Taunton Association for Psychotherapy

ON January 20, TAP Council member Andrew Wilcox, welcomed fellow members and guests to the first talk of the New Year with the exciting news that tickets for the TAP Conference on March 18, at Taunton Racecourse were selling fast.

Outlining the excellent speakers that are attending and the sumptuous lunch that will be provided, Andrew shared with the audience TAP’s Council’s belief that the conference was on track to be an outstanding occasion.

The evening’s presentation was given by Dr Damian McCann and was entitled `Exploring the dilemmas of disclosure in ‘coming out’ in family, couple relationships and in therapy` Damian is a psychoanalytic psychotherapist working as head of clinical services at the Tavistock Centre, London and works with gay, lesbian, bisexual and transsexual clients.

The audience heard how there is a clear distinction between ‘coming out’ and ‘being out’ but both positions can still carry social stigma which in turn can attract discrimination even from one’s own family.

With the aid of slides, Dr McCann explained that often an individual may have suffered so much anxiety, guilt and shame that they reach a breaking point where they no longer want to hide an essential part of themselves.

‘Coming out’ is said to an evolutionary process and not a single goal oriented event and is considered a psychologically healthy state for individuals as well as an important developmental task for the wellbeing of the individual’s future relationships and the identity of the self.

Damian’s presentation moved into ethical dilemmas, which gave the audience the chance to think hard about what they would do in these situations and how they might be taken to supervision. This interesting and highly informative evening was rounded off by TAP’s council members serving hot beverages and biscuits.

The next TAP talk will take place on February 17, when Farhad Dalal presents `The relational and the analytic: an inquiry into Practice’. 
This talk will examine the two paradigms of ‘analytical’ and ‘relational’ and raise questions of `kind` and `degree`. All are very welcome.

The Annual Conference, entitled Cutting Edge Connections between Spirituality and Psychotherapy, is on Saturday, March 18, at Taunton Racecourse. For further details contact Suzie Grogan on 01823 661601.