The 45^th Annual International TCTC Conference

Containing Organisations in Complex Times

 3rd – 6th November 2024

High Leigh Conference Centre, Lord St, Hoddesdon En11 8Sg, Hoddesdon EN11 8SG

“Today, if we have no peace, it is because we have forgotten that we belong to each other”

 Mother Theresa, Saint Teresa of Calcutta

We are living in an ever more divisive society, where under the pressure of political, social and organisational fragmentation, it becomes difficult to invest in one another and out joint enterprises. Blame, scapegoating and projection seems to be easier than holding a culture of thoughtfulness, where understanding and opportunities for reparation and rebuilding can exist. How can we adapt and manage necessary organisations change while holding on to value-based and principled methods, theories and practices in our work?

In today’s advanced society, it seems amazing that an inspection regime could be found to have contributed to a Head Teacher’s suicide, and social media, seemingly impossible to regulate, contributes to ever poorer mental health in our children, and exacerbates the worst characteristics that humans exhibit in groups. These and other societal and economic pressures seem to attack the work we do in therapeutic environments, of bringing people together within a planned and psychological-informed community that is geared toward the development of reflective, reparative and healing activities.

At our conference, which will be a rich balance of lecture presentations, experiential groups and other activities, some of the questions and themes we can consider and explore together will be as follows:

• How can we hold on to these containing spaces, and what is needed to protect them from external impacts?

• How to we manage the often high staff turnover, and difficulties with recruitment into our complex organisations?

• What impact is there when culture carrying members, whether service users or staff, leave our communities and organisations and how can we transmit the culture and keep psychodynamic thinking alive?

• How much is divisionism structural and necessary in order to navigate the objective world we inhabit, and how much comes from psychological forces within us being projected onto others and becoming objective reality through this process?

• In what ways can be hold onto the value of investment in each other, in community, in learning from groups, in reflecting on our behaviours and how we affect each other?

If you would like to be part of the conference please email admin@therapeuticcommunities.org

Whether you are in a therapeutic community, an enabling environment, a therapeutic childcare settings or aspiring to work in a less medicalised and more relational, psychodynamic and value-based way, come and find your place.  

This event is designed for those who work with Children and Young People, in Adult Mental Health settings, in the Voluntary Sector, in Criminal Justice and Addictions settings, and for those who have lived experience of all such settings.

All are welcome.

 We believe everyone can bring something of value and find value in community.

Getting there

Car:

There is amble parking at High Leigh, including electric car charging points

Rail:

The nearest station is Rye House on the Greateranglia line, which can be caught from Liverpool Street, London.

Bus:

The buses 341, 641, 410 and C392 come into Lord Street, which is a 6 minute (0.3 mile) walk from the venue.

Air:

The nearest airports are Stanstead, Heathrow, London City and Gatwick.

To register your interest for the conference please email admin@therapeuticcommunities.org