models and experience

For trainees as well as experienced psychotherapists.

Saturday 14:20 - 16:45

FULLY BOOKED

B13 - Workshop: Mick Cooper  & John McLeod

Maximising client and therapist resourcefulness: an introduction to a pluralistic framework for counselling and psychotherapy

There is an increasing acknowledgement, across the field of counselling and psychotherapy, that no single model of therapy provides all the answers. Many counsellors and psychotherapists describe themselves as integrationist, combining different ways of working from different therapeutic orientations. However, there are few guidelines available regarding how best to combine ideas and methods, in the interest of the client. A pluralistic framework for counselling and psychotherapy practice is currently being developed by a consortium of researchers and practitioners at the Universities of Abertay, Strathclyde and Aberdeen, which specifies a set of strategies for disparate therapeutic practices and theories, in a way that maximises the client's involvement in the therapy process. This workshop provides an introduction to these ideas, and will focus on:

• providing an outline of a pluralistic framework for practice
• constructing a therapy ‘menu' that can be offered to clients
• facilitating collaborative conversations that enhance client resourcefulness.

The workshop will consist of lecture inputs, experiential work, and discussion of case material. Further information about the pluralistic framework can be found in: Cooper, M. and McLeod, J. (2007) A pluralistic framework for counselling and psychotherapy: Implications for research. Counselling and Psychotherapy Research 7(3), 135-143.

Your Settings - Friday Sessions

Friday 10:20 - 11:20

C1 - Seminar: Peter Jones

Counselling in prisons, vision and future direction

This seminar will:

• Explore a vision and future direction for counselling in prisons.
• Explore some of the ethical issues of working therapeutically in the custodial setting.
• Explore the work of the counselling in prisons' network, its aims, objectives and rationale.
• Explore the five-year strategy for counselling in prisons.

This session is suitable for qualified and experienced counsellors.

Friday 10:20 - 11:20

C2 - Guest Speakers: Annie Blackburn  & Vicky Groves

The cardiff model - a university solution for managed counselling care

Student Counselling Services in higher education are rarely able to meet client demand using traditional approaches and this potentially raises value for money questions. The presenters investigated models of service delivery that could deliver high quality counselling within available resources at Cardiff University. They examine some of the difficulties of managing change within an established service and describe an innovative model that has reduced waiting times, provided equality of access and is popular with service users. The use of outcome measures and data from web based survey tools provides a platform for research and assessment and further development of ‘the Cardiff Model'.

• Getting clear about the primary task of counselling services in universities and colleges
• A university counselling service delivery model where waiting lists are a thing of the past
• Is one session enough for some clients?
• The challenge of establishing a therapeutic alliance in 90 minutes!

Some understanding of models of counselling and experience of delivering counselling services is required to gain the most from this session.

Friday 11:45 - 12:45

C3 - Seminar: Karen Cromarty

A contemporary overview of counselling in schools across the UK and consideration of its future: with particular reference to the Welsh Assembly Government's Counselling in Schools' Strategy, and its implications for schools' counselling in Wales and the other home nations.

In this seminar delegates have the opportunity to:

• critically reflect upon the current situation regarding counselling in schools across the UK
• understand the Welsh Assembly's development of a national counselling in schools' strategy
• consider the results of a BACP led six month research study into counselling in schools
• consider the future of counselling in schools alongside other helping strategies.

Friday 11:45-12:45  

C9 - Guest Speaker: Dave Richards

Stepped Care: Challenge or Opportunity

This guest lecture will present the latest data on stepped care gathered in five primary care mental health services throughout the UK. Using advanced operational modelling techniques, the data illustrates how patient pathways must be carefully designed to ensure services are efficient whilst remaining effective, patient-centred, equitable and accessible. A critical analysis of different stepped care models using stratified and stepped systems will be presented to illustrate the pressure points and system design decisions required to balance these potentially competing objectives. The consequences for counsellors and psychotherapists will be explored as the brave new world of psychological therapies expansion dawns. The lecture will be of interest to anyone concerned with the future of talking therapies.

