Conferences

CHT staff regularly give papers and make presentations at conferences in the UK and abroad:

Terry Saftis presented a paper at the Association of Therapeutic Communities annual conference in 2011.

John Gale presented a paper at a conference on trauma and spirituality held in Belfast in March 2011.

Terry Saftis and John Gale gave a paper at a conference on Cultures of Evaluation for the Quality of the Cure: Process and Result of Treatments in Therapeutic Communities held in Milan 29th-30th September 2011.

Terry Saftis and John Gale gave a paper about CHT's work with traumatised ex service men and women at the 14th International Military Mental Health Conference held in Berlin on 5th-6th December 2011.

Terry Saftis and Tom Cotton made a presentation about the work of CHT at the 2011 annual forum of the Community of Communities, in the Centre for Quality Improvement at the Royal College of Psychiatrists. The theme was 'Different traditions in TCs: How much do TCs embrace different therapeutic approaches?' and as always featured workshops and presentations from member organizations.

Natalie Schofield and John Gale made a presentation of Home Base at the Homeless Link 'mental health and well-being good practice event - introducing Psychologically Informed Environments (PIEs)' on the 24th March.

Terry Saftis and Emma Pyle presented the work of CHT at the 2011 Therapeutic Communities Interest Group conference in Eastbourne. The conference was on psychosocial therapies for the treatment of psychosis.

In September 2010 Alistair Black presented a paper with Holly North at the Annual Windsor conference of the Association of Therapeutic Communities. Their paper was entitled 'Psychosis, transference and the position of the analyst'. In a compelling and erudite paper it was argued that, in contrast to a Kleinian approach, "a psychoanalytic approach along Lacanian lines organises the treatment around a defined axis of transference to the knowledge which is supposed to have a healing effect. All forms of treatment involve the fundamental role of transference, including psychiatric modes of treatment, however within psychiatric discourse and practice, and even in medicine more generally, transference is undoubtedly utilised yet un-theorized and therefore any effects of transference is purely accidental one way or the other. Lacanian psychoanalytic practice within a hospital or therapeutic community setting needs to develop a clearly defined 'axis of transference' in which transference relations are worked within and handled through the theoretical architecture of the three dimensions:, the imaginary, the symbolic and the real".

John Gale gave a paper at a conference entitled Architettura e Psiche organised by Dr Rosario Marocco at La Sapienza University in Rome on 28th September 2010. "One of the principles of the therapeutic community approach is that the whole environment - including the built space - forms not just the arena of treatment - although of course, it does include it - but also in its function as habitation the built space is part of what is specifically therapeutic in the experience of the patients and staff who live and work there. This corresponds quite closely to the three-fold notion of environment discussed by Heidegger in which the person’s own self-environment (the inner as well as the outer bodily self), social environment (which includes relationships, intersubjectivity, Mitsein) and surrounding environment (nature as a whole, the location and surrounding landscape) form a whole. This threefold schema encompasses all the spaciality characteristic of Dasein from the nearness of interiority to remoteness of the other. This tripartite conception of the concept of the environment has led to a fascination with Heidegger's philosophy by some architectural theorists which in its turn has informed the designs of architects like Peter Zumthor, Steven Holl, Hans Scharoun and Colin St John Wilson. For Heidegger a place is a space that has been cleared, like a clearing in the forest, cleared for something. And in a way, what matters, he suggests, is the kind of thing that the place has been cleared for. In other words, the emphasis in architecture is shifted by the philosopher away from the aesthetics of the building to the human activity of dwelling, which is rooted in the building which has been constructed". [The conference was reported on www.archinfo.it/meeting-architettura-e-psiche].

Alistair Black and Holly North ran a workshop at the 13th Annual Northern Ireland Group Psychotherapy Conference on Recovery and Reparation through Groups held in Belfast 12-13th August 2010.

CHT's annual conference 2010 was held at the Royal Society of Medicine. The theme of the conference was psychosis and substance misuse. Professor Gary Winship (Associate Professor Centre for the Study of Human Relations, School of Education and Senior Fellow of the Institute of Mental Health, Nottingham University) gave a fascinating paper on Bion's unpublished notes on Rosenfeld's Psychotic Addicts. Martin Weegmann (Consultant Clinical Psychologist and Group Analyst, Lead for Psychology and Psychotherapy, South West London NHS Trust Substance Misuse Services) gave a paper on Dual diagnosis. Dr Rik Loose (Psychoanalyst and Clinical Psychologist, Lecturer, University College Dublin in association with St Vincent's Hospital) gave a paper on Drug use and 'ordinary' psychosis. Dr Alison Summers (Consultant Psychiatrist, Lancashire Care Early Intervention Service) made a presentation on Substance use in early psychosis and Patrick Coyne (Nurse Consultant Dual Diagnosis, Central and North West London NHS Foundation Trust) presented on the use of traditional relapse prevention approaches to dual diagnosis.

On 26th March 2010 at the Annual Forum of the Community of Communities Staff and clients from Home Base made a presentation about the dispersed therapeutic community model CHT has developed for ex-servicemen and women which deviates from the typical one-site residential TC model. They demonstrated how psychoanalytic psychotherapy can help to prevent those with complex trauma becoming homeless.

On 11th and 12th December 2009 staff presented a paper entitled 'Social pedagogy and depth hermeneutics' at a conference at Ghent University, Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences. The aim of the symposium was to explore different paradigms of care and support by way of theoretical exploration, the similarities and dissimilarities in the contemporary theoretical frameworks of education and social work. National and international experts were invited to discuss concepts and paradigms that have influenced their work and the way social and educational care and support are organised in their respective countries. The paper was an exploration of the nature of therapeutic community practice, illustrated by the work of CHT and a discussion of the notion of the TC in relation to social pedagogy by developing the idea that the social and community aspects of human living depend on language and dialogue (Wittgenstein) and that this necessarily involves understanding and interpretation which rely on pedagogy understood in terms of the 'depth hermeneutics' (Habermas) intrinsic to the psychoanalytic tradition (Lacan). This dual focus on intersubjectivity and the unconscious, it was argued, leads to a re-evaluation of the notions of care and treatment which challenges the current reductionist climate.

Staff presented the work CHT has been doing on applying early Lacanian thinking (based on Heidegger's philosophy) to the treatment of patients with a psychosis in small therapeutic environments at a joint one day ISPS UK and NWIDP Conference entitled Understanding the experience of people with psychosis - applying NICE guidelines on using psychodynamic principles held on Tuesday 29th September 2009 in Warrington. The focus of the presentation was on understanding the linguistic structure of the group and how to develop what we call 'fundamental conversation' or in Lacan's terminology 'full speech' - that is, recognising the intersubjective nature of the unconscious and taking that into account. This provided a foundation to say something about the presence of the past in patients' self understanding and about the importance of allowing patients to find her/his own direction/answers in the course of treatment, and the corollary that the therapists/staff gain an understanding of their own lack of understanding.

Staff presented a paper entitled The Continuing Influence of the Past at The Association of Therapeutic Community's (ATC's) Windsor Conference 2009 held at Cumberland Lodge, Windsor Great Park, 15-18 September. This paper addressed the fundamental aspects of the notion of tradition by drawing principally on the philosophy of Hans-George Gadamer and the psychoanalytic oeuvre of Jacques Lacan. The authors argue that a concern for present lived experience is also always a concern for the past, because in order to uncover the meaning of the present, we need to reach back into that past with which we remain intimately connected. Our self understanding is, therefore, an immersion into tradition. That tradition, however, is part of the history of the group or community of which we form a part and into which we are embedded. Memory and remembering are intimately connected to our historical being and for this reason, following Lacan, we can describe the unconscious as a sort of register of memory. Memory, in this sense is not a storehouse of unconscious phantasies, but something dynamic. Thus, our historical being is always an historical being-with (Heidegger's Mitsein) or part of the intersubjective nature of the therapeutic community to which we belong. But this past focus also bears something of a transcendent character, for tradition, history, memory and present recalling of the past are linked with self-continuity, and therefore with our own future and that of our communities.

Staff ran a half day workshop on "the inner conflict of combat" at the 12th Annual Boston-Northern Ireland Group Psychotherapy Conference held in Belfast 20-21st August 2009. The theme of the conference was Terror, Trauma, Transformation: Skilled Group Work at the Edges. The workshop was based on clinical work being carried out with traumatized and homeless former soldiers in the UK by CHT. The workshop aimed to help participants gain experiential insight into the traumatic effects of conflict, by linking experiences in which groups are identified in terms of adversaries with participants' inner world.

Staff made a presentation on the interface between psychotherapy and spirituality in the context of the therapeutic community at the European Federation of Therapeutic Communities (EFTC) annual conference Rehabilitation and Drug Policy held in The Hague 2-5 June 2009.

