BACP Private Practice conference 2024

Help! What do I need to do now? Tricky situations and ethical dilemmas in Private Practice (and how to handle them)

This year’s Private Practice conference has been developed by Private Practice committee members (who all work in private practice) in collaboration with BACP and will explore some of the most difficult problems that can emerge for therapists of all modalities.  

From ethical dilemmas, where there seems to be no obvious answer, to the kind of unexpected crisis that can prove overwhelming, such as the death of a client by suicide, the threat of stalking or harassment, a legal request for your patient notes or a complaint of malpractice. We’ll also look at areas that therapists – and supervisors - may struggle with, including finding effective ways to discuss the race construct, racism and difference. For the very first time the conference will also include a live panel discussion to explore ethical dilemmas and questions submitted by attendees. 

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 2024 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.

The aims of this session are to talk through the challenges and opportunities of working with clients at risk of suicide in a private practice setting.  Being able to: create a safe space where suicidal thoughts can be therapeutically explored; work effectively within contractual and ethical requirements; holding good practice at the centre; and paying attention to self-care are all critical aspects of our work.  While working with risk in private practice can feel daunting and scary, it can also provide meaningful therapeutic opportuties for clients that might not always be encountered in organisational settings. 

This session will aim to unpack what is meant by good practice, drawing on key documents from organisations like the Royal College of Psychiatrists, NICE and BACP.  It will additionally aim to help private practitioners think about the macro aspects of their work (practice statements, recording keeping and the management of confidentiality, for example), as well as the micro aspects (talking about suicide, therapeutic exploration and holding risk as a relational process). It fundamentally will aim to help you leave the session with more confidence in working with your clients in this important aspect of human experience.

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

This session aims for participants to leave the conference encouraged, reflective and considering actions which could enhance their readiness for meeting challenges. Anne's talk will build on earlier presentations and focus on these questions:

• How we can prepare for the falling rocks which may come our way?
• How can we identify and develop our own best coping mechanisms for stresses?
• What helps us convert challenge into learning and growth?

The presentation will outline how attachment behaviours can be triggered by fear and how knowing our own attachment patterns can help us manage our reactions. Looking at self-regulation and regulation through relationships and connection. Using understanding from attachment theory the presentation look at how safety enables learning, how having a safe haven allows recovery from fear and how a secure base allows our re-entry into the world. The role of partners, friends, supervisors (peer and paid), colleagues, therapists and pets will all be considered along with the self-help strategies which can restore emotional safety.

Reflection on our preparedness for meeting challenge, on the value of work-life balance and the importance of having a reserve of energy and commitment so that if we are hit by falling rocks, these do not find us running on empty.

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

The session will focus on developing a practically useful perspective for white practitioners who wish to develop their ability to effectively work cross culturally with BAME clients. Using Matthew's own perspective as a Black person and psychotherapist, the presentation will share the experiences of clients that have come from previously having white therapists and observations throughout Matthew's career.

Matthew aims to respond to those white practitioners who wish to be effective allies to their clients from diverse backgrounds and offer support in learning how to create as safe a space as possible where cultural difference is concerned.

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

The purpose of the session is Raising awareness that complaints happen and to encourage counsellors not to avoid thinking or talking about them.

The aims of the session are to cover that complaints reach & ripple far into our professional and personal lives, yet we CAN survive and even thrive through and beyond a complaint. Making use of peer support, self-care, reflective learning, professional resources e.g. GPiA, Ethics, EF, Legal, ICO, CPD & more. To consider non-conformance scenarios & how these ‘could’ impact a complaint. A brief tour of the ‘paperwork’. Coping strategies & rebuilding work & life post conclusion / sanction.

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

This session is to understand the key issues around ‘pre-trial therapy’ (PTT) and the importance of all therapists being ‘PTT informed’ as a minimum. Attendees will be more prepared if/when the need arises, able to work in their clients’ best interests, and reduce the risks for their clients and themselves.

The recently updated Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) guidance (2022) is designed specifically for clients who might appear in court as a victim of crime, after alleging that a crime has been committed against them.  It unhelpfully focuses on sexual crimes but applies to victims of other crimes too.  

What about crime witnesses, alleged offenders and others whose notes could be requested?

What if clients don’t see themselves as victims (or offenders): domestic violence being normal; grooming as a special relationship; hate crime to be tolerated; radicalisation as ideological?

What if your client hasn’t decided whether to report to the police yet or decides to after finishing counselling?  What if someone else reports to the police? 

Can we discuss what’s happened or guarantee client confidentiality? How do we fully inform clients?  What does GDPR mean in this context?  Do we have to hand over clients’ notes when requested by police/CPS – what, when and how?  

This session is available in person in strand three.

Conflict is common in both personal relationships and in counselling and psychotherapy. The successful repair of ruptures caused by conflict is an important component of enduring and happy personal relationships (Gottman, 1999; Wile, 1988) and can play a useful part in successful therapy across diverse theoretical approaches (Eubanks et al., 2023; Gelso, 2014). The aim of this presentation is to make links between an opportunity-threat model of rupture and repair in personal relationships (Grimmer, 2019) and a parallel model of therapeutic ruptures. The repair of ruptures is understood as a dynamic, interpersonal, reciprocally subjective process in which attending to the meaning of a rupture is key to helping repair it. Suggestions will be offered for ways that therapists can detect and prevent the different ways that ruptures can present. Repair strategies using metacommunication (mindfulness-in-interaction) and emotion regulation (Muran et al., 2023) will be discussed as well as the importance of therapist self-awareness  and of eliciting client feedback on the process and progress of therapy.

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

Stalking is life changing, it causes intimidation, fear and sometimes death to the victims. This session aims to raise awareness of stalking and the impact it has on its victims and the types of behaviour which might be considered as stalking. An overview of stalking legislation will be provided and the risks pertaining to stalking will also be covered, along with the considerations of lone working.

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

In conjunction with the conference theme on ‘tricky situations’ that we may find ourselves in as therapists in the counselling ‘room’, this in-person only session will support delegates to bring their own ethical dilemma to the panel for group discussion and exploration.  There will be an opportunity at the start of the session for all those in attendance to submit their ethical dilemma, which will be put to a vote for all delegates to agree on which three* dilemma’s are the most topical and will be taken forward to be explored during the session.

The expert panel will guide the group discussion offering their perspectives and signposting to useful resources and also discussing the ethical decision making model which is a supportive tool to utilise when working through ethical dilemmas**.

*Given the number of delegates and the time constraints only a maximum number of three ethical dilemmas will be taken forward for the group discussion.  

** For this session to work effectively and to gain maximum benefit of attending, it is requested that all delegates keep confidentiality and comitt to not disclosing any information discussed in the workshop outside of the session. To support this, the event organisers won’t record the session for use in the on-demand service and delegate numbers will be limited.

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