News

Presenter: Helen Kennerley, D.Phil, Consultant Clinical Psychologist

21st September 2018 in The Bonnington Hotel, Drumcondra Dublin 9 

Understanding a client’s difficulties is particularly challenging when, for example, there is more than one diagnosis, or a personality disorder is evident and/or problems are wide-ranging, long-standing and chronic. In such instances it is often difficult to maintain a coherent focus and a consistent approach and it can feel as though we are not able to use CBT skills and knowledge to the client’s best advantage. When we also face therapeutic ruptures in our working alliance, then the challenge is even greater.

Using a case study for illustration, Helen will explain how complex problems can be understood and formulated, and how CBT can be used creatively and productively and how therapeutic ruptures can be resolved.  She will draw on the cognitive model to provide a framework for understanding and treating those with complex difficulties and will emphasise that problems are easier to resolve when therapists make use of collaborative formulations, and when they understand how to work with inflexible beliefs and behaviours. Helen will also draw on the work of Safran and Segal (1990), who developed a framework for managing interpersonal ruptures within CBT.

This workshop will build your confidence in understanding clients with complex problems by enhancing your knowledge of:

• Formulating complex problems
• Recognising inflexible beliefs and behaviours
• Deciding where to start and how to get the most out of your CBT skills
• Developing a coherent and consistent approach despite shifting problems
• Addressing difficulties in the therapeutic alliance: resolving ruptures

Helen has worked in the NHS for over 25 years and in that time gained much experience working with clients with complex problems, particularly those with developmental trauma and relapsing difficulties.  She will be using clinical material to illustrate teaching points, and participants will be invited to ask questions and become involved in discussion.

Presented by Dr Mary Welford

Regency Hotel, Swords Road, Drumcondra, Dublin 9
Friday 9th June 2017
9.00am to 5.00pm Registration from 8.30am

Download the flyer and registration form here. 

About the workshop

As therapists we are really unusual. We choose to spend our time, day in day out, engaging with the emotional suffering of others with the aim of alleviating their distress. This has an impact on us. If we look after our wellbeing, and feel we have skills that will be of assistance, we can feel very privileged to do the job we do. Our wellbeing is good.

Unfortunately busy lives and work pressures often mean that we do not look after ourselves to the extent that we should. In addition, sometimes we feel we just do not have the skills or approach to assist the people we see. Our wellbeing suffers.

This workshop will aim to enhance psychological resilience in delegates by building a compassionate relationship with themselves and addressing shame and self-criticism. Individuals will have direct experience of applying Compassion Focused methods to their own lives and a secondary outcome will be a greater understanding of how they may use it within their teams and with their clients.

During this workshop delegates will:
• Learn what compassion is (and isn’t)
• Consider why Compassion is a helpful motivator
• Appreciate the benefits of developing your Compassionate Self
• Understand the experiences and factors that influence us
• Learn how to use this knowledge for the benefit of yourself & others

The Workshop will include:
Interactive teaching
Practical exercises
Group discussions

The workshop will be suitable for:
Individuals interested in developing their own resilience and that of others
Be of interest to those who wish to have a brief introduction to Compassion Focused Therapy.

About the presenter:
Dr Mary Welford, Consultant Clinical Psychologist, has held clinical and research roles within the NHS and now lives and works in the South West of England. She is a founding member of The Compassionate Mind Foundation, held the role of The Charities
Chair and more recently leads The Compassion in Education initiative. Mary’s roles within BABCP have included Executive Committee Member, Magazine Editor, European Scientific Committee Member and Branch Liaison Officer.
Publications by Mary Welford:
Compassion Focused Therapy for Dummies (2016), John Wiley & Sons, Chicester, Sussex
The Compassionate Mind Approach to Building Confidence Using Compassion Focused Therapy (2012), Constable and Robertson,
LTD. London
The Power of Self-Compassion: Using Compassion-Focused Therapy to End Self-Criticism and Build Self-Confidence (2013), New
Harbinger Publications

Dr David Veale, The Maudsley Hospital  & Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience, King’s College London

20^th of October 2016 in the Regency Hotel, Swords Road, Drumcondra,  Dublin 9

This conference is suitable for all those who are interested in working with patients suffering from Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD).

David will present ways of maximising the effectiveness of CBT techniques in treating OCD. Common difficulties which therapists encounter and ways of resolving these will be discussed and practised. Factors which complicate OCD treatment and ways of modifying standard CBT treatments in order to meet the needs of severe or treatment resistant clients will be presented.

