Press release
UCC hosts conference on the talking therapy industry
11 and 12 November 2015
‘Talking’ therapies have become increasingly central in dealing with all aspects of human life,
a trend now generally referred to as the ‘therapy industry’. This conference, now in its 7th
year, aims to explore and debate critical perspectives on the value of talking therapies, the
politics of the therapy industry and ways beyond therapies to support people in distress.
Dina Poursanidou, a Post-doctoral Research Fellow at King’s College, London, draws from
her own personal experience of using psychological therapies and problematises them by
locating such therapies in the broader context of neoliberal politics, the marketisation of
mental health care and the medicalisation of problems of living. Dina argues for the
‘benefits of ambivalence’, by recognising both limitations and the huge potential of
psychological/talking therapies to heal.
The tensions between individual and collective forms of support in therapeutic processes
are addressed by two of the speakers, David Pilgrim, Honorary Professor at the University of
Liverpool, and Jacqui Dillon, writer and activist and National Chair of the English Hearing
Voices Network. Jacqui advocates for the ‘importance of collectively addressing oppressive
political structures to improve individuals’ personal experiences’. David addresses the weak
mandate professionals have when claiming therapeutic optimism, stressing that until there
is a wholesale rejection of coercive practice, truly person-centred ‘mental health services’
will remain a sham.
Malcolm Garland, a Consultant Psychiatrist in Dublin, highlights a deep and wide
dysfunction in today’s mental health services and proposes a ‘radical, iconoclastic, perhaps
even mad plan’ of “let’s rip it up and start again”, which he suggests ‘you will not have heard
elsewhere’.
Drawing on her own experiences, Wilma Boevink, a social scientist from The Netherlands,
illustrates the damaging and at times disastrous effects of psychiatric diagnoses. She
highlights the risk of people using mental health services being reduced to a disorder and
focuses on the more hopeful alternatives she found helpful after 25 years of struggling as a
‘chronic psychiatric patient.
Also drawing on his experiences, Rory Doody, Recovery Development Advocate in Cork,
reflects on his journey through therapy, highlighting the courage it takes to engage with it,
making reference to the ‘utter relief when sharing becomes more than an unburdening of
trauma and actually has the possibility of becoming a source of hope and possibility.’ He
stresses the therapeutic effect of one's own environment, including family, friends and
work, to move beyond therapy and stand on one's own two feet...most of the time!
In addition the 6 key note presentations, there will be 42 concurrent presentations across
the two days, focusing on the themes of the conference.
ENDS