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Engagement with more than one person: challenges and opportunities
It has been known for a couple of decades now that one of the main components of “good outcomes”, or effective (psycho)therapy is the quality of the relationship between the client and the therapist. To have a ‘good engagement’ with the client is a necessary ingredient to conduct “good therapy”, or at least to provide a foundation for therapy to take place. Many therapeutic approaches and psychological therapies pay attention to this aspect of the therapeutic endeavour. This is mainly conceptualised from a dyadic perspective. The relationship between the therapist and the client. As a couple and family therapist, Ramón considers this a simplified version of his therapeutic reality: ‘what about when I am meeting with more than one person in the therapy room?’ ‘What can be considered THE therapeutic relationship then?’ ‘What about the relationships in the therapy room that do not involve the therapist, for instance between the mother and child?’
These are the sort of questions that Ramón will address in his talk about the opportunities and challenges of engaging with more than one person in therapy. He will share his experiences of therapeutic practice, whilst offering theoretical concepts to help us think about extending one’s therapeutic practice to include other members of the client’s system. Ramón will use case examples to further aid our understanding. Ramón hopes that the presentation will provide interesting material to spark a lively and fruitful discussion about the topic of ‘engagement’. He is looking forward to a healthy exchange of ideas and sharing of practices.
Ramón is a systemic couple and family therapist registered with the UKCP and who has Approved Supervisor status with the AFT (Association of Family Therapy). He completed his qualifying training at the Tavistock Clinic in London. He has trained in the Netherlands, South Africa and the USA and currently works as therapist, supervisor and trainer mainly in the UK. He has published in systemic and mental health journals, such as the Journal of Family Therapy, Context, and the Clinical Child Psychology and Psychiatry. The main topics, Ramón has written about are: cultural and other issues of difference in the therapeutic and supervisory conversations, teaching and training issues, attachment and couples work. He teaches on local and regional family therapy and clinical psychology courses. Since 2006, he is the co-organiser of the Intermediate Course in Systemic Practice in Plymouth. He offers clinical supervision to therapists for their registration purposes, or to therapists and trainees of different modalities who would like to have a systemic perspective on their work. He is currently extending his practice of working with couples by offering group-based interventions.
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