AFT Scotland Newsletter Summer 2015

Arlene on attachment

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Healthy attachments with loving and consistent carers are important for our emotional, social and psychological development. But what happens when these vital relationships are damaged or disrupted? How might these hurts or ‘attachment injuries’ affect the way we respond in other important relationships? How can we, as therapists, create the space and opportunities for these hurts to be soothed, comforted and repaired?

Dr. Arlene Vetere presented a day-long workshop at the Gilles Centre in Edinburgh on June 5th 2015, hosted by the Family Therapy Training Network. Although she has years of experience Arlene has a gift for making the

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emerging theories about attachment accessible, applying them to her work with warmth and sensitivity, and sharing simple and practical ways for other therapists to use them with a broad range of clients.

The day was rich with learning, experience, case studies and stories. The event was enhanced by meeting old friends, making new ones, and enjoying the spectacular venue.

An extra special touch was the smell of freshly baking scones that wafted, distractingly, into the conference room from the adjacent kitchen. They were warm and ready, with butter and jam, for our mid morning break…Many

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thanks to Arlene for her brilliant workshop, FTTN for organizing the event, Lynne Miller for hours of hard work administering the event and hosting the day, and especially to all the clients who gave Arlene permission to share their inspiring stories.

What workshops would you like to see in Scotland during the coming year? Please share your ideas by emailing karensholford@gmail.com.

INSIDE THIS ISSUE

• DIY Therapy Cards

• Join us for coffee?

• New leaflet about family therapy

Connections CONNECTIONS…

the newsletter of the Scotland Branch of the Association for Family Therapy.

It is circulated to family therapists, systemic practitioners, family therapy trainees and other

people who are interested in the news and activities of family therapists in Scotland.

• Training events

• Working with adult families?

• Aspens…and ideas…

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Would you like to meet a few other

family therapists every couple of

months? Would you like to share ideas

and help to make plans for our AFT

Scotland Branch? Would you like to

do this from the comfort of your own

home?

The AFT Scotland committee meets

face-to-face in Glasgow at Freedom

from Torture, but some of us join the

meetings via Skype, and some of us

call in via a speaker phone so we can

hear the live and Skype conversations

and contribute to them as well. The

meetings are warm, friendly and

surprisingly fun!

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Currently we ‘meet’ every other

month on the first Tuesday of the

month, from about 7 or 8 to 8.45pm.

If you would like to join us for any of

our meetings please email us so we can

include you in the planning and update

you if there are any changes.

Provisional dates are:

July 7, September 1, November 3,

and January 5 2016

Let us know if you would like to join

us via phone, Skype or in the live

meeting at the Adelphi Centre,

Glasgow.

Email karensholford@gmail.com for

more information and to express your

interest.

And what about the coffee?

Well, just pour yourself a lovely big

cup before you turn on your Skype!

AN Invitation for coffee?

DIY THERAPY CARDS I was sorting out one of my cupboards when I pulled out a small plastic sandwich box. Inside the container were dozens of cards. Each card had a photograph of something to do with roads, cars and journeys. There were roundabouts, dead-ends, hairpin bends, flooded roads, garages, cafes, laybys, recovery vehicles, traffic lights etc. I made them years ago and I had completely forgotten they were there! So I took them into Couple Counselling Lothian where I work, and we used them with two different families on the very first day. We asked each person to choose as many cards as they wanted to tell the story of their life so far. Then we asked them to choose cards to represent how they would like their family, or relationships to be in the future.

There are lots of ways to use cards like this, and cards with all kinds of other pictures. Purchased therapy card sets can be expensive. But if you use PowerPoint you can easily make your own cards. Search for the pictures you want on www.bing.com using the search facility. Filter the results via the ‘license’ options so that you find copyright free pictures. Click on the picture you want and it will usually be placed on a white background. Then copy it with ‘ctrl c’ and paste it into a PowerPoint presentation. Choose pictures with a landscape orientation, if possible, so that you can fit 4 postcard-sized pictures onto a slide. Resize the pictures so that they are all the same size, with a white border. Print your PowerPoint as colour slides onto thin card, and trim them to size with a guillotine. Once you have created a set you can save the PowerPoint presentation and print it out as many times as you like. They make great gifts for all your systemic colleagues!

