BAPPS NEWSLETTER

DECEMBER 2004

BAPPS AUTUMN CONFERENCE - SHAME IN SUPERVISION

The following is a contribution from Gloria Steemsonne & Rae Michaelis. The conference affected us each in a different way. We realise that our perspectives come from our own different life experiences.

It was easy to forget all about the difficulties we had experienced during the year whilst organising this conference as on the day everything went smoothly. For this we thank our speakers Professor Rose and Ted Martin, the chair Brian Maunder and everyone else who worked hard behind the scenes. The venue itself is relatively accessible with excellent facilities and food.

And so after meeting up with old friends the conference began with an introduction from Brian Maunder. He used the image of the hologram, which is formed by interference patterns when two laser beams meet. In this case the light beams were the speakers Professor Rose and Ted Martin. We were captivated from the start by Professor Rose’s words. Our attention didn’t wander as we listened with admiration and interest. What made it even more compelling was the chemistry between the speakers who had never met before the day. As Professor Rose spoke Ted began to smile and occasionally wrote something down, as if what she said added depth to what he had already written.

Professor Rose spoke about the dynamics of projecting our darker side out onto and into whomever or whatever is perceived as the ‘other’ and how this process can be seen to be encapsulated in its worst form in war. Of how shaming the enemy is the basis of what we do when we fight a war and how feeling ashamed is something we avoid at all costs. That dreadful vulnerability made even more unbearable by the physiological changes that we experience when we feel ashamed or are shamed.

She concentrated her paper around intractable problems in the world such as those between the Israelis and the Palestinians and our involvement in Iraq. It was a bold presentation especially when later we learned that she doesn’t always receive a sympathetic hearing. Professor Rose told us that as a Jewish woman she is particularly concerned about the state of the Israelis’ psyches with regard to their treatment of the Palestinians and likewise with regard to the psyches of Bush and Blaire and our involvement in the war in Iraq. (We wondered what in psychoanalytic terms the literally fragmented suicide bomber is playing out for the privileged, omnipotent Western world?

Interestingly Ted’s paper went back to the origin of sin as told in the Old Testament story of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. (It was Professor Rose’s turn to smile and scribble down notes). Referring to a paper by Mattinson, Ted drew parallels with the way the Adam and Eve dyad was altered after Eve had eaten an apple from the tree of knowledge. God’s presence drew attention to their vulnerability and Ted compared the resulting shame experienced by the couple with ‘stranger anxiety’ that develops in the mind of an infant.

This led onto the role of shame in peer group supervision when a third; the supervisor is introduced into the counsellor/client relationship. Reference was made to the oedipal nature of the group and to the supervisor as having eaten that infamous apple. Therefore shame is present from the ‘Genesis’ of a group and perhaps this is because the supervisory process makes demands on our narcissism. ‘ Will I the supervisee reveal my ignorance or blind the supervisor with my brilliance?’ ‘ Will I the supervisor feel overwhelmed with material or stay focused and impressive?’ To simplify we can feel empty with nothing to give or omnipotent and full of ourselves needing nothing. The most powerful interpretation, the mutative is likely to produce these complicated responses giving rise to envy and contempt in the supervisor and the supervisee. How will we handle this? Will we collude in an effort to avoid a painful situation? The danger is that in all of this the client’s welfare gets left way down on the agenda. However if underlying feelings of shamefulness can be uncovered and understood in the alchemical vessel, and the loneliness associated with the process can be tolerated, the supervisor’s task can be successfully handled.

After a brief question time we had a most satisfying lunch and made our way to our respective groups where we tried to understand shame and its companion guilt. It seemed that guilt is something that leaves us with some sense of control (and maybe can be shrugged off) whilst shame does not go away and leaves us with an unwelcome sense of helplessness and awareness of our mortality.

