Chloe Foster
PRESENTATION: Why Gender, Sexual and Relationship Diversity matters in the Counselling Room.
Chloe Foster is an accredited Gender, Sexual, and Relationship Diversities Therapist with Pink Therapy. Her passion for working in this area was kindled before her counselling career began through her work with several LGBTQ+ organisations as a youth worker and in mental health. Today Chloe runs her private practice, Sussex Rainbow Counselling, where she specialises primarily in gender and sexual diversity.
Chloe works 100% online offering video, phone, and text-based therapy to clients. She also offers CPD workshops/talks for counsellors which have seen bookings from The National Counselling Society, Cruse, The Open University, Counselling Tutor, The University of Wolverhampton, The University of Lincoln and Onlinevents.
You can contact Chloe here: www.sussexrainbowcounselling.com or onTwitter: @ChloeCounsellor.
You can read more about Chloe and their presentation here.
Clare Slaney
PRESENTATION: Regulation and the search for certainty.
Clare is a counsellor, psychotherapist and supervisor based in London. You can find out more about Clare on her website here: www.clareslaneycounselling.com.
You can read more about Clare and their presentation here.
Dr Dwight Turner
PRESENTATION: Exploring the Intersectional Pitfalls of SCoPEd.
Dr Dwight Turner is Course Leader on the Humanistic Counselling and Psychotherapy Course at the University of Brighton, a PhD Supervisor at their Doctoral College, a psychotherapist and supervisor in private practice. His latest book Intersections of Privilege and Otherness in Counselling and Psychotherapy was released in February 2021 and is published by Routledge. An activist, writer and public speaker on issues of race, difference and intersectionality in counselling and psychotherapy, Dr Turner can be contacted via his website www.dwightturnercounselling.co.uk and can be followed on Twitter at @dturner300.
You can read more about Dwight and their presentation here.
Dr Emma Radway-Bright
PRESENTATION: An alternative universe – An inclusive proposed Competency Framework for the Practice of Counselling & Psychotherapy.
Dr. Emma Radway-Bright is a counsellor / psychotherapist with a thriving Private Practice (www.INeedTherapy.co.uk) based in South East London. During the pandemic, she started working online via Zoom; expanding the geographical locations of clients across the UK, Europe and beyond. She works with people who are experiencing depression, stress, anxiety, and the general pressures of modern-day living. She specialises in trauma – big and small – and works with people to resolve the emotional, physical and behavioural effects of any trauma they have experienced in the past, or more recently. She also specialises in working with parents who have not had their baby delivered to term; as well as new mothers who need support during their transition into parenting.
You can read more about Emma and their presentation here.
Dr Elizabeth Cotton
PRESENTATION: Cheer up, love.
Dr Elizabeth Cotton is a researcher and educator in the fields of employment relations and mental health at work based at Cardiff School of Management. She is the founder of www.survivingwork.org and http://www.thefutureoftherapy.org. and is a Trustee of the British Sociological Association (BSA). Elizabeth is currently writing her book UberTherapy: The weaponisation of Wellbeing to be published in 2023.
You can read more about Elizabeth and their presentation here.
LJ Potter
PRESENTATION: Working with conversion therapy.
LJ is an accredited Gender, Sexual, and Relationship Diversities Therapist and Trainer with Pink Therapy. LJ has been working and training in this area for several years, including having begun and run an LGBTQ+ counselling charity. LJ Currently works online in private practice specialising in queer identities, and they are also Course Lead for an MSc in Integrative Psychotherapeutic Counselling. LJ provides training in GSRD topics for universities and is a founder member of ‘therapists against conversion therapy and transphobia’. www.therapistsagainstconversiontherapy.blogspot.com.
You can read more about LJ Potter and their presentation here.
Paul Atkinson
PRESENTATION: What is the UK’s ‘mental health crisis’ trying to say to us?
Paul Atkinson has been swimming in the intersection of psychotherapy and political activism since the mid 70s – admittedly with many spells of apathy, despair and watching telly. He has five grandchildren and helped set up the Free Psychotherapy Network. Most recently, he is helping organise the campaign for Universal Access to Counselling and Psychotherapy (uACT) – https://uaccess2ct.co.uk.
