I wrote yesterday giving the official description of Arnoud Arntz's workshop in Belfast and explaining that getting an update on his work was the major reason I travelled to the BABCP Spring Conference & Workshops.  So how was it actually being there?  It was definitely worthwhile.  When I walked into the workshop, Arnoud greeted me saying something like "Why are you here, you already know all this stuff!"  Far from it.  Although I have done several days of training with Arnoud in the past, there is still lots for me to learn.  And it was very interesting to get an update on how his work has progressed. 

I have already written a brief introductory description of the two day British Association for Behavioural and Cognitive Psychotherapies (BABCP) Spring Workshops and Conference in Belfast last month.  I reported that I had been to Arnoud Arntz's workshop on Schema-Focused Therapy.  I have been to several training days with Arnoud before, but it was helpful getting an update on what he is doing.  And at the conference proper, one of the highlights for me was a first report by Arnoud of results from a major new study on the treatment of six different personality disorders using schema therapy.  

I read a lot of research. When I find an article of particular interest I download it to my bibliographic database -

Well here's a good example of being taught by our patients.  I've had two or three people, who come to see me, singing the praises of the C25K NHS website.  The site states that "Our C25K plan is designed to get just about anyone off the couch and running 5km in nine weeks."  That looks good ... and both my patients and the numerous appreciative comments on the C25K website underline how helpful people have found the written advice and more especially the downloadable MP3 podcasts that are to be used when running.  

"My father considered a walk among the mountains as the equivalent of churchgoing."    Aldous Huxley

Last September I went back to Cambridge for a reunion ... the first time I'd ever been back to school or university for such a thing.  It was an experiment in "emotional archaeology" and I wrote a series of blog posts about it.  At one stage I experimented with a dialogue between the 22 year old and the current 62 year old versions of me.  In the post "Going back for a university reunion: self-esteem, hallucinogens, wonder & the transpersonal", I wrote "I changed subject too from philosophy to medicine (in 1970).

I had lunch with a health professional friend the other day.  Later he emailed me saying "The last few times we have met you have mentioned the importance of attachment style in determining aspects of the interaction between patients and health care professionals."  He went on to raise a series of questions about health professional-patient relationships, about the way that the attachment style of both health professional and patient can affect outcomes, about how adult attachment is measured and the possibility of improving attachment patterns, and about links between attachment & mindfulness.  Gosh a lot of interesting questions being raised here.