0:01

Welcome to the

0:01

Therapists Connect podcast, a

0:05

podcast for therapists by

0:05

therapists.

0:10

Okay, Hello

0:10

everybody and welcome to series

0:14

three of the Therapists Connect

0:14

podcast. My name is Dr. Peter

0:18

Blundell and I'm here with our

0:18

Therapists Connect co-lead Caz

0:21

Binstead.

0:22

Hello, everyone.

0:22

Hello. Good to be back here

0:27

again on a Therapists Connect

0:27

podcast, which is kind of your

0:31

baby Peter. Yeah, welast had a

0:31

chat, must have been well, it

0:37

was almost over a year ago I

0:37

suppose.

0:40

Yeah, it was

0:40

the start of the first series of

0:42

the podcast and yeah well I was

0:42

interviewing you wasn't I about

0:46

your life and your work as a

0:46

therapist, which seems like such

0:51

a long time ago now. So much has

0:51

happened with Therapists Connect

0:54

since then. It's quite

0:54

unbelievable really.

0:57

Absolutely, with

0:57

Therapists Connect, with life in

1:00

general, just a lot going on,

1:00

but I mean, yeah, Therapists

1:04

Connect over that time has,

1:04

yeah, just obviously, really,

1:08

really grown and I suppose it's

1:08

taken you and I a little bit,

1:15

it's been a bit of a surprise

1:15

for us, for us both, and of

1:18

course, at that time I had come

1:18

on board and Trainee Talk was

1:22

our first project, Therapists

1:22

Connect first project. So that

1:26

was my kind of main focus at

1:26

that point and, yeah, yeah, it's

1:31

nice to nice to be here with a

1:31

community of, I think we've got,

1:36

we've got over 9000 followers

1:36

now on Twitter, and about 4,500

1:41

on Instagram, which is great and

1:41

worldwide as well.

1:46

Absolutely

1:46

amazing. We've got a fantastic

1:48

group of volunteers now who help

1:48

us kind of man the social media

1:52

accounts and it's yeah, it's

1:52

just kind of gone from strength

1:55

to strength. I suppose we could

1:55

tell people a little bit why

2:01

we've decided to record this

2:01

particular podcast at this at

2:04

this particular time. So we have

2:04

coming up on the (get the dates

2:09

right), the 6th and the 7th of

2:09

November, we've got a private

2:13

practice event coming up on the

2:13

6th and the 7th of November,

2:18

which is a worldwide event and

2:18

this is an idea that Caz came up

2:23

with actually quite a while ago,

2:23

and it's just just coming to

2:26

fruition now and so we thought

2:26

we'd do a little discussion

2:31

today about that event, and

2:31

talk a little bit about where

2:36

that idea came from and what

2:36

we're trying to achieve with it

2:38

just so people could get a bit

2:38

of a sense of what that's going

2:40

to be like.

2:42

Yeah, yeah,

2:42

definitely. It's really, really

2:45

great to have those dates in

2:45

coming up quite soon and yeah,

2:51

we are hosting this with our

2:51

friends at Online Events as

2:56

well. Which is good, because

2:56

it's nice to have maybe a bit

3:01

more solid technology. People

3:01

who know me know technology is

3:06

not really my thing. I like I

3:06

like talking on screen, but I

3:11

like to just rock up and not

3:11

have to worry about that stuff.

3:14

Well you say that, but I'm the one that's been missing in action at some

3:15

of our some of our online events

3:18

because technology, this end so

3:18

I think you might have done

3:24

better than me actually.

3:27

Yeah, so this

3:27

event actually feels really,

3:33

really important and the reason

3:33

why we wanted to do it, and I

3:38

felt so strongly about, was I

3:38

well, I'm a private

3:43

practitioner, we both are, but I

3:43

guess that's my like main focus

3:52

and I'm running a full private

3:52

practice and I have been for

3:56

many, many years. So I've had

3:56

first hand experience of what

4:02

it's been like really being

4:02

immersed in the world of private

4:06

practice during this pandemic

4:06

time and also being someone who

4:15

really works in this area. I

4:15

guess I know a lot about this

4:21

area in terms of I've, in the

4:21

past, run workshops on setting

4:27

up private practice. I have done

4:27

a lot of work at the BACP being

4:34

instrumental in the creation of

4:34

the BACP Private Practice

4:40

Toolkit and also within my role

4:40

as Therapists Connect co-lead.

