This study group has been lively and successful in previous years and is generally fully subscribed.

Did you study Kleinian theory on your training? Maybe you would like the opportunity to explore it in more depth now that you have more clinical experience.  Theory only really comes alive when we can connect with it from our clinical practice. Maybe you did not cover Klein during your training and would like to know more about her work and how it might help you in your practice.

This study group sets out to explore 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. The course is designed to work at different levels, offering food for thought to those unfamiliar with Kleinian thinking as well as those who wish to deepen and enrich their understanding and use of psychoanalytic concepts.

Melanie Klein and those influenced by her have formed a central strand in British psychoanalytic and psychodynamic thinking since the Second World War. 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 understanding.

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: participants have found a space to share impressions, responses, puzzlement, connections and insights, including reflections 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; there are suggestions of secondary sources that discuss and summarise the main readings and of further relevant material.

If you attend these study groups, you can expect:

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 session reading will be sent on booking.

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).

These sessions will be of interest to practicing counsellors/psychotherapists and trainees engaged in clinical work. There will be a focus on working with the ideas and issues clinically. Priority will be given to participants who can attend all 10 sessions.

If you experience any problems during the application process then please call or e-mail Training Administration on 020 7378 2050/events@wpf.org.uk in order to be sent an application form.

This unique reading group is now entering its 15th year and has gone from strength to strength. 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. Refreshments provided.

Friday 18th October  2019
The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro
Led by Stephen Crawford

Friday 17th January 2020
Exposure by Helen Dunmore
Led by Pat MacDonald

Friday 28th February 2020
A Good Enough Mother by Bev Thomas
Led by Jan McHugh
We are delighted that Bev Thomas 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.

Friday 3rd April 2020
Midwinter Break by Bernard MacLaverty
Led by Jenny Riddell

The remainder of the programme will be published shortly.

There are still opportunities to facilitate reading groups, so please e-mail events@wpf.org.uk if you are interested.

During this personal talk Mark will present an account of Christianity as an evolution of human consciousness. He will talk about some of the ideas of the Oxford Inkling, Owen Barfield. Finally, he will consider a personal journey through spirituality and psychotherapy.

This lecture will include:

1. Thinking about Christianity and inner life
2. Psychotherapy and spirituality
3. Understanding one idea about the evolution of western consciousness
4. An opportunity to buy a discounted copy of Mark Vernon’s new book

Target Audience

Therapists and people interested in therapy who are also drawn to questions around Christianity, western consciousness, ancient and modern understandings of spirituality, and the meaning of psychotherapy.

Speaker
Mark Vernon is a psychotherapist and writer, based in London. He is also a broadcaster and podcaster, and regularly gives talks and lectures. He has a PhD in philosophy, and degrees in theology and physics. His new book focuses on the great twentieth century Romantic thinker and Oxford Inkling, Owen Barfield, and is entitled, A Secret History of Christianity (John Hunt Publishing). His is also the author of The Idler Guide To Ancient Philosophy (Idler Books) and has other books on friendship, love and the good life, too. Mark contributes regularly to publications in the UK and also broadcasts on the BBC. He began his professional life as a priest in the Church of England. For more visit, www.markvernon.com.  Mark trained with WPF Therapy.

Applications must be received by Thursday, 31st October 2019. Booking will be final after receipt of payment.

If you experience any problems during the application process then please call or e-mail Training Administration on 020 7378 2050/events@wpf.org.uk in order to be sent an application form.

Attendees of this lecture may also be interested in attending Beyond Psychoanalysis: The place of religious language with David Black.

