TAP Programme of Talks

 PLEASE NOTE THE CHANGE OF VENUE ... Taunton United Reformed Church, Paul Street, Taunton, TA1 3PF

All TAP Talks start at 7:45pm 

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To see details of previous TAP Talks and speakers notes etc .. please scroll down this page.  

 

 Click here for the NEW TAP Programme 2013-2014

 

17th May ’13 PENNY SARTORI What Near-Death Experience Can Tell Us

 

About Life Penny Sartori was a nurse for 17 years in the Intensive Therapy Unit of a major hospital. Early in her career, a connection she made with a dying patient totally changed her life. After undertaking a five year research project into near-death experiences, Penny was awarded a PhD and has written, lectured and broadcast widely, and is now one of the UK's foremost experts on the subject of NDEs. This talk looks at the message of NDEs and how engaging with NDEs and confronting our own mortality can empower us to live life to the full.

 

14th Jun ’13 ALISTAIR ROSS Psychoanalysis rediscovers Spirituality

Alistair Ross is Director of Psychodynamic Studies, a University Lecturer in Psychotherapy at Oxford University, and a Fellow & Dean of Kellogg College. Writing on the engagement of theology, therapy, spirituality and psychoanalysis his research has identified ‘sacred psychoanalysis’ as a radical new development that charts the emergence of spirituality in contemporary psychoanalysis. He says, ‘The sacred has, at long last, found a voice in the psyche, and spirituality is now being talked about in counselling and psychotherapy. Yet therapists from faith backgrounds often find themselves too spiritual for the therapeutic community and too therapeutic for faith communities’. His talk will further explore these issues.

 

13th Sep ’13 MOIRA LEGG Understanding Moods and Silence as

Communication

Negative moods can suggest pre-emptive strikes, refusals, sadistic withdrawing, cries for help etc. They carry a message often acted out rather than understood by the person involved. They carry a demand by projection. Silence is a particular aspect of these states and carries a muted form of communication. Moira’s presentation is aimed at understanding what might lie behind this imperative internal need and to hopefully enable the practitioner. Moira is a Psychoanalytic Psychotherapist working in private practice. She also works with traumatised adolescents in care.

 

18th Oct ’13 NIGEL WILLIAMS Who do we think we are? Identity, Ancestry and Intergenerational Perspectives

In this talk Nigel asks why the phenomenon of ancestry research has become so popular. He will also recount some current and recent research into intergenerational dynamics and ask whether a longer term view, much spoken about but rarely acted on in politics, is in fact something that needs entertaining in all walks of life, including organisations and the professions.

 

15th Nov ‘13 CHARLES HAMPTON Working with Half of the Couple

Finding oneself working with half a couple can raise tricky questions. How did this situation come about? What story might the other partner tell were they here? Should I be doing this work at all? What is the likely outcome? Charles will air these issues and explore with you some ideas that may further our understanding of the psychodynamics involved.

 

17th Jan ’14 JOHN RUFFLE When the Spiritual enters the Consulting Room - What, if anything, do we do with it?

Having trained in Integrative Counselling, Gestalt, and TA, John has worked in private practice for over 20 years and as therapist to clergy and their families throughout Somerset for almost 10 years. He has also worked as a tutor on a counselling Diploma course and a Foundation degree in counselling. He believes because “spiritual experience” is almost universal to human beings, it cannot simply be ignored in the consulting room, if the client brings it into the room.

 

21st Feb ‘14 KAMALAMANI Introducing Wild Therapy

This evening will explore Wild Therapy, with its roots in Embodied-Relational Therapy. It invites us to explore the wilder aspects of therapy and of ourselves through working in the elements and in the presence of other-than-human life. In turn we invite the outside back into our therapy rooms. Wild Therapy celebrates creativity, spontaneity and interconnection. Kamalamani is a therapist, supervisor, facilitator and writer from Bristol. www.kamalamani.co.uk.

We look forward to seeing you.

