Medical Psychotherapy Trainees and Trainers Conference 2023 – “Psychotherapy at Play”
Friday 26th May, Midlands Arts Centre, Birmingham
We are excited that the 2023 Medical Psychotherapy Trainees and Trainers Conference is fast approaching. It promises to be an interesting and inspiring day featuring a rich diversity of renowned speakers. Programme highlights include Dr Susie Orbach, the world acclaimed psychotherapist and author, in conversation about her work and her writing; Prof Adrian Sutton, Director of the Squiggle Foundation, speaking about the importance of play in his work with children and adolescents; Dr Haroula Konstantinidou on relational prescribing and Dr Simon Heyland on the use of language in working with medically unexplained symptoms.
This year for the first time we are hosting a collaborative conference, organised jointly by medical psychotherapy trainees and PsychArt, a trainee-led organisation celebrating the arts in psychiatry. We are pleased to be able to welcome professionals working in or interested in the disciplines of Psychotherapy, Psychiatry and the Arts as well as offering a great discounted rate for students.
We are pleased to invite submissions for an art competition where we encourage you to express what being alive means for you. All artistic media are welcome.
On 31st May, 2023, Professor Brett Kahr’s seventeenth book will be published, entitled
How to Be Intimate with 15,000,000 Strangers:Musings on Media Psychoanalysis.
This book describes the relationship between psychoanalysis and the media, and chronicles Kahr’s own work as a mental health broadcaster, having worked as Resident Psychotherapist at the British Broadcasting Corporation and having appeared on over 1,000 radio and television programmes over the years.
This new publication appears in the “Psychoanalysis and Popular Culture Series”, edited by Professor Caroline Bainbridge and Professor Candida Yates, founder of “Media and the Inner World” – a project commissioned by the Arts Research Council, which has integrated mental health workers with cultural practitioners and academics.
Endorsements.
“No one has done more to lead psychoanalysis out of the closet and into the hearts and minds of 15,000,000 – and counting – than the brilliant Professor Brett Kahr. Readers are in for a treat, because he does so in beautiful, accessible language, never compromising theoretical or ethical rigour; a rare, impressive feat.”
Dr. Steven Kuchuck, Immediate Past President of the International Association for Relational Psychoanalysis and Psychotherapy, and Faculty, New York University Postdoctoral Program in Psychotherapy and Psychoanalysis and the National Institute for the Psychotherapies.
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“This is a rare and special treat … a gem of a read. Professor Brett Kahr combines his scintillating Freudian intellect with his forty years of experience, in radio and television, to put media itself on the couch, revealing a whole gamut of captivating insights. An absolute delight!”
Dan Chambers, Creative Director and Co-Founder of Blink Films (one of Real Screen 100’s Top 5 Non-Scripted U.K. Indies) and former Director of Programmes, Channel Five Television.
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“Brett Kahr invites us on his extraordinary journey of popularising psychoanalysis through the media. Writing with clarity, humour, empathy, and great warmth about his long experience as the United Kingdom’s foremost media psychoanalyst, he details his adventures on television and radio as well as sharing wide-ranging reflections about celebrity culture and the history of mediated psychoanalysis. Kahr thereby contributes enormously to dissolving the secretive aura of psychoanalysis while being deeply respectful to the boundaries of a private profession. At a time where psychoanalysis through popular culture is more needed than ever, this book is essential reading for clinicians, academics, and anyone concerned about the shared future of humanity and psychoanalysis.”
Professor Jacob Johanssen, Associate Professor in Communications, St. Mary’s University, and author of Fantasy, Online Misogyny and the Manosphere and co-author of Media and Psychoanalysis: A Critical Introduction.
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“How to Be Intimate with 15,000,000 Strangers: Musings on Media Psychoanalysis makes a unique contribution to clinical media psychology. Professor Brett Kahr has devoted his career to the dissemination of complex psychoanalytical concepts among the general public. In this book, he uses creative and courageous means to demystify, destigmatise, and demarginalize psychoanalysis through his collaborations with the media. Entertaining and educational, this work inspires psychotherapists and psychoanalysts to venture beyond the consulting room and to provide public outreach.”
Professor Caroline Sehon, Director of the International Psychotherapy Institute, and Clinical Professor of Psychiatry at Georgetown University Medical School, as well as Executive Committee Board Member and Chair of the Committee on Community Psychoanalysis of the American Psychoanalytic Association.
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“As Radio 2’s Resident Psychotherapist, Professor Brett Kahr was one of the first brave pioneers who championed mental health on the B.B.C.’s airways, thus fulfilling the B.B.C.’s remit to “inform, educate and entertain”. His insights have paved the way to destigmatising mental illness and have forever changed the landscape of media psychoanalysis.”
Jenny Slater, Music Project Manager, European Broadcasting Union, B.B.C. Radio.
This Event is a part of the Therapy and Social Change Seminar Series
What can the world of psychotherapy and counselling contribute to wider social justice and progressive social change? Lynne Gabriel and Kate Smith interview one of the most socially influentially psychotherapists in the world, Dr Susie Orbach
The likes of Andrew Tate want to return to an imagined idyll in gender relations. It would be a disaster for everyone.
Can we think a bit more deeply about masculinity? Toxic masculinity has a certain usefulness and punch as a phrase. It expresses what some men put out into the world but it doesn’t address the whys deeply enough.
We are very pleased to announce that the United Kingdom Council for Psychotherapy has awarded Professor Brett Kahr an Honorary Fellowship in recognition of his lifetime contributions to the mental health profession.
Kahr has contributed to the organisation since its founding in 1993 and has, over the years, served as its Special Media Adviser, as a member of the Board of Trustees, and as a member of the Chief Executive Officer’s Creative Strategy Group. He also became Spokesperson for the organisation’s campaign on mental health during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Understanding the symptom as an expression of intrapsychic, interpersonal, and cultural experience
Saturday 11 February 2023
A live webinar or In Person event with Dr Mazella Fuller, Maimunah Mosli, Dr Susie Orbach, Fajariah Saban and Dr Charlynn Small, Chaired by Karen Carberry