4:49

Yeah, yeah, just hearing from

4:49

private practitioners about what

4:54

this, I guess, what this time

4:54

has been like for people and

4:59

about the, you know, the unique

4:59

sector that we are actually, you

5:05

know, just I guess paying a

5:05

little bit of attention to that.

5:10

So yes, so the title of the

5:10

conference (well we saying

5:15

conference but its not really a

5:15

conference), it's an it's an

5:18

event, it's a two day event.

5:21

I think it's

5:21

because it's two days. I think

5:25

that's why we keep referring to

5:25

the word conference, but it

5:28

actually is more, and we'll talk

5:28

about this a bit more, maybe,

5:31

but it more is a selection of

5:31

different events over the two

5:34

days, all around private

5:34

practice.

5:39

Yeah, that's

5:39

right, that's right. It's really

5:43

probably going to be much more

5:43

of, I don't know if

5:47

experiential is the right word,

5:47

but interactive, it's like, it's

5:52

very much well, those of you

5:52

know, Therapists Connect we're

5:55

very much about on the ground

5:55

therapists, you know. Less

5:59

interested in kind of, you know,

5:59

people saying how it is or how

6:04

it theoretically is, and all of

6:04

that. We're very, very

6:08

interested in hearing from

6:08

people, you know, their

6:13

experiences, and whether that's

6:13

people working in private

6:17

practice, or people who kind of

6:17

work with others to develop or

6:23

maintain their private

6:23

practices. So this event is

6:28

called Private Practice 2021

6:28

surviving and thriving in

6:34

uncertain times. Okay, so the

6:34

title gives a little bit of a

6:39

clue really there as to what

6:39

we're going to be focusing on,

6:44

because we are all human beings

6:44

and we have all had to deal with

6:52

all the difficulties of the

6:52

pandemic over this period and we

7:01

have been continuing to work as

7:01

therapists, a lot of us and

7:07

continuing just, day by day,

7:07

just carrying on, you know, and

7:14

I think that private practice

7:14

holds a lot of the mental health

7:20

crisis. Certainly, in my view,

7:20

mental health crisis, before the

7:26

pandemic, there's going to be, I

7:26

think, an absolute peak in that

7:34

we're already seeing it in

7:34

private practice. A lot of

7:38

people's practices are full,

7:38

there's a lot of referrals that

7:41

are coming through. There were

7:41

figures released around the last

7:46

week around the impact on young

7:46

people as well. So and, you

7:53

know, again, this is not really

7:53

something a space for debating

7:58

around mental health provision,

7:58

or, you know, jobs for

8:04

therapists but I think that I'll

8:04

say two things that I really

8:07

believe to be true and that I've

8:07

spoken about a lot in my career,

8:11

which is, you know, there's not

8:11

the jobs out there in our

8:16

profession, paid jobs, for

8:16

therapists, and a lot of that is

8:21

because there's not money that's

8:21

put into mental health and so a

8:26

lot of people end up going into

8:26

private practice and private

8:30

practice is really seeing that,

8:30

you know, people clearly need

8:35

mental health services, because

8:35

otherwise our practices wouldn't

8:39

be being overrun. So in short,

8:39

we have been holding a lot. and

8:46

course, you know, we sit with

8:46

clients, and sometimes when

8:52

we're sitting with clients, we

8:52

might know, they might say

8:55

something, we might know, oh,

8:55

I've got experienced that, or

8:57

whatever, but they don't know

8:57

that we do. Whereas in this

9:00

situation as well, we've had to

9:00

adapt because everyone is just

9:06

it's just one of those things in

9:06

the room, that that both people

9:09

in the room have also been

9:09

experiencing a pandemic, and all

9:14

the kind of intricacies that

9:14

come off that as well. So, yeah,

9:20

I think I've probably just

9:20

rambled there. But it's there's

9:23

a lot basically,

9:26

But I think what you were talking about there Caz is kind of some of the rationale

