Keynote Speakers
Professor of Social Engagement and the Humanities
‘Narrative and its limits’
Tackling Racial Inequality in Leeds Mental Health Services –‘dismantling the master’s house with new tools’
Abstract
This session examines the role of psychologically informed leadership in advancing racial justice within mental health systems, drawing on the author’s lived experience and the development of the Synergi Leeds Partnership—a cross‑sector, whole‑systems initiative addressing the disproportionate detention and poorer outcomes experienced by Black and Asian communities. Using frameworks such as Bronfenbrenner’s bioecological model, psychological safety, system convening, and epistemic justice, the work highlights how traditional service structures marginalise racialised voices and limit meaningful change. The Synergi approach reframes these challenges by centring lived experience, fostering psychologically safe spaces for candid dialogue about racism, and leveraging creative, community‑driven methods to influence strategic decision‑making. The paper illustrates how relational, authentic, and disruptive leadership can reshape organisational culture, build trust with communities, and catalyse sustainable system transformation toward racial equity.
Biography
Sharon is a Consultant Clinical & Forensic Psychologist; Chair of the Psychological Professions Network for the North East and Yorkshire, and until recently was Deputy Director for Psychological Professions at Leeds & York Partnerships NHS Foundation Trust for many years. She has worked in the NHS for over thirty years and is passionate about the importance of psychologically informed mental health care, specialising in working with those with complex and severe mental health presentations. She has provided clinical and strategic leadership to award winning and highly regarded services and projects, winning a HSJ Award for Mental Health Innovation of the Year 2023 and being shortlisted for Inspiring Diversity & inclusion Lead, National BAME Health & Care Awards, 2024. She has also co-edited the book ‘Working Effectively with Personality Disorder’.
Recommended Reading
Synergi Leeds - Remembering Whats Forgotten Digital exhibition
Camara Jones Allegories on Race and Racism. TEDxEmory https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GNhcY6fTyBM
https://legacy.synergicollaborativecentre.co.uk/briefing-papers/
Eddo-Lodge, R. (2017) Why I’m No Longer Talking to White People About Race. London: Bloomsbury
Akala (2018) Natives: Race & Class in the Ruins of Empire. London: Two Roads
Marmot, M. (2020). Health Equity In England: The Marmot Review 10 Years on . Institute of Health Equity.
National Collaborating Centre for Mental Health. (2023) Ethnic Inequalities in Improving Access to Psychological Therapies (IAPT). London: NHS Race and Health Observatory.
NHS Race and Health Observatory (2025). Model for Improvement: Anti-Racism Framework Guidance. London: NHS Race and Health Observatory.
‘Reformulating self-harm relationally: clinical practice and research evidence’
Abstract
Self-harm is a complex behaviour that can have a profound impact on a person’s life. Rates of self-harm are on the increase but despite this, people who self-harm can struggle to access effective support. Cognitive Analytic Therapy (CAT) shows promise as an intervention for people who self-harm and has now been the focus of two nationally funded trials. In this talk we draw on research and clinical experience in reflecting on the CAT approach to working with self-harm. We will start by exploring how self harm can be understood relationally and framed within CAT. We consider themes of power, inequality and polarization, both at the individual level and with regards to how self-harm is viewed and responded to societally. We will then introduce the 8-session CAT approach to self-harm and provide an overview of the developing research in this area. The results of the recent NIHR-funded RELATE (relational approach to treating self-harm) trial of CAT for self-harm in adults will be shared, as well as the ongoing RELATE-YP trial (relational approaches to working with young people who self-harm). We will close the talk by summarising potential future developments and next steps for research in this area.
Biographies
Dr Peter Taylor currently works as a clinical reader at the University of Manchester. He completed both his PhD and clinical training at the University, before working for three years at the University of Liverpool as a lecturer in clinical psychology. He returned to work at Manchester in September 2016. Dr Taylor’s research focuses primarily on self-harm and suicidal behaviour. This has encompassed work into the psychosocial mechanisms underlying suicide and self-harm, including investigations of the affective processes surrounding self-harm and suicide (specific mood states like shame and emotional instability more generally), and traits and risk factors related to risk of self-harm (e.g., impulsivity, socio-economic deprivation). His research has also included evaluation of psychological therapies to help people who struggle with self-harm. He has a particular interest in Cognitive Analytic Therapy (CAT).
Dr Samantha Hartley is passionate about working with young people and the systems around them, with a focus on effective therapeutic relationships. She has over 10 years' post-qualification experience in specialist child and adolescent mental health services and has combined research and clinical practice, recently holding an NIHR post-doctoral clinical academic fellowship. She is a qualified Cognitive Analytic Therapy Practitioner and trial therapist on the RELATE-YP trial, exploring the feasibility of CAT for young people who self-harm. Her substantive role is leading a team in partnership with social care, working together to support practitioners, young people and families.