Participants will be encouraged to actively contribute to the workshop case presentations, exercises, role plays and discussion, in order to maximise the applicability of the workshop to their clinical work. He will focus on practical aspects including case histories, formulation, how to do behavioural experiments/ exposure, stuck-points etc.

There are four main dimensions in the phenomenology of OCD

1) contamination and compulsion washing;

2) checking for harm;

3) unacceptable thoughts and images;

4) a need for order and symmetry.

OCD is motivated by a fear of being responsible for harm to self or others; avoidance of disgust and avoidance of incompleteness/ feeling “not just right”. We will also focus in this workshop on a specific phobia of vomiting (which has many similarities to OCD contamination).

 Learning Objectives:
By the end of the workshop, participants will

• Be knowledgeable about the phenomenology of OCD, diagnosis, its’ measurement and recommended treatments
• Understand the nature of less common obsessions including relationship OCD, homosexuality OCD, paedophilia OCD, existentialism OCD, completeness OCD and sensori-motor OCD.
• Understand a cognitive behavioural model of OCD and how intrusive thoughts, images, doubts or urges are appraised and responded to by avoidance and compulsions
• Understand the nature of family accommodation and reassurance seeking
• Be able to conduct a risk assessment in OCD
• Be able to conduct a formulation of factors that maintain OCD including a functional analysis of responses and family context
• Understand latest findings in research on conducting behavioural experiments/ exposure by inhibitory learning in OCD
• Use imagery rescripting for past aversive memories in OCD
• Develop alternatives for reassurance seeking
• Assess and treat a specific phobia of vomiting.

Workshop leader

David Veale is a Consultant Psychiatrist at the South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust and a Visiting Reader in Cognitive Behavioural Psychotherapies at the Institute of Psychiatry, Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience, King’s College London. He is past President of The British Association of Behavioural and Cognitive Psychotherapies. He is co-director at the Centre for Anxiety Disorders and Trauma at the Maudsley and the Anxiety Disorders Residential Unit at the Bethlem. He is a member of the group revising the diagnostic guidelines for ICD11 for Obsessive Compulsive and Related Disorders for the World Health Organization. He was a member of the group that wrote the NICE guidelines on OCD and BDD in 2006 and chaired the NICE Evidence Update on OCD in 2013. He has published about 80 peer-reviewed articles (mainly in OCD and BDD) and four self-help books. He is a Trustee of OCD Action and the BDD Foundation. His website is www.veale.co.uk.

References

Rachman, S. (2006) The Fear of Contamination: Assessment and treatment. Oxford University Press

Veale, D (2009) Treating a Specific Phobia of Vomiting. The Cognitive Behaviour Therapist, 2, 272–288.

Veale, D, Willson, R, (2006) Overcoming Obsessive Compulsive Disorder. Robinson.

Veale, D, Page, N, Woodward, E., Salkovskis, P (2015). Imagery re-scripting in obsessive compulsive disorder: A single case experimental design in 12 cases. Journal of Behavior Therapy and Experimental Psychiatry. 49 (Special Issue)  230-236.

Veale, D, Freeston, M, Salkovskis, P (2009) Risk assessment in Obsessive Compulsive Disorder. Advances in Psychiatric Treatment, 15; 332-343

Presenter: Professor Paul Chadwick^1,2,3

This workshop will focus on practical and theoretical issues in using mindfulness as both a formal practice, and as a means of informing therapy for people with distressing psychosis.

VENUE: All Hallows College, Gracepark Road, Dublin 9.

Friday 12th December 2014

9.30am – 4.30pm

Lunch Provided

What benefits can you expect from this workshop?

People most likely to benefit are those with good general experience using CBT or mindfulness-based therapies.

Key learning objectives:

(1) To understand how to adapt mindfulness practice for people with distressing psychosis

(2) Learn how Person-Based Cognitive Therapy integrates mindfulness with CBT for psychosis

Training modalities: Didactic, small group exercise, client DVD, experiental

Biography: Professor Chadwick is Professor of Clinical Psychology at the Institute of Psychiatry, King’s College London. He has been at the forefront of the development of psychological therapy for psychosis for over 25 years, and has pioneered the integration of mindfulness with cognitive therapy for psychosis.

