This unique reading group is now entering its 16th year and is still going strong. We are delighted to be able to offer an opportunity to explore, examine and enjoy the books below. Our presenters have been stimulating and challenging, and have introduced us to new delights or opened up fresh vistas onto pre-loved favourites.

Although many participants have been trainees and practising counsellors or psychotherapists, everyone is welcome to attend. If you are thinking of attending for the first time or have enjoyed one of the previous sessions, why not tell a friend and encourage them to come along too. Please read the book before attending.

All are welcome to attend this event.

Friday 26th February 2021  7-8.30pm
Midwinter Break by Bernard MacLaverty
Led by Jenny Riddell

Please book your ticket for February Reading Group via Eventbrite here.

Friday 12th March 2021 7-8.30pm

In Your Defence: True Stories of Life and Law by Sarah Langford

Led by Rosalind Ramsay

Please book your ticket for March Reading Group via Eventbrite here.

Dr. Ros Ramsay is a consultant psychiatrist and deputy medical director at the South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust.  She is also a Trustee of WPF and a keen reader and member of two book groups.  In Your Defence was one of her recent book club’s choices. The book is written by a qualified barrister who in describing 11 fascinating cases gives a great picture of what goes on in the family and criminal courts and also shares some of the experiences she’s had in working with her clients and getting inside thier stories, prompting reflection on how our legal system works.

Friday 30th April 2021 7-8.30pm
The Silly Thing: Shaping the Story of Life and Death by Esther Ramsay-Jones

Led by Jan McHugh

Please book your ticket for April Reading Group via Eventbrite here.

We are delighted that Esther Ramsay-Jones will be joining us for this group. She is looking forward to taking part in the discussion of her book, as well as answering any questions.

Esther Ramsay-Jones is a palliative psychotherapist, as part of a community hospice team, and in private practice. She has worked for many years in different care settings, where death has, on one level, been part of the everyday experience of the organisation and, on another, has been out of mind and of practice. She lectures on Death, Dying and Bereavement and her book, Holding Time, exploring the relational field in dementia care, emerged from her PhD research.

The Silly Thing: Shaping the Story of Life and Death is the story of her mother’s struggle to live and die with a three x two centimetre glioblastoma. The book considers the possibility of an intimate death and the vital role of palliative care, from a psychotherapeutic angle, and the way that grief can have a profound impact on the coherence of the self.

Before booking please read our Terms and Conditions for CPD events here.

There are opportunities to facilitate reading groups in the 2020/2021 programme, so please e-mail events@wpf.org.uk if you are interested.

This study group will be delivered via Zoom online.

How could Kleinian perspectives help you in your practice? Perhaps you’ve looked at the work of people like Hanna Segal, Wilfred Bion, Betty Joseph, John Steiner and Ron Britton in training. Coming back to these with greater clinical experience allows you to explore what they offer in more depth – to get hold of connections and understand better what goes on in and beyond the consulting room.

This study group is concerned with developments in Kleinian theory and practice over the past seventy years – what has remained central, what has been discarded, what has become better understood and what is contentious today. It is designed to work at different levels, offering food for thought to those unfamiliar with psychoanalytic thinking as well as to those who wish to extend and enrich their understanding and use of Kleinian approaches.

The group has been popular and successful in previous years and is generally fully subscribed. The 2020-2021 course will be entirely online, allowing those who live outside London to take part.

2021 marks the centenary of Melanie Klein’s first psychoanalytic publication, ‘The development of a child’, in which she argued for the liberating effect of responding honestly to children’s questions. Since then, Klein and her associates have played a major role in the development of psychoanalytic thinking and practice. Much that was once considered innovative and controversial in her approach has been taken up by those with reservations about her basic tenets. Lively debate continues among those more sympathetic to Kleinian ways of seeing and working.

It is possible to attend individual sessions, but there is much to be gained by revisiting material that may seem familiar and through involvement in an ongoing process. In previous years there has been a lively dynamism in the group. Members have found a space to share impressions, responses, puzzlement, realisations and insights, with an emphasis on clinical issues.

The readings include earlier and later practitioners, clinical and theoretical considerations. We refer back to Freud and Klein as we consider how thinking and technique have developed, aiming to replicate the analytic cycle of learning and working-through. Detailed notes are provided to help contextualise the readings and support engagement with them.

