Division of Counselling Psychology Annual Conference 2024

Dr Arun Mansukhani, PsyD - Clinical Psychologist, Sexologist & EMDR Europe Accredited Consultant & Facilitator

Presentation title: Trauma and mental health: the need and the scope of trauma-based therapies

The impact of adverse life experiences on health in general and mental health in particular is clearly established in the scientific literature. As we now know, trauma is a pervasive issue affecting mental health across diverse populations.

This presentation reviews what neurobiology has to say about traumatic events and the effect they have on an individual's neurodevelopment.

After discussing the current concept of what is considered a traumatic event, we will distinguish between different types of traumas, such as commission and omission trauma, and how they can affect, separately or when they occur together in people's lives.

We analyse the relationship between trauma and mental health, exploring the profound impact trauma can have on individuals' psychological and social-relational well-being.

By examining the various forms and sources of trauma, we uncover the wide-reaching consequences trauma can exert on individuals' emotional, cognitive, and behavioural functioning and the long-term impact on their self-concept and their relationship with significant others.

Furthermore, the presentation explores the need and the scope of trauma-based therapies in addressing the complex needs of trauma survivors.

This presentation aims to provide psychologists with a comprehensive understanding of trauma's impact on mental health and equip them with practical insights into trauma-based therapeutic approaches. By fostering dialogue and collaboration within the field, we strive to enhance clinical practice and optimize outcomes for individuals navigating the complex terrain of trauma and mental health.

About our keynote speaker

Arun Mansukhani is a clinical psychologist and sexologist with specialized training in Cognitive Behavioural Therapy, EMDR, Sensorimotor Therapy and Clinical Hypnosis. He currently leads a team of psychologists at the Centre for Emotional Regulation in Malaga.

He has participated in plenary sessions and workshops at numerous national and international conferences.

He is a trainer in postgraduate masters’ degrees and training programs for professionals and has participated in the training of mental health professionals in countries such as Spain, Portugal, France, Germany, the UK, Ireland, Russia, India, Chile, Mexico and the United States.

For the non-specialized public, he frequently speaks on different topics related to Psychology and Sexology in talks for the general public, written press, radio or television. His TEDx talk on emotional dependence is one of the most viewed TEDx talks in Spanish.

In 2022, he published the book “Condemned to understand each other” in which he explores the causes of toxic relationships and how to deal with them.

Roger Duncan, MSc., UKCP - Systemic, Family, Eco Psychotherapist and Systemic Supervisor

Presentation title: Dancing between the forest of life and the digital jungle: an ecosystemic approach

As we slip deeper into the unfolding ecological crisis, it now seems essential that we find new ways of understanding our relationship with the Natural world.  Unfortunately, much of what we have been taught about Nature and Mental health in Western education is grounded in a modernist, mechanistic view, that originated in the enlightenment period, and is no longer helpful in making sense of the complexity of the contemporary world.

Although the current exponential growth of technology seems to offer a powerful and alluring escape from the ecological crisis, this promise of a future technological fix is also underpinned by a modernist, disembodied worldview, this same outdated approach which is now in the late stages of narrative collapse.

In this talk we will explore how the worldviews of ancient indigenous cultures, including some of the oldest ideas from pre industrial Europe, that survived the epistemicide of colonialism, have helped indigenous cultures navigate past ecological and social change and might provide a frame work for pathways out of the current crisis.

We will explore the limits of modernist thinking about Nature and Mental health and how a deep systems view of nature invites us to reimagine the relationship between humans and the natural world.  We will explore how ideas and psychotechnologies from indigenous and contemporary nature-based practices, including insights from psychedelic assisted psychotherapy, might potentially reawaken a supressed and ancient understanding of the journey the human soul.

About our keynote speaker:

Roger Duncan, a Systemic Psychotherapist and Systemic Supervisor and Author, working in the NHS and in private practice.

His approach to Nature and Mental Health has been shaped by his background in Biology, training as a Waldorf teacher, and as a Vison Fast guide with The School of Lost Borders and more recently in the practice of Psychedelic Integration with the Psychedelic Health Professionals network (PHP).

Roger has been leading nature-based retreats and researching Eco Systemic approaches to nature and mental health for 30 years.

He was the creator and director of the 2022 Confer Diploma ‘Eco-psychotherapy and the Emerging Adolescent Mind’ and the 2018 Confer Eco Psychotherapy webinar ‘Reclaiming our Indigenous Relationship with Nature. An introduction to the Systemic Integration of Nature into Child and Adolescent Psychotherapy Practice’.

His book ‘Nature in Mind’ was published by Routledge in 2018 and he writes and lectures internationally.

Dr Sian Williams, CPsychol, AFBPsS - HCPC-Registered Counselling Psychologist and Broadcaster

Presentation title: The power of the story - adventures in journalism and psychology 

Stories have always been an ancient, primal form of connection; a way of uniting people and helping to overcome their differences and defences.

They’re a way of explaining the incomprehensible, providing a structure to the messy unpredictability of life’s uncertainties. Narratives enable societies, communities and individuals to make sense of the world.

But what are our responsibilities in reframing these events and experiences?

Dr Sian Williams is a Chartered Counselling Psychologist and a broadcast journalist. She’s been helping tell stories for nearly four decades, firstly as a reporter and presenter for the BBC and ITN, now in her role in the NHS, working with emergency responders dealing with PTSD.

She has been at the heart of some of the biggest stories of the past 40 years, helping to make complex events, comprehensible to an audience of millions.

Now, her role is with individuals, supporting them to observe and understand the power of their own story, perhaps to reframe it in a different way.

How then, does working in a digital jungle affect those narratives, both publicly and privately? Who gets to tell the story and who is control of it?

Join Sian at this keynote event where she discusses storytelling adventures in psychology and journalism and how they’ve changed over the years. Questions and contributions are invited towards the end of this session. 

 About our keynote speaker:

Dr Sian Williams is a Chartered Counselling Psychologist working in the NHS helping the emergency services with anxiety, stress and trauma.

She is also a broadcast journalist, having spent more than 35 years, mainly at the BBC, as a TV and radio presenter, including more than a decade hosting ‘BBC Breakfast’.

She hosts BBC Radio 4’s ‘Life Changing’ series and has written a book and various articles and papers on recovery after adversity.