Redbank House Annual Conference 2012

PRESENTERS :   Dr Laurie MacKinnon, Jenny Brown and Margaret Goldfinch, plus workshops

Treating clinical problems rarely if ever involves dealing with difficulties that are solely located within the individual. Individual issues influence and are influenced by our family context, our educational or work environment, our community, and the network of agencies and services that have a role in helping and guiding us. This web of relationships and contexts can also be an important focus in our efforts to help our clients.

 

Regardless of our practice orientation, most of us will have heard, or even used the expression, “I work systemically.” We should not assume, however, that all systemic work looks the same. Clinicians working in different settings, coming from different professional backgrounds, will have different assumptions about what constitutes ‘the system’, who needs to be present for work to be considered ‘systemic’, what relationship the therapist has to the system, and whether systemic work can coexist with other forms of therapy. Indeed, the way we think about the system affects the way we think about the problem and its solution(s).

 

By exploring this deceptively simple question from a number of angles, the 2012 Redbank House Conference presents an opportunity to think further about the idea of ‘systemic work’, while increasing awareness of the nuanced (and sometimes marked) differences between various systemic approaches. In engaging with the thinking and practice of others, clinicians will find an opportunity to scrutinise, challenge and renew their own assumptions about working systemically – to think about their own practice with rigour as well as curiosity.

 

This conference is relevant to clinicians from different clinical backgrounds working across a range settings. Keynote speakers and workshop presenters will talk about where and how they invest their energy and focus in working systemically, using video role plays and case discussions to illustrate their thinking. Participants will be invited to join in collaborative dialogue and think about ideas as they relate to their own workplace. By exploring the who, what, when, where and how, as well as the why of systemic practice, this conference will appeal to newer clinicians as well as those with extensive experience.

For more information please email  redbankconference@swahs.health.nsw.gov.au.

 

Date:	30th November - 1st December 2012
Venue:	Westmead Hospital, Sydney