Conference Agenda

Metacognition is understood by Lysaker to be an integrated spectrum of interrelated processes, scoping from basic mental operations like the recognition of mental contents, to the discernment of contextualized experiences, or reaching more nuanced and integrated narratives of the self and of others, that aid in navigating the worlds of intrapersonal and interpersonal conflicts. To further the understanding of theory of mind in clinical populations undergoing inpatient treatment, we conducted dynamic semi-structured interviews and scored them using Lysaker’s Metacognition Assessment Scale- Adapted in a sample of 12 teenage and young-adults with diagnoses of either anorexia nervosa or purgative anorexia.

Among the most notorious findings, we observed interesting discrepancies in the Self-Reflectivity subscale, were the patients scored high thanks to the coherent narratives about their eating disorder. However, none of the patients attained evidences of metacognitive integration, and upon a qualitative content analysis of their verbalizations, it became evident that most high-level narratives repeated cookie-cutter descriptions that some of the patients stated they came to know as true only because the clinical staff insisted they were true, not necessarily because they were hypotheses anchored in their own experiences (e.g. “I understand I developed a biologically-informed mental illness because of the societal pressures to attain a beauty ideal, (…) when I don’t see it that way it's maybe because of the cognitive distortions”.

As restrictive eating disorders are challenging for treatment providers, in great part because of the maternal anxieties they awaken in the counter-transference, but also because of the current primacy of essentialist approaches, collapsing causality to social media or elusive “genes” we haven’t yet found but still fiercely believe in, where is the space for metabolizing the subjective experiences of eating disorders, and to think about anti-carceral mental health interventions even inside institutions?

Social work supervision is heralded as central to the effectiveness of social work practice. Despite this it remains largely under researched, with the majority of studies to date relying on self-reporting mechanisms to understand ‘what happens’ in supervision, and no studies, to the author’s knowledge, exploring the impact of unconscious forces. This paper aims to contribute to this gap in the knowledge base by analysing the conscious and unconscious processes at play in two cohorts of systemic group supervision held in UK children’s services. Hinshelwood and Skogstad’s (2000) psychoanalytically informed observation methodology was employed, involving the researcher being present in the supervision sessions, and this data was then triangulated with audio recordings of the sessions. Bion’s model of thought outlined in Learning from Experience was then used to analyse the data and explore how each group developed its own unique ability to think about challenging child welfare work in light of its ability to contain anxiety. Implications for the social work supervision, supervision leadership and social work practice are then discussed.

This study looks at counselling and psychotherapy as a general discipline from the lens of the caste system of the South Asian communities and its diasporas and investigates if this discipline can address the issue of caste both as a social variable and lived experience. There is currently not much literature on this.

This study was conducted through a qualitative method of study. Data was collected through minimally structured online interviews with participants recruited using a snow-balling method. A thematic analysis has been used to analyse the data.

The study highlights the necessity for therapists, their research community and training modules to be caste informed. It claims that only this can allow therapists to address the issue of caste discrimination as a social variable and lived experience so that clients do not have to spend time in therapy explaining the history and context behind caste discrimination to their therapists.

The UK is home to one of the biggest South Asian diasporic communities in the world. Yet the lived experiences of South Asian people and their voices have often been underrepresented in the overarching field of academia and more specifically counselling and psychotherapy in the UK. The imbalance in power that stemmed out of the colonial past has led to a cultural hegemony of the Global North over the Global South and has effectively left the Global North in charge of determining which narratives are worth representing in academia. Caste discrimination has infused itself within the social fabric of South Asians to the degree that it has been normalised. The following study aims to address this major gap and draw the attention of the global audiences from the person-centred community to the experiences of South Asians, particularly on the issue of caste discrimination.

The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (UNHCR) estimates forced displacement to have reached 103 million globally by mid-2022 out of which 32.5 million people are refugees. As per Department of Homeland Security reports, 11,454 people were admitted to the US as refugees during 2021 out of which 40 percent were children under the age of 18 (Baugh, 2022). This has exposed many children to the grief and trauma that comes with war and for some, forced displacement. Many children may be exposed to trauma pre-migration (such as life-threatening events, loss of family, war, torture, human rights violations, sexual violence and rape), during migration (such as hazardous refugee camps) and post-migration (stigma and discrimination; Bronstein & Montgomery, 2011). While this is likely to have long-term adverse effects of this on children’s development, there are ways to support their growth in challenging times. Resilience research suggests that upon having such support, children may show tremendous capacity to bounce back from trauma, an ability regarded as the ordinary magic (Masten, 2001). In my paper, relating the conference’s theme of psychosocial approaches to learning and teaching, I will talk about working with children who have experienced trauma from a psychoanalytic lens. I will discuss the impact of violence on psychosocial learning and development among children; common obstacles in working with minors, particularly systemic barriers, and lack of available resources for children in most need—who have had adverse childhood experiences including refugee minors, asylum seekers, and undocumented and unaccompanied minors. This has become more relevant with the current global political climate. I will give examples of how I have used projective techniques of storytelling to process trauma in my work with children in India and America and discuss creative ways of building support systems to foster resilience in children through case examples.