At our last session we looked at the theory and practice issues around group work and community meetings, exploring the difficulties and dilemmas faced by reference to a range of books and articles written about group work.

This time, you will have an opportunity to bring your own experiences and practice of groups to discuss. You may want to present a difficulty your organisation is facing in setting up or running groups, talk about how to manage especially problematic behaviour, or how to develop group attendance and buy-in.

This session will be run as a ‘surgery’ – you will share experiences and bring questions, and together we will attempt to consider and address these drawing upon the knowledge and practice resources of everyone present.

This session is for everyone who facilitates groups or wants to set up therapeutic groups. Even if you were not at the last session, you are still welcome to join us. This sessions can be taken as a stand-alone TCTC training. 

Facilitator

Dr Chris Nicholson

Chris has been Chair of The Consortium of Therapeutic Communities since December 2021.

He is Senior Lecturer in the Department of Psychosocial and Psychoanalytic Studies, University of Essex. Chris has devised two new degrees, BA Psychodynamic Practice (which he leads) and BA Childhood Studies.

Before joining the Department, Chris was the Admissions and Assessment Manager at the Jacques Hall Foundation and Therapeutic Services Manager at Donyland Lodge, both therapeutic communities for traumatised adolescents. He develop an assessment service, a provision for leaving care, and with colleagues, set up The Junction, a Young Person’s service for Colchester MIND. His 2010 book, Children and Adolescents in Trauma: Creative Therapeutic Approaches, draws on these experiences. His research interests are in psychoanalysis and literature, trauma and therapeutic communities, and experiential forms of learning. He sits on the Editorial Advisory Board of the Robert Graves Review, and the International Journal of Therapeutic Communities.

He developed the Core Competency Framework for Therapeutic Community Practitioners in 2014, and Leadership Competencies for the Offender Personality Disorder Pathway in HMPs in 2024. He sits on the Hertfordshire and West Esses ICB, and provides training, consultation and supervision to therapeutic services in the UK and abroad.

Chris is a Black Belt in Kyokushin Karate, enjoys running, wild swimming, and family walks with the dogs.