British Psychotherapy Foundation

08/09/2025

An interesting meditation on boundaries by Lily Scherlis for Parapraxis Magazine:

'We are obsessed with invisible circles. “Personal boundaries”—or often just “boundaries”—are the hallmark of emotional maturity, ethical integrity, and social desirability. Wellness influencers and book-writing therapists promise that if you clarify the line dividing you from those around you, your boyfriend will stop envying your career and start doing the dishes. Children will stay out of your home office. Friends and lovers will stop using you as a screen for their projections.

As you are released from everyone else’s psychodrama, your racing thoughts will quiet, and your ability to concentrate will return. You will learn to say the word “no,” protect your time, and double your salary. You will promptly reply to the text of a friend in crisis to say, “Hey! I’m so glad you reached out. I’m actually at capacity right now,” and then you will fall asleep within fifteen minutes of turning out the light...'

https://www.parapraxismagazine.com/articles/boundary-issues

How boundaries became the rules for mental health—and explain everything Lily Scherlis

20/08/2025

'In psychotherapeutic practice, trauma—and its resolution—frequently requires some recognition of the role played by injustice. This paper explores the relevance of the words ‘justice’ and ‘injustice’—especially in their relevance to ‘everyday’ experience—in the therapeutic space.'

Read the free article: ‘Justice Signified: Naming Injustice in the Therapeutic Space’ by Melanie Williams, a lawyer who recently trained as a psychotherapist.

Published this month in our sister publication, The British Journal of Psychotherapy:

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/bjp.12985

14/08/2025

A generous donation, collected in-memory of Gwen Kirkwood, will establish a new bursary called The Gwen Kirkwood Fund. This fund will support trainees undertaking the Psychoanalytic Parent Infant Psychotherapy (PIP) training, or in their final years of Independent Psychoanalytic Child and Adolescent Psychotherapy (IPCAPA) training who demonstrate a commitment to public sector parent-infant work post-graduation.

Gwen, who died on 26th January 2023, was a highly respected and much-loved Psychoanalytic Parent Infant Psychotherapist.

Gwen trained at the Tavistock in the late 1990s, worked in Newham CAMHS and later led the Parent Infant Psychotherapy Service in Hackney, collaborating closely with the Perinatal Mental Health Team. A gifted clinician and teacher, she was part of the first cohort of PIP trainees and had recently become the London Hub lead for AiMH UK.

Gwen brought a deeply psychoanalytic sensibility to her work, grounded in a collaborative, multidisciplinary approach. As a Black woman of Indian and African Caribbean heritage, she was attuned to the ways in which racism and migration shape identity and mental health, weaving this understanding into her work with thoughtfulness and care.

The Gwen Kirkwood Fund celebrates her passion, her work in infant mental health, and her commitment to supporting future generations of practitioners. In particular, the fund aims to improve access to advanced psychoanalytic training by supporting trainees from global majority backgrounds, helping to remove financial barriers and promote greater equity in the field. Gwen is greatly missed and now remembered through a fund that reflects her values and continues her mission.

At the bpf, our mission is to remove financial barriers for aspiring psychotherapists and ensure the profession reflects the diverse communities we serve. If you would like to support our trainees by making a donation to The Gwen Kirkwood Fund, or help us develop more bursary funds to support more trainees, please donate here: https://www.britishpsychotherapyfoundation.org.uk/make-a-donation/

07/08/2025

This is a wonderful initiative for new mothers.

New research suggests one in two mothers found it hard to cope postpartum and 43% considered having therapy - but didn't.
These women are telling their stories to encourage others to seek help.

https://www-bbc-com.cdn.ampproject.org/c/s/www.bbc.com/news/articles/cy0qlq14wreo.amp

05/08/2025

🏃‍♀️ Upcoming Races & Deadlines 🏃

We have limited charity places available at some of the biggest UK sell-out running events, including the Warwick, Bath, and London Landmarks Half Marathons, as well as the Brighton Marathon.

Places for the London Landmarks race are nearly sold out, so register soon if you're interested.