Barbara G. Taylor  is a Canadian-born historian based in the United Kingdom, specialising in the Enlightenment, gender studies and the history of subjectivities. She is Professor of Humanities at Queen Mary, University of London.  She was born and raised in Western Canada, where in 1971 she was awarded her first degree in Political Thought. She then moved to London where she gained an M.Sc. in the same subject at the London School of Economics, followed by a Ph.D. in History at the University of Sussex. She taught history at the University of East London from 1993 until 2012 and then moved to Queen Mary, University of London as joint professor of the Schools of English & Drama, and History.  She has received research grants and fellowships from the Leverhulme Trust, the Nuffield Foundation, the Guggenheim Foundation (1996), the Social Science and Humanities Council of Canada, and the Wellcome Trust.  Taylor has written an intellectual biography of Mary Wollstonecraft, the early English feminist and radical democrat and continues to speak on her life, for example in 2009 at Newington Green Unitarian Church as part of the celebrations of the 250th anniversary of Wollstonecraft’s birth.  With psychoanalyst Adam Phillips, Taylor is the coauthor of On Kindness (2009).   Taylor’s memoir The Last Asylum: A Memoir of Madness in Our Times, describing her years at Friern Hospital, was published in 2014. It was a finalist for the 2015 RBC Taylor Prize.

Illustrated through the lens of Jewish jokes as well as attachment, neurobiology and psychoanalysis, this talk will elucidate some of the ways in which we understand guilt and shame, the differences between them, and how these differences have important clinical implications. The talk will unpack shame and guilt’s confused and overlapping meanings, and how they manifest in cases where there have been forms of trauma, stress and anxiety. A departure in this talk will be the use of humour, and in particular Jewish jokes, to illustrate some of the subtler conceptual nuances, and how the roots of such jokes lies in a history of trauma. The place of humour in helping to understand and manage trauma will be an underlying additional theme, hopefully bringing in a light touch to a serious topic.

Participants should leave with a sense of how guilt and shame chow and why an both have powerfully negative effects but also how some variants of each can be a force for health and growth. Participants should go away with more confidence about how to make sense of these issues clinically, especially with complex patients,  and also be challenged to think of these mechanisms relate to ourselves, and with luck will also go home with a few things to smile about.

Speaker
Graham Music (PHD) is Consultant Child and Adolescent Psychotherapist at the Tavistock and Portman Clinics and an adult psychotherapist in private practice. His publications include Nurturing Children: From Trauma to Hope using neurobiology, psychoanalysis and attachment (2019), Nurturing Natures: Attachment and children’s emotional, sociocultural and brain development (2016, 2010), Affect and Emotion (2001), and The Good Life: Wellbeing and the new science of altruism, selfishness and immorality (2014). He has a particular interest in exploring the interface between developmental findings and clinical work. Formerly Associate Clinical Director of the Tavistock’s child and family department, he has managed a range of services working with the aftermath of child maltreatment and neglect, and organised many community based psychotherapy services. He currently works clinically with forensic cases at The Portman Clinic. He teaches, lectures and supervises in Britain and abroad.

Applications must be received by Thursday, 15th January 2020. Booking will be final after receipt of payment.

If you experience any problems during the application process then please call or e-mail Training Administration on 020 7378 2050/events@wpf.org.uk in order to be sent an application form.

Attendees of this lecture may also be interested in attending Beyond Psychoanalysis: The place of religious language with David Black.

The inner world of a human being develops as it comes to be recognised.  The process is necessarily circular.  “We are creatures who, for our very existence, depend on concepts that depend on us,” as Jonathan Lear says in his book Wisdom Won from Illness: Essays in Philosophy and Psychoanalysis (Harvard University Press 2017).  It matters greatly, therefore, what concepts we encounter, and how those concepts are regarded.  And our encounter with them depends in turn on language and how language is used in the cultural world, perhaps even the “silo”, in which we find ourselves.  Using examples from the history of Buddhism and Christianity I shall argue that religions offer linguistic resources that can’t be substituted by a scientific psychology, however careful.

Lecturer
David M. Black is a Fellow of the British Psychoanalytic Society who has published widely on psychoanalytic, ethical and religious issues. He edited Psychoanalysis and Religion in the 21st Century (Routledge New Library of Psychoanalysis 2006) and is author of Why Things Matter (Routledge 2011). His initial psychotherapy training was at WPF, of which he wrote an early history, A Place for Exploration (WPF, 1991).

Applications must be received by Thursday, 13th March 2020. Booking will be final after receipt of payment.

If you experience any problems during the application process then please call or e-mail Training Administration on 020 7378 2050/events@wpf.org.uk in order to be sent an application form.

Attendees of this lecture may also be interested in attending Christianity and Consciousness: a personal account with Mark Vernon.