By participating in this study group, you can expect to gain:

1. A deeper understanding of projective and identificatory processes in work with clients.
2. A broader conception of how internal and external worlds interact and affect each other.
3. Greater clarity about where you stand in relation to key theoretical and ethical issues.
4. An overview of what the Kleinian tradition has contributed to British Object Relations.

There will be a different paper for each session. The programme centres on readings from key figures in the Kleinian tradition – Freud, Segal, Rosenfeld, Bion, Money-Kyrle, Meltzer, Joseph, Steiner, Britton. We will think about the issues raised in the readings in relation to participants’ clinical experiences and dilemmas.

Comments from Previous Participants

• “This once monthly format is really good value, as I have learnt so much more compared to the equivalent amount of hours in an average 2 days CPD course.”
• “I’m finding the papers enriching whilst at the same time challenging as well as questions and views raised by the group.  This is good as its stirring me up out of lazy thinking.  I have found the relevance/benefit of theories has been demonstrated in the group on several occasions and also it’s helping me with often confusing work.”
• “Linking the reading to our clinical work is most valuable.”
• “The things I found most useful and enjoyable were the readings suggested, the session notes sent in advance and the clinical examples in the sessions.”

Course Reading

Detailed reading lists will be sent on booking. WPF gives participants electronic access to texts.

David Smart’s first career was in multi-disciplinary work in mainstream educational and off-site settings with secondary-age pupils experiencing difficulties. He trained with WPF Therapy to practice as a school counsellor and work privately as a psychotherapist with adults. He is committed to collaborative learning and understands development as a life-long, spiral process. Publications include “Play’ in practice in psychotherapy and education’, European Journal of Psychotherapy & Counselling, Volume 10, Issue 2, 2008, pp. 147 – 158 (with L. Gomez).

This course will be relevant to practising counsellors/psychotherapists and trainees engaged in clinical work and to those engaged in academic study in the field. There will be a focus on working with the ideas and issues clinically. Priority will be given to applicants who can attend the whole course.

If you experience any problems during the application process then please contact events@wpf.org.uk.

This study group will be delivered via Zoom online.

How could Kleinian perspectives help you in your practice? Perhaps you’ve looked at the work of people like Hanna Segal, Wilfred Bion, Betty Joseph, John Steiner and Ron Britton in training. Coming back to these with greater clinical experience allows you to explore what they offer in more depth – to get hold of connections and understand better what goes on in and beyond the consulting room.

This study group is concerned with developments in Kleinian theory and practice over the past seventy years – what has remained central, what has been discarded, what has become better understood and what is contentious today. It is designed to work at different levels, offering food for thought to those unfamiliar with psychoanalytic thinking as well as to those who wish to extend and enrich their understanding and use of Kleinian approaches.

The group has been popular and successful in previous years and is generally fully subscribed. The 2020-2021 course will be entirely online, allowing those who live outside London to take part.

2021 marks the centenary of Melanie Klein’s first psychoanalytic publication, ‘The development of a child’, in which she argued for the liberating effect of responding honestly to children’s questions. Since then, Klein and her associates have played a major role in the development of psychoanalytic thinking and practice. Much that was once considered innovative and controversial in her approach has been taken up by those with reservations about her basic tenets. Lively debate continues among those more sympathetic to Kleinian ways of seeing and working.

It is possible to attend individual sessions, but there is much to be gained by revisiting material that may seem familiar and through involvement in an ongoing process. In previous years there has been a lively dynamism in the group. Members have found a space to share impressions, responses, puzzlement, realisations and insights, with an emphasis on clinical issues.

The readings include earlier and later practitioners, clinical and theoretical considerations. We refer back to Freud and Klein as we consider how thinking and technique have developed, aiming to replicate the analytic cycle of learning and working-through. Detailed notes are provided to help contextualise the readings and support engagement with them.

By participating in this study group, you can expect to gain:

1. A deeper understanding of projective and identificatory processes in work with clients.
2. A broader conception of how internal and external worlds interact and affect each other.
3. Greater clarity about where you stand in relation to key theoretical and ethical issues.
4. An overview of what the Kleinian tradition has contributed to British Object Relations.