 

 

TAP AGM 2013 19th April

Previous Programme 2012-2013 download  click here 

Previous Programme 2011-2012 download  click here

Past Talks Include:

 

15th Feb '13 MARY JAYNE RUST Ecological Individuation

 

Ecological Individuation: A Journey into Relationship with Earth

In times of crisis there is a chance for inner growth - but that may require facing uncomfortable and unwanted parts of the self. What does ecological crisis confront us with? In this talk I will be exploring climate change and consumerism as personal journey, involving great love and great loss. I will be asking, how do these issues come into the therapy relationship? From close bonds with animals in childhood, to the potency of nature as healer, to the traumas of losing sacred land and nature deficit disorder in children, I will argue that there are many ways in which ecological crisis has the potential to bring us back into an intimate relationship with all life.

 

Mary-Jayne Rust is a Jungian analyst. Journeys to Ladakh in the early 1990's alerted her to the seriousness of the ecological crisis and its spiritual roots. She teaches and publishes in the field of ecopsychology.

For more information see http://www.mjrust.net

  

 

18th Jan 2013 Repeated on 1st Mar 2013

ANGELA McCORMACK Navigating the Landscape of Sexual Trauma. Landmarks and resources for an effective therapeutic encounter.

Trauma in general and sexual trauma in particular, distinctively reshapes an individual's experience of being alive. This talk will review the landscape of sexual trauma and explore effective strategies for accompanying clients through this challenging terrain, towards growth and healing. Angela McCormack, an experienced transpersonal psychotherapist working in private practice in Wellington, also works for a specialist Bristol-based counselling charity with individuals of all ages who have experienced sexual trauma. 

For a copy of this presentation and more information on this and other trainings by Angela, please visit www.freshcurveconsultancy.co.uk

 

16th Nov '12 MIRANDA BEVIS Mindfulness: Finding Tranquility within Chaos

Mindfulness is an approach derived from Eastern meditative traditions, informed by the cognitive behavioural sciences and neuroscience, which offers an antidote to the stresses of daily life. By learning to focus the attention on moment-to-moment experience and cultivating kind and non-judgemental attitudes to ourselves, we can learn to develop a different relationship with what distresses us. It is acceptable and accessible to most, and has been demonstrated to be highly effective, both as a therapeutic tool, and as a life-enhancing practice.

 

 

19th Oct '12 KELVIN HALL Remembering Eden: The Ecological Self and Conversation with Nature in Therapy.

Kelvin Hall has written on "conversation" between human and other life in a number of publications (e.g. the recent book Vital Signs: Psychological Responses to Ecological Crisis), after his passion for horsemanship led to a study of inter-species communication and its significance for therapy and for the growing eco-crisis. He has been a therapist for twenty-five years, a trustee of BCPC and a tutor there on the Ecological Self course.

 

21st Sep '12 SARA FAIRFAX A journey into research and research as journey: a personal account

 

A presentation describing my experience of researching elements of my counselling practice through the phenomenological research practice and heuristic methods of inquiry. The presentation contains poetry, writings, paintings and drawings that formed part of the original research, but will also feature new creative responses as this body of work continues to develop and deepen over time.

 

 

15th Jun '12 MATTHEW APPLETON Birth and Prenatal Trauma - The Hidden Wound.

Our prenatal life and birth experience is generally regarded as having no long term effects on our wellbeing. Yet clinical experience and a growing body of research show that these formative experiences deeply shape our sense of who we are and the sort of world we live in. Matthew Appleton is a Core Process Psychotherapist and Craniosacral Therapist. He works with adults and babies, individually and in groups to help resolve birth and prenatal trauma.

 Click here for a copy of Matthew's Presentation.

 

18th May '12 BECKY WRIGHT Counselling and Coaching: A Collision or Collaboration?

Personal Coaches have become a popular source of psychological support. Perhaps coaches are more comfortable than counsellors at seeing their services as a brand to market. Becky Wright is a psychotherapist who also has a thriving coaching practice, New Leaf Life Design. She offers a personal perspective on making the transition from counsellor to coach, the tensions and overlaps and how to develop your practice to encompass coaching which will not involve you having to become a guru of social media or indeed need to turn everything you do into a masterclass for others.

