Embodying Power and Difference in the Clinical Relationship
This webinar was recorded and is now available as a Talk on Demand. Click here for more details.
Friday 11 September 2020 - A Live Webinar
A one-day exploration led by Carmen Joanne Ablack and Dr Rae Johnson - chaired by Eugene Ellis
- Includes a recording of the event with access for a year (14 days post the event)
- Bookings close at 9.00am BST Tuesday 8 September
In today’s increasingly complex and polarised social world, many psychotherapists are being called, pulled or pushed into addressing issues of social justice. This is evident in our work with clients, in our relationships with colleagues, and in our own lives.
READ MORE...For those without a background in activism or anti-oppression work, it can be challenging to know where to begin, how to recognize our privilege, unpack our own history of oppression, and to navigate cultural misattunements with clients with honesty and grace. Both speakers will demonstrate the power dynamics that pervade all of our interpersonal relationships from an embodied perspective, with the aim of offering insights and confidence in embracing these domains.
FULL PROGRAMME
15.30 BST (10.30 EDT)
Carmen Joanne Ablack
What are we responsible for? How do we know this?
In sharing her current explorations and ideas in a “radical mode” in relation to diversity, Carmen will examine how intersectionality and responsibilities are involved in embodied relating. She will consider what “holding to account” might look like, both within and beyond the therapy room. Diversity and intersectional dynamics are understood as core to embodied relating: a differentiated understanding of what, when, why and how we utilise deconstructive and reconstructive processes as on-going self-reflection and practice development are central to that work. Carmen will be drawing on experiences of therapy work, supervision, organisational and professional consultancy, national and international dialogues.
16.30
Break
16.45
Dr Rae Johnson
The Silent Dance of Power in Psychotherapy
In this talk, Rae will argue that it is important to understand how the body is implicated in oppressive social dynamics, as well as how it serves as an essential resource in cultivating our and our clients’ capacities for resistance, resilience, and accountability. This presentation will offer psychotherapists and mental health professionals an overview of current research into the embodied experience of oppression, and how those findings map onto strategies for clinical practice and professional development.
17.45
Break
18.00
Workshop 1:
Carmen Joanne Ablack
Embodied Relating – a deconstructive and reconstructive process
Diversity and intersectional dynamics are understood as core to embodied relating, and practicing deconstructive and reconstructive embodied relating is central to our work as therapists and to the profession as a whole. This workshop will be an experiential supervision in which participants are asked to actively engage in the processes of the group despite not being physically with each other.
19.00
Break
19.15
Workshop 2:
Dr Rae Johnson
Embodying Power and Difference in the Clinical Relationship
This workshop will focus on how social power dynamics can play out in the context of body-to-body interactions, with special emphasis on how the ongoing dance of nonverbal communication between therapist and client can support or impair trust, rapport, and empathy. Using an intersectional approach, we will explore how kinaesthetic empathy, embodied microaggressions, asymmetrical nonverbal interactions, and implicit body norms can shape our relationships with clients.
20.15
Bringing it all together
20.30
End