There will be a different paper for each session. The programme centres on readings from key figures in the Kleinian tradition – Freud, Segal, Rosenfeld, Bion, Money-Kyrle, Meltzer, Joseph, Steiner, Britton. We will think about the issues raised in the readings in relation to participants’ clinical experiences and dilemmas.

Comments from Previous Participants

• “This once monthly format is really good value, as I have learnt so much more compared to the equivalent amount of hours in an average 2 days CPD course.”
• “I’m finding the papers enriching whilst at the same time challenging as well as questions and views raised by the group.  This is good as its stirring me up out of lazy thinking.  I have found the relevance/benefit of theories has been demonstrated in the group on several occasions and also it’s helping me with often confusing work.”
• “Linking the reading to our clinical work is most valuable.”
• “The things I found most useful and enjoyable were the readings suggested, the session notes sent in advance and the clinical examples in the sessions.”

Course Reading

Detailed reading lists will be sent on booking. WPF gives participants electronic access to texts.

David Smart’s first career was in multi-disciplinary work in mainstream educational and off-site settings with secondary-age pupils experiencing difficulties. He trained with WPF Therapy to practice as a school counsellor and work privately as a psychotherapist with adults. He is committed to collaborative learning and understands development as a life-long, spiral process. Publications include “Play’ in practice in psychotherapy and education’, European Journal of Psychotherapy & Counselling, Volume 10, Issue 2, 2008, pp. 147 – 158 (with L. Gomez).

This course will be relevant to practising counsellors/psychotherapists and trainees engaged in clinical work and to those engaged in academic study in the field. There will be a focus on working with the ideas and issues clinically. Priority will be given to applicants who can attend the whole course.

If you experience any problems during the application process then please contactevents@wpf.org.uk.

This workshop will be delivered via Zoom.

If you are interested in WPF Therapy upcoming events, please book your tickets on our Eventbrite page.

During this talk, Jeremy will touch on three main parts: 

1. Remind participants of the ways in which attachment ideas are applicable to our work as psychotherapists: therapy as a potentially threatening experience, especially for those suffering from Borderline conditions; the role of the therapist as Secure Base; and the fostering of mutual exploration or ‘companionable interaction’.
    
2. Describe the ways in which contemporary neuroscience can help understand how, through free association, transference analysis and dream work, psychotherapy helps ‘bind’ the free energy which characterises psychological distress.
3. Turn to the conversations which therapists have with their patients, suggesting that patterns of talk can be understood in attachment terms as reflecting interactive patterns laid down in childhood. Again, Jeremy will point to ways in which attachment-informed therapeutic talk might help redress this. 

Comments from previous participants: 

• “A life enhancing 90 minutes that will stay with me.” 
• “Despite the limitations of remote presentation, the lecturer, subject and participants all managed to have a moving emotional connection.” 
• “Jeremy Holmes eloquence and knowledge delivered this complex theory into a valuable resource that I know will be invaluable in my work as a Psychotherapist.  I urge everyone to attend if they can.” 
• “Anyone who hasn’t had the pleasure and privilege of hearing Jeremy Holmes speak about psychotherapy and in particular attachment theory should grasp the opportunity with both hands!“ 

Lecturer

Professor Jeremy Holmes MD FRCPsych was for 35 years Consultant Psychiatrist/Medical Psychotherapist at University College London (UCL) and then in North Devon, UK, and Chair of the Psychotherapy Faculty of the Royal College of Psychiatrists 1998-2002.  He is visiting Professor at the University of Exeter, and lectures nationally and internationally. In addition to 200+ peer-reviewed papers and chapters in the field of psychoanalysis and attachment theory, his books include John Bowlby and Attachment Theory, (2nd edition 2013),   The Oxford Textbook of Psychotherapy (2005 co-editors Glen Gabbard and Judy Beck),  Exploring In Security: Towards an Attachment-informed Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy (2010, winner of Canadian Goethe Prize) , The Therapeutic Imagination: Using Literature to Deepen Psychodynamic Understanding and Enhance Empathy (2014), Attachment in Therapeutic Practice (2017, with A Slade), and The Brain Has a Mind of its Own: Attachment, Neurobiology and the New Science of Psychotherapy (2020).  He was recipient of the Bowlby-Ainsworth Founders Award 2009.  Gardening, Green politics and grand-parenting are gradually eclipsing his lifetime devotion to psychoanalytic psychotherapy and attachment. 

