IFT News

The Centre for Child Studies is delighted to welcome back the internationally reknowned Pat Crittenden PhD to present a five day course on the 23rd, 24th and 25th of March and the 21st and 22nd of April, 2009, entitled Attachment and Adaptation. For more information and to book your place please visit Conferences and Workshops.

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We are pleased to announce that the executors of the estate of Dr Robin Skynner have given all of Robin's original manuscripts and some of his books to IFT.

IFT Connections 'Down Under'

We are pleased to announce that IFT has formed a 'twinning' relationship with The Bouverie Centre, Melbourne. The Bouverie Centre is the leading family therapy training centre in Australia and, like IFT, has courses from introductory to MSc to Doctorate levels.

The Centre also has a number of very well established, high calibre clinical services in family therapy, particularly sexual abuse, acquired brain injury and single session therapy. The Centre was established in 1956 as the Bouverie Clinic. During the next 24 years there was a transformation from traditional child guidance clinic to a creative and innovative specialist family therapy centre. In the late 1980s the Centre formed an academic relationship with Latrobe University (interestingly at the same time that IFT established its relationship with Birkbeck) and in 1996 the Centre formally became part of Latrobe University in the faculty of Health Sciences.

The Director of the Centre is Dr Colin Reiss and one of the senior therapists is Amaryl Perlesz, who co-edited the Therapeutic Relationship with Carmel Flaskas.

We have put a link to The Bouverie Centre on our website or you can go direct to http://www.latrobe.edu.au/www/bouverie/

The Bouverie and IFT have signed a memorandum of co-operation and agreed to co-operate in the following ways:

• the promotion of each others commercial activities such as video tapes and books
• the promotion of professional contact between staff and students
• the exploration of the possibility of occasional joint publications
• the organisation of networking opportunities for staff, members and students who may be spending short periods of time in Melbourne and London respectively
• The collaboration with the Bouverie Centre is an exciting development and we will be letting members and students know more details in the next few months.

Publications

IFT Members current and forthcoming publications

Gross, V. & Goldin, J. (2008)  Dynamics and Dilemmas in Working with Families in Inpatient CAMHS. Clinical Child Psychology and Psychiatry

Hildebrand, J. & Markovic, D. (2007)  Systemic therapists's experience of powerlessness. Au stralian and New Zealand Journal of Family Therapy. Vol.28 No.4, December. p.191-199.

Jenkins, H. (2006)  Inside out or outside in: meeting with couples. Journal of Family Therapy. 28. 113-135.

Jenkins, H. (2006)  A Rendszer Kezelése: Válogatás egy Család-Specialistától. (Managing the System: Selections from a Specialist in Family Therapy.) Budapest. Animula Publishers.

Littlejohns, S. & Szmukler, L. (2007)  Deconstructing Agnes – externalisation in systemic supervision. Journal of Family Therapy, vol 29, 3.

Markovic, D. (2007) Working with sexual issues in systemic therapy. Australian and New Zealand Journal of Family Therapy Vol.28 No.4, December. P.200-209.

Perelberg, R. J. (2007) Time and Memory. Psychology.

Wilson, J. (2007) The Performance of Practice. Karnac, London.

Please keep us informed of any books and articles you are publishing.

Centre for Mediation & Conflict Resolution News

The Family Mediation Service has branched out in several ways. In addition to offering mediation to people who are separating and divorcing, we also offer a "Conflict Resolution Service" to people who want help with other kinds of family conflict or disputes. These might be between parents and teen-agers, between adult siblings, between parents and their adult children, disputes over money or wills; any kind of conflict where mediation or other forms of conflict resolution might be suitable.

Why mediation rather than counselling or therapy? Mediation is a short-term intervention and works well where there are specific issues that are causing difficulty in relationships. People often get stuck in ways of relating and may find they are having the same arguments over and over, or they are afraid of losing face, or they cannot see a way forward. Mediators are skilled in dealing with conflict and disputes and the process of mediation is about helping people to find their own solutions. If you think the conflict resolution service might be helpful, please contact us by phone or email.

The Graduate programme of courses in conflict resolution and mediation studies that we run in collaboration with Birkbeck, University of London is well established and in its sixth year. The Postgraduate Certificate has become and Advanced Certificate to enable more flexible entry and the MSc is a two-year programme. Over one hundred students have completed the courses in total. These courses are pioneering in the UK in offering an academic qualification for mediators and the theoretical knowledge about conflict and approaches to conflict interventions, which has been lacking in the skills based training in mediation currently available in the UK. As part of the courses programme we have had Masterclasses with notable writers and practitioners such as Bernie Mayer, Kenneth Cloke, and Joe Folger.

The Centre also has a very successful programme of workshops and conferences relating to mediation and conflict resolution. Presenters have included Allan Barsky, Joan Kelly, John Winslade, Howard Irving, Joseph Folger, and Christina McGhee. We have also had Mediation Study Days and a Conference about Separating Families

Mediation and other forms of dispute resolution are still relatively new areas of practice in the UK and this Centre is proud to be at the cutting edge of developments in the field, providing a high quality service to clients and a centre of excellence in training and academic study. For information about the courses and the workshop programme, please click on training or contact Dan Jeans. For enquires about the mediation and conflict resolution service, contact Natasa Golja.

Lorraine Schaffer
Director of the Centre for Mediation and Conflict Resolution.