from Privileged Environments
Counselling for Young People
Conference 2017
Presentations
Leslie Lund:
Are Privileged Young People Really At Risk?
Leslie continued her previous year’s exploration by delving farther into the research literature in order to illuminate what we know about privileged young people, and what we don’t! The processes of socialisation that underlie elite education and family organisation were outlined and delegates had the opportunity to discuss the implications.
You can learn more about Leslie on the Bio page.
Lars Carson:
Superstar Dads
As a psychotherapist with extensive experience in providing therapy for young men, Lars Carson has special insights into the relationship between highly successful fathers and their adolescent sons. What do young men need from their fathers? And how does a privileged lifestyle help or hinder this crucial emotional attachment?
Lars has an MA from Regents University School of Psychotherapy and Psychology. After setting up a private practice and liaising with
school counselling services, he developed his present interest in the psychological development of school age boys and has developed specialist methods of engaging them in the therapeutic process. He uses his knowledge of sport to engage his young clients and provide them with useful metaphors for learning about their internal processes and social relationships.
Francesca Thorpe:
Teaching Mindfulness: Is it Welcome?
Francesca Thorpe teaches mindfulness and resilience courses to students in schools. In this presentation, she outlined mindfulness practices and shared her experiences and what she had learned about the attitudes of students and schools to personal development and exploration.
Francesca has worked as a school counsellor for a private day/boarding school in Surrey and as a student counsellor at Surrey University. She has a private practice, based at home,
counselling young people, adults and couples. Her particularl interest in psychoeducation grew out of her therapeutic involvement with youths in schools and university and she is now certified in teaching the Penn Resilience, Youth Mindfulness and Breathworks programmes.
Video Coming Soon
Thurstine Basset and Christine Thompson: Experiences at Boarding Schools: Are they always privileged?
This presentation focused on the potential for harm when students attend boarding schools and discussed the cultural limitations experienced by counsellors who attempt to provide effective psychological support to students.
(Because of the experiential nature of this presentation, no video or notes are available.)
Thurstine worked as a social worker, mostly in the mental health field, before entering the world of training and education in the 1980s. He has written and produced a variety of training packages, articles, book chapters and books in the mental health field. Early in the 21st Century, he attended a Boarding School Survivors Workshop and then became a director of Boarding Concern, an organisation that supports boarding school survivors. In 2016 he published a book with Nick Duffell: ‘Trauma Abandonment and Privilege: a guide to therapeutic work with boarding school survivors’ (Routledge).
Christina began her career as a teacher working with students with emotional difficulties, before qualifying as a psychodynamic counsellor in 1992. She set up the YMCA School Counselling Service in Brighton and Hove. She went on to establish the counselling service at Roedean School, and spent 12 years there before moving to Lancing College. Christina also spent 15 years as a therapist at Sussex University Counselling Service. She has a small private practice as a therapist and supervisor.