Chair

Michael Lyons works as a Seminar Leader, Trainee Development Tutor, Supervisor and Senior Clinician at W.P.F.  Previous roles include working in the NHS; Programme Manager and Head of a Counselling Service in an F.E. College.  He works in private practice as a Therapist and Supervisor.  His current research interests include the role of the father in psychopathology and the use of transference in on-line therapy.  He is an Accredited Member of the B.A.C.P.

Target Audience:

This course should be interesting and accessible for anyone interested in psychoanalysis, including qualified counsellors and psychotherapists as well as those in training.  Please note that by booking on this event you agree to keep all discussion confidential.   

Applications must be received by Thursday, 6th May 2021. 

Before booking please read our Terms and Conditions for CPD events here.

If you experience any problems please contact events@wpf.org.uk.

This workshop will be delivered via Zoom.

If you are interested in WPF Therapy upcoming events, please book your tickets on our Eventbrite page.

This is a lecture on bereavement which will focus on two aspects Juliet has written about, death denial and partner loss.  

Given the consequences of the Pandemic 2020-21 – ongoing at the time of writing  - the experience and effects of bereavement are much more widespread than they have ever been.  

Lecture Aims

In this lecture, Juliet will touch on: 

• Talk about two aspects of bereavement: death denial and partner loss. 
• What happens when a refusal to contemplate impending death is colluded in by the terminally ill and those around them.
• Partner loss/the death of a spouse and/or the specific difficulties this brings to the survivor. 

Brief Outline  

This talk will be a newly written paper which will contain anonymised patient material which will be sent out with the clinical elements redacted after the talk.  

Participants are simply asked to think in the run up to the lecture about what grief means to them, have they experienced it first hand, and how they work with it and I would very much like it if participants want to bring clinical (or other) examples.  

Lecturer

Juliet Rosenfeld is a psychotherapist who works in private practice in London. She has a particular interest in bereavement and couples. Juliet is the author of the acclaimed memoir The State Of Disbelief (2020) which uses Freud’s 1917 paper ‘Mourning and Melancholia’ as a backdrop for an examination of the experience of terminal illness and partner loss. She has spoken about bereavement at many venues and trainings, is a Board Member of the UKCP and Clinical Trustee at the Freud Museum London, and is currently writing her second book while contributing articles to national publications.  

Chair

Judith Barac has worked in various settings in a number of roles within the NHS as a psychotherapist.

Target Audience:

This lecture is open to qualified and training psychotherapists and counsellors. Please note that by booking on this event you agree to keep all discussion confidential.   

Applications must be received by Thursday, 17th June 2021. 

Please note that by booking a ticket for this event, you are agreeing to our Terms and Conditions for CPD events, so please read through them carefully before making your purchase.

If you experience any problems please contact events@wpf.org.uk.

This workshop will be delivered via Zoom.

If you are interested in WPF Therapy upcoming events, please book your tickets on our Eventbrite page.

1. What do we mean when we talk about quantum physics? 
2. How does it relate to our work as therapists? 
3. How do we engage with the mysterious world of quantum physics 
4. Can we understand interpretation in the consulting room from the framework of quantum physics? 
5. Would learning about this deepen and enhance my clinical experience? 
6. Science or Art?  What can we learn when we look at the scientific nature of psychotherapy via the prism of quantum physics? 

Workshop Aims

During this lecture you will: 

•  Gain some sense of the nature of quantum physics.
• Be able to think more deeply about the psychotherapeutic dynamic especially the interpretation. 
• Appreciate some surprising parallels between psychotherapy and quantum physics. 
• Consider a major philosophical question that underlies both disciplines. 

Outline 

Stephen will start with a brief introduction to quantum physics followed by a look at Jung’s picture of the psychotherapeutic interaction. 

We will then consider some of the most significant concepts of quantum physics  such  as “the uncertainty principle” “complementarity” “hidden variables” and “entanglement” in relation to the psychotherapeutic process and then finally to “the collapse of the wave function” in its application to the therapist’s interpretations.  

Finally, we will consider the philosophical issue on the very question of the existence and possible nature of an objective reality which is central to both disciplines. Slides will be used and there will be ample time for questions and discussion. 

