Jane Ryan

Jane Ryan is the founder of Confer and worked as its director from 1999 to 2022.

Confer was created to create bridges between different schools of thought in the psychotherapy field. This project developed into an ongoing programme of conferences and seminars which presented new ideas on how good therapy is achieved. Themes ranged from working with trauma to developmental issues, from the therapeutic relationship to neurobiology. Confer positioned the work of psychotherapy in the context of the problematic external world, particularly with regards to the environmental crisis, child abuse, class, and racial injustice. Over the years, its events attracted thousands of practitioners by providing a welcoming space for dialogue and professional development.

Jane was joined in the enterprise by Dr Stephen Setterberg in 2017. Together they developed Confer’s scope into a larger organisation, incorporating Karnac Books and the organisation’s own publishing imprint, Confer Books which aimed to take psychotherapeutic insights out into the wider world of those interested in emotional, psychological, and relational issues. Confer-Karnac was shortlisted for the award of ‘Best Newcomer’ by the Independent Publishers Guild in 2022.

Jane formerly trained as a psychotherapist at the Centre for Attachment-based Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy (CAPP) in the 1990s.

She is the editor of three books How Does Psychotherapy Work? (Karnac, 2006), Tales of Psychotherapy (Karnac, 2007) and, with Roz Carroll, What is Normal? (Confer Books, 2020).
She lives in Suffolk and has most recently been studying for an MA in Creative Writing at UEA

Jane is Patron of The Yellow Heart Trust http://yht.org.uk

Linkedin
www.linkedin.com/pub/jane-ryan/4a/835/876

Publications

How Does Psychotherapy Work?
Publisher: Karnac Books, 2005

Tales of Psychotherapy
Publisher: Karnac Books, 2007

What is Normal?: Psychotherapists Explore the Question
Editor With Roz Carroll – Publisher: Confer Books, 2021