
DIPLOMA IN COMMUNITY AND PSYCHOTHERAPY
The Philadelphia Association Diploma in Community and Psychotherapy is a one-year practice-oriented block course, which offers students the opportunity to develop therapeutic work in community settings. Like the Experiential Course, the Diploma is based on the idea that therapy is an important form of social engagement
at a time when community cohesion is under attack.
OVERVIEW
One-to-one psychotherapy is very valuable in helping people come to terms with painful experiences and emotions. But it is inevitably removed from a social context. The two people meeting together during a psychotherapy session build a secure space that is to some degree sealed off from the world and out of time. The approach of the Philadelphia Association has, though, always combined one-to-one therapy with a commitment to working within communities, especially the households which the PA has run for more than fifty years. Beginning at Kingsley Hall, the PA households were set up in order to explore communal solutions to personal crises, to work through trouble and conflict in a collective manner. This is still the aim and the hope, and for some people it succeeds where nothing else does. That this can be so demonstrates the value and healing potential of group dialogue.
In the current economic and political climate of austerity, which is ushering in the model of computerised quick-fix therapy, community solutions have all but disappeared. Day centres, youth clubs, libraries and other shared spaces have closed down. What is left is a fragmented and afflicted society in what can feel like a hostile environment.
The aim of this course is to develop the idea of community through therapeutic practice. Such work needs resilience and practicality as well as compassion and hope, but it also needs a rigorous and affordable framework of study which this course offers.
The Diploma course is designed to provide both continuing professional development and pathways into community engagement.
REQUIREMENTS
This is a practice-oriented course. It is expected that students will fall into one of the following categories:
(a) People who have completed the PA Introductory Course or Experiential Course.
(b) Qualified therapists who wish to develop community perspectives and insights,
(c) Healthcare, charity and other workers in community settings who wish to explore psychotherapeutic ideas and approaches,
(d) Activists and community organisers.
It is possible to attend the course informally, without a qualification at the end of it, but in order to obtain the Diploma, students need to meet the following requirements:
(a) To undertake group or community work for at least three months on a regular basis during the course period. A main component of the Diploma course is work reflection i.e. discussing ongoing work with other course members and seminar leaders during the six course weekends. Some students will already be undertaking community work, in which case the course is an opportunity to present work and gain feedback. Other students can use the course to devise and set up a community group, take the advantage of placement opportunities, the community room at Marty’s Yard and a range of advice provided by experienced community practitioners as part of the course.
(b) Completion of a satisfactory 4000-word essay which describes the community work undertaken during the course and reflects on it against the background of the course itself. Support and advice on essay-writing will be available as part of the course.
APPLICATION AND FEES
Application is by interview.The course costs £840. There is no interview fee for applicants who have already completed (or be about to complete) either the Introductory Course or the Experiential Course. For others there is a £50 interview fee,
There are a limited number of bursaries available for students surviving on low income.
Interviews begin in April 2022, click here to apply.
2021/22 COURSE DATES
2021 weekends: October 16/17 2021, November 27/28
2022 weekends: January 15/16, March 5/6, April 23/24, June 11/12
COURSE PROGRAMME
Course Coordinators:
Andrea Heath & Lucy King
Reflective Practice Facilitator:
Nicola Saunders
Consciousness-raising Group Facilitator:
Paul Atkinson
Clinical Discussions Facilitators:
Andrea Heath & Lucy King
WEEKEND 1
Saturday 16 October 2021
10—10.30 Arrivals
10.30—11 Introduction to the Course
Andrea Heath & Lucy King
11—12.30 Consciousness-raising Group (jointly with Experiential Course)
12.30—1.30 Lunch
1.30 - 3 Reflective Practice
3—3.30 Break
3.30—5 Seminar: The Organisation as a Source of Individual Purpose
Dan Sofer
Sunday 17 October
11—12.30 Seminar (jointly with Experiential Course): Community Online: Is It Possible?
Rob White
12.30—1.30 Lunch
1.30—3 Seminar (jointly with Experiential Course):
The History of the PA
Lucy King
3—3.30 Break
3.30—5 Clinical Discussions
WEEKEND 2
Saturday 27 November
10—10.30 Arrivals
10.30—12.30 Seminar: Structures for Voluntary and Community Organisations
Antony Bewick-Smith
12.30—1.30 Lunch
1.30—3 Reflective Practice
3—3.30 Break
3.30—5 Seminar: Activism and Solidarity
Becky Coles
Sunday 28 November
11—12.30 Seminar (jointly with Experiential Course):
On Community
Jake Osborne
12.30—1.30 Lunch
1.30—3 Consciousness-raising Group (jointly with Experiential Course)
3—3.30 Break
3.30—5 Clinical Discussions
WEEKEND 3
Saturday 15 January 2022
9.30 - 10.00 Arrivals
10.00—11.00 Large Group
Lucy King, Andrea Heath
11.15- 12.45 Seminar: Suicide, Community, Trust
Ben Scanlan
12.45 — 1.30 Lunch
1.30 -—3 Reflective Practice
3—3.30 Break
3.30—5 Seminar: Hope and Queer Community
Ben Walters
Sunday 16 January
11—12.30 Seminar (jointly with Experiential Course): Psychoanalysis and Movements of Liberation
Ian Parker
12.30—1.30 Lunch
1.30—3 Consciousness-raising Group (jointly with Experiential Course)
3—3.30 Break
3.30—5 Clinical Discussions
WEEKEND 4
Saturday 5 March 2022
10—10.45 Large Group
11 —12.30 Seminar: Psychopolitics (On Mark Fisher, Byung-Chul Han)
Rob White
12.30—1.30 Lunch
1.30—3 Reflective Practice
3—3.30 Break
3.30—5 Seminar (continued): Psychopolitics
Rob White
Sunday 6 March
11—12.30 Seminar (jointly with Experiential Course):
The Scapegoat
Del Loewenthal
12.30—1.30 Lunch
1.30—3 Consciousness-raising Group (jointly with Experiential Course)
3—3.30 Break
3.30—5 Clinical Discussions
WEEKEND 5
Saturday 23 April
10—11 Large Group
11 —12.30 Seminar: Philadelphia Association Houses
Amy Ison
12.30—1.30 Lunch
1.30—3 Reflective Practice
3—3.30 Break
3.30—5 Seminar: Psychoanalysis and Beyond
Amanda Ferozha
Sunday 24 April
11—12.30 Seminar (jointly with Experiential Course):
Jean-Luc Nancy's The Inoperative Community: Questioning the Sovereignty of Nations and Selves
Robbie Lockwood
12.30—1.30 Lunch
1.30—3 Consciousness-raising Group (jointly with Experiential Course)
3—3.30 Break
3.30—5 Clinical Discussions
WEEKEND 6
Saturday 11 June
10—11 Large Group
11.00—12.30 Seminar: Homelessness and Psychosis
Andreas Constandinos
12.30—1.30 Lunch
1.30—3 Reflective Practice
3—3.30 Break
3.30—5 Seminar: Rescued Communities
Emma Stroker
Sunday 12 June
11—12.30
Endings and Course Reflection (jointly with Experiential Course)
Andrea Heath & Lucy King
12.30—1.30 Lunch
1.30—3 Consciousness-raising Group (jointly with Experiential Course)
3—3.30 Break
3.30—5 Clinical Discussions