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