You can read more about Paul and their presentation here.
Juliet Lyons – Psychotherapy and Counselling Union (PCU)
PRESENTATION: Could local networks be a game changer to resist SCoPEd, industrialisation, medicalisation and regulation of the therapeutic landscape?
Having trained as an Integrative Child Psychotherapist, Juliet’s particular interest is in children and families and how we care for each other as a society as well as the use and potential of the expressive arts and healing potential of creativity. Juliet would like to see politics and decision-makers in our sector being much more representative of gender, ethnic, cultural and class diversity and would like to see this widening of diversity in our profession as well. Juliet has been the General Secretary of the Psychotherapy and Counselling Union for the past two years and has come to see PCU as an important protective, critiquing and challenging voice for our complex profession. In this context, Juliet’s particular concerns are in the direction economically driven policies are taking us, impeding the quality of in-depth relationships in the work we do.
You can read more about Juliet/PCU and their presentation here.
The Association of Neurodivergent Therapists
PRESENTATION: The Association of Neurodivergent Therapists: Standing up for Neurodivergent Therapists, Trainees and Clients in Counselling and Psychotherapy.
Presented by
Lesley Dougan (she/her): Lesley has Neurofibromatosis and is neurodivergent. Lesley offers therapy and supervision through an intersectional lens. She is programme lead on the MA in Counselling and Psychotherapy Practice as Liverpool John Moores University and is a member of the ANDT steering committee.
Stasa Morgan-Appel (she/they): Stasa is a counsellor/psychotherapist offering pluralistic therapy from an intersectional feminist perspective. She is multiply neurodivergent and is a member of the ANDT steering committee.
Simcha Burton (they/them): Simcha Burton is an integrative psychotherapist with an overarching framework of feminist counselling theory, with an MA in Counselling Psychology, specialising in Social Justice and Community Counseling from Delaware Valley University. Simcha is a member of the ANDT steering committee.
Erin Stevens (she/her/they): Erin is a co-founder of ANDT and is autistic with a sprinkling of ADHD for good measure. Erin is a therapist specialising in working with clients who have experienced harmful previous therapy and is interested in the large overlap between harmful experiences of therapy and neurodivergence.
You can read more about The Association of Neurodivergent Therapists and their presenters here.
The National Counselling Society with Jyles Robillard-Day (Interim CEO)
The National Counselling Society (NCS) was first set up in 1999 by a group of counsellors, psychotherapists, hypnotherapists and psychologists.
We play an important role within the profession of counselling in the UK and in May 2013 the Society was one of the first organisations to gain Accredited Register status with the Professional Standards Authority Accredited Register programme.
Our belief is that counselling (and related therapies) should be seen as a vocation (not just a job but a worthy occupation) and that the relationship between counsellor and client is important for the outcome of therapy.
We support and promote counselling and counsellors, offering a wide variety of benefits to our members and training providers. We have also created and published online CPD courses to support healthcare providers and those in public-facing roles.
As an Accredited Register holder we meet the robust and exacting standards set by the Professional Standards Authority with particular emphasis on public safety and assuring that the best interests of the clients are protected.
The National Counselling Society believes that all Accredited Registers should be seen as equal. To this end, we were instrumental in gaining recognition within the NHS for all Accredited Registers. NHS Choices information list Accredited Registers to reflect what should be equality of choice for all clients and patients.
In addition, NHS Employers has added content encouraging the use and detailing the benefits of Accredited Registers, and the Improving Access to Psychological Therapies (IAPT) programme recognises the NCS alongside other Registers.
We’re also very pleased that, again as a result of our efforts, Health Education England has amended the information on the NHS Health Careers website also to be in line with the aforementioned changes on NHS Choices and NHS employers sites, and promote inclusive hiring practices
We are a not for profit organisation and the high standards of our Accredited Register are externally verified by the Professional Standards Authority. The organisation is bound by appropriate rules of governance including a constitution, codes of ethics, and a complaints procedure.
You can read more about Jyles/NCS and their presentation here.