Nursing Section
Introduction
The Nursing Section of the Association for Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy in the NHS (APP) was formed in mid-1993, following an invitation from Dr.Lawrence Goldie and other members of the APP council who wanted to see nursing more clearly represented within the APP.
The section was originally composed of a small number of nurses who had experience in working in an analytically-informed way and who wanted to promote this way of thinking, to demonstrate its efficacy, and to support those nurses already working in this way. The section believes that the introduction of psychodynamic understanding into nursing makes nursing more human and more meaningful for both nurse and patient and the nurse-patient relationship becomes potentially more powerful as a therapeutic tool.
In addition, we believe that a psychodynamic understanding of the interpersonal dynamics which take place in any therapeutic milieu, can help staff understand how the internal world of staff and patients dynamically interweave, having effects at intrapsychic, interpersonal, group and community levels of functioning. An appreciation of these dynamics and attempts to explore, unravel and understand them, can be of therapeutic value to both staff and patients.
Current Subcommittee Membership
The development of the Nursing Section is being taken forward by a core group:
Stephen Mackie - Chairperson of the Section and the current representative on the APP Council. Consultant Forensic Nurse Psychotherapist, Portman Clinic, Tavistock and Portman NHS Foundation Trust.
Charlie McGrory – Deputy Head of School of Nursing and Midwifery, Thames Valley University.
Christine Daniel – Clinical Nurse Specialist in Psychoanalytic Psychotherapies, HIV/ Sexual Health, West Sussex NHS Trust.
Violetta Melguizo – Nurse and Psychotherapist, Gordon Hospital, Camden and Islington NHS Foundation Trust.
3. Activities
The aims of the group are:-
1. To disseminate psychoanalytic concepts among nurses and enable them to apply these to their thinking and practice.
2. To promote support structures for nurses in the utilisation of these ideas.
3. To provide a social space for informal networking, where contact can be made with other nurses struggling with these ideas.
4. To develop a body of nursing knowledge and practice that is psycho-dynamically informed.
5. To act as a pressure group in the promotion and development of these aims.
Seminar Programme Summer Term 2011
The Nursing Section relaunched its respected seminar programme last year and invites all nurses from all disciplines to attend:
Monday 16th May at 20.00
‘Is culture and personality a false dichotomy as Spiro (a & b) maintained’
a) Spiro, Melford E. 1993. Oedipus in the Trobriands. Transaction Publishers
b) Spiro, Melford E. 1994. Culture and Human Nature: Theoretical Papers of Melford E. Spiro, Benjamin Kilborne and L.L.Langness, eds.Chicago: University of Chicago Press
· Presented by Alyson Lawson, Staff Nurse (Bank)
Monday 13th June at 20.00
‘A child carer of a parent with psychosis: A case of the reversal of the container-contained relationship’
· Presented by Helen Holmes, Health Care Assistant (Bank)
Monday 11th July 20.00
Social/Business Meeting
All meetings are held at the Portman Clinic, 8 Fitzjohns Avenue London, NW3 5NA, England.
Nearest tubes, Finchley Road (Metropolitan & Jubilee Lines) Swiss Cottage (Jubilee Line)
Buses: 46, 31, C11, 82, 113, 187, 268, 13
For more information contact Chair of Section, Stephen Mackie,
Tel: 020-7794 8262,
email: smackie@tavi-port.nhs.uk
www.app-nhs.org.uk