Imagination and Inquiry
Seminar Series 2016/ 2017
A Cross–Disciplinary Seminar Series organised by Psychosocial Research Unit from the School of Social Work, Care and Community
The Median Group- An opportunity for dialogue in our time of turbulence.
'Group Culture is Group Mind' (de Mare)
Wednesday 21 September2016, 3.00-5.30pm
Shireen Gaur, Group Analyst and Clinical Psychologist, NHS
Martyn Smithers, Chair, Group Analysis North
This presentation explores the Group-Analytic Median Group as a space for fostering a quality of dialogue that has been referred to as 'Koinoinia' or a feeling of fellowship and community. We are members of multiple interconnecting networks in this global society, which challenges us with ever-increasing intensity to negotiate complex interpersonal and power relationships. The Median Group creates a space where this experience can be explored, thus enabling the participants to remain thinking and to find a voice in highly complex situations. It seeks to promote 'outsight' into the surrounding context, to increase our social awareness, rather than 'insight' into the interior mind.
Besides Group Analysis, the presentation will draw on concepts from Psychoanalysis, Anthropology and Sociology to explore how the transformative process of dialogue can 'lead from chaos to cosmos to individuation' in the Median Group.
These current times of austerity measures, and the socio political backdrop to these impact on us all to some degree. Increasing demands on us in differing domains of our lives can render us confused and feeling isolated. We explore here how the Median Group can be an effective means of coming together in dialogue.
This event will appeal to anyone who is curious about and interested in understanding how we make sense of the world and manage ourselves in the presence of others. People from all organisations and walks of life, including the NHS, public, education, commissioning agencies, religious, the arts, private business and voluntary sectors might find this opportunity to reflect interesting and useful.
Shireen Gaur is a Group Analyst and Clinical Psychologist currently working within secondary care mental health teams in the NHS. Besides individual and group psychotherapy, she also provides consultation and supervision to individual clinicians and to teams. She worked for several years in hospitals in India before she moved to the UK in 2003. She is particularly interested in issues of difference, belongingness and marginalisation across a range of areas such as race, class, gender, sexuality etc. She will convene the Median Group at Group Analysis North when it re-opens in September 2016.
Martyn Smithers is the Chair of Group Analysis North. He had a career in mental health social work and management in social services where he also trained as a group analyst. He was then a Principal Psychotherapist in a mental heath trust and subsequently was the lead for mentalizing based treatment in another health service trust. Since retirement he has been following up his interest into the philosophical roots of group analysis.
3.00 - 3.10 pm Introduction
3.10 - 3.40 pm Presentation: The Median Group.
3.40 - 4.00 pm Questions, Clarification, Comments
4.00 - 4.10 pm Break
4.10 - 5.00 pm Experiential: Participation in Median Group convened by Martyn Smithers and Shireen Gaur
5.00 - 5.30 pm Reflections on the Group process.