9:27

and the reasoning why we thought

9:31

something well, I say we

9:31

actually it was your idea, to

9:34

do this event over the two days

9:34

and like with all the Therapists

9:39

Connect events, I mean,

9:39

obviously the clue is in our

9:42

name. We want to bring as many

9:42

kind of therapists together from

9:46

lots of different backgrounds

9:46

and perspectives to try and

9:50

discuss how people have managed

9:50

to survive in their private

9:54

practice over the pandemic and

9:54

beyond and also what people are

10:00

doing to help their practices

10:00

thrive, and I think, really

10:05

appreciate the amount of work

10:05

that Caz has put into this

10:08

conference, who really bring

10:08

together as many different kinds

10:14

of therapists as possible to

10:14

contribute to those events and I

10:18

think it depends whether we've

10:18

got the lineup announced that at

10:21

this point when the podcast

10:21

comes out, but we've got a

10:25

very, very diverse range of

10:25

therapists who have agreed to

10:30

contribute and bring some of

10:30

their experiences from all

10:33

different parts of the world, to

10:33

talk about what it's been like

10:38

to work in private practice, and

10:38

the tips and guidance maybe that

10:41

people can give, that we might

10:41

be able to share with each

10:44

other.

10:45

Yeah, absolutely.

10:45

Yeah, it's been really great and

10:51

you know, it really shows

10:51

actually, I think, what a

10:56

community can produce, maybe

10:56

when we all come together, you

11:03

know, to just actually just go,

11:03

well I mean, certainly in the

11:07

Therapists Connect community, a

11:07

huge proportion of the community

11:11

will be private practitioners

11:11

and, of course, one of our

11:14

missions at Therapists Connect

11:14

is to try to help reduce the

11:20

isolation for people in private

11:20

practice that was there any way

11:24

but again, may have been

11:24

heightened during lockdown

11:27

periods and stuff like that. So

11:27

yeah, for people to, you know,

11:32

we're so grateful for people

11:32

within the community who share

11:38

our vision, and, you know, kind

11:38

of step forward and say, yeah

11:45

you know what, I'm going to be

11:45

part of this. I'm really, really

11:48

looking forward to hearing from

11:48

some people. We're gonna have

11:52

all kinds of different

11:52

discussions and as Peter has

11:55

already said there, so many

11:55

diverse range of people hearing

12:02

from so many people, and of

12:02

course, we also want to hear

12:05

from you guys, any attendees,

12:05

you know, we want people to feel

12:10

like they can, they can have a

12:10

say, they can, you know, to

12:14

have a space to reflect on their

12:14

own experiences. There will

12:18

certainly be the, the use of the

12:18

chat box. We will hopefully

12:22

have some people popping up on

12:22

screen, if people want to. and

12:26

we've also got a couple of

12:26

spaces for everyone who's

12:32

actually watching. kind of I

12:32

don't know, you might call them

12:38

like, networking, I suppose. I'm

12:38

not a huge fan of that word

12:43

because it brings up

12:43

connotations for some people

12:46

about what that actually means

12:46

but I think it's very much about

12:49

just being able to say here I

12:49

am, I'm a private practitioner,

12:54

this is how I found things or

12:54

this is, you know, this is my

12:58

practice, this is how I work,

12:58

this is what I work with, and

13:02

just being able to meet with

13:02

other people, in however you are

13:06

as a person. We're all different

13:06

as people, I think that's one of

13:09

the great things I like that

13:09

about when we think about

13:11

referrals in private practice.

13:11

When I meet a person, I don't

13:16

want everyone to be like

13:16

cardboard cutout kind of kind of

13:20

therapists, and I work with

13:20

this, and I work with that and

13:23

it just to be about that. I want

13:23

to meet a person and say, oh,

13:26

that person who came across like

13:26

this, so there's real like, I

13:31

don't know, I like that kind of

13:31

authenticity in practice.

13:35

I think it's really difficult. I mean, we've spoken about this a lot in all

13:37

the different broadcasts and

13:40

writing that we've done, that

13:40

actually being in private

13:42

practice, I suppose wherever you

13:42

are in the world actually can be

13:46

a really lonely experience. If

13:46

you're not connected to other

13:51

other therapists, then it can be

13:51

quite lonely and where do you

13:56

have those discussions? I think

13:56

then during the pandemic, as

14:00

well, where all of a sudden, all

14:00

therapists were working from

14:03

home, and they decided to work

14:03

online, it added that extra

14:07

element of isolation for people.