Friday 14:50 - 15:50

C4 - Seminar: Norma Gould

Whose service is it anyway? Extending the role of counselling in school

This session is aimed at anyone who is interested in working with young people in the context of schools. Some understanding of adolescent development would be helpful.

This session aims to:

• examine the particular challenges and benefits for counsellors working in schools
• explore the conflict experienced by the counsellor - do you stay with the inner feeling world of the client and inside the consulting room or do you communicate with and work towards creating an external environment that can sustain and support them?
• reflect on the impact that counselling and counsellors can have on the wider community of the school.

Friday 16:15 - 17:15

C5 - Guest Speaker: Kevin Friery

Employee assistance programmes: the happy marriage of commerce and counselling

As access to counselling becomes more widespread, it is important to notice that a significant proportion of counsellors in the UK are engaged in EAP counselling, and some derive their entire income from this arena.

Traditionally there has been a tension between the delivery of counselling and the business framework within which EAP organisations operate. In this session, Kevin Friery will argue that this is an unnecessary and unwelcome split, and that we need to take a closer look at the context and significance of the therapeutic work of EAP counsellors whilst also acknowledging and understanding the needs of all stakeholders in the process, and that includes embracing the commercial realities.

The takeaways from the session will be:

• a clearer understanding of the world of Employee Assistance Programmes, and the evidence base for their work.
• an appreciation of the significance and context of money and commerce in this sphere of counselling.
• an introduction to the various stakeholders and exploration of how their needs can be met, including considerations of the diversity of the modern workforce.
• an improved view of EAP Counselling as an essential and welcome component of the counselling profession.

This session is aimed at a broad audience because it examines a wide range of perspectives - from supervision to confidentiality, career development to clinical practice. It does not set out to explore therapeutic methodology at a deep level.

Your Settings - Saturday Sessions

Saturday 09:50 - 10:50

C6 - Seminar: Keith Silvester

Psychosynthesis: spiritual and transpersonal perspectives in counselling and therapy practice

The process of psychological and emotional development and growth may be regarded as part of the overall ‘journey of the soul'. Questions such as: the healing of trauma, approaching crises of meaning, and resolving moral and aesthetic concerns about how to live and relate are recognised as profoundly spiritual in nature - not just psychological. Psychosynthesis, originated by Roberto Assagioli, was one of the first mainstream ‘depth' therapeutic traditions to acknowledge this connection explicitly. In psychosynthesis work, each client is regarded ‘bi-focally' - in other words, not just from the standpoint of ego development and the personality, but within a wider transpersonal context. This seminar will introduce and develop some key ideas, models and practices which are central to psychosynthesis and the transpersonal. It will also look at the ways psychosynthesis is applicable to contemporary social and world problems.

This session is suitable for experienced and less experienced counsellors and will involve some reflective exercises and group discussion.

Saturday 11:15 - 12:15

C7 - Guest Speaker: Michael Soth

Embracing the paradigm clash between the 'medical model' and counselling

With the Government's policy of ‘Improving Access to Psychological Therapies' programme being heavily biased towards CBT, counselling is under severe pressure to fit in with ‘medical model' thinking. Over the last few months there has been intense discussion in ‘therapy today' both for and against the ‘medical model'. How can we find a position that is true to the essence of our work without excluding ourselves from the socially dominant paradigm and discourse?

Based on the experience of many counsellors working within the NHS, this guest lecture tries to validate and make sense of the paradigm clash counsellors may feel within themselves and with their colleagues.

Rather than polarising against the ‘medical model', however, I suggest that we might approach the paradigm clash as we would do any split and polarisation in the psyche: we can empathise, resonate, understand both sides of the inherent conflict and therefore facilitate and allow it to develop rather than foreclose it and short-circuit it intellectually. Thus we can find a third position (which is not static) to hold and embrace the tension of the polarities. This third position can then become a tuning fork that resonates with equivalent conflicts in our clients or our organisations. To do this, we need to find each polarity (or ideology) within ourselves and our work, and see it as a belief system that belongs to and grows out of a particular emotional context. In this way, what appear to be irreconcilable philosophical positions can exist and learn from each other as different and diverse human experiences.