(Becky has written her talk out in full. For a copy of her transcript please email her at becky@newleaf.uk.com) 

 

19th Jan 2012  (Thursday) ANNIE LLOYD A Necessary grief

A Mindfulness based, multi-dimensional systems approach to helping children so damaged by their early experiences in highly dysfunctional family systems that they have been taken into care for their own protection. The focus of this talk will be to explore both the value of working with traumatised children from a Transpersonal Body-Centered perspective and the issues that adopting families face both externally and internally. 

To download PDF of Annie's Presentation please click here. 

10th Feb 2012  DAVID HENDERSON Thinking about not knowing 

It is hard to orient oneself in the world of analysis. Leon Grinberg observed that, "In spite of its tremendous impact on mankind, paradoxically enough, it has not yet been possible to place and classify psychoanalysis within any of the existing fields of knowledge." How can we think about the fact of unknowing in psychotherapy? One aspect of David's research is to determine whether there are modes of thinking in the traditions of negative theology that can be resources for psychotherapists in their on-going struggle to think about the unknown and the unknowable.

 

 

18th Nov 2011  KATINA NOBLE Bulimia - Feed Me/Poison Me

Bulimia can be understood as a powerful message within a relationship. It is all about ambivalence: gorging and vomiting, neediness/withdrawal, nurturance/poison. So how do we, as therapists, establish an effective working alliance where ambivalence and the possibility of sabotage are so present? Katina will explore the various meanings of this complex condition, including a feminist psychoanalytic perspective, and look at ways of working effectively with the bulimic client.

 

 

 

 20th May 2011     ANNA COLGAN Don't go there!

Using mind and body to go there, safely.

Trauma is a fact of life, as Peter Levine, founder of Somatic Experiencing, says in Waking the Tiger. Whether the trauma is recent or the legacy of early wounding, by accessing the body and mind together as a unit, Somatic Experiencing (SE) can bring a client's process alive in the room where it is available for healing. Anna Colgan, Core Process psychotherapist and Somatic Experiencing practitioner, looks at how to bring about lasting change without re-traumatising.

Notes from Talk

 

18 Feb 2011                 JUDITH O'HAGAN 

Symptom as Symbol - a Transpersonal Approach

What is going on in the psyche when the body presents a symptom? Understanding the physical symptom can shed light upon emotional,  mental or spiritual dis-ease. Judith O'Hagan specialises in working transpersonally with somatisation and has wide experience of clients with cancer and fertility issues as well as neurological, muscular and skeletal problems. Trained at the Centre for Transpersonal Psychology, she now works privately and runs workshops on transpersonal themes.

21 Jan 2011                 CHRIS BANKS                   

The Poetry of Counselling and Psychotherapy

'Poetry is the music of being human,' said Poet Laureate Carol Ann Duffy. Counsellor, supervisor and published poet Chris will explore some of the similarities between poetry and psychological therapy, particularly the place of metaphor, form, voice and of the unconscious. She will demonstrate a way of 'reading' a therapy session borrowed from the analysis of poetry. She will illustrate her talk with examples from poetry and her clinical practice.

Bibliography from Chris Banks (Speaker)

 

19 Nov '10                GERRY MAGUIRE THOMPSON at Rendezvous Café (entry by ticket only)

Sometimes all you can do is laugh: A Night of Serious Comedy SOLD OUT

Humour and laughter are well known for healing, and provide lessons for therapy. Gerry, a comedian, author and trainer, leads a playful and entertaining exploration of how approaches from comedy and improvisation may help both therapist and client. For instance, improvisational comedy is an excellent model for cultivating the ability to be oneself, live in the present moment, and regard unexpected incidents as creative opportunity. Gerry's books have sold hundreds of thousands of copies in eleven languages worldwide.

 

15 Oct '10                  CHARLES HAMPTON      

Teach us to care and not to care (TS Eliot, Ash Wednesday - Some psychological issues confronting today's Christian clergy

In receiving projections associated with anxiety, hypocrisy and a crisis of authority, a therapist and a clergy person might find common cause. In what ways do their roles differ? What resources can each bring to the task and what might they learn from each other? Charles Hampton works in Oxford using systems theory and object relations to train ordinands in pastoral psychology. He was an editor of Practical Theology. 