What tips, ideas and home-made tools do you use in your therapeutic work with families? We’d love to hear from you!

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LOVING WITH THE BRAIN IN MIND

Dr Mona DeKoven Fishbane Neuroscience has enriched our understanding of the ways in which our neuro-development and the connections in our brain affect the ways in which we relate to each other.

This fascinating and accessible book describes some of the latest neuro-scientific research, especially the optimistic findings about the plasticity of the brain.

The chapter on ‘Healing Intergenerational Hurts’ tackles the intricate and knotty challenges of working with adults and their adult parents in an insightful and useful way. I shared this chapter with my FT team at Couple Counselling Lothian, and it is beginning to transform our work with several of our long-standing adult families.

As many FT training courses include very little information about working with adult families, this chapter helps to fill the gap in our learning, not only for our clients, but maybe also for ourselves… Contact Karen Holford for more information karensholford@gmail.com

Systemic Leadership and Communication Practice

The pragmatics of systemic communication and leadership theory September 25-126, 2015, 9:30-16:30 Chambers Suites, Parkstead House, Roehampton, London, SW15 4JD A workshop for managers, leaders and consultants who are interested to apply post modern thinking in relation to their leadership, consultancy and organisational development work.

Most managers would agree that the complexity of their leadership challenge exceeds the simplicity of contemporary leadership theories, which offer little instructive significance to decision making. Inspired by post modern theory we take the view that leaders’ decision making can be informed by their positioning within a system, which is shaped by the leader herself and by processes of communication and coordination in the organisation.

Drawing on post modern communication theory, systemic practice and case vignettes, Christine Oliver and Martin Miksits offer concepts that embrace the complexity experienced in real leadership challenges, that make it possible for leaders to make sense of and orientate to the uniqueness of their situation, and invite ways of expanding choices for leaders to act in relation to challenges.

In this two-day workshop participants will

• appreciate communication as the ‘stuff’ that creates leadership, coordination and performance in organisations

• understand post modern communication theory as foundational to systemic leadership approaches and the possibilities it adds over conventional communication and leadership theories

• reflect and learn from their own practice and experience of leadership practice, for instance in relation to strategy, performance management, organisational learning and change, applying postmodern and systemic concepts

• develop specific reflections and actions for their leadership situations in relation to relevant practice contexts

• For more information and an application form - visit www.systemicleadership.eu

Lorem Ipsum SUMMER 2015

A new leaflet explaining family therapy is now available from AFT. It can also be downloaded from www.aft.org.uk

AFT members can send a large SAE to AFT for 25 free copies.

ASPENS - Scotland?

ASPENS is a special interest group/committee that is part of AFT UK. If you are working as a family therapist or systemic practitioner in the private, independent or non-statutory sectors, or in several of these areas, then you might be interested in joining ASPENS, which is a group of other family therapists and systemic practitioners working in non-NHS contexts. Would you like to meet up with other therapists and systemic practitioners in Scotland either face-to-face, or via Skype? What are your needs? What would help to support you?

A low-cost day conference for practitioners and therapists in independent, private and non-statutory contexts is being planned in London on Thursday 21st January 2016.

Inspiring words

The following quote was written in a notebook in 1909 by the poet William Butler Yeats when he was 44:

"In wise love, each divines the high secret self of the other and, refusing to believe in the mere daily self, creates a mirror where the lover or the beloved sees an image to copy in daily life."

Cross Party Groups

Would you be willing to join a Cross Party Group (CPG) at the Scottish Parliament? It would be good to have a family therapist representative on the following CPGs. If more than one person is interested in a group it may be possible to share the responsibility between you. Please let me know if you are interested. Email me on karensholford@gmail.com

• Mental Health

• Drug and Alcohol Misuse

• Families affected by Imprisonment

AFT Conference 2017 - Bid for Scotland?

A small taskforce is meeting to explore the viability of hosting the AFT Conference in 2017. If you are interesting in being part of this group, or in joining us to make exciting plans if the bid goes ahead, then please let us know. We’d love to have you!

There are always a few free or discounted places for local AFT Conference committee members…Contact Karen on karensholford@gmail.com if you want to join us.