Free Thursdays Return: Weekly Clinical Conversations With Leading Experts
Every Thursday at 5pm from September, join us online for free webcast conversations with specialists in trauma, addiction, anxiety, grief work, racial injustice and more.
Back in the Spring, when the world went in to lockdown, PESI UK responded by launching Free Thursdays. Once a week, at 5pm, one or more leading national and international clinicians joined us from their desks – or their sofas – to reflect on their specialist area of psychotherapy. We heard from the likes of Sensorimotor Psychotherapist Tony Buckley on working with the body online, Peter Levine on releasing trauma, Deb Dana on applying Polyvagal Theory via online technology, and Tom Warnecke on crisis intervention during the pandemic.
In strange and shifting times, as a non-profit organisation we wanted to provide a regular and accessible space for clinical conversation.
At a moment when many in our profession are coping with intense unforeseen pressures, including the demands of online working and increased financial uncertainty, we wanted to do our bit to help therapists and related mental healthcare professionals to feel connected, supported, resourced – and perhaps a little inspired.
Offering in-depth yet relaxed conversations with leading voices in the therapy world, these ‘Free Thursdays’ webcasts proved so popular that we’ve decided to bring them back.
Over the next four months, we’ll be in conversation with leading experts on topics including trauma, addiction, racial injustice, anxiety and grief, with insights from Attachment Theory, Internal Family Systems (IFS), Polyvagal Theory and neuroscience.
We’ll begin tomorrow (September 3), with CBT specialists John Ludgate and Windy Dryden. What do they make of third wave therapies such as ACT, Mindfulness and DBT? Is it possible, effective or desirable to “do a bit of CBT” along with another core approach? When is symptom reduction an appropriate goal, and when is deeper belief change required? John and Windy will be discussing the key questions in contemporary CBT.
On September 10, we’ll be hearing from trauma expert Christina Reese on attachment in children and families.
On September 17, join the author of Rewire Your Anxious Brain, Catherine Pittman, to learn about the neuropsychology of anxiety, and how to understand and work with symptomology.
On September 24, Kathy Steele will be talking about complex trauma with a focus on dissociation, and how that might manifest for clients in the counselling room and beyond.
Each one-hour event is hosted by PESI UK’s director, psychotherapist and trauma specialist Tracy Jarvis, and concludes with a Q&A. Where possible, we’ll also be inviting more than one guest to join us, often from opposite sides of the pond, in order to offer multiple clinical perspectives and to promote professional debate.
Whether you wish to listen in, or to participate yourself via the Q&A, we really your presence and clinical perspective too. So from tomorrow, grab a cuppa and join us every Thursday at 5pm for more essential clinical dialogues – all at the click of a zoom link, and all completely free.