Workshop 1 - Online counselling for young people: a risky business?

Dr Terry Hanley

Working online with young people can be a great way of accessing individuals who would not ordinarily access counselling services. Additionally, online work has the potential to actively engage with service users in a safe and comfortable environment of their choosing. Many practitioners have concerns about the quality of the therapeutic provision that can be offered online and the safety of the individuals accessing such services. This workshop will therefore focus upon the risks that those working on the cyber-frontier are facing. It will introduce the key research and historical developments in this area before reflecting upon the motivations for services developing online. Finally, attendees will be invited to take part in a debate regarding the practice of online youth counselling - is the risk too much? You decide!

Workshop 2 - An experiential workshop: Self care

Dr Belinda Harris

Recent research (eg Harris, 2009) highlights the complexities and demands of working therapeutically with children, families and educators in schools and multi-agency team settings. Such conditions require practitioners to have a repertoire of self-support and self-care strategies beyond the supervisory relationship to help them manage the stresses and risks to their own health and wellbeing (Evans & Payne, 2008). This workshop offers participants structured opportunities to experience a range of re-energising self-care strategies, and a reflective space in which to begin developing their own self-care plan. The activities will include some physical movement. Comfortable, informal dress recommended. The workshop is open to all.

Workshop 3 - ‘What should I tell, when and to whom?'

Dr Virginia Ryan

The aim of this workshop is to help participants examine confidentiality issues in both therapeutic work with children and young people and filial therapy (a combination of play therapy and family therapy) This workshop will be from a non-directive play therapy perspective. Case illustrations of confidentiality issues, including dilemmas for practitioners, will be offered, and participants will have opportunities to apply the contents of the workshop to their own practice.

This workshop is suitable for all professionals working individually with children and young people and for professionals wishing to have further information on non-directive play therapy and filial therapy practice over a wide age group.

Seminar 4 - Risk dynamics and the teenage brain

Professor Howard Sercombe

This session introduces participants to recent research in cognitive neuroscience with respect to teenagers: especially concerning the structure of the teenage brain. We will explore to what extent young people's risk taking is determined by brain structure and function versus their environment or social context, and the interplay between these factors. A key question will be the role of risk taking in young people's development, and whether many young people should be taking a lot more risks than they currently do.

Workshop 5 - Working on the edge: Outdoor adventure therapy for young people

Dr Kaye Richards and Dr Jenny Peel

Engaging young people in outdoor and adventure experiences offers unique therapeutic opportunities for both psychological and physical risk taking. This workshop will examine the general therapeutic principles and practical ways of working therapeutically outdoors and using adventure experiences to create psychological benefits for young people. This will enable participants to reflect on the growthful and therapeutic impact of outdoor and adventure experiences and to consider key ethical considerations of working in this setting.

Seminar 6 - ‘Licking honey from the razor's edge'

Di Gammage

The razor's edge is a perilous place for a therapist or counsellor with any client, demanding utmost attunement and presence. It is the place where we cannot afford to fall asleep. Yet to lick honey from the razor's edge suggests endowment of a gift almost unimaginable. The phrase originates from the an 8th century text, ‘A Guide to the Bodhisattva's Way of Life' by Buddhist poet and visionary Shantideva (a Bodhisattva is an individual committed to helping relieve the suffering of all beings). I understand the razor's edge to symbolise that place where therapist and client meet beyond their conditioned selves, on a being-to-being level. It is Winnicott's ‘potential space' magnified (1971). It is the place of transformation, the border zone, where something new, and thus far unknown, may emerge. It is the place where we step consciously into our fear, and where we realise that fearlessness is possible.

In this seminar we will explore the risks for both client and therapist/counsellor in not meeting at the razor's edge. We will also pay attention to what we need as healing practitioners - the Bodhisattvas of today - that resource us in meeting our clients in this place.

Seminar 7 - Therapeutic work with children and young people: private and confidential? New developments in the law

Peter Jenkins

This session will describe a rights-based approach to maintaining confidentiality in therapeutic work with children and young people, derived from the 1989 UN Convention and recent case law. Consideration will be given to the ethical conflicts around the competing principles of welfare and autonomy. It will argue that counsellors need to base their practice around the principle of autonomy as far as possible, given the increasing pressures for parental involvement and for information-sharing with other safeguarding agencies. The case for maintaining therapeutic confidentiality with children and young people will be argued with reference to recent key developments in terms of case law, both in terms of the courts' endorsement of the principle of confidentiality for ‘Gillick-competent' young people and, more controversially, of privacy rights for younger children.

The session is aimed at practising therapists and managers of counselling services for children and young people. It assumes an interest and some experience of the topic, but no specialist knowledge.

Workshop 8 - Working therapeutically at the edge of awareness with young people

Peter Cook

Workshop aims:
I think I have spent a lot of my life as a counsellor believing that I can work by presenting the ‘acceptable me' to the client and conveniently tucking the ‘unacceptable me' away. Now I increasingly recognise that working successfully at depth often means meeting my client precisely from that edge between what I like in myself and what I tend to disavow. This is often rewarding, sometimes scary and always a reminder of the need to pay attention to my own growth and support.

This workshop will provide a safe and secure setting to explore that ‘edge' within ourselves, and to consider how we can maximise our effectiveness for our clients and our support for ourselves. The session will offer:
• A framework for understanding the significance of ‘edges'
• Skills for working with these therapeutically
• Opportunities for experimenting with these skills within a safe environment.