14:07

So I think those spaces and,

14:12

hopefully, if people have been

14:12

to any of our other events or

14:15

support groups, or book groups

14:15

or other workshops that we've

14:20

done, they'll know that what we

14:20

try and create is a safe space

14:24

for people to kind of talk about

14:24

what is meaningful for them and

14:28

I think, particularly bringing

14:28

therapists together around

14:31

private practice, I think we

14:31

could really offer a really nice

14:35

space for people to kind of

14:35

share those experiences and get

14:39

tips and advice and think about

14:39

how different people have done

14:43

different things and I know the

14:43

Therapists Connect community is

14:46

so generous anyway, I think on

14:46

social media, I think people

14:51

will be able to share those tips

14:51

and those things in those

14:55

spaces. I think the other thing

14:55

I just wanted to mention was

14:59

we've had had quite a few

14:59

students, when we announced we

15:02

were doing this event, we had

15:02

quite a few students commenting

15:05

saying, oh, I'll attend this in

15:05

future years once I'm qualified

15:12

and I've, you know, I've been in

15:12

practice, but we just as with

15:15

all of the Therapists Connect

15:15

events, we encourage any

15:17

students. If you're interested,

15:17

come along, you know, and hear

15:22

how people are working in

15:22

private practice, even if you're

15:25

not ready to set up in private

15:25

practice yet. It's really nice

15:29

just to hear other people's

15:29

experiences and to hear what is

15:31

possible and what you can

15:31

potentially do, if you want to

15:35

set up in private practice. Just

15:35

go back to Caz's point, there is

15:39

a very diverse range of people

15:39

in private practice, you know,

15:43

there are therapist working in

15:43

lots of different ways. So it

15:46

might be it might be nice as a

15:46

student to hear some of those

15:49

experiences and see what might

15:49

be possible as a private

15:51

practitioner.

15:53

Yeah absolutely.

15:53

Really, I mean, yeah, I want to

15:56

pick up on two points, actually,

15:56

that you're saying there Pete.

15:59

That first point about students,

15:59

please do. Yeah, absolutely. You

16:05

know, we love working with

16:05

students anyway and yeah, a lot

16:11

of my interests in private

16:11

practice have been kind of

16:14

trying to encourage students who

16:14

are thinking about going into

16:16

private practice to prepare. You

16:16

know, this is a big part of it.

16:20

So you know, often when you're

16:20

studying courses differ on this

16:25

but there's often not a lot of

16:25

.. they often don't go too much

16:30

into depth on working in private

16:30

practice and it is a very niche

16:34

area actually. Some courses

16:34

don't pick up on it at all. So I

16:40

know that a lot of the work I've

16:40

been involved in has been trying

16:42

to close that gap a little bit

16:42

to help support people a bit

16:47

better who are thinking about

16:47

going into private practice but

16:50

you know, this could be part of

16:50

preparation if you really are

16:54

thinking about it. So yeah,

16:54

absolutely do come along and I

16:59

think the other thing that you

16:59

said there Pete about isolation

17:04

and when started to talk to

17:04

people about potentially taking

17:10

part in some of these

17:10

discussions, I felt relieved. I

17:16

was kind of like and here I am

17:16

you know, I'm co lead of a very

17:21

large community, therapy

17:21

community and yet I could still

17:25

feel that real sense of

17:25

isolation actually because I was

17:29

sitting down talking with some

17:29

people and even some friends who

17:34

I know but we were just kind of

17:34

saying we'll see what's been the

17:37

experiences the pandemic and

17:37

stuff like that. Yeah, it just

17:41

felt lik, oh that resonates and

17:41

that resonates and oh it's not

17:44

only been me who's felt that. I

17:44

just came away thinking oh

17:50

goodness that's invaluable. If

17:50

I was feeling that I really

17:55

really hope that this is going

17:55

to be of some use to people.

18:03

We've got a variety of different

18:03

events as Peter was saying there

18:08

so yeah, it's two days which is

18:08

a long time, but you know, it's

18:12

pay what you can so could be

18:12

great value. We hope that people

18:17

do kind of stay around and try

18:17

and do as much of it as they can

18:23

but also there is obviously the

18:23

option to dip in and out

18:27

depending on your your schedule

18:27

and we know obviously people

18:32

have been locked in for a long

18:32

time so I'm sure people want to

18:35

get out and about on weekends

18:35

but you know, yeah, have a look

18:39

see what you might want to come

18:39

along to and if you can come for

18:42

the whole two days. but you

18:42

know, I think just that being as

18:45

a group together it that that

18:45

might really be something

18:50

actually. We'll have a couple

18:50

of kind of keynote speakers. One

18:58

of which is me talking about

18:58

some of my work and obviously

19:03

just about the conference itself

19:03

and we're gonna have a couple of

19:06

interviews as well. So there's a

19:06

real range actually of things

19:11

that are going on.

19:13

We've got some

19:13

quite a few debates haven't we

19:15

and panel discussions and we've

19:15

also got a section on

19:20

integrating research into

19:20

private practice as well. So as

19:25

Caz said, I mean, we've covered

19:25

pretty much every type of

19:29

possible event that you could

19:29

have I think around private

19:33

practice and we also know that

19:33

everyone takes on information

19:37

and stuff in different ways. So

19:37

we kind of wanted to kind of

19:40

have that variety really so

19:40

people could experience

19:43

different things throughout the

19:43

day and listen to different

19:47

voices really. So we're really

19:47

excited. Yeah, and it's

19:52

hopefully it will all go

19:52

swimmingly.

19:55

Yeah, definitely.

19:55

Well, I'm looking forward to it.

19:59

Yeah and I hope that it can just

19:59

be I guess, as much of a, we

20:06

talk about safe spaces here at

20:06

Therapists Connect. Now,

20:09

something that we are discussing

20:09

a lot, you know, how do you get

20:13

safe spaces? Can anything ever

20:13

be entirely safe, all of that

20:17

kind of thing. But we certainly

20:17

have an intention to try to

20:21

create safe spaces. So, so yeah,

20:21

within all the discussions and

20:26

all the facilitation that we're

20:26

doing on this two day event, we

20:32

hope that people can feel safe,

20:32

can feel part of a community and

20:39

yeah, just come along. Really, I

20:39

guess it's a chance to really

20:43

embody, just be completely be

20:43

with yourself and yeah, reflect,

20:50

process, what has this time been

20:50

like, for me? I was just gonna

20:55

say also, it's called surviving

20:55

and thriving and we have had to

21:00

carry on, we run businesses, as

21:00

private practitioners, we run

21:03

businesses, so there's all of

21:03

that stuff but then there's also

21:08

I need to maintain my business

21:08

and or, and this is something we

21:12

will be touching on, new private

21:12

practitioners who started during

21:16

the pandemic time. So interested

21:16

in all of that as well.

21:21

There's a lot of

21:21

topics to cover and I think just

21:24

talking about the idea of

21:24

processing things, and I think

21:26

being able to do that in a

21:26

community or sharing it with

21:30

other people think, well, it's

21:30

important for me, and something

21:33

I valued as part of the

21:33

Therapists Connect Community.

21:35

So we are hoping that we're

21:35

going to bring all of that sense

21:41

of community to this particular

21:41

event. Just if people are

21:45

interested, and they want to

21:45

book on, if you're on Twitter,

21:48

it's our currently pinned tweet.

21:48

So you can go on there and the

21:51

link is attached to that but

21:51

we'll also put the Eventbrite

21:55

link in the links to this

21:55

podcast as well. So people can

22:00

go there, or you can look on our

22:00

website and the link to book

22:04

will be on there as well.

22:05

Okay, well, it's

22:05

always lovely chatting, Peter.

22:10

And yeah, yeah.

22:12

Thanks Caz. I'm

22:12

looking forward to hearing your

22:14

keynote at the event.

22:17

Yeah, I had better

22:17

start writing it . Yeah, really

22:22

look forward to seeing people.

22:22

Yeah, thank you all the best.

22:25

Thanks very much, everyone, and I'll see you soon.

22:28

Thank you for listening

22:28

to the therapist Connect

22:31

podcast. Go to

22:31

www.therapists-connect.com for

22:39

more discussions and debates.