Recommended Reading
Taylor, P., Adeyemi, I., Marlow, K., Cottam, S., Airnes, Z., Hartley, S., Howells, V., Dunn, B., Elliott, R., Hann, M., Latham, C., Robinson, C., Turpin, C., & Kellett, S. (2024). The relational approach to treating self-harm (RELATE): Study protocol for a feasibility randomised controlled trial study of cognitive analytic therapy for adults who self-harm versus treatment at usual. Pilot and Feasibility Studies, 10, 101. https://doi.org/10.1186/s40814-024-01526-z
Taylor, P. J., Adeyemi, I., Marlow, K., Cottam, S., Airnes, Z., Howells, V., Dunn, B. D., Elliott, R. A., Hann, M., Latham, C., Su, F., Robinson, C., Turpin, C., & Kellett, S. (2025). The Relational Approach to Treating Self-Harm (RELATE): A Feasibility Randomised Controlled Trial of Cognitive Analytic Therapy for Adults who Self-Harm versus Treatment at Usual. Psychiatry Research.
Taylor, P. J., Gianfrancesco, O., & Hartley, S. (2024). Evaluating CAT: Research practice and future direction. In Oxford Handbook of Cognitive Analytic Therapy (pp. 292–306). Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780198866572.013.13
'Power (entitlement), polarisation and leadership in organisations'
Biography
Philip is a Psychoanalyst in private practice working with adults and couples, and an Organisational Consultant, providing consultation to a wide range of organisations.
He worked in the Adult Department of the Tavistock & Portman NHS Foundation Trust between 1994 and 2012, he was the Clinical Director from 2007.
He is a member of the European Psychoanalytic Federation Forum on Institutional Matters since 13/9/2015, which studies the nature of psychoanalytic institutions.
His book, The Curiosity Drive: Our Need for Inquisitive Thinking, was published by Phoenix Publishing House in November 2020 and short-listed for the Gradiva® Award for Best Psychoanalytic Book in 2021.
Recommended reading
Stokoe, P; 2020c; The Myth of the Healthy Organisation, Ch 4 in The Curiosity Drive: Our Need for Inquisitive Thinking, Bicester, Phoenix Publishing House https://firingthemind.com/product/9781912691456
Stokoe, P; 2023 The Traumatised Organisation; https://philipstokoe.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/2023-0202-The-Traumatised-Organisation.pdf
Video of lecture: Stokoe, P 2025, Groups and the Healthy Organisation Model; https://vimeo.com/1102557957?fl=pl&fe=ti
Adrian Whittington
Jo Varela
Margaret Gani
Abstract
At a time of apparent geopolitical destabilisation around the globe, it feels apt to consider why it is that past social trauma inevitably finds its way into the present. Is the past ever really the past? Or is the past always in the present if we could but see it? Through the group analytic construct of the social unconscious, such questions will be explored in this presentation with the aim of considering the role of psychotherapy in recognising and addressing the implications within different spheres of practice and learning.
Biography
Dr Anne Aiyegbusi is a Group Analyst and Forensic Psychotherapist. She is currently the President of the International Association for Forensic Psychotherapy (IAFP). Anne has spent much of her career concerned about the treatment of people who find themselves on the margins of mainstream mental health care and treatment. In which case, stories of personal, institutional and social trauma have tended to predominate whilst also being formally unrecognised. Anne worked for many years in Women’s Secure Services and has a special interest in racial trauma. She has a track record of publishing and presenting in these areas.
Recommended Reading
Aiyegbusi, A (2024) Racial Trauma as an unlaid ghost of empire. Journal of Psychosocial Studies. Vol 17 (2) 192 – 203.
Hopper, E. (2003) The Social Unconscious : Selected Paper. London, JKP.
Volkan, V, Scholz, R and Fromm, G (2023) We Don’t Speak of Fear. Large Group Identity, Societal Conflict and Collective Trauma. Oxon, Routledge.
Research presentation: 'Inpatient brief CAT: acceptability, safety, effectiveness and impact on readmission'
Abstract
Whilst policy dictates that psychological interventions for inpatients should be made available and service users want to access these interventions, the availability of these interventions is piecemeal, and the evidence base is poor. This two-phase project sought to create and evaluate a new inpatient care pathway for 8-session CAT. In phase I, a new brief CAT treatment protocol was produced (based on the previous RELATE version), and routine sessional outcome monitoring implemented. Phase 1 results will be reported and focus on acceptability (dropout rates), safety (suicide rates), the changes facilitated, treatment fidelity, helpfulness and effectiveness in terms of TP/TPP change. The 2-year CAT readmission rate will be benchmarked against the English average. Phase II of the project implemented expected treatment response curves (ETRC) generated from Phase I data. ETRCs will be shared and also how they are used to enable corrective therapeutic actions to be taken in the next N=35 inpatients.
Biography
Stephen works in the NHS in RDaSH Trust 3-days a week in a psychiatric inpatient unit and 2-days a week in the Trust research unit. He is currently the co-chief investigator on the RELATE-YP NIHR funded RCT of CAT for young people that are prone to self-harm.
Recommended Reading
France, H., Rychlinski, I., Gaskell, C., Simmonds-Buckley, M., & Kellett S. (2026). Inpatient cognitive analytic therapy for emotionally unstable personality disorder: A co-produced and mixed methods single case experimental design. Psychology and Psychotherapy, Feb 11. doi: 10.1111/papt.70038.