Workshops/CPD

Client-Centred Therapy in Psychiatric Landscapes

This workshop will include both presentation and experiential learning with plenty of time for interactivity and discussion originating in the participants' own experiences. It will centre around three themes:-

1. Remaining non-directive in a directive psychiatric context

This will include discussion of some general guidelines that Lisbeth has developed during more than 30 years of practicing classical, non-directive, client-centred therapy in a psychiatric context. The focus will be on ways to manage the context's expectations that the therapist is an expert on the client. It will also include discussion of the basic dependence of the therapist on the context, typically the consultant psychiatrist, and include discussion of the often very disturbing and painful issue of suicidal clients that the therapists so frequently meet in psychiatric contexts.

2. Combining classical client-centred therapy and pre-therapy in work with "grey zone" clients

"Grey zone" clients are clients who apparently slip in and out of contact and this requires therapist ability to shift fluently between the explicit empathy of client-centred therapy and the contact reflections of pre-therapy. "Grey zone" clients can span the whole diagnostic range from crisis clients, over those diagnosed with a borderline condition, to clients distressed by psychotic phenomena and there is hardly a client in a psychiatric context who is not a "grey zone" client at one time or the other. The practice of work with these clients will be demonstrated.

3. Refutation of myths about the ineffectiveness and/or harmfulness of Client-centered therapy in psychiatric contexts

This will focus on discussing the reasons for the disappointing results of the Wisconsin Project and on presenting arguments against the widespread beliefs that :- empathy colludes with and reinforces psychotic ideation; that non-directive is synonymous with unstructured; that client-centred therapy is an in-depth exploratory approach; that client-centred therapy is merely a supportive approach; that client-centred therapy cannot work in psychiatry because Rogers' theory of psychopathology is insufficient to explain the conditions seen in psychiatry; that client-centred therapy is only for the relatively mentally healthy. Examples of dialogue will illustrate the arguments.

This workshop is part of a series which can lead to a gaining a 'Practitioner Certificate and Diploma in 'Person-Centred Working at the Difficult Edge'

Facilitator:

Lisbeth Sommerbeck is accredited as a specialist in psychotherapy and supervision with the Danish Psychological Association. She initiated the founding of the Danish Carl Rogers Forum. Since 1974 Lisbeth has been employed in psychiatry, mainly occupied with psychotherapy, supervision, consultation and teaching. She retired in January this year. Her special interest is in the application of the person-centred approach with staff and inmates in the "back yards" of psychiatry and in the clarification of Rogers' "core conditions" as they apply to classical client-centred therapy. She is author of articles on the non-directive attitude in client-centred therapy and on the "Wisconsin Project", as well as of book chapters and a book on client-centred therapy in psychiatric contexts.

Dates:

16th & 17th April 2012

Times:

9.30am - 5.30pm

Costs:

£140 per day (Metanoia Members) £160 per day (Non-Members)

For more information or to book a place please contact Sylvia Carby on 020 8832 3076 or via e-mail sylvia.carby@metanoia.ac.uk