SIP’s 32nd Annual Public Lecture | Respark: Ways of understanding & working with shut-down states with Graham Music

• When: Saturday 28th October 2023, 10 AM – 12 PM
• Where: Watershed (1 Canon’s Road, Bristol BS1 5TX)
• Tickets: £20 – £40 (includes refreshments)
• Accessibility: This venue is fully accessible (more info available here)
• CPD certificates will be available to attendees on the day

About the talk

In this talk Graham Music will elaborate on themes from his book, Respark. He will discuss ways of understanding and working with more shut-down states, such as those seen after trauma, neglect and learned helplessness, as well as more manic ‘mis-sparking’ states.

Graham will discuss the impact not only of trauma, but also of emotional flatness and lack of energy, on patients and in our countertransference, the variety of forms this can take, and how aliveness may return after it. New science will be linked with clinical insights needed to shift people from ‘desparked’, lifeless, unenergised states, linking ideas such as Symington’s ‘lifegiver’ with newer thinking about ‘danger responses, and a specific focus on the body. The talk will use video clips and slides as well as clinical examples.

About the speaker

Graham Music is a psychotherapist, trainer, author and supervisor. He has been Consultant Child and Adolescent Psychotherapist at the Tavistock Centre where he worked for nearly 30 years, and he has been adult Psychotherapist for about 35 years. Formerly Associate Clinical Director of the Tavistock Clinic’s Child and Family Department, he has developed many innovative programs, including setting up services in over 40 schools and a range of services working with the aftermath of child maltreatment and neglect. His clinical specialty for decades been understanding and working with trauma.

Graham supervises and teaches nationally and internationally and has a particular interest in linking cutting-edge developmental findings with therapeutic practice. His publications include Nurturing Natures (2023, 2016, 2010), Respark: Igniting Hope and Joy after trauma and depression (2022), Affect and Emotion (2022, 2001), Nurturing Children: From Trauma to Hope (2019), The Good Life (2014) as well as co-editing From Trauma to Harming Others (2022).