Lecturer

Stephen Gross is a psychodynamic psychotherapist in private practice of 34 years standing. He left WPF this autumn after 32 years as supervisor and ontology seminar leader. Having throughout this time felt strongly the need to consider psychotherapy in a wider social, cultural and philosophical context. he has published a number of articles, papers and book chapters on these topics and in 2018 his book “Living in Language” was launched at WPF as well as at the Freud Museum. 

His play “Freud’s Night Visitors” was performed too at both of these venues some years before . His particular interests are literature, classical music, philosophy and more recently quantum physics. 

Chair

Judith Barac has worked in various settings in a number of of roles within the nhs as a psychotherapist.

Target Audience:

To people of all ages (including psychotherapists and quantum physicists) with an open and adventurous mind. Please note that by booking on this event you agree to keep all discussion confidential.   

Applications must be received by Thursday, 1st July 2021. 

Please note that by booking a ticket for this event, you are agreeing to our Terms and Conditions for CPD events, so please read through them carefully before making your purchase.

If you experience any problems during the application process then please contact events@wpf.org.uk.

This event will be delivered via Zoom online.

If you are interested in WPF Therapy upcoming events, please check our Eventbrite page.

We know that psychotherapy is ‘effective’, but the ‘dodo bird verdict’ also tells us that with a few exceptions,  no one form of therapy is definitely superior to another, nor does it tell us what it is about therapy that helps.   

In this talk, Jeremy will try to move away from a utilitarian outcomes-oriented approach, and, draw partly on the neo-psychoanalytic ideas of Barnaby Barratt, partly on Jeremy’s own development of the Free Energy Principle, suggesting that psychotherapy is an existential praxis, and an onto-ethical project.  

The background to this is a qualitative study in which Jeremy interviewed people from a wide range of spiritual backgrounds, looking for parallels between spiritual religious journey and the trajectories of psychotherapy.   

Jeremy suggests that while religion provides a spiritual framework for a good life, in our 21st Century milieu psychotherapy has vital contribution to make with its emphasis on the uniqueness of the individual and how to develop narratives which encompass and reflect it. 

Comments from previous participants: 

• “A life enhancing 90 minutes that will stay with me.” 
• “Despite the limitations of remote presentation, the lecturer, subject and participants all managed to have a moving emotional connection.” 
• “Jeremy Holmes eloquence and knowledge delivered this complex theory into a valuable resource that I know will be invaluable in my work as a Psychotherapist.  I urge everyone to attend if they can.” 
• “This lecture has opened my mind to a fresh, deeper understanding of clients in their later years and approaches I can use to work well with them. 

Lecturer

Professor Jeremy Holmes MD FRCPsych was for 35 years Consultant Psychiatrist/Medical Psychotherapist at University College London (UCL) and then in North Devon, UK, and Chair of the Psychotherapy Faculty of the Royal College of Psychiatrists 1998-2002.  He is visiting Professor at the University of Exeter, and lectures nationally and internationally. In addition to 200+ peer-reviewed papers and chapters in the field of psychoanalysis and attachment theory, his books include John Bowlby and Attachment Theory, (2nd edition 2013),   The Oxford Textbook of Psychotherapy (2005 co-editors Glen Gabbard and Judy Beck),  Exploring In Security: Towards an Attachment-informed Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy (2010, winner of Canadian Goethe Prize) , The Therapeutic Imagination: Using Literature to Deepen Psychodynamic Understanding and Enhance Empathy (2014), Attachment in Therapeutic Practice (2017, with A Slade), and The Brain Has a Mind of its Own: Attachment, Neurobiology and the New Science of Psychotherapy (2020).  He was recipient of the Bowlby-Ainsworth Founders Award 2009.  Gardening, Green politics and grand-parenting are gradually eclipsing his lifetime devotion to psychoanalytic psychotherapy and attachment. 

Chair

Target Audience:

This course should be interesting and accessible for anyone interested in psychoanalysis, including qualified counsellors and psychotherapists as well as those in training.  Please note that by booking on this event you agree to keep all discussion confidential.   

Applications must be received by Thursday, 2nd September 2021. 

Please note that by booking a ticket for this event, you are agreeing to our Terms and Conditions for CPD events, so please read through them carefully before making your purchase.

If you experience any problems please contact events@wpf.org.uk.

This event will be delivered via Zoom online.