This session will include:

• The ‘medical model' within our own practice: the client brings the ‘medical model' into the consulting room through their preconceptions of counseling.
• The psychological and developmental roots of our attachment to the ‘medical model'.
• The ‘medical model' versus the ‘anti-medical model'.
• How to find a paradoxical ‘third position'.
• How to work from a ‘third position' in practice and with colleagues.

Saturday 11:15 - 12:15

C8 - Guest Speaker:   Dave Berger

"Student days .... Salad Days?" Counselling in Further and Higher Education settings.

• Student issues, common problems and effective approaches
• Key differences between Further and Higher Education settings (and statutory vs post -16 education)
• Institutional dynamics and their effect on counselling in such settings - trials and tribulations!
• Who should fund student counselling? - The institution (HEFCE/LSC) or the NHS?

This lecture will be of interest to any counsellor, or potential counsellor, to parents of students and to current students. In fact anyone who is keen to know more about counselling students in either/both Further (post - 16) and Higher Education.

The principal requirement is an interest in, rather than specific previous knowledge of this area of work in the counselling field. There will be room for questions during and at the end of the session, and Dave will be available afterwards to discuss any isssues that may arise in more detail.

C9 - Guest Speaker: Dave Richards

Please note this session has now moved to Friday 17 October 11:45-12:45

Stepped care:  challenge or opportunity

This guest lecture will present the latest data on stepped care gathered in five primary care mental health services throughout the UK. Using advanced operational modelling techniques, the data illustrates how patient pathways must be carefully designed to ensure services are efficient whilst remaining effective, patient-centred, equitable and accessible. A critical analysis of different stepped care models using stratified and stepped systems will be presented to illustrate the pressure points and system design decisions required to balance these potentially competing objectives. The consequences for counsellors and psychotherapists will be explored as the brave new world of psychological therapies expansion dawns. The lecture will be of interest to anyone concerned with the future of talking therapies.

Saturday 15:45 - 16:45

C10 - Guest Speaker: Richard Curen

Counselling and Psychotherapy services in the voluntary sector: some thoughts from the sexual abuse and learning disability fields

In this session participants will:

• hear about some of the challenges facing voluntary sector counselling and psychotherapy services
• gain an understanding of some of the issues inherent in providing counselling and psychotherapy for people with learning disabilities
• gain an understanding of some of the issues inherent in providing counselling and psychotherapy for people who have experienced sexual violence and abuse
• have an opportunity to hear about and ask questions relating to future developments in voluntary sector counselling service provision

This session is suitable for all levels.

Your Changing Profession - Friday Sessions

Friday 10:20 - 11:20

D1 - Guest Speaker:  Sally Aldridge

Regulation - where are we now?

This presentation will:

• Give an overview of recent developments in the statutory regulation of counselling and psychotherapy
• Look at BACP's work in this area
• Consider the process of regulation and discuss a possible timetable for this
• Aim to answer delegates' questions about regulation

This session is suitable for all levels of knowledge/experience

Friday 11:45 - 12:45

D2 - Guest Speakers:  Alan Cohen  & John Hague

Improving Access to Psychological Therapies: from provision to commissioning

• The IAPT programme - overview
• The IAPT programme - what it means for primary care
• The links between physical health and mental health
• Commissioning IAPT through Practice Based Commissioning

This session is suitable for all levels.  A little knowledge of what IAP and PbC are would be useful but is not essential.

Friday 14:50 -15:50

D3 - Guest Speaker:  Nikki Hale

Skills for Health's National Occupational Standards project - an update

This session will cover:

• The remit of the Psychological Therapies project
• Progress to date
• Next steps

For further details of the project please click here

Friday - 16:15 - 17:15

D4 - Guest Speaker:  Tony Roth

How competency frameworks boost therapeutic effectiveness

There is increasing interest in developing competence frameworks for psychological therapies. If designed appropriately these have several uses - as an aid to training and to supervision, and as a way of helping therapists in routine settings think more clearly about the therapy they are delivering. This session will describe how these frameworks are being developed and applied.

This session is suitable for experienced practitioners.

