Training for an age of chaos

In therapeutic communities, many of us have always resisted the push to be objectified or reified into ‘things’. I am a wholehearted believer that we are more interested in ‘a way of being with each other’ (aka ‘relational practice’), and a political and emancipatory movement – than in defining a fixed ‘treatment brand’. To me, this also means that the expression of these ideas has to keep up with the world in which they need to exist: TCs need to continually change and modify themselves. IF not, they risk being seen as throwbacks to a past age of radicalism with no contemporary relevance. And I wonder to what extent this is already true. I sometimes get a sense that some “TC hardliners” would rather have TCs die - than that they actively evolved. I fear that some some wallow in wistful sadness, righteous indignation and elemental fury that the ‘pure’ model of TCs has been challenged and found wanting. And that the process has, maybe sadly, killed off some of the best known of them.

But one adaptation I think we are nearly all agreed on is the need to spread the ideas and disseminate the practice beyond the world of ‘pure TCs’ – and to do this in a way that works in the current context. This is the idea behind both EEs (the ‘Enabling Environments’ initiative) and TCEPT (‘Therapeutic Communities and Environments Practitioner Training’). The course is pitched at a level between a short course (such as for EMDR or basic skills) and a full professional qualification (such as a UKCP registered psychotherapy), and it will be suitable for people at all levels of the hierarchy (in true TC fashion), and in all relevant professions (as well as adjacent ones). One of the main pedagogical principles is that we all have much to learn from each other.

That said, it will be rigorous. There will be three residential 3-day blocks to the training: a ‘basic theory module’, followed by an ‘intensive experiential’ one and finishing with the ‘advanced theory module’. They can be completed in just over a year, or participants can take longer if they want. Alongside this, members of the course need to be working in a suitable setting – on which they can reflect in monthly online supervision sessions. This can be anything from a traditional TC to a wide range of places that want to establish more therapeutic ways of working. This includes psychiatric wards, prison wings, voluntary sector projects, or indeed anywhere that wants to become a better therapeutic environment. In addition to this, other course elements include visits to established therapeutic communities, psychologically informed planned environments (PIPEs), psychologically informed environments (PIEs) and enabling environments, and various other ways of learning about them. There is no written work, but participants are encouraged to work in project teams that are linked to their day jobs, and everybody will do a group exercise to rate their ‘before and after’ competencies.

The three residential modules will be held in a beautiful organic farm study centre in Kent, with between twelve and twenty participants, and a staff team of experts in the field. It is starting in October 2018. If you are interested, please contact Sue Pauley through the TCEPT website: www.tcept.org.