If you are interested in WPF Therapy upcoming events, please check our Eventbrite page.

This lecture will touch on: 

• Do you want to increase your understanding of the issues facing gender non-conforming & Trans clients?
• How to work therapeutically with a client questioning their gender identity?
• Would you like to learn more about Conversion therapy and why it is harmful and damaging? 

By attending this lecture you can expect: 

1. Have a better understanding of the needs and challenges facing gender non-conforming clients.
2. Have a basic understanding of how to work with gender non-conforming & Trans clients and not assuming gender is the ‘problem’.
3.  Working with young trans clients. 
4. Understanding gender identity and intersectionality. Is gender identity fixed, primal or constructed?

Outline  

The debate on gender identity has become very toxic. The recent High Court ruling on medical treatment, the constant trans-phobic comments in some elements of the media and the debate around conversion therapy have all made working with gender non-conforming and trans clients a minefield for Psychotherapists and Counsellors. This lecture will demystify the issues and provide attendees with some basic tools to work with. 

Lecturer

Michelle Bridgman is an experienced Gestalt Psychotherapist, Hypnotherapist and Keynote Conference Speaker with over twenty-five years of experience in Private Practice and in hospital settings.  

Michelle have been working with adults and young people presenting with Gender Dysphoria for over twenty years and co-authored the ‘Standards of Care’ for professionals working with Gender Dysphoria published in 2017. Recently completed a research project and thesis on “The Role of Psychotherapy in the clinical treatment of Gender Dysphoria” .

Chair

Lynsey Hotchkies, Director of Studies at WPF Therapy.

Target Audience:

This event should be interesting and accessible for anyone interested in psychoanalysis, including qualified counsellors and psychotherapists as well as those in training.  Please note that by booking on this event you agree to keep all discussion confidential.

Applications must be received by Thursday, 23 September 2021.

Please note that by booking a ticket for this event, you are agreeing to our Terms and Conditions for CPD events, so please read through them carefully before making your purchase.

If you experience any problems please contact events@wpf.org.uk.

This event will be delivered via Zoom online.

If you are interested in WPF Therapy upcoming events, please check our Eventbrite page.

• How can we work with the internalised experience of privilege and otherness and of internalised racism, sexism and homophobia, etc. in the consulting room? 
• Are you interested in working with issues of privilege and otherness? 
• How privilege and otherness factors in the therapy room? 
• How does a therapist’s identity impact upon their own privilege? 

This lecture presents the key ideas from Dr Dwight Turner’s new book and it will provide clinical examples of how power appears in therapy with the other. This workshop also encourages participants to explore their own sense of privilege and otherness. 

By attending this lecture you can expect: 

1. To have a greater intellectual understanding of privilege and otherness.
2. To begin to develop a felt unconscious understanding of this for themselves.
3. To begin to demystify these concepts as they are so common.
4. To start developing the skills to better work with difference in practice. 

Outline  

The presentation will be provided using Powerpoint and discussion.  

In Dr Dwight Turner’s latest book Intersections of Privilege and Otherness in Counselling and Psychotherapy (Routledge, 2021), the aim is to actually explore the internalised experience of privilege and otherness and of internalised racism, sexism and homophobia, etc.  The last chapter though, looks at how we can actually work with these internalised experiences, especially through the language of dreams.  Borrowing from Carl Jung’s ideas around free association and active imagination, the dreams explored in chapter five of the book involve an uncovering of these internalised objects and how they play themselves out in the dreamscape, and also this looks at just how devastating some of these internalised symbols can be for the psychology of those persons of colour who endure racism.  The third part to this exploration is actually how through working this often dark, shadowy and destructive material, those persons of otherness, in this case based around race, can actually find themselves on a route towards individuation towards a separation from the internalised impact of white supremacy, colonialism, etc. 

Lecturer

Dr Dwight Turner is Senior Lecturer within the School of Applied Social Sciences at the University of Brighton, lecturing on their PG Dip and MSc courses in Counselling and Psychotherapy, a PhD Supervisor at their Doctoral College, a psychotherapist and supervisor in private practice.   

His latest book Intersections of Privilege and Otherness in Counselling and Psychotherapy was released in February 2021 and is published by Routledge. An activist, writer, and public speaker on issues of race, difference and intersectionality in counselling and psychotherapy.  

