Public speaking

I am happy to speak at conferences and other events. My style is informal and inclusive and may incorporate arts and sensory activity as well as communicating through words.

Rather than give a formal lecture I like to involve an audience in lively debate and often weave into my talks a mixture of brief illustrative activities that they can experiment with for themselves.  I am familiar with working with translators.

Here is a selection of organisations that I have addressed:

  • Association for Advancement of Gestalt Therapy, Philadelphia (child and adolescent discussion moderator) 2010
  • Association of Jewish Refugees/ Kindertransportees/ Second Generation Trust joint conference , London 2015 (on shame)
  • Association of Jungian Analysts (with Roz Carroll) London 2016 (‘Diaspora Stories’)
  • British Association of Counselling & Psychotherapy conference, London 2012 (using creative arts in therapy)
  • Chestnut Grove School, London 2009 (staff training day on adolescence)
  • Chiron Association for Body Psychotherapy: The Connected Baby: Colwyn Trevarthen lecture, London 2013 (panel discussant)
  • Confer Big Idea conference, London 2010 (on stepfamilies, with Claire Asherson Bartram)
  • Confer Therapy in Motion conference, London 2015 (on movement and music in therapy)
  • European Interdisciplinary Association for Therapeutic Services for Children and Young People, Zagreb, 2016 (on rage)
  • Friends of the British Gestalt Journal London 2008 (on adolescence)
  • Institute of Advanced Studies, University College London 2018 (Commemorative Kindertransport research symposium)
  • Stillpoint Spaces, London Jan 2020 (on Gestalt therapy and intersubjectivity)
  • The Sunflower Network, London 2019 (How canine-assisted therapy promotes wellbeing)
  • ‘Super Parents’: child psychologists conference, Kyiv, Ukraine, September 2020 (keynote speech on working with anger – Oaklander approach)
  • TAE-Vienna symposium 2015 (on attachment-based baby watching)

I have facilitated/co-led workshops on the following topics:

  • arts-related therapy practice
  • intergenerational dialogue
  • fatherhood
  • beginnings and endings in therapy
  • collective trauma and its aftermath
  • music for health & wellbeing

Recent and future engagements include:

  • UKAGP conference, Leamington Spa, 14 to 16 June 2024: ‘Stuckness and Play Three Ways’. Keynote and workshop with Roz Carroll

  • Child & Adolescent Psychotherapy Conference: “Who I really am”, 29 to 30 March 2025, Warsaw, The Palace of Culture and Science. Keynote and workshop: ‘Introducing the Violet Oaklander Approach to Therapy with Young People’

If you’d like me to speak at your event, please feel free to get in touch