Most races take place in 2026, giving you plenty of time to start training. Find out more on our new Challenge Events page: https://www.britishpsychotherapyfoundation.org.uk/challenge-events/

💙 Every mile you run helps us to:
▪ Offer affordable psychotherapy to those who need it most
▪ Improve diversity in our profession
▪ Keep intensive psychotherapy training affordable and accessible

📅 2025
🌓 8th Oct – Chase the Moon, Olympic Park 5K
🕐 Registration Deadline: 29th Sep 2025
🏞 23rd Nov – Wimbledon Common Half Marathon
🕐 Registration Deadline: 20th Oct 2025

📅 2026
🏁 1st Feb – Warwick Half Marathon
🕐 Registration Deadline: 12th Jan 2026
🛁 15th Mar – Bath Half Marathon
🕐 Registration Deadline: 9th Feb 2026
🏙 12th Apr – London Landmarks Half Marathon (Limited Spaces Remaining)
🕐 Registration Deadline: 13th Nov 2025
🌊 12th Apr – Brighton Marathon
🕐 Registration Deadline: 17th Nov 2025
🎽 19th July – Birmingham Half Marathon
🕐 Registration Deadline: 29th Jun 2026
🌿 5th Sept – Henley River Half Marathon
🕐 Registration Deadline: 17th Aug 2026

🏃‍♂️ Don’t miss out – register early to secure your spot!



https://www.britishpsychotherapyfoundation.org.uk/challenge-events/

30/07/2025

Can you help us train the next generation of psychotherapists?

We’re fundraising for core costs to keep our psychotherapy trainings affordable and accessible. Our overarching mission is to improve diversity in our profession and continue to offer low-fee psychotherapy to those who need it most.

We are thrilled to announce a series of Fundraising Trek Challenges for 2026. We also have access to limited running places at some big UK sellout events too, such as the Warwick, Bath, and London Landmarks Half Marathons, or the Brighton Marathon.

The majority of these challenges take place in 2026, so there is plenty of time to start training! If you, or someone you know, are interested in taking on a fundraising challenge for the bpf, you can find out more on our new Challenge Events page:

https://www.britishpsychotherapyfoundation.org.uk/challenge-events/

💙

Walk, run, trek or cycle to improve access to psychotherapy. By taking part, you will help us to make our psychotherapy training and low-fee clinical services both equitable and affordable, ensuring that a broader and more diverse range of people can easily access them. Fundraise for us Download spo...

27/07/2025

‘Gender Without Identity offers an innovative and at times unsettling theory of gender formation. Rooted in the metapsychology of Jean Laplanche and in conversation with bold work in q***r and trans studies, Avgi Saketopoulou and Ann Pellegrini jettison “core gender identity” to propose, instead, that gender is something all subjects acquire -- and that trauma sometimes has a share in that acquisition.’

Explore an innovative theory of gender formation with "Gender Without Identity". Saketopoulou and Pellegrini reject the concept of "core gender identity" and propose that gender is acquired by all subjects, sometimes through trauma. Discover their approach to working with gender

05/07/2025

‘While being interviewed for admission at the psychoanalytic institute where I am now a candidate, I am asked what I fear most about the process of formation as a psychoanalyst. I answer that I fear what it could do to my body…’

Article by Parapraxis Magazine.

Disease in analytic formation

21/06/2025

AI companionship is designed to be responsive, never disappointing, never disruptive - a form of emotional solipsism, where we control the terms of intimacy.

This raises a Winnicottian dilemma: if resilience is built by surviving manageable frustration, what happens when we are never let down? What happens when a companion never says the wrong thing, never fails to understand?

Read Christopher Hogg's piece below, from his Substack: '9 holidays I wish I'd never been on'.

Sometimes you have to survive things by yourself.

13/06/2025

Pleased to announce that our Parent-Infant Psychotherapy training and our Couple Psychotherapy training have both been accredited by the British Psychoanalytic Council 🎉

Applications are currently open for both courses. You can find out more below:

https://www.britishpsychotherapyfoundation.org.uk/education/training/psychoanalytic-parent-infant-psychotherapy/

https://www.britishpsychotherapyfoundation.org.uk/education/training/couple-psychodynamic-psychotherapy/

Hybrid Learning This new specialist training will prepare you to work as a Psychodynamic or Psychoanalytic Parent-Infant Psychotherapist (PPIP). During this  2-year course, you will draw upon psychoanalytic theory, developmental psychology, and other contemporary ideas about infant mental health a...

05/06/2025

Thank you to Moya Sarner and The Guardian for raising awareness of the benefits of psychotherapy and for mentioning our low fee psychotherapy service.

‘I see now that this powerful treatment can offer something far more valuable than strategies: a fertile environment in which a mind can grow, so that a new space can open up between sensing an emotional experience inside you and having to get rid of it immediately.

In this space, you can develop the capacity to tolerate something that previously was experienced as unbearable – and this gives you time to feel, to think and to respond with agency.’

Written by Moya Sarner for the Guardian.

What we want is quