Setting Up Social Action Projects Rooted in Therapeutic Principles Part 4
Every period of history has its own unique set of challenges and people who try to come up
with corresponding solutions. Models of psychological therapies have developed from
solutions to the challenges facing people over the past hundred years and more.
Increasingly psychological therapists are trying to find ways to apply their models to the
challenges which face us in the mid-21 st century. Can models based on the internal workings of the mind have relevance for the problems facing the world around us? Is there a bridge that connects the internal experiences of being human with the external experiences of the political, social, environmental and cultural worlds around us? As psychological therapists, do we have a place on that bridge, a role in connecting the individual and the collective? Do we have a part to play in effecting social change or are we straying too far out of our consulting rooms? Many of us agree that there is a place for us on the bridge (Cooper, 2023). But how do we enact this new connecting role in an ethically mature, professionally framed way? How do we do it?
The practicalities of setting up, establishing and maintaining a project can feel
overwhelming. Where do you start, and should psychological therapists even be doing this
sort of work?
We can look to training institutions in higher education to provide us with the resources we
need to learn. But while some training courses consider issues of social inclusion and social
justice from a theoretical and conceptual point of view there is little if any guidance on how
to move into action.
Using a third sector community psychological therapies project as a case example this series of conversations aims to provide a practical guide to setting up a social action project rooted in therapeutic principles. The case example, Mothertongue multi-ethnic counselling service (2000 – 2018), was a community psychological therapy service which offered a range of activities and which, of course, faced challenges. Some of those challenges were specific to the timing and the context. Some of those challenges are similar to those experienced by practitioners and services today. Power and powerlessness, the hostile environment, discrimination all contribute to health inequalities. They formed the backdrop to the Mothertongue service and they are the backdrop now, intensified by current global and domestic issues and crises.
RECORDING
This workshop will be recorded and you can use the ticket function to pre-purchase the recording before the event. This will be useful for colleagues who are not able to attend the event live and also for those who attend the event live and want to watch it again.
ZOOM
This workshop will be hosted on the Zoom meeting platform where we will use our cameras and microphones to interact with each other as a group.
SELF-SELECT FEE
The self-select fee is a radical inclusion policy to open learning for all colleagues. The guide price for this event is £20.00, however, we appreciate that income varies greatly in different locations and circumstances. Please contribute what you can to help us maintain inclusive professional training.
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All the colleagues at ONLINEVENTS and the presenters we collaborate with are committed to working in a manner consistent with the BACP Ethical Framework, which can be accessed on the link below. When registering for this event you are agreeing to be present and interact in a manner that is consistent with this Framework.
Beverley Costa
After qualifying as a psychotherapist, Beverley Costa set up Mothertongue multi-ethnic counselling service (2000-2018) for multilingual clients. In 2009 she created a pool of mental health interpreters, in 2010 she established the national Bilingual Therapist and Mental Health Interpreter Forum and founded The Pásalo Project in 2017 www.pasaloproject.org to disseminate learning from Mothertongue.
She has trained over 5,000 therapists for NHS services and NGOs, in working therapeutically across languages and with interpreters since 2013. She is a Senior Practitioner Fellow at Birkbeck, University of London and in 2023 she was granted the title Senior Visiting Research Fellow in the School of Arts and Communication Design at the University of Reading.
She has run Reflective Practice Support groups for interpreters, psychological therapists and counsellors, nurses, teachers, lawyers, and psychosocial workers. She has developed an introductory course in facilitator skills for running Reflective Practice Groups which has been delivered online to organisations in England, Scotland and Wales. She is the author of Other Tongues -psychological therapies in a multilingual world https://tinyurl.com/Other-Tongues
Website | www.pasaloproject.org