Issues & Influences

PhD students Settings & Constraints Issues & Influences Therapeutic Approaches Personal Development CCYP Overview CCYP FAQs E-Books & Reading Process Groups Dissertations

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PhD students Settings & Constraints Issues & Influences Therapeutic Approaches Personal Development CCYP Overview CCYP FAQs E-Books & Reading Process Groups Dissertations

The Young Person in Context: Issues & Influences (XX4802) SPRING 2012

Module leader: Dr Gary Winship

Required reading & watching: The Oresteia (Aeschylus), Lord of the Flies, The Bell Jar.

Feb 1st, Room A35 (B7), WEEK 1 Shattered Lives: The Child in their Familial, Social and Cultural Context

In this session we will consider an over view of the module. We will look at some of the challenges of emotional well-being with children and adolescents (See BMA document on disc). Beginning with the social exclusion agenda. What are the issues that affect the lives of children and young people: family fracture, divorce, step-families, teenage pregnancy, drugs, self harm, violence, suicide, eating disorders? What do counsellors have to offer children and young people? What are our international perspective on these matters; what are the key issues across different nation states; is depression the same in China, is emotional resilience tallied to culture (why are some peoples in poorer countries happier?); what are the cultural differentials in the response of counselling.

Psychology, Poverty, and the End of Social Exclusion. “Laura Smith has written a much-needed text that provides the counseling discipline with a call to social action, based upon a critical analysis of social class, classism, and poverty”…. click here. Reading: an introduction to social exclusion follow links to social exclusion documents (especially Social Exclusion & Mental Health). An introduction to social exclusion follow links to social exclusion documents. Have a look at: http://www.everychildmatters.gov.uk/ emotional well being in schools. Other documents & places to consult: The Childrens Plan (DCSF, 2007) Childrens Workforce Development Council.

pdfs: i) families - DoH document; ii) health promotion in schools iii) BMA document; iv) counselling in schools v) Jenkins & Polat vi) child mental wellbeing: stakeholder responses (this is a very interesting document that gives us some insight into how policy is formed). vii) school counselling - libres 2006

pdf: The Laming Report 2009 (this is the update of the original inquiry into the death of Victoria Climbie).

Nottingham was the first City assigned as an early intervention city. MP Mark Allen was instrumental in getting this off the ground. He continues to work with the government (even though he is a labour MP) in allocating service monies. Is early intervention rhetoric, or does it work?

Creative Workshop 1: 'Psychotherapy begins in the overlapping space of creative play between therapist & client'. You are invited to 'play' (see: Attachment & New Beginnings), messy play: collage, clay & crayon. Interact with the materials, move between spaces, with your fellow participants share your responses to the forthcoming module: i) what are you anticipating, ii) what worries you, iii) what do you hope to achieve.

Preparation for the Lord of the Flies trial: Instructions for the jury, for the defence teams (see Preparation and trial guidance). You are asked to read Lord of the Flies or watch the film. You are also invited to have a look at the Madness & Literature Network (click here), you can see a couple of you tube videos about the network that I've done: Madness & literature Showalter & Crawford.

Preparation for the media Project.

Feb 8th Room A35 (B7) WEEK 2: Siblings and Birth Order

Thinking about the implications of birth order. Reading on The Oresteia by Aeschylus. Marion Hubbard (CCYP, 2009-2010) found this interesting link on you tube: http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=4X7tcp4aE14 (cut and paste this link into your search bar: a very neat little homemade film which compresses the narrative into 6 minutes or so - its slightly confusing that the same plastic models are used to play different characters, but the sub-titles are orientating).

The use of case study material and preparation for assignment: Use of case material Where possible use case material to bring alive your theory with illustrations of case practice or experience. In the absence of case material you may want to select case material from popular or literary sources, including myths or tales. Have a look at Bettelheim's Tales of Enchantment, or Rustin & Rustin's Narratives of Love & Loss, for two excellent examples of how tales can be used to illustrate and bring theory alive.

In class we generated some interesting discussion about transgenerational family dynamics - have a look at the following papers: (1997) The transgenerational impact of cultural trauma - linking phenomena in the treatment of third generation survivors of the holocaust. British Journal of Psychotherapy, 13, 2; 259-266. (& Knowles, J).

see also (in reading pack): Siblings & Democracy (Hinshelwood & Winship, 2006). Paper on birth order Saxton, H & Winship, G (2011)

Structure:

1.30pm Intro: Intro - Discussion about the Oresteia, background about siblings (GW)

2.15pm Break-out groups: Sibling birth order groups.

