2009 Conference Report

Written by Jon Chapman about the Conference in Holland June 2009

This is just a brief note with a couple of news items that came out of the Conference that I think will be of interest to everyone.

Pete and I gave a workshop on using PBSP in an organisational context and Sally and Pete hosted a workshop on the link between attachment theory and PBSP. In addition to UK, delegates came from Holland, Belgium, Germany, Norway, Switzerland, Czech Republic, Austria, Portugal, Israel, Mexico and the USA.

• I was deeply impressed by the high level of clinical expertise, especially among the European contingent. We met many psychologists and psychiatrists using PBSP in a clinical context who have a huge store of knowledge and experience about the system that sits alongside the expertise that we see in Lowijs.

• There is a growing body of research evidence (Holland, Norway, Czech Republic and most recently Germany) that demonstrates the effectiveness of PBSP.

• There continues a lively debate about the place for symbolic work (ie without role players or physical accommodation).

• There was a lot of interest in the birth of PBSP in UK, and not much awareness about it. People were quite impressed that we are considering a third training group.

• There was a lot of interest in the application of PBSP in organisations, but relatively little experience of it. For example I came across one very experienced clinical therapist for whom 'short term' meant six months! We now have the beginnings of a network of interested parties for the exchange of knowledge and experience, encompassing initially Holland, UK, Germany and the USA.

• On the last morning there was a half-hour debate on a proposal to create an international institute for PBSP to co-ordinate activities across the countries. There was a lot of support for this, in particular from Al and Diane. It is proposed that the Institute take some delegated authority from the Psychomotor Institute in the USA which is Al and Diane's 'quality assurance' vehicle for the system. Among the activities suggested were the establishment of practice areas (clinical, organisational, family work etc) for knowledge-sharing, translations, resource library, compilation of technical information and research, and possibly conference organising. A provisional contact group has been established to start things off .

• Al Pesso’s trip to Congo seems to have been a huge success. The Congolese have asked him to consider training 500 people to use PBSP in reconciliation work!! I have copies of the press release that the German organisers GTZ released at the end of the trip if anyone wants one, or you can view it (and print it off) at http://www.pbsp.com/Congo/strategie_and_communication_end.pdf. To quote from this document: "we came to the conclusion that PBSP can fill an empty space in the arsenal of care-taking for the traumatized persons in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.......representatives of the Government and GTZ are unanimous [that] the approach must be introduced into the DRC."

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