We both enjoyed the conference. It was a good day. Rae was 13 years old when World War 2 finished. She has always lived in England but had relatives who perished in Auschwitz. Gloria a non-Jewish woman was born at the end of the war in which her father had fought as a soldier. Afterwards he served in what was formerly known as Palestine when the troubles between the Israeli people and the Palestinians first began. Gloria was brought up with full knowledge of the holocaust and though sickened by what the Nazis did to the so-called non-Aryan races she always felt uneasy about the plight of the Palestinians. Professor Rose’s neutral stance and condemnation of war in general was inspiring. Gloria went away feeling relaxed and lighter about these things for the time being! Rae was touched at a deeply archetypal level. She sensed the total inner collapse associated with shame as a numinous experience. During our collaboration we realised that it fell to Gloria to do the thinking and to Rae to do the feeling. She felt that part of her being had been rocked by the Jewish content of Professor Rose’s paper and by the parallel processes in all of us individually and collectively in our nations. These processes facilitate wars and have no proper resolution.

It seems that the notion of redemption and mortality is played out inside each of us in our everyday existence. In this way unconsciously we deal with the human condition, which is at once fragile yet strong and enduring. In our endeavours to help the client live in a resilient, flexible way we come up against our own imperfections and our own mortality. ‘Good’ supervision and ‘good’ therapy like ‘good’ art in its many forms ensures that we are alive and available to the mystery of life. Without an awareness of shame supervision slips into a cosy collusion, a banal imitation of something useful. Effective supervision embraces shame and leaves us curious and full of energy so that we may pursue questions to which there are no definitive answers. The saving grace that comes out of shame and humility is the birth of inspiration and creativity, which from its conception through to its birth has proved to be the case with this autumn’s conference.

ETHICS CONFERENCE

Throwing Light on Ethics & Education

Report for BAPPS on UKCP Conference held 3rd July 2004.

This was a conference open to all members of UKCP and replaced the annual meeting of the chairs of Ethics Committees: such is the importance that UKCP is now attaching to ethics in psychotherapy. It was interesting at the conference to discover how many people like myself had no positive input regarding ethics in our basic training. We had come to having our particular involvement for a variety of reasons, in many instances out of necessity.

The conference was said to be a first step in re-examining the ethical requirements of the UKCP and was to lead to a re-drafting of their 'Ethics' document and the production of a syllabus and teaching pack.

Andrew Samuels was the main speaker, posing a series of questions about "Ethics in a Wider Context". His topics were : Inclusivity and Diversity, Promoting Equal Opportunities, Economics, & Sexual Misconduct, with the emphasis on 'Protecting the Public'.

He suggested we think about the composition of the profession. Who do we include and who do we exclude? Who is excluded from training on the grounds of age, gender, sexual orientation and race? Who is excluded on economic grounds? Training is expensive. A substantial part of that cost is analysis or therapy. Trainings are 'pyramid selling'. How large a proportion of your case load are trainees? Who else wants to be in 3-5 times a week therapy! Who is represented on the teaching staff? Who creates the curriculum? Could a less linear training model be encouraged? Trainings are very Eurocentric; other cultures, other races are often the 'exotic other'.

Issues such as marketing and promotional material are important. But can we serve the public and also require them to fit into a mould with the continued obsession with "numbers of therapy sessions"? Evaluation of mental health is often equated with being in long term relationships. In this context reference was made to the phenomenon of "good gays," those in long-term stable relationships, and "bad gays", those who are not.

Many patients as well as potential trainees are excluded through cost. Are psychotherapists too greedy? Should we not be putting ourselves on an economic par with teachers and nurses, rather than doctors and lawyers? Which patients exclude themselves because of their assumptions & previous experience of therapy?

Throughout his talk Andrew emphasised the importance of each Member Organisation's Ethics Committee monitoring such issues of inclusivity & diversity in admissions policy . He suggested that some MOs do not comply with UKCP rulings on these matters. He drew attention to the fact that in a number of recent books & publications on ethics not one addressed the issues of inclusivity & diversity.

He challenged the Ethics Committees to be involved in both the planning of the content of training courses and in the selection of staff members. He emphasised the difficulty of living/working ethically in an unethically based setting, e.g. in the often 'contaminated arena of psychotherapy organisations'.

From my own experience I have become concerned at the way some organisations will accept those with a disability, whether physical or academic, but then not have the facilities or allowances in place to give them the help they need. Is the organisation being unethical in this? Another area that Andrew did not touch on, but is also important for UKCP to consider, is how it can help those organisations that are trying to come to terms with the unethical behaviour of an individual member.

On the issue of sexual misconduct and protecting the public Andrew suggested that it is the public that is protecting us by the press rightly 'going on about it' when they highlight such breaches of ethical conduct. This is a subject that should not, cannot be dismissed.

In the afternoon there were workshops on Intercultural and Equal Opportunities, Legal Issues, and Ethical Therapeutic Relationships.

Finally Guy Hall conducted an open forum on 'How do we Teach Ethics?'.

He put forward his ideas on a syllabus and then threw the meeting open to the members. The one issue that remains with me more than any other is the importance of The Ethical Stance of The Organisation. A suggestion from the floor was that the student¹s ethical stance should be assessed in their written assignments & case studies. Another suggestion was around gaining feedback from students about how ethical their whole training had been.

As one involved with tutoring students and helping with assignments I wondered how I could emphasise this, and decided that it would be with my other hat of supervisor that I could start. Supervisors are in a very important position with regard to helping supervisees to think ethically about what they are doing. Ethical mindedness could be developed through experiential ethical thinking as a part of every seminar.

Days like this end up with me asking more questions than receiving answers, and that is how it should be. We have had a number of BAPPS conferences on ethics, but I couldn't help but think this is such a vast area that we have barely started to work with it. What about the possibility of asking Andrew Samuels to speak at one of our conferences where he might tie in some of these issues with supervision?

A final thought. The conference was held at Kings College near Waterloo Station. It seemed to me it would be a wonderful venue for a BAPPS conference, plenty of space including a restaurant area.
Anne Rogers (BAPPS Ethics Committee Member)

SUPERVISORY CHALLENGE

"You have been supervising a trainee therapist with a training patient, Susan, who had been referred to her by the clinic of her training organisation a few weeks ago. In your most recent supervision session, your supervisee tells you that Susan has begun to disclose abuse by her previous therapist three years ago. Susan did not name this previous therapist but you begin to remember a patient, Susannah, who you saw about three years ago for a few sessions. You remember that Susannah had got very angry over something and left in a huff threatening all sorts of things she would do to you including committing suicide. Susannah did not respond to your letter inviting her back to discuss the situation, leaving you so worried about her that you rang her GP who told you Susannah had just had a break-down and had been sectioned. That was the last you heard of Susannah as she did not respond to your further letter. All the details about Susan in your supervisee's referral notes coincide with what you know about Susanah except there was no mention of any previous therapy or of psychiatric hospitalisation.

Your supervisee tells you that her tutor on the course has advised her to tell Susan that she has a right and even a duty to report her previous therapist to the professional organisation she belongs to. She then asks you for your opinion. How would you respond?"

A THANK YOU TO ISOBEL CLARK

Following in the footsteps of our first Chairman of BAPPS, Ted Martin, could never be an easy task. However, Isobel achieved this brilliantly. That she is a very different person with a totally different style must have helped. I worked for several years with Isobel on the Executive Committee and I can say without exaggeration the meetings she chaired were the most worthwhile I experienced in a ‘long career’ of committee work. I have found many committees excruciatingly frustrating but I always left Isobel’s meetings with a relaxed feeling of satisfaction that a lot had been achieved. I was always impressed at how calmly Isobel always got us to the end of a long agenda on time and with virtually no fuss.

Sadly, there was never time to socialise and get to know Isobel as a person rather than ‘the Chair’. So we arranged to have a social get together on the telephone. We found we have so many ideas and views in common that I think we both feel we must continue ‘in the flesh’ in London (Isobel visits her old haunts frequently) and in Suffolk where she has added gardening and ‘doing villagey things’ in place of anything she has cut down on (such as driving). One of these ‘villagey things’ is that she is on a rota for stewarding the local Gainsborough House just South of Bury St. Edmunds.

Isobel spent a lot of her earlier life abroad in the Chagos Islands and ten years in the Sudan. She returned to England with a five year old son and took up freelance gardening as a profession. This all meant that she took up therapy training rather later than most people with a counselling diploma at WPF and went on to accreditation and supervision. But Isobel did more than this; she found a mentor in Don Smith who helped her put together a ‘portfolio’ of training elements, in addition to 9 years of personal therapy, that parallel a psychotherapy training.

Isobel still has some private clients, supervisees and training commitments but she has tended to work mostly in organisations which have included the Stockwell centre and the Lapis Fellowship in Colchester. Not having been ‘spoiled’ or ‘infantilised’ by a rigid ‘purist’ orthodox training, Isobel has a broader outlook and describes herself never having focused on ‘one person’ but enriched by being open to many theories. She has found Jung, Winnicott and Klein particularly useful in her teaching.

Isobel combines her two careers now and explained to me how gardening and therapy have similar modes and aims. The client needs ‘good soil and nurturing’ as much as a delicate plant. Furthermore, says Isobel, you can, with the greatest caring make a daffodil the best possible daffodil but you will never make a tulip out of it!

So, thank you Isobel, you have demonstrated that there is life both before and after therapy! And presumably you also supervise trainee gardeners.

Report from the BAPPS UKCP Delegates

This reports on the state of affairs as at November 2004. There are three matters for BAPPS to be concerned with. First, the relationship of the profession to the outside world and thus how UKCP is structured for this. Second, the internal structure of UKCP that is settled upon which must ensure how well the profession can perform the task. Third, what can BAPPS do.

There were 3 models which were looked at by the Governing Board (GB) at UKCP. We were relieved that Model B+ was chosen. It looks thus:

Entry standards & training

Rule Making

Monitoring & enforcement - all to be performed by the profession, under supervision

Complaints & Discipline - all to be performed by an External Regulator

It appears that the Department of Health has decided that it wants UKCP to take the lead to develop a toolkit to enable other groups (BACP and BCP) to join a Register. The UKCP along with support of the BACP and probably BCP will, at the behest (and funded by the DOH to the tune of £60,000) develop a system of regulation which will lead to Statutory Registration by 2007/2008 at latest. Psychology is now almost in HPC (the Health Professions Council), next in turn is Psychotherapy. The DOH is saying this could be HPC or it could be a completely separate council just for Psychotherapy. The DOH believes there is sufficient evidence (about our practice being beneficial to patients and the NHS) for us to join the Medical council. We think the GB will favour a separate council but we feel sufficiently happy to support whatever view the GB decides upon and brings to the UKCP AGM next March. The BACP were present at the EGM and will be presumably thinking about how to restructure themselves to fit in with UKCP. Their view is that regulation of all health professions, including both psychology and psychotherapy will be reserved for Westminster and will be centralized. This will be the same for the General Social Care Council (which is new).

The GB has so far advised us that there will be 4 sections, now to be called Member Institutions (MI’s). It is not clear whether each one of these will be a separate limited company or a subsidiary of UKCP. However, ours will be called The Institute for Psychodynamic and Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy. There will also be a Humanistic & Integrative one, a CBT one and a Family & Systemic one. All Member Organizations (MO’s) will have to gather themselves into one of these four. For our part, there is no problem and we believe that most other MO’s have already agreed in principle to this so things are well under way. The analytical psychologists will probably have to join our Section or MI and discussions are under way. MO’s will be responsible for first registration of registrants, MI’s will be responsible for re accreditation. There are difficulties with slotting in disciplines such as: psychotherapy with children, counselling and their modalities, and psychology; BPS has a problem in the same vein.

Individual Registration will be maintained. MI’s will be professional organizations. By keeping to four MI’s UKCP has a small number of well recognized and broadly based professional associations which will maintain core modalities into Statutory Registration. They will be large enough to be recognized, to be coherent with space for new developments, to develop standards and support CPD. The relationship to the Centre will be based on the cascade model at present practiced. For example, the CPD policy from 4 years back came down from the centre through the sections to each MO.

Tightening up the structure will ensure proper procedures. There will be performance standards for MI’s which will be part of the Constitutional arrangements. It is clear that the new Supervision Policy (which has come to a full stop because of the structural changes) will follow the same course and will be mandatory.

UKCP is not responsible for people who are NOT registered with UKCP but are on MO’s register. Thus BAPPS members who are not registered with UKCP will not come under UKCP complaints and ethical codes etc., so BAPPS will need to discuss how we handle this and possibly many other issues. It is important to remember that it will be illegal to practice and call oneself a psychotherapist (or therapist) without being registered either with HPC or UKCP from 2007/8 if DOH demands are complied with. At present it has not been decided whether we call ourselves the generic ‘registered psychotherapists’ or chose the name of our MI. For us this would entail calling ourselves ‘registered psychoanalytic psychotherapists’ a title to which we shall be entitled in law (as we understand it). We believe this will be decided at the next AGM.

Complaints will be called Disputes and Reconciliation and thought of as a Process. Individual Registration will be tied into this. Registrants must agree to the Code of Conduct and Submit to D&R process with a suitable body. There are 5 stages:

1 Local Level Resolution, 2 Mediation, 3 Panel of Enquiry, 4 Appeal, 5 Legal Redress

Please note there will be legal redress once registration is statutory and fines can be imposed as well as being struck from the register and unable to legally practice. However, any complaint can stop at any level if satisfaction is reached and therefore there is less likelihood of legal action. There was no space to ask questions about complaints. Last time PW asked about complaints at AGM 2003 it was made clear that of about 70 complaints (which came to central UKCP) 70% were about training or supervisors from trainees or supervisees. This is NOT the general public. This is a subject which will be pursued by us through the GB Chair because of the implications for BAPPS.

The Consultation process now has 8 weeks with production of a new document on 14.1.05. Then there will be 9 weeks to AGM and ratification.

In terms of cost, it is likely that setting up and running a D&R Body will mean an extra £25 annual fee for registrants at least (this will be dependent on how many complaints there are). There will also be around a £278 increase for MO’s. All changes to the Memorandum and Articles of Association of UKCP have been formally ratified for Companies House.

At the last BAPPS AGM members voted for us to pursue a place for BAPPS on the MI (or Section as it now is) as an accrediting body for supervisors. There have been discussions at Section meetings about this and along with the support of the Training Standards Committee we shall be putting in an application to be voted on by all member organizations represented at the Section for us to be the accrediting body which handles supervisory standards once the Supervision Policy has taken effect. Although the policy has stalled with UKCP, things often suddenly rear up and get ratified so we want to have everything in place and ready for when supervision registration will be required.

Penny Wise and Geri Dogmetchi

A Summary of AGM

16th October 2004 at Belsize Lane, London

At this years AGM there was a good-sized meeting following on from a thoroughly stimulating and enriching conference.

REPORTS

Chair. At this meeting Isobel Clark stood down from her post as BAPPS Chair. Isobel said that she had enjoyed working with executive members and thanked everyone involved for their work, with a particular thanks to Catherine Cooper and Margaret Dyson (also standing down as Hon. Secretary) for work on the UKCP Quinquennial Review. Isobel singled out the Ethics Committee for special thanks for the all that they have achieved over this year particularly in revising and updating the Complaints Procedure. She also gave a special thanks to Mary Spencer and Ann Rogers, who are standing down from the Conference Committee. Isobel pointed out that the Executive now has an active role to play in responding to changes planned by UKCP - registration of supervisors, the move towards individual registration and the centralising of regulatory functions. All of which will affect us as an organisation.

Treasurer. Eddy Roworth was asked to clarify aspects of the presentation of the report. This has changed with the introduction of computerised accounting. Eddy put forward a suggestion that the membership fee be increased to £50 from 2005 with a five year freeze until 2010. This was discussed by the meeting, generally favourably, and it was further suggested that the five year freeze be dependent upon BAPPS expenditure during that time. The Executive will be reviewing this issue and will inform the membership about their decision in due course.

Eddy announced that he would have to stand down next year as he is taking a post in Mexico for 2 years. Eddy has generously offered that any one who has an interest in becoming treasurer could work alongside him for part of next year rather than being handed the whole package in one go.

If you are interested and/or wish to know more please inform our administrator

Catherine Cooper.

UKCP Committee. Penny Wise and Geri Dogmetchi emphasised their opinion that BAPPS is in a good position to possibly become an accrediting body for supervisors in the UKCP PP section. They will be putting this forward at the next section meeting. They will both be attending the UKCP EGM when the centralised complaints procedure and the change to Member Institutions will be discussed to go forward to the next stage.

Conference Committee. Mary Spencer informed the meeting that the Conference Committee consider it an excellent idea for a group, such as the South London group whose members organised this years Autumn Conference, to develop a theme and plan a conference. However, should this arrangement be repeated in the future, it is essential that a member of the organising group attend the Conference Committee as organisation of this years Conference proved more difficult the usual.

Publications Committee.

Chris Driver and Ted Martin urged more members to make contributions; they are looking for new ideas, interest items and book reviews.

Ethics Committee. Ann Rogers with Irene Hamilton informed the meeting that the Ethics Committee has undertaken a great deal of work this year, revising BAPPS Complaints Procedure which required research plus a 6 hour meeting in order to compile an acceptable document for UKCP. The Committee also arranged for BAPPS to have pro bono legal services to up-date the Constitution. The Committee asks if there is a role for BAPPS as a provider of CPD Ethical Issues days or half- days in addition to the conferences.

BAPPS West. Ann Bowes informed the meeting that BAPPS West are in discussion with local WPF BAPPS members about a training in supervision for BACP and WPF affiliate members.

Honorary Secretary. The highlight of my report was the successful completion of BAPPS UKCP Quinquennial Review. As I was standing down as Honorary Secretary at this meeting I also stated that I will stay on the Executive as an ordinary member to help to provide continuity particularly as the Chair is also standing down at the same time.

Administrator. Catherine Cooper gave the membership figures. There was a question asked concerning the reasons for resignations. Catherine informed the meeting that these are mostly members who are retiring.

Elections:

The meeting gave both Isobel Clark and Margaret Dyson a vote of thanks for all their work over the last four years.

Chair: Christine Driver was enthusiastically voted in as the new Chair.

Honorary Secretary: Kristiane Preisinger was unanimously voted in as the new Honorary Secretary.

Conference Committee: No new members were found for the Conference Committee, which currently only has two members, who wish it to be stated that they cannot organise conferences without more help. It was pointed out that the Conference Committee plays a central part in BAPPS, as our two conferences a year are a vital part of our activities in bringing people together to learn and discuss supervision issues. It was emphasised that to lose our conferences would create crises within the organisation and raise the question of what purpose BAPPS as an organisation would have. Members were urged to consider volunteering to be involved with conference organisation.

Anyone interested please inform our administrator Catherine Cooper.

BAPPS North: No new representative member was found for BAPPS North.

The good news is that Rhoda Dorndorf Turner has put her name forward to help with events and she will be put in contact with Sandra Thomas.

Anyone who has an interest please inform our administrator Catherine Cooper.

Executive Committee: Margaret Dyson is to stay on the Executive as an ordinary member

Proposed changes to the Constitution. These changes were voted in with a majority vote from members present with additional postal votes that were all in favour.

(Details were provided in BAPPS Newsletter May 2004)

BAPPS Legal Liability. BAPPS becoming a Company Limited by Guarantee was voted in by a majority vote from members present with additional postal votes that were all in favour. (Details in BAPPS Newsletter May 2004)

BAPPS becoming an accrediting body. Isobel Clark has submitted a written statement to Training Standards UKCP committee to the effect that BAPPS wishes to become an accrediting member organisation.

Margaret Dyson

FROM THE NEW CHAIR

Following my election to Chair at the AGM I would like to take this opportunity to introduce myself to you all and my reflections, at the beginning of my term of office, on the direction in which I see BAPPS heading.

As many of you know I have worked on the supervision training at WPF for the past 14 years and been Programme Organiser of their Supervision Trainings for the past 5 years. My involvement with the development of Supervision Trainings to MA level, and, within BAPPS, my involvement with the Conference Committee, Publication and Membership Committees reflects my commitment to the promotion and development of Supervision.

Becoming Chair of BAPPS however is like opening a new book. Full of anticipation and yet not quite sure what the pages will reveal. The theme is clear but the way the plot will develop remains full of possibilities and unknowns. Like Harry Potter it feels a bit like a journey into new territory!

What is clear however is that members of BAPPS show a dedication and commitment across the board to carrying forward the work of BAPPS and keeping it established as an organisation committed to the development of thinking in relation to supervision and the promotion and development of professional standards, registration and accreditation of supervision within the profession.

Our autumn conference reflected an aspect of this through input of two fascinating papers by Jacqueline Rose and Ted Martin. The Conference Committee continue to challenge us with themes, speakers and discussion which promote and develop our thinking & understanding. This, to me, is an important part of our work and I hope that members will see their way to joining this important committee to develop this aspect of BAPPS further. Membership of the Conference Committee also means a free place at the BAPPS conferences and it’s a good way of gaining CPD so please think about it.

Two other major areas of development within BAPPS, which the Executive will be working on through the year, is the agreement at the AGM for BAPPS to become a Company Limited by Guarantee and the developments within UKCP, and the profession as a whole, in relation to registration and accreditation. These tasks will involve members of the Executive working towards defining new frameworks, policy and procedures but are all important steps in working towards establishing BAPPS securely within the profession.

This, to me, reflects my own hope that BAPPS will continue to develop its position within the profession as a whole and continue to be seen as a body with standards, frameworks and expertise that the profession can look to. This is the direction in which I would like to see BAPPS continue to develop because it has a lot to offer.

As I begin to get hold of the ‘inner workings’ of BAPPS I am aware of all the hard work that Isobel, Margaret and the Executive have brought to this over the previous years and I hope I can match their energy and enthusiasm as we move forward in relation to the new challenges. What I am sure of however is that BAPPS members and the BAPPS Executive are keen and committed to pursuing the work of BAPPS and I look forward to working with all of you over the coming years as we write the next chapters in the life of BAPPS.

Christine Driver

“The Conference”

The Nerve Centre of BAPPS ?

Nothing that happened at the Autumn Conference this year has altered my personal opinion that getting together and conferring is where the life * generates and regenerates for BAPPS & its members.

I would be most interested to know what others think about this.

From the point of view of personal interest in a subject, conferences will attract or leave us disengaged. For some reason there is an early clamour for tickets, for others the going is slower. So what is it that is the essential ingredient for you? What works? What fails?

There are definitely those who prefer to come to hear a speaker, an “expert” even. Then there is a body of thought that we should be owning and using our own expertise either as a group of practising supervisors or maybe singly, when some particular area of that member’s work will be of wider interest. The discussions stimulated by such in-house presentations may have a different quality from those generated by the external expert.

What do you think? Could that be so? If different, does one style have more value than another?

Perhaps it is the Conference Discussions and exchange of experience and opinion that is the BAPPS life-force? The subject and the speaker may just be a means to an end, rather like a view past the menu into an appealing restaurant which activate the taste buds. If this is so, what sort of menu/frame might best stimulate the “gastric supervision juices” for you and those of your colleagues whose tastes you reckon to know.

Those of us who stayed for the AGM after stimulating & disquieting conference on SHAME this autumn regretted that we were so comparatively few in number. The conference & its food breaks had given the usual opportunity to meet up with known to meet for the first time new fellow supervisors. There seemed to me to be quite a number of new faces mingled with the familiar. This is always a healthy sign in an organisation, but it needs to be translated into the organisation of the Organisation itself.

I need to own feeling some shame for myself, however, I was certainly not alone in thinking that we might have managed the timing of this vital AGM better.

At the AGM we managed with reasonable success to elect or re-elect all the committees with the exception of the Conference Committee.

What can we make of that?

This Committee now consists of just two members, one of whom is unwilling to continue without at least two new members to join them. Need I say more? What are we going to do?

Fellow members, what are YOU going to do?

Here comes the ADVERTISEMENT! :-

You too could have the satisfaction, fun, stimulation and enjoyment that I had on the Conference Committee!

I heartily recommend it. If, as was the case for us, several likeminded people can get together and toss ideas around in a free associative kind of way, it is amazing how a conference begins to organically to come to life. It is hard work on the day, but others are always willing to help if asked. Please don’t hold back, we need you.

Without this input can BAPPS have a life? Without a nerve centre can there be a BAPPS??

PLEASE contribute to this discussion, but even more PLEASING will be any offers of help.

Need further information? Get in touch with RUTH BARNETT.

I look forward to seeing you at the NEXT CONFERENCE as yet unknown!

Mary Perren

Spring Conference 2005

Saturday March 5th 2005

London Centre for Psychotherapy,

32 Leighton Road, Kentish Town, London NW5 2QE

FREE CONFERENCE PLACES

There is no such thing as a free lunch but the next best thing is……

a potential free place at the Spring Conference. That is..........

“Free”! to someone willing to contribute 500 - 750 words giving an appreciation of the

conference including their personal reactions. Be creative and save at least £20!!

Please contact Ruth Barnett - ruthLbarnett@aol.com

Publications Sub-Committee

The publication sub-committee welcomes contributions of up to 500 words,

especially for 'supervisory quirks' in the form of a piece of short comment rather than a formal paper.

Deadline for agreed BAPPS Conference write ups to be received by the committee

within three weeks after the conference.

'The BAPPS' Newsletter is happy to publish details of psychodynamic/
psychoanalytic & supervisory events that promote clinical & supervisory
understanding unless the dates clash with a BAPPS event.

There would be a nominal charge to assist the postage costs

The advertisement to be no more than half a page

The sub-committee reserves the right to edit contributions as necessary.

Deadline for next edition of newsletter is February 2005

Ruth Barnett - ruthLbarnett@aol.com

Ann Bowes - ann@bowes@yahoo.co.uk

Chris Driver - chris@driver4.prestel.co.uk

Ted Martin - emartin@fsmail.net

BOOK REVIEW

The Ethical Attitude in Analytic Practice.

Ed. Hester McFarland Solomon & Mary Twyman.

Published by Free Association Book, London, New York, 2003; 178 pages; £18.99.

This book is divided in to six sections: The Ethical Attitude in Analytic Practice; Mostly Theory; In the Consulting Room; Confidentiality and Publishing; Thinking Analytically about Ethics in Different Settings and the Ethics of Supervision. The last section is just one chapter with subheadings: Introduction, Integrating the ethical attitude into analytic practice; From Dyad to Triad: the eventual achievement of triangulation; Triangulation: the archetypal third; Triangular Space and Supervision in Analytic Practice; Conclusion. The contributors come from both Jungian and Independent traditions and draw on relevant theories from a wide range to writers in a clear and explicit manner. Although many of the Jungian ideas were new to me I felt I could both understand and think further about the ideas presented.

It was to the last chapter “The Ethics of Supervision”, that I turned to first. What delighted me was to find Hester McFarland Solomon arguing, I felt, for psychotherapists and psychotherapy organisations to make a shift towards “supervision as a present factor in clinical practice”, for all practitioners - from trainees to training therapists. She argues that training therapists and supervisors engaging in supervision would foster “the ethical-supervisory expectation” in the generations to follow. She makes a powerful argument for on-going supervision in order to concretely break the intense dyadic relationship of the patient and analyst by the introduction of the triad. She elaborates ideas about triangulation in relation to supervision and introduces the term “hygiene”. She says: “I use the term “hygiene” in the sense, that through its provision, supervision keeps constantly activated the awareness of the analytic attitude, including its ethical component, in and through the presence of a third person(the supervisor), or a third position (the supervisory space), and that it acts as an aid in the restoration of the analytic and ethical attitudes when at times they might be lost in the maelstrom of clinical practice.” (Page 175) This I thought usefully summarises one of the main functions of supervision in psychoanalytic work. What disappointed me was that the ethical attitude of the supervisor was not referred to in this or other chapters, but perhaps it was outside the remit of the book

The only other chapter that did explicitly mention supervision was Mannie Sher’s “Ethical Issues for Psychotherapists working in Organisations”. Here, in a paragraph about supervision and training organisations and private practice, he says “Supervision is regarded as a discipline in its own right and these organisations will have trainings for supervisors - not something that any psychotherapist can do.” He does not, however, elaborate on this, perhaps because some training organisations have not yet developed structures for this new discipline.

The rest of the book is rich with issues related to the ethical attitude that can, with a little effort be directly applied to supervision. For example in the introductory chapter the editors select instances where an ethical dimension arises in the analytic attitude. These include the enactment of the analyst’s sadism, the management of the analyst’s narcissism, the dual nature of the analyst’s capacity for identification, and the struggle to maintain triangulation. It is not hard to extrapolate and think about the impact on supervision if one of these instances dominated a supervisor’s functioning. Nor is it hard to come up with thorny ethical issues for us as individuals and for our professional organisations when considering Yvette Wiener’s chapter on retirement. Here she considers her professional status as a retired psychotherapist and asks does she have the right to exercise her profession? She refers explicitly to the ethical issues arising through her occasionally seeing previous patients but there are, of course, similar and other questions which would be raised if she were seeing a supervisee.

This book raises issues that psychotherapists might wish they did not have to address and wish they could avoid. As supervisors, I feel there is no choice, we have to face them because supervision is where ethical issues are brought and where the ethical attitude of the psychotherapist can be explored. This book helps us identify and understand our own ethical attitude and helps us make it an active part of our thinking.

Rose Stockwell, BAP Associate Member and BAPPS member