PA 24/11
A well-known agony aunt who has helped hundreds of people with their relationship troubles and a columnist for The Guardian will be among the guest speakers at an event looking into the phenomenon of self-help.
Taking place at Nottingham Contemporary on Tuesday January 25, the event has been organised by the gallery’s resident psychologist and University of Nottingham academic Dr Victoria Tischler to coincide with the upcoming exhibition by photographer Anne Collier, whose work sometimes explores self-help imagery.
This Event Will Change Your Life will offer a varied programme that covers both the more populist approaches to achieving self-motivated change and clinical techniques offered by healthcare professionals.
Among the high profile speakers will be the relationship psychologist, writer and broadcaster Susan Quilliam, who has been an agony aunt for Top Sante magazine, offered expert comment and advice on numerous national TV and radio programmes and is the author of The New Joy of Sex. Susan will discuss the issue of silence and sexual difficulties and will be advocating openness and maturity in the way we talk about sex as a nation.
She will be joined by Oliver Burkeman, feature writer at The Guardian and the winner of the Foreign Press Association’s Young Journalist of the Year. Oliver will be talking about his new book HELP! How to Become Slightly Happier and Get a Bit More Done based on his weekly column This Column will Change Your Life.
Dr Beena Rajkumar, Specialist Registrar in Psychotherapy and Tim Sweeney, Adult Psychotherapist, from Nottinghamshire Healthcare NHS Trust will be discussing Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) and mindfulness and how they are used to treat disorders such as depression, phobia and anxiety.
Dr Gary Winship, a psychoanalytic psychotherapist and Associate Professor at The University of Nottingham will speak about the case of the late Lucy Cameron, saxophonist, poet and artist and his former client. He will explore the relationship between creativity and the psychotic space of addiction.
Dr Victoria Tischler said: “Self-help is now ubiquitous in our culture, from the widespread use of groups like WeightWatchers and Alcoholics Anonymous to consulting therapists, writing to agony aunts and reading newspaper advice columns. I aimed to put together an evening which explores and showcases the range of self-help approaches that are available.
“I hope that the event will demystify techniques commonly used in the NHS such as Cognitive Behaviour Therapy (CBT) and psychoanalytic psychotherapy and will demonstrate the utility of self-help in an entertaining way
“I am delighted that Oliver Burkeman and Susan Quilliam will be joining me alongside experts from the clinical and academic arena to share their expertise.”
The event takes place at Nottingham Contemporary, Weekday Cross, Nottingham, on January 25 from 7pm to 9.30pm. The event has proved extremely popular and places are now being reserved on a waiting list basis only. However, the event is being streamed live to the gallery’s cafe to accommodate the large demand for places.
Further information is available at http://www.nottinghamcontemporary.org/event/event-will-change-your-life
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More information is available from Dr Victoria Tischler on +44 (0)115 823 0412 or 07967151381, victoria.tischler@nottingham.ac.uk or Emma Thorne, Media Relations Manager in the Communications Office at The University of Nottingham, on +44 (0)115 951 5793, emma.thorne@nottingham.ac.uk
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