Obsessive Compulsive Disorder continues to be seen as a mental illness and tends to be treated as a biochemical problem requiring medication. People experiencing OCD can present with a combination of obsessive thoughts and compulsive behaviours which can dominate their lives, along with anxiety, panic attacks and other disturbing experiences. Though even experts in OCD are still not sure of the exact causes, some suggest that genetics, brain abnormalities and the environment are thought to play a role. There still seems to be an emphasis on CBT as the first, or best line treatment for OCD. Some Person-Centered practitioners may feel unprepared for coming alongside clients who are suffering with OCD. This session will offer the opportunity to look in more detail at this distressing experience, and how the Person-Centered relationship can encourage clients to find their way out of what has held them feeling trapped.
Learning Objective Participants Can Expect From This Event
- Particpants are invited to be actively involved in discussion of their experiences with clients who present with OCD.
- Understanding a person-centred approach to the OCD experience.
- Developing and affirming person-centred practice with clients who are struggling with OCD.
Who is This Workshop Appropriate For?
- Counsellors, psychotherapists, psychiatrists and allied professionals at all stages of their expereince and training.
How May This Workshop Impact Your Practice?
- Particpants are invited to consider what lies beneath and how the person-centred relationship can allow clients who feel trapped by OCD, to journey to the meanings and find freedom.
Course Content
Presenter
Jan Hawkins has a background in psychology, teaching and training in the PCA. Since 1991, she has been in private practice as a Person-Centred therapist, supervisor, group facilitator and trainer. Jan ran groups for Survivors of childhood abuse during the early nineties, controversially offering groups with women and men together, and for those who had experienced any type of abuse. Many students and supervisees reported their difficulties in locating good, practical and developmental training for practitioners focussing on the issues raised by a history of childhood abuse. In response to this expressed need in 1994 Jan created, and co-facilitated, a Diploma course in Counselling Survivors of Childhood Abuse, the first initiative of its kind in Europe. Since then, through FDP, Jan has continued to run post counselling training Diploma courses and study days with a conviction that experiential learning is imperative for the continued development and deepening of the core attitudinal qualities of the Person-Centred practitioner. She has been particularly keen to encourage Person-Centred therapists to extend their practice to people with learning disabilities, many of whom suffer silently from their legacies of childhood abuse.