 

 

17 Sep '10                 GEORGE MARSHALL

 

Climate Change - Reality vs Pleasure Principle, the Final Showdown?

Copenhagen 2009 was billed by some as the last real chance to avert climate catastrophe.  All informed commentators agree that the outcome fell far short of what was needed.  Are the world's leaders involved in a sleepwalk to disaster?  What are the psychological mechanisms we use, to live with the threat to the whole biosphere on which we depend? George Marshall is the founder and Director of Projects at Climate Outreach and Information Network and author of "Carbon Detox".  He has twenty years' experience in campaigning and research for environmental and other organisations.  His blogsite climatedenial.org examines our psychological responses to climate change.

 

18 Jun '10  KEVIN CHANDLER           

Telling Tales of Love for Sale

Kevin Chandler, novelist, therapist, supervisor and long-time trainer of Relate counsellors, offers personal reflections on the conundrum that is therapy, drawn from a working life spent Listening In. "For nigh-on 30 years I've earned my living as a paid listener. When I started out, had anyone the audacity to point out the parallels between psychotherapy and prostitution, I would have blown a gasket. Nowadays, for me to fail to recognise such parallels, seems not only impossible, but unforgivable." 

 

21 May 2010 Mark Budden 

The rest is silence - working psychoanalytically with patients who are facing death

Mark Budden is a member of the Severnside Institute for Psychotherapy. In addition to his private practice as a psychoanalytic psychotherapist and supervisor, he is the clinical manager of The Harbour, a Bristol charity providing counselling and psychotherapy to people affected by a life-threatening illness. His talk will be informed by his work at The Harbour

 

 26 Feb '10 MAURA SILLS

The Challenge of Belonging: an Exploration of the Relationship between

early pre and perinatal Wounding and Spiritual Wellbeing

22 Jan '10 CARO BAILEY

Supervision - does it work? (and more to the point, how might we know?)

An Exploration of some of the Pros and Cons of this Mandatory Activity 

Caros Talk on supervision   to order a copy of Caros book please support your local bookshop Brendon Books 01823 337742 ( TAP Members recieve 10% discount)brendonbooks@hotmail.co.uk

Supervisor Training: Issues and Approaches: Guide to Supervision Volume 2

• Editor : Penny Henderson
• Publisher : Karnac Books
• Published : 2009
• ISBN 10 : 9781855754027

 20 Nov '09 BEN SESSA

 From Sacred Plants to Psychotherapy:

The History and Re-emergence of Psychedelics in Medicine

Ben Sessa TAP Presentation

20 Mar '10 ANNUAL CONFERENCE

23 Apr '10

ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING

 

The picture below shows the start of Noelle Adlers talk it was very well attended.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

18 Sep '09 CLARE LE ROUX

The Experiences of Therapy for People with Learning Disabilities

16 Oct '09 SHARON EASTWOOD

My Voice will go with you……..

19 Jun '09 PETER CHADWICK

Psychological and Spiritual Approaches to Therapy for Schizophrenia:

the View from the Inside

15 May '09 CEDRIC DAETWYLER

 

What Place is there for the Body in the Consulting Room?

A Body Psychotherapy Perspective

Cedric Daftwler Booklist

27 Feb '09 HELEN LUNT

 Music Therapy - how is it linked to Psychotherapy?

and brain damage, and combines Music Therapy with performing and teaching music.

23 Jan '09 NOELLE ADLER

Ambivalence

16 May '08  BEN FOX

Men's/Dad's Groups - can they help stem the tide of men's low

emotional health?

20 Jun '08 EDITH HARGREAVES

From Separateness - to Symbol Formation - to Sublimation:

Finding Meaning

19 Sep '08 TESSA WEIR-JEFFERY and JACQUI BALLOQUI

Parallel Processes: The significance of concurrent work with a child and his parents; a child psychotherapy perspective

17 Oct '08 JENNIFER FORSSANDER

Dreaming the World awake

21 Nov '08 RICHARD MIZEN

On Aggression and Violence