3.15pm Re-convene plenary, feedback from groups (10 minutes about each group incl observer feedback).

4.00pm break

ALLOCATION of MEDIA PROJECT GROUPS

Feb 15th, Room A35 (B7), WEEK 3: Introduction to The Lord of the Flies Trial (see Preparation and trial guidance): Gangs: Boys will Be Boys: Girl Gangs: Sugar & Spice.

Learning Aims: to consider the dynamics of peer relations and how group relating capabilities emerge during childhood and adolescence. We will be looking at the pathological and non-pathological aspects of gang/group dynamics. Suicide cults, Bridgend Suicides, children that kill other children including the cases of Damiola Taylor, Jamie Bulger. See also the case of Edlington Brothers (click here for BBC info and video, also listen to GW interview on BBC radio Nottingham (Morning show) February 2nd talking about the Edlington Brothers and violent children: click here. What are the gender differentials in peer relations among boys and girls. What issues for girls and their peer relations. Students are asked to watch the film Girl Interrupted. Students are encouraged to consider the trajectory of their own development and how this might inform the work with clients. Peer relations will be addressed regarding the challenges of socialisation.

As a context to the theme of violent beahviour among children and young people it is worth considering the controversial issue of diagnostics (mad or bad?) and the question of 'personality disorder'. Have a look at the document: Personality Disorder - No Longer a Diagnosis of Exclusion (Doh, 2003). Some of the handouts for the session consider the question of how can we define personality disorder in adolescence. What are the challenge of working with clients who present with a PD and anti-social tendencies. In preparation for this week's session please prepare a mini case presentation either of i) some observed/personal experience where anti-social tendencies featured (eg some act of bullying, self harm) or ii) some clinical work where you have engaged with a client who has presented with issues pertaining to anti-social behaviours. Your case presentation should inlcude: i) context: where & when; ii) any history or background, iii) any particular dilemmas or problems in relation to the case account. We may select one or two of the cases for a live 'fish-bowl' supervision session. For the pod cast on Arson.

(Pdfs: i) pd erikson ii) pd quality of life iii) pd adolescence, iv) pd gender relations; v) ramos et al attachment & adolescence.

Winship, G & Hardy, S (2007) Perspectives on the prevalence and treatment of personality disorder. Journal of Psychiatric and Mental Health Nursing 14 (2), 148-154.

Feb 22nd, Room A35 (B7), WEEK 4: Lord The Flies: The Trial.

(see Preparation and trial guidance):

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/south_yorkshire/8233822.stm

(Pdfs: i) Wadell gangs; ii) Gangs Getti; iii) Gangs Rosenfeld iv) gangs & groups; v) girl gangs book review.

Feb 29th, Room A35 (B7), WEEK 5: Obsessive Appetites 1 - Substance misuse

Students are asked to bring along materials, cuttings, memoirs which pertain to their own personal iconography (icons that have influenced your life). Learning aims: by the end of the session students will have an engaged in the activity of playing; both with images, the creative enterprise of a group collage and collage poetry. Students will have had the opportunity to respond to collage images, and to have the experience of finding words to articulate subjective respones to peers artefacts.

In this session we will consider the iconography of drug use since the 1800s. How does pop culture, from the late twentieth century, impact on the way we perceive drug users? And what de we make of the more recent phenomenon of celebrity rehab? Do the lives of problem drug using celebrities shape young people's perception about their own drug appetites? We will consider how our own icons have influenced us as a starting point of how we might begin to engage with clients in counselling.

Debate: what role for drug prevention work in schools? Reading & watching: Go Ask Alice (section in reading pack), Christiane F (a copy of the film and the book in each case are available for students to borrow from me. Cultures of drinking among young people (JRF bid).