Here is an article about Dr Dwight Turner, check it here. 

Target Audience:

This course should be interesting and accessible for anyone interested in the topic, including qualified counsellors and psychotherapists and the general public. This event is open to all.  

Applications must be received by Thursday, 14th October 2021. 

Please note that by booking a ticket for this event, you are agreeing to our Terms and Conditions for CPD events, so please read through them carefully before making your purchase.

If you experience any problems please contact events@wpf.org.uk.

This event will be delivered via Zoom online.

If you are interested in WPF Therapy upcoming events, please check our Eventbrite page.

• What is the sublime and how do we understand it as immanent in our everyday life, a source of energy and inspiration? 
• How can it be invoked to support our mental health and well-being? 
• Are encounters with the sublime loving and caring?  Or can they also be hateful, traumatic, and destructive? 
• How do these encounters with the sublime overflow and destabilise our psychological and social structures by exposing their fictional and constructed nature? 

Notions of the sublime are most often associated with the extraordinary, and include the intrapsychic, high-cultural, and exceptional occurrences of elation and exaltation as part of its experience.  

In this lecture, Dr Gaitanidis will use ordinary encounters and case presentations in order to make a plea that the existing philosophical and psychoanalytical perspectives on the sublime acknowledge their rootedness in the same world that we all engage in our everyday lives. For all their theoretical and clinical refinements, the various philosophical and psychoanalytic explanations of the sublime remain an expression of, and hence must be guided by, the world of our common human experience. 

He will begin by turning to the emergence and development of the notion of the sublime in philosophy and psychoanalysis in order to show how we can take up this legacy and transform it in a manner that could endow us with a particular power and relevance for the personal, interpersonal, therapeutic, cultural and political questions that confront us in the 21st century. By proposing a more ‘grounding’, ‘ordinary’ way of speaking and thinking about the sublime, we hope that we will be able to reinvigorate the sensuous, mysterious, and ‘sacred’ ways we experience our everyday encounters with the world, therapy, and each other. 

This lecture will be an opportunity to substantiate the existing psychoanalytic and aesthetic, theoretical and clinical knowledge of the sublime by placing it within the context of everyday life using examples of it in art, film, theatre, literature as well as in work, education, relationships, and the clinic.  

By attending this lecture you can expect: 

• To restore and revive the world of our ordinary sensorial, interpersonal, therapeutic experiences by introducing the sublime as part of its mysterious, irreducible, and open-ended texture. 
• To be able to use psychoanalytic and aesthetic theories as well as clinical presentations, to revitalise the sublime by re-evaluating its significance for contemporary life and psychotherapy and, in a unique and fascinating endeavour, open a space that will explore the sublime in the ordinary, everyday, and quotidian. 
• Through the exploration of familiar and unfamiliar threads of the sublime experience, to posit the sublime as invoking an ordinary human response which contains minute, inter-psychic, inclusive cultural and clinical elements, and thus carries within it therapeutic and political potential.

Dr Anastasios Gaitanidis is a Relational Psychoanalytic Psychotherapist, Director of Studies, Author, Theory Editor and Supervisor.  In addition to his clinical work as a psychoanalytic therapist, Anastasios held appointments as a Senior Lecturer and provided clinical and research supervision to counselling psychologists and psychotherapists at Regent’s University London and University of Roehampton. He currently holds the position of Director of Studies for the Professional Doctorate in Psychotherapy at Metanoia training Institute.  

Anastasios is the Theory Editor of the European Journal of Psychotherapy and Counselling (EJPC) and an author who published a substantial body of academic work including journal articles and edited books over the years, with a recent book publication entitled The Sublime in Everyday Life: Psychoanalytic and Aesthetic Perspectives. (Routledge: 2020)

Target Audience:

This course should be interesting and accessible for anyone interested in psychoanalysis, including qualified counsellors and psychotherapists as well as those in training.  Please note that by booking on this event you agree to keep all discussion confidential.

This event will be of great interest to psychoanalysts, psychotherapists and art and drama therapists, as well as scholars and students of philosophy, literature, art and popular culture.   

Applications must be received by Thursday, 2nd December 2021. 

Please note that by booking a ticket for this event, you are agreeing to our Terms and Conditions for CPD events, so please read through them carefully before making your purchase.

If you experience any problems please contact events@wpf.org.uk.