Your Changing Profession - Saturday Sessions

Saturday 09:50 - 10:50

D5 - Guest Speaker:  Diane Waller

Counselling and psychotherapy: becoming regulated professions

This lecture will cover:

• The experience and process of regulation with particular reference to the arts therapies experience;
• Issues that arise when some aspects of professional body work get passed to the regulator, eg fitness to practise and approval of training;
• What the likely impact is on the professions of psychotherapy and counselling and BACP in particular.

This session will include plenty of opportunity for questions and discussion.

This lecture is suitable for all except those who are very familiar with the processes of statutory regulation.

Saturday 11:15 - 12:15

D6 - Guest Speakers:  Jeremy Clarke  & Sally Aldridge

Who's afraid of New Ways of Working? Psychiatrists do it, Psychologists do it - so let's do it

• What do career frameworks look like for psychological therapists?
• What specialist skills and competencies do people need?
• How will working in multi disciplinary teams deliver benefits to clients?
• What are the supply and demand drivers?

This session relates to working within the NHS only and is suitable for all levels of knowledge and experience.

Saturday 14:20 - 15:20

D7 - Guest Speakers:  Rebecca Mann &   Christina Docchar

Setting standards for the profession of counselling and psychotherapy

Setting Standards for Supervision Training.

Supervision is gaining a higher profile thanks to different governmental initiatives. This session will update members on developments which are likely to have an impact on future BACP strategy for supervision and propose uses for the supervision mapping exercise carried out by BACP.

Consistency in counselling/psychotherapy training courses.

BACP produces a map of all counselling/psychotherapy training courses to identify any trends within the field. As a consequence of this we have recognised the disparate nature of training and commissioned the development of a core curriculum for counselling/psychotherapy training courses. The core curriculum will give training providers a basis for their courses. It contains elements which BACP believes should be present in all courses that are equipping their trainees to work as counsellors/psychotherapists. Course setters are then able to adapt this to their own theoretical perspectives or settings. This session will look at the nature of counselling/psychotherapy training as it is currently and consider the development of a core curriculum in more detail.

This session is suitable for all and will take the format of a presentation with time for questions.

Your Professional Practice - Friday Sessions

Friday 11:45 - 12:45

E1 - Guest Speaker:  Tim Bond

Walking the tightrope - managing the challenges of confidentiality and record-keeping

This lecture will consider some core questions about the application of
current law to practice, including:

• How confidential is therapy in law?
• Is there an obligation to keep records?
• What is a legally adequate record?
• What are the therapist's basic responsibilities to the client?

This session is suitable for all levels of knowledge and experience.

Friday 16:15 - 17:15

E2 - Ethical Helpdesk session:  Facilitated by members of the Information Services Ethics Helpdesk

Do you have some concerns about ethical practice?

Members of the Information Service Ethics Helpdesk will facilitate an ethics group for an hour to discuss your practice dilemmas and perhaps offer some helpful perspectives on your ethical issues.

The Ethics Helpdesk has been in existence for more than six years and the team receives regular supervision and training from Alan Jamieson and John Eatock, both well known and very experienced practitioners. Although we cannot offer advice, we try to be an objective sounding board to help explore any options and information that may be helpful with your dilemma.

Friday 14:50 -17:15

FULLY BOOKED

E3 - Workshop: Tim Bond  & Barbara Mitchels

Walking the tightrope - questions and dilemmas in confidentiality and record-keeping

This workshop will cover:

• creating and maintaining best practice
• troubleshooting
• dealing with participants' concerns in confidentiality and record keeping.

This session is suitable for all levels of knowledge and experience.

Your Professional Practice - Saturday Sessions

Saturday 09:50 - 10:50

E4 - Guest Speaker:  Nick Houghton  plus panel

So you don't think you're at risk?

• Towergate Professional Risks has over 35,000 talking therapists as customers
• Over the last 3 years they have managed claims payments and outstanding reserves totalling £2,500,000
• Claims are on the increase and Towergate is conducting research into the common causes of claims and would like to share their expertise with BACP members to help protect themselves now and in the future
• Towergate is also exploring joint research opportunities with BACP into claims for misconduct matters
• Nick will be joined by his claims team - including their specialist lawyers used to defend customers

This session is suitable for all levels of knowledge and experience.

