The Pleasures and Perils of a Psychotherapeutic Career: How to flourish in the impossible profession

Saturday 2 November 2019

A One-Day Workshop with Professor Brett Kahr

The psychotherapist can help restore broken marriages and mend shattered families. The psychotherapist also has the potential to save people from killing themselves. Yet the burdens of working psychotherapeutically can be immense, not only emotionally, but, also, medically across the life cycle. In this specially constructed one-day workshop, Professor Brett Kahr will share his extensive forty years of experience, investigating both the pitfalls and the pleasures of this unusual but vital profession. Providing a first-hand glimpse into the entire life cycle of the psychotherapist from the early years of training to preparation for retirement and death, the workshop will offer participants a privileged glimpse into his thinking about the factors which either facilitate or inhibit our creative growth across our working lives.

FULL PROGRAMME

09.30
Registration and coffee

10.00
Burnout, Breakdown, Bankruptcy: The Perils of the Impossible Profession
The average British psychotherapist earns fewer than £20,000 per annum, and in view of the increasing growth of trainings, many will struggle to earn a living. Those who do work extensively with patients and clients immerse themselves in long days of listening to traumatic narratives which can prove quite exhausting. Many ageing psychotherapists suffer from severe orthopaedic injuries and neurological symptoms as a result of sitting for decades in a chair. In this introduction section of the workshop, we shall consider the pitfalls of a career in psychotherapy and begin to explore the ways in which these can be understood and navigated or, even, avoided entirely.

11.15
Coffee

11.45
Mark Linington in Conversation with Brett Kahr
From Surviving to Flourishing: How to Lecture, Publish, Research, Administrate, and Broadcast
No one knows how to remain silent for longer periods of time than a jobbing psychotherapist. And yet, one wonders whether our attachment to silence and to yielding most of the space to the patient actually inhibits or even castrates the potency of our own voice outside the consulting room. Consequently, many psychological practitioners never manage to express themselves as teachers, writers, lecturers, supervisors, administrators, or broadcasters, let alone as blue-sky thinkers who might have the potentiality to make major changes to our profession and to our culture at large. In this section of the workshop, we shall consider how one can develop one’s internal vocal authorisation and one’s “scriptive” muscles, allowing practitioners to speak and write more fully and more effectively.

13.00
Lunch break

14.00
The Unconscious Roots of Professional Inhibitionism: The Fear of Envy and the Terror of Success
In 1911, Sigmund Freud first hypothesised that becoming successful creates an unconscious burden and that many of us will attack ourselves and prevent ourselves from achieving our full potentiality in order to stave off envy. We shall explore not only Freud’s pioneering contribution to the psychology of “success studies” but, also, we shall consider Melanie Klein’s fundamental insights about envy and consider how these unconscious factors will prevent us from maximising our potentialities.

15:00
Tea

15.30
Brainstorming and Networking: Live “Supervision” of Participants’ Careers
In the final section of this one-day workshop, braver participants will have a unique opportunity to discuss their own career struggles and ambitions and will be able to receive live “supervision” and practical advice about what concrete steps might be taken to realise one’s projects and goals.

16.30
Group Discussion

17.00
End

FEES

Handouts and lunch included

Live webcast:
£40 (SOLD OUT)
(10am to 3pm – 3.5 hours CPD – Post event recording also available until 16 November)

Confer member:
£96
(Click here to become a member) (SOLD OUT)

Self-funded:
£120 (SOLD OUT)

Self-funded x 2:
£200 (SOLD OUT)

Organisationally-funded:
£200 (SOLD OUT)

Psychotherapy trainee:
£80 (SOLD OUT)

CPD

Certificates of attendance for 6 hours will be provided at the event

VENUE

6th Floor
Foyles Bookshop
107 Charing Cross Road
London
WC2H 0DT
DIRECTIONS & MAP >>

SCHEDULE

Saturday
09.30 Registration and coffee
10:00 Start
11:15 Coffee
13:00 Lunch break
15:00 Tea
17:00 End

BOOKING CONDITIONS

Regrettably, refunds cannot be given in any circumstances except as follows:

  • You cancel in writing to info@confer.uk.com 60 days before the first date of the event you have booked, in which case you will be entitled to a 100% refund.
  • You cancel in writing to info@confer.uk.com 30 days before the first date of the event you have booked, in which case you will be entitled to a 50% refund.

This does not apply to parts of an event such as a seminar within a series but only to a whole event or complete series. You may give your place to another person if you let us know that person's name at least 24 hours before the event begins.

We reserve the right to change a speaker at one of our conferences without offering a refund. However, if a solo presenter cancels we will offer a full refund OR transfer of your fee to another Confer event. If the entire event is cancelled we will offer you a full refund.

We reserve the right to change our prices at any time. Regrettably, discounts offered after you made your booking cannot be claimed or applied retrospectively.