At the invitation of Dr Franco Scarpa and Dr Jose Mannu staff gave a paper on CHT's work at a conference organised on the theme of marginality which was held in Rome 26-7 March entitled Le nuove marginalità tra aggregazione ed emarginazione:Il ruolo della riabilitazione psichiatrica. Their paper focused specifically on CHT's work with traumatisted ex soldiers. In their paper the authors describe the work of Community Housing and Therapy (CHT), a UK based not-for-profit social enterprise, which has developed a unique and successful business model, research programme and staff training programme, and runs small therapeutic treatment centres along therapeutic community lines. This approach, which is based on a hermeneutic reading of psychoanalysis, primarily treats and cares for those with a psychosis, and severely traumatised ex-military personnel, who have been homeless. Both groups suffer from profound social exclusion. Through its psychoanalytic psychotherapy programmes, and its rehabilitative and employment schemes, CHT effects social integration for people suffering extremes of marginalisation. The paper will be published in the acta of the conference later in the year.

Terry Saftis and Weronika Kocikowska made a presentation on whether acute wards can use therapeutic community methods at the ISPS UK conference Improving the experience of inpatient care: developing a positive approach to risk taking was held on 26th March.

The Royal College of Psychiatrists' Centre for Quality Improvement, asked us to make a presentation in the Community of Communities' Annual Forum on 27th March. Emma Pyle and Cristina Vergara ran a workshop on experiential staff learning in a therapeutic community.

The Mental Health Today Exhibition on 4th December 2007 - the biggest mental health event in the UK (60 plus exhibitors and 2,000 visitors) - was used to raise CHT's profile. CHT had one of the five zones– the "therapy zone" and made a number of presentations during the day, followed by discussions and experiential sessions. Topics we presented on included CBT, TCs psychodynamic therapy, training for work and art therapy.

The theme CHT's annual conference 2008 was 'Psychological Services for the Homeless'. The key note speaker was Lord Victor Adebowale, Chief Executive of Turning Point. Other speakers included Dr Angela Jones, Health Adviser at the Department of Communities and Local Government; Dr Phil Timms, Consultant Psychiatrist, South London and Maudsley NHS Trust; Doug Davie RN, from the Veterans Policy Unit, Ministry of Defence; Dr Philip Stokoe, a psychoanalyst and Clinical Director of the Adult Department of the Tavistock and Portman NHS Foundation Trust and Dr Nick Maguire, Deputy Director, School of Psychology, University of Southampton. There were two workshops, one run by Homeless Link and the other by Terry Saftis, one of CHT's senior managers.

Staff gave a paper on the work of CHT and ran a workshop with Dr Enrico Pedriali at a conference at the University of Bolzano, Bressanone, Italy in March 2008 at the invitation of Professor Liliana Dozza. As a result John was invited to join the scientific committee for G&LLL, a new European body being set up to promote collaboration in groups in education, health and social care.

Staff attended the Therapeutic Communities Oxford Science Meeting held in March 2008 at the invitation of Dr Rex Haigh. The meeting was to discuss research options for TCs, particularly whether or not RTCs were a realistic option. A consensus statement was drawn up. It was very valuable to be present, to network and to bring into the arena an awareness of TCs for psychosis. The meeting included, notably, Nick Benefield from DoH, Professor Peter Tyrer from Imperial College, Professor George de Leon from NYU School of Medicine and Dr Eric Broekaert from the University of Ghent.

John Gale and Inma Vidana presented a research paper about the work of CHT at the 8th ENMESH 2008 (the European Network for Mental Health Service Evaluation) conference on 23-4th May at the invitation of Professor Andrzej Cechnicki and Dr Anna Bielanska at Krakow University. This was a large international conference on mental health research and our aim now is to maintain the numerous links we made there, including links with the Institute of Psychiatry and the Sainsbury Centre, and to stay in active contact with the ENMESH group. There will be another conference in two years time which we are already working towards.

Staff made two presentations and delivered an academic paper at the Institute Pensar at the Javeriana University in Bogota and at Rosario University, Bogota at the invitation of Professor Alberto Ferguson on 16th June. Hosted by Professor Guillermo Hoyos Vásquez, this conference was organised around the book which John edited and there was a book launch at the university.

Staff presented a paper at the ATC International Windsor Conference held in September 2008. The staff who attended the conference on behalf of CHT arranged a book launch at that the conference in which we sold over 50 copies of the book.

Staff attended the Second Oxford Health and Homelessness Conference in September 2008 and presented a poster session on the work of Home Base. Around 80 people attended the presentation and there was great interest in the innovative work CHT was doing with homeless and traumatised ex service personnel.