BACP Private Practice conference 2023

Am I OK? Are we OK? Anxiety in an uncertain world

This year's Private Practice Conference is all about anxiety - both in terms of how we as therapists deal with anxiety and anxiety disorders experienced by our clients, and also how we as a profession are responding to a climate of anxiety that has become a fixture of our lives: the pandemic, the turmoil and tragedy of war, and the threat of economic recession.

The Private Practice Conference presents an opportunity for members to come together for this highlight in the BACP annual calendar. It will once again be a hybrid event, combining networking opportunities of the live event aa central London conference venue, with the nationwide participation through the live streaming of the full event on the day.

Book your place

The Private Practice conference 2023 is a hybrid event. Our hybrid events provide you with the opportunity to attend and engage both in person and online. In person attendance includes networking opportunities, lunch, refreshments and the chance to engage with divisional representatives and BACP staff. Online access includes interactive Q&A's, a chatroom to network with peers, and interactive polls.

This session aims to introduce the existential perspective on anxiety and to provide clear pointers for people who want to work with this method with clients who struggle with anxiety. The presentation will consider the different ways in which anxiety can be experienced and handled by different people and in different circumstances. It will explore the tensions and contradictions that anxiety evokes in people, especially in relation to loss and alienation, crisis and threat. It will show the relationship between anxiety and the human search for meaning and purpose. The intimate connection between anxiety, truth, freedom and responsibility will also be touched upon.

In this presentation we will examine what we can learn from our anxiety and how to befriend and welcome it into our lives, instead of running away from it or trying to suppress it.

This session is available in person and online as part of strand one.

This session will provide a tailored talk for therapists who have been struggling with anxiety and anxiety disorders with reference to life post-pandemic. Josh will be drawing upon different presentations of anxiety in the hope that it will resonate with many, backed up with compassion and personal anecdotes, with the wish for people to feel seen and empowered after this talk.

This session is available in person and online as part of strand one.

As clinicians we may struggle to understand the part that history plays in the current lives of our clients. This presentation explores how both trans (history) - and inter (family dynamics) -
generational trauma can be passed down the generations to create ongoing everyday challenges for our interpersonal interactions and our cultural, racial and social identities. Our histories are deeply embedded in the unconscious, and an understanding of the impact of this phenomenon can help facilitate some of the more chronic, hard to shift difficulties our clients face in their daily lives. Understanding generational trauma is knowing how to work with multigenerational type III complex trauma. Professional tools and conceptual handles will be offered in this presentation to increase and deepen your cross-cultural knowledge and competence in this diverse area of clinical
practice.

This session is available in person and online as part of strand one.

This workshop aims to explore the theme of anxiety as it manifests between people in the relatationships they form. Many clients report feeling confident, secure and altogether rounded  until they get in a relationship! Then suddenly it is as if their previous resillience melts away and is replaced by an axious, obsessive, and insecure characture of their former self. This workshop will share therapeutic interventions to support the work of the anxiously attached, as well as provide a simple model that allows therapists to map the interpersonal attachment dynamics of the therapy along the journey of the therapy.

This session is available in person and online as part of strand two.

There are many issues that contribute to feelings of anxiety in supervision - changes around professional practice, establishing and maintaining a thriving private practice, ethical dilemmas, global issues, personal matters, and working with risk, for example. Presenting these in supervision can be anxiety provoking as a supervisee, but the supervisor may too be anxious about how to address the concerns the supervisees present. How we discuss these issues in supervision can have an impact on how we feel about ourselves both in a personal and professional capacity.

This session is available in person as part of strand three.

This session will introduce the concept of postnatal anxiety (PNA) including an overview of the prevalence, risk factors and consequences of PNA, as well as the challenges of diagnosis.

A lived experience perspective of postnatal anxiety will be presented based on recently conducted research. Three core themes will be highlighted, including quotes from mothers describing their individual experiences of PNA.

An existential phenomenological approach to working PNA will be presented.

Aims:

• To share new knowledge about postnatal anxiety and how it can be worked with in practice
• To understand the impact PNA has on new mothers
• Participants will learn about therapeutic approaches suited to working with mothers experiencing postnatal anxiety 

This session is available in person and online as part of strand one.

Black Men on the Couch is a unique program that aids in self-reflection, discovery and personal growth for black and minority men. Rotimi Akinsete devised the concept over 10 years ago. In the programme, public events are organised that feature two black men – one who is a qualified psychotherapist, the other a high-profile black man – who engage in conversation during a public ‘counselling’ session/interview. His interviews have included the likes of Stan Collymore, Trevor Phillips, Ashley Walters, David Lammy, Kwame Kwei Armah, Gary Younge and many others.

In this session, members will have an opportunity to learn about the life, challenges, aspirations and first-hand accounts of psychotherapeutic Counsellor Wayne Mertins-Brown. You will hear about his learning and expertise surrounding the theme of racial anxiety and the effects of this on the black, male psyche and his insights on what can be gained by talking to a professionally-trained person.

The term Pure “O” is used by some people to refer to having obsessions without compulsions. However, most people with “Pure O” are still responding to an obsession by various mental activities.  These might include mental compulsions or trying to suppress or neutralise an obsessional thought. All such activities strengthen an obsession and maintain the distress of OCD. Treatment for ‘Pure O’ may be trickier but is the same as other forms of OCD. Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) which includes Exposure and Response Prevention is the recommended treatment for OCD, which will be illustrated in case examples.

By the end of the session, participants will 

• Understand the phenomenology of “Pure O” and the processes that maintain intrusive thoughts and images
• Understand a formulation of a case with “Pure O”
• Understand the principles of exposure and response prevention and imagery re-scripting

This session is available in person as part of strand three.