Saturday 14:20 - 16:45

E5 - Workshop: Maria Gilbert

A challenge for the supervisor: stalemates in the supervisory alliance.

We will explore the concept of impasses or stalemates in the supervisory alliance and reflect on how these are co-created by both partners in the alliance, the supervisor and the supervisee. We will reflect on the concept of the relational unconscious and the emergence of enactments in therapy and supervision that arise outside of conscious awareness and how these processes may be addressed in therapy and supervision. The discussion of the relational unconscious will include the presence of the cultural and racial unconscious assumptions in the relationship.

This material will be related to supervisory and clinical examples emerging from the group.

This workshop is aimed at experienced practitioners, and beginning and experienced supervisors.

Your Professional Body - Friday Sessions

Friday 10:20 -11:20

F1 - Meeting:  Chaired by Gabrielle Syme

Fellows Meeting - This session is for BACP Fellows only

The aim of this meeting is enable the new Fellows to be introduced to the Fellows Forum. The main focus of the meeting is to discuss subjects related to counselling and BACP which are of interest and concern to the Fellows.

Friday 11:45 - 12:45

F2 - Simulated Board Meeting:  Members of the BACP Board of Governors

BACP's Board of Governors - how does it work?

Have you ever wondered what actually happens at Board of Governors' meetings? Have you thought about putting yourself forward for election to the Board? Why not come along and join in this simulated Board meeting to see what happens, gain some insight into how the Board operates and get a flavour of the skills necessary to be a Governor.

Friday 14:50 - 15:50

F3 - Panel Discussion:  Led by Helen Coles

Preparing for accreditation

Professional Standard's function is to meet the evolving needs of the profession of counselling/psychotherapy, by developing and promoting accreditation as a benchmark for the highest standards of training and practice in the UK.

The Professional Standards Department administers four accreditation schemes and the UKRCP (United Kingdom Register of Counsellors)

• Counsellor/Psychotherapist Accreditation
• Supervisor Accreditation
• Course Accreditation
• Service Accreditation Scheme.

Our goal in the run up to statutory regulation is to prepare as many BACP members as possible to enter the HPC Statutory Register when it opens.

Accreditation is an important step in preparing for regulation as it is likely that accredited counsellor/psychotherapy practitioners will have direct entry onto the HPC register.

This panel discussion provides an opportunity to have your accreditation queries answered by an expert panel from Professional Standards. In order to get the best out of this session please submit your questions in advance. A coupon will be provided in your joining instructions and a post box available on-site.

Your Professional Body - Saturday Sessions

Saturday 11:15 - 12:15

F4 - Members of the BACP Board of Governors 

What's BACP really up to?

Do take this opportunity to come along and meet members of the Board of Governors and senior members of the executive team in an informal and relaxed setting. Share your thoughts, ideas and questions; ask for information and clarification on anything to do with the Association; find out more about the issues currently facing BACP and its future strategy and direction.

Saturday 09:50 - 12:15

F5 - Workshop: Kate Thompson

A journey to accreditation - a truncated accreditation workshop

The first significant fixed point in one's counselling or psychotherapeutic career is arguably the qualification to practise. The training leading to the award of a diploma or degree which gives us the abilities, skills and confidence to sit in front of a client and enter into the therapeutic process. So the journey begins. We are familiar with theory, we are aware of, and compliant with, the ethical framework. Time passes. We pay due regard to our own professional needs through CPD activities, we are careful to keep ourselves safe by paying attention to our personal development. We accumulate client hours. Gradually we form our own unique approach to the work we undertake with clients. The words ‘experienced practitioner' begin to be used to describe us as a professional.

The BACP Accreditation scheme invites members to celebrate their experience and maturity as a therapist by meeting the Association's practitioner standard, through demonstrating the capacity for independent competent, ethical practice.

This workshop will include:

• an explanation of the accreditation criteria
• tips to help you with your accreditation application
• myths laid to rest
• time for general queries to be answered