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 4th December 2020

A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens 
Led by Stephen Crawford

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

Friday 29th January 2021
Holding Time:  human need and relationships in dementia care by Esther Ramsay-Jones
Led by Jan McHugh

Please book your ticket for January 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 in a hospice setting and in private practice. She worked for many years in frontline care for older people, the memories of which spurred her on to carry out PhD research in this area. Holding Time takes the reader into the care homes of two women living with dementia and the staff who look after them each day, drawing from psychoanalytic observations of the daily micro-interactions between people which either helped or hindered connection.

Esther Ramsay-Jones has been a lecturer in ‘Death, Dying and Bereavement’ at the Open University.  She has presented her work at various locations around the world and her papers have been published in academic journals and anthologies.

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.

Comments from Previous Participants

• “Food for the soul and spirit in so many ways.”
• “Relaxed and enjoyable discussion reflecting on what a classic novel means to therapists. ”
• “ I really enjoyed the discussion in the reading group…”
• “I have learned something of value in each, as well as reading some fantastic novels I probably would never otherwise have read. The group is down to earth and welcoming, with some very experienced therapists taking part in the discussion.”

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 contactevents@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 lecture will be delivered via Zoom.

This lecture is part of WPF Therapy’s 2020-2021 CPD Programme themed around ‘The World We Live In.’

What does it mean to ‘decolonise the curriculum’ and how do we go about it?   

It is clear the tragic killing of George Floyd by the police in Minneapolis, was not a singular event but is part of a long history of police killings and disproportionate deaths of black people in police custody in the USA and Britain. 

The Black Lives Matter movement in the US, UK and globally has responded with an inspiring mass movement, in solidarity with the family of George Floyd and challenging systemic racism across the world. 

The UK is not innocent, and our educational organisations are part of this systemic racism. We must do all we can to resist this and make fundamental changes to eradicate this deep structural racism. These changes should also take place within our curriculum which at the top and within dominant pedagogy, at best, reflects ‘a-historical’, ‘neutral’ and of ‘universal values’. Decolonising the Curriculum movement interrogates the ongoing impact of legacies of slavery, colonisation and imperialism on knowledge production and contextualisation of all knowledge within historical, geographical, cultural frameworks. 

The Decolonising the Arts Curriculum: Perspectives in Higher Education Zines 1 & 2 provided a platform for both students and staff at the University of the Arts London to understand, navigate and provide these frameworks. Rahul Patel co-curated both zines and addresses critical issues at the heart of the decolonising the curriculum within mental health and wellbeing. 

Lecture Aims

By the end of the lecture you will have:  

•  A better conception of decolonising education in the context of mental health and wellbeing.
• A better knowledge of the impact on educational attainment and participation.
• The capacity to conceptually develop and understand key notions, such as multiplicities of knowledge, within primary, secondary and tertiary sectors, of decolonised education.

Rahul Patel is a lecturer on the Post Graduate Certificate in Academic Practice. He also teaches on the MA Culture, Criticism and Curation at Central Saint Martins, University of the Arts London. He is a researcher in contemporary art history and theory. His undergraduate degree was in Graphic and Spatial Communication and post graduate MRes Arts Exhibition Studies at Central Saint Martins. He designs, curates and content develop exhibitions which include, Harry Jacobs, Studio Photographer in 2012 at Morley Gallery, London. The Devils Feast Exhibition, 1987, an exploration into the African-Caribbean, Asian and African Art in Britain Archive that was exhibited at Chelsea College of Art Library in 2015. He co-led on Reading Collections: The African-Caribbean, Asian and African Art in Britain Archive and most recently Decolonising Narratives. 

He co-curated the Decolonising the Arts Curriculum: Perspectives on Higher Education zine1 and 2 with Arts Students Union. He has written a chapter on decolonising in higher education in Tell it like it is: How our schools fail Black Children, edited by Brian Richardson. This will be published soon. 

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, 11th March 2021. Booking will be final after receipt of payment.  

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

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

This workshop will be delivered via Zoom.

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!“ 

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. 

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.

This workshop is part of WPF Therapy’s 2020-2021 CPD Programme themed around ‘The World We Live In.’

This lecture will not be recorded due to the confidentiality of the clinical material.

The Unconscious is the fundamental and foundational concept of psychoanalysis – but how are we to listen out for it today? Does it have meaning or utility for talking therapists beyond the imprecise metaphors often employed to describe it? This talk charts the genesis of the concept of the unconscious from Freud to Lacan – a theoretical leap that illuminates much of 20th century thought. 

How does the therapist/analyst negotiate the difficult melding of theory and practice that is the reality of the clinic? What conceptual tools can help us to listen out for what is singular in a client’s speech while resisting the defensive compulsion to impose our own understanding onto what is said?  

The talk will be an introduction to theory often viewed as ‘notoriously difficult’. No doubt there is some truth in this characterisation – however, it does not have to be like that. Lacanian structural diagnostics and the famous theory of the ‘unconscious structured like a language’ are ideas that can be made clear and accessible, and be of tremendous value to anyone with an interest in talking therapies.   

The talk will make use of examples drawn from the speaker’s clinical practice, showing how classical psychoanalysis plays out in the present day.  

Workshop Aims

What can you expect at the end of the event: 

1. An overview of Freud’s development of the concept of the Unconscious – with useful clinical examples from contemporary clinic.
2. A summary of the ‘linguistic turn’ – a look at how structural linguistics revolutionised continental philosophy and psychoanalytic metapsychology  
3. An introduction to the Lacanian Unconscious – paying attention to the glitches and discontinuities in speech – with contemporary clinical examples. 
4. Neurosis and Psychosis – a useful overview of the differential clinic.

Outline 

This will be a talk that charts the development of the unconscious from Freud’s thought at the beginning of the 20th century through to Lacan’s ‘high structuralist’ phase of the 1950s, asking how can we use these startling intellectual innovations today. The speaker will use PowerPoint presentation, examples from clinical practice and create time and space for discussion and comment.

Conor McCormack is a psychoanalyst in training with the Lacanian orientated Centre for Freudian Analysis and Research. He works in Bristol in private practice as well as for a National Health Service talking therapy clinic. Conor is also a director and writer known for his powerful, socially engaged filmmaking, including the BIFA nominated documentary Christmas with Dad and the acclaimed voice-hearing documentary In the Real: www.inthereal.org 

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, 18th March 2021. Booking will be final after receipt of payment.  

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

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

This workshop will be delivered via Zoom.

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. 

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. 

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. 

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

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

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. 

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. 

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. 

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

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