Background: Person-Based Cognitive Therapy (PBCT) is an approach to distressing psychosis that seeks to integrate cognitive therapy with mindfulness principles and practice. The workshop will describe how mindfulness and cognitive therapy are formulated within PBCT, and explore how mindfulness principles inform the therapeutic relationship. Using an experiential exercise and client DVD, we will examine how to adapt mindfulness practice for people with distressing psychosis and explore how mindfulness practice needs to support new learning, or insight.

1. Chadwick, P. (2005) Mindfulness Groups for people with Psychosis. Behavioural and Cognitive Psychotherapy, 33, 351-359
2. Chadwick, P. (2006) Person-Based Cognitive Therapy for Distressing Psychosis. Wiley
3. Chadwick, P. (2014) Mindfulness for Psychosis. The British Journal of Psychiatry,204: 333-334

The National Association of Cognitive Behaviour Therapies is running an Advanced CBT Workshop

The Therapeutic Relationship as a Change Agent in CBT – Enhancing Case Formulation, Collaborative Empiricism, and Guided Discovery Using Socratic Dialogue

Nikolaos Kazantzis, Ph.D. Melbourne, Australia.

Best Western Ashling Hotel, Parkgate Street, Dublin 8.

Friday 20th September 2013

9.30am-4.30pm

This workshop teaches advanced relationship skills within the cognitive-behavior therapy (CBT) framework. Many therapists experience significant challenges in engaging and motivating clients in CBT interventions, or find it difficult to foster client ownership of the therapeutic process. Therapists also commonly report difficulties in deciding whether it is more important to emphasize the therapeutic relationship or the use of techniques in CBT.

What benefits can you expect from this workshop?

Through clinical demonstrations and structured experiential exercises, the workshop explicitly addresses therapist behaviors and qualities that promote a facilitative therapy relationship, to:

• Enhance core counseling skills with CBT case formulation–learn how to use the CBT case formulation to adapt relationship elements for each client (e.g., empathy, goal consensus, positive regard/ affirmation, feedback)

• Engage and motivate clients with collaborative empiricism – learn the stages in empiricism to set-up techniques that are tailored for each client, from the point of selection through their evaluation

• Harness ownership and hope with Socratic Dialogue and guided discovery – learn stages of a ‘true’ discovery and appraise the role of the therapist influence/ persuasion

Such knowledge is particularly important in achieving optimal outcomes for clients, especially those with persistent interpersonal difficulties and complex presentations. This workshop is useful for mental health professionals with knowledge of CBT, beginning through advanced.

Biography

Nikolaos Kazantzis, Ph.D. is a Clinical Psychologist with expertise in Cognitive Behavior Therapy (CBT) and Senior Lecturer in Clinical Psychology and Founder/ Director of the Cognitive Behavior Therapy Research Unit at La Trobe University in Melbourne, Australia.

Nikolaos’ specialist CBT training was undertaken primarily with Drs. Aaron T. Beck, Judith Beck, Cory Newman, and Leslie Sokol at the Beck Institute for Cognitive Therapy and Research in Philadelphia, and with Dr. Christine Padesky from the Newport Beach Cognitive Therapy Center in California. He has undertaken clinical work in various public health settings (inpatient, outpatient and community mental health), including a specialist Cognitive Therapy Centre. He has developed group-based CBT treatment programs for anxiety and mood disorders and currently works in a private medical centre, where he provides CBT for adults and specialist CBT supervision.

As a workshop presenter he is appreciated for his depth of knowledge, compassion, and engaging presentation style. He has developed CBT training programs for over 5,000 professionals, and has presented over 60 workshops in 12 countries worldwide. His clear, organized, and practical workshops blend the latest scientific developments on the role of therapeutic process with clinical innovation.

His collaborative research has resulted in over 100 scholarly publications, including 3 practitioner books, which have been translated into several languages (available from http://www.nikolaoskazantzis.com). Nikolaos is recipient of the Beck Institute for Cognitive Behavior Therapy’s 2012 Scholar Award for “significant contributions to the field of cognitive therapy”, and the Australian Association of Cognitive Behavior Therapy’s Early Career Award for “research and clinical innovation in cognitive and behavior therapy.”

Nikolaos is current Editor-in-Chief for the Australian Psychological Society’s professional practice journal “Australian Psychologist”, and Associate Editor for “Cognitive Therapy and Research.” He is also the International Association of Cognitive Psychotherapy’s international delegate for Australia.