Making Connections Belfast 09.07.25 - BACP - British Association for Counselling & Psychotherapy

We’re delighted to welcome back our free in-person Making Connections events.

These regular face to face conferences take place throughout the year and give you the chance to network with other members and our divisional executive members.

Programme

Click on the sessions to find out more. If you are viewing this page on a mobile, rotate your screen to view the programme.

10.00am – 10.30am	Registration
10.30am - 10.50am	Welcome from BACP
10.50am – 11.35am	LGBTQIA+ Affirmative Counselling: A Co-Cultural Perspective, presented by Simon Carmichael
11.35am - 11.45am	Comfort break
11.45am – 12.30pm	The conflict of being: How our own diversity or difference(s) can sometimes alienate us and cannibalise our self-value, presented by Jim Hutton
12.30pm – 1.30pm	Light lunch
1.30pm – 1.50 pm	Local member two-minute platforms
1.50pm – 2.40pm	Connecting together The room will be divided into different areas of interest, for more focused and structured networking. You’ll be encouraged to move around the room and engage with colleagues, volunteers and BACP staff to network, share ideas and meet new people with similar interests. You’ll be able to add a new area of interest if yours isn’t represented.
2.40pm – 3.10pm	Refreshments
3.10pm – 3.55pm	'Comfort without Contact', presented by Isabel Stewart
3.55pm - 4.00pm	Event close

This programme is subject to change.

LGBTQIA+ Affirmative Counselling: A Co-Cultural Perspective

10.50am – 11.35am

This session provides a perspective on barriers to accessing LGBTQIA+ affirmative counselling, using case studies based on experiences of LGBTQIA+ clients and counsellors, models for engaging with some of more nuanced experiences of LGBTQIA+ clients, and practical interventions and behaviours that can make counselling more inclusive for LGBTQIA+ people in Northern Ireland.

The conflict of being:- How our own diversity or difference(s) can sometimes alienate us and cannibalise our self-value

11.45am - 12.30pm

This session aims to

offer further insight, understanding and resourcing around trauma based psychotherapeutic practice, especially as it may co-relate to addiction or other behavioural issues for clients who may feel alienated by society
prompt a broader and deeper understanding of the essence of trauma work, especially as it relates to G&SD and other minority clients, through eclectic psychotherapeutic methodologies
provide and point to further academic and practical learning and resourcing, encouraging further training and understanding around diversity in therapy, for the current and future practitioners in this field.

Jim Hutton

Growing up in a working class neighbourhood in the early 1960’s and surrounded by endemic unemployment, poverty, physical violence and “normalised” alcohol addiction was where Jim earned the “doctorate” in street smartness and growing up fast. Jim's resilience came in wanting to change the world. Firstly through youth work and later, with a more nuanced perspective, through counselling and teaching and for sometime, as a journalist, lecturer and broadcaster. Jim then spent 22 years as an advocate, and literacy teacher with Youthreach, the state agency for second chance education. During this time Jim continued to seek further education in work, including my Dip, in Counselling from the NUI, Maynooth in 1999 and a B.A. (Hons.) in Counselling & Psychotherapy from DBS in 2015. Jim is a fully accredited member of IACP with his own private practice. Jim is current Chair of the IACP’s EDI Committee and a member of the Professional Practice Committee.

'Comfort without Contact'

3.10pm – 3.55pm

Session aims:

define what is trauma and what is addiction?
question why the rise in addictions globally?
interrogate the nature and development of the relationship between trauma and addiction
explore both trauma and addiction through the lens of attachment and what this may mean for prevention and treatment.

Learning outcomes:

understand the importance of safety, context and timing in trauma and in addiction
widen the lens of our current understanding of the relationship between trauma and addiction and why it is an imperative
explore the nature and development of this relationship using attachment theory, using a consilient approach

Isabel Stewart has a background is in psychiatric and general nursing. She's always worked between both disciplines, as the skills were interchangeable.

It was Isabel's experience as a nurse that led to train as an integrative counsellor and consequently as a Sensorimotor psychotherapist.

Whilst working in addictions, she trained in psychological trauma, as she recognized the correlation between both. Isabel's specialist interests are working with trauma, particularly complex trauma and addiction.

Most of Isabel's career has been spent working with trauma, in the statutory addiction fields, at community level and in private practice.

Isabel also, for the past 24 years has taught for the Northern Ireland organization Wave Trauma, developing and delivering trainings to a wide range of people and groups, from a bespoke community level to Degree and Post Graduate levels, nationally and internationally, on trauma and the multitude of related topics.