Presenters Bio: Barbara is a psychotherapist and supervisor working in Greystones, Co. Wicklow. She taught on a B.Sc. in counselling and psychotherapy for ten years and was a university lecturer in genetics prior to 2002. Barbara is the author of numerous articles and two books, the latest Depression and the Erosion of the Self in Late Modernity (Routledge, 2018).
Workshop Outline: Depression, together with its associated condition of anxiety, affects about one in five people in the developed world. It is increasing by 20% per year and therefore cannot be attributed to ‘bad’ genes - despite the prevalence of this belief within the medical model. What are the alternative explanations? It is central to Barbara’s evolutionary perspective that depression has a purpose, whose message we ignore at our peril. Accordingly she will put forward a biopsychosocial model, in which the impact of social conditions on both childhood vulnerability and adult triggers will be explored. In particular, she will examine the ways in which our current ways of living block the satisfaction of fundamental human needs, including our rootedness and belonging, the development of an authentic and embodied sense of self and our capacities for relationship and meaning. Barbara – inviting case examples from participants - will discuss the implications of her analysis for working with depression in the therapy room. In experiential sessions, we will also learn to interpret the signals of our own depression, not as a disease to be cured, but as a wake-up call telling us that all is not well in our personal and social world.
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