Here's a couple of papers recently on line about the effect of alcohol during pregnancy:

Sayal K, Heron J, Golding J, Alati R, Gray R, Davey Smith G, and Emond A (2009) Binge pattern of alcohol consumption during pregnancy and childhood mental health outcomes: longitudinal population-based study. Pediatrics, 123, e289-296. here http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/cgi/content/full/123/2/e289

Sayal K, Heron J, Golding J, and Emond A. (2007) Prenatal alcohol exposure and gender differences in childhood mental health problems: a longitudinal population-based study. Pediatrics, 119, e426-434. here http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/cgi/content/full/119/2/e426

Anneleen has suggested a link for a documentary about 2 Flemish Politicians who went to rehab HERE

March 7th, Room A35 (B7),WEEK 6: Obsessive appetites 2 - Eating disorders.

We will look at the use of case study material, first case of the treatment of Anorexia and the talking therapies - Frau Emmy Von N. Clay sculpt group exercise. Here's 2 short films to have a look at by dint of introduction to the session: i) Anorexia & psychotherapy ii) Body image sculpt. Check out the Gianna Williams book on the new e-books: Internal Landscapes and Foreign Bodies: Eating Disorders and Other Pathologies. icpm_01598T7O

March 14th , Room A35 (B7) WEEK 7: Nirvana: Self-harm and suicide contagion

Tackling suicide & self harm among young people. Risk assessment: implications for case management. National inquiry into suicide & homicide. Suicide risk assessment (session overheads). We will also be doing a workshop based on consultation exercise with a school where pupil self harm is brought to the the attention of an external consultant (see the pdf on the disc: The Staff Group That Was Not Meant to Be - please do not read this until after the session). (pdfs; i) self harm Hawton; ii) self harm iii) suicide schools; iv) The staff group that was not to be Winship 2009; v) self harm humanistic; vi) self harm schools; vii) Self harm deliberate repeat.

March 21st , Room A35 (B7), WEEK 8: Suicide 2: The Bell Jar - a case study of young suicidal woman

In this session we will consider the case of Sylvia Plath in relation to creativity and self-destruction. We will consider the progression of Sylvia Plath's suicidality from childhood onwards. Students are asked to read Plath's book; The Bell Jar. Poems to be read in preparation. Audrey Boot MA CCYP (2009-2010) writes: "Over the summer I visited Haworth, Bronte country for a few days, and whilst I was in the area I stumbled across Heptonstall (Ted Hughes was born up the road) and Syliva Plath's grave. I had no idea that they had contacts with this area and that she was buried there. The grave was insignificant in as much that it was small, closed in and swamped by many other graves. Someone who was cutting the grass said 'it is not advertised as the family wanted it quiet'. The inscription on the grave reads: even amidst fierce flames the golden lotus can be planted". In the session we will use a drama workshop to consider aspects of Sylvia Palth's suicide, and also the suicide of her son, Nicolas Hughes in 2009. Through the drama we will attempt to advance our understanding of the mind of the person who is suicidal.

18th April VISIT TO YORKSHIRE SCULPTURE PARK. 9.30am Depart Nottingham. 11 am Arrive at YSP. 11-1.00pm: visit selected sculpts. 1.00-1.30pm Lunch (bring a packed lunch). 1.30-2.30 Recreation of Hepworth’s Family of Man. 2.30: Leave YSP. 4pm Arrive back at Nottingham.

May 9th, Room A35 (B7), WEEK 9: Consolidation of process groups (1.30-5.30pm no process group)

Penny Bricknell will also be coming this week to talk about Place2Be.

May 16th , Room B 85, WEEK 10: Student presentations of media project (1.30-5.30pm no process group)

The 'media project' project (non-assessed) has aimed to consider how counselling can be presented in relation to the challenge of tackling some of the difficult issues that face children and young people. You have been examining these issues and how can counsellors can contribute to offering a research. In this session we will look at how your projects have developed. As we discussed in the opening session it is not onerous on you to produce an end product, so we will hear about how you have progressed towards your target in producing either a video, leaflet, poster, information pack, etc. The process of your thinking about the challenges you have been looking at, and how you have worked together as a team are useful for us to hear about. What is the evidence, research or experience that has informed your project.

FOLLOWED BY NIBBLES

The media project project is a non-assessed activity that tasks student groups to consider how counselling can be presented in the public domain. How can counselling psychotherapists contribute to consciousness raising with a range of target stakeholder; with clients, families, commissioners, colleagues. Each project group is asked to engage with the process of designing an information portal; this can be a poster, a flier, information pack or some other media. It is not onerous on you to produce an end product, but you should have some aim in mind towards what you are attempting to produce. The process of your thinking about the challenges you are looking at, and how you have worked together as a team are integral to the learning outcome. You might look at some evidence of need, ie what creates the impetus for your project, any statistics about the problems you are looking at etc. Headlines and images might lead to a story board your interest. Some space will be set aside during the sessions but it is anticipated that some of this work will take place between sessions.

THE WINNING PRESENTATION VOTED BY THE PANEL 2011: Counselling awareness for young children: Shelagh, Lou, Ruth, (147).

ASSIGNMENT WRITING

Although there are 2 separate components to the assignment (one essay about a topic linked to the themes of the module and a shorter essay which reflects on the process group experience), you are encouraged where possible to try and draw some links between the two components. This is not always easy and straightforward, but your tutorial might be a good place to see how the two essays might be linked. By dint of example, you might for instance be writing a longer essay about siblings, and you might therefore examine some issues of sibling dynamics that emerged in the process group.

In the longer essay you are encouraged to develop your use of case material in the assignment. Case material is a good way of making links to professional practice. But what do we mean by case material? For those students who have experience in practice they can draw on clinical experiences to illustrate their work. Extended case study data is not required for assignments and is reserved for the dissertation stage of study, but smaller vignettes of case material can be used to bring theory alive. There are also a number of other options when it comes to case material: i) use material from personal experience: autoethnography, autobiography or ii) composite case material; ie several cases drawn together deeply disguising identity, compressing data in order to highlight some general tendencies, iii) case material from popular sources which are worked over much in the same way as Bettelheim, Miller, Rustin & Rustin or Yalom have done. The case material is reflected upon much as one might work with clinical material, inferences can be drawn about particular issues, theory is brought alive by examples and so on. For instance a student wrote a first class essay on Attachment and Loss in the case of Harry Potter; they were able to draw on the case material in the novel and then apply the theory to the Harry Potter and then speculate about implications for practice.

Where you can draw on personal narratives (autobiography or autoethnography), instead of this being an introduction, you might see if the material can become the centre-piece of your assignment. The live case material is then the middle part of what amounts to a theoretical sandwich. In the first place the background theory is considered and then the case material seeks to bringing the theory alive. Overseas students can be encouraged to draw on their own cultural sources; stories, books, films, popular myths or case histories, and so on. A student wrote a very interesting account of eating disorders using the Japenese myth of Izanami, another student used the Greek Myth of Ariadne to illustrative the complexities of therapist-client attachment.

This approach to case material based on a sort of 'narrative turn' has recently come to fore in counselling and psychotherapies (see John Macleod's new ESRC seminar series and journal about case material). These narrative approaches centralise the case material with confidence in the generation of new knowledge about psychological processes. There is an underpinning assumption that this approach legitimates the role of a continuous cycle of qualitative research inquiry and the generation of evidence from practice. We encourage narrative as a grounding for the first module aims where we are looking to build on prior students experiences in the cycle of experiential learning where story, history and autobiography are central to the process of personal development.

An extended literature review can be favourable, but the idea of using new case material is that it encourages a sort of psychic circuit training which is essential for practice preparation. It is difficult in to advance new knowledge in an extended literature review, so although it might seem a safe option, it is a challenge to present distinct level new thinking.

Essay structure:

1/ Thematical impetus for assignment drawn from experience.

2/ Critical engagement with the literature on theme.

3/ Experiential follow through: case material, anecdotes, auto-ethnography, dramatic reconstruction, narrative of experience, observations,

4/ Reflections on case material, fittedness of theory, implications for self as practitioner, recommendations for others, impetus for further research.

Wednesdays. 1.30-4.15 (lecture), followed by 15 mins break then 4.30-6.00pm Process groups.

ASSESSMENT:

This module will be assessed by means of a written assignment of 3,500 - 4,000 words (see below) and a 1,500-2,000 word unreferenced report on the process group experience (see process group module guide for guidelines on this element of the assignment).

MEDIA PROJECT PRESENTATION SCHEDULE 2012

Panel: Lou Bamber, Gary Winship, Maisa Almatrafi, Roxana Balbontín Alvarado

1.45: Suicidal Adolescents

2.05: PTSD

2.25: Child Abuse

2.50: School Shootings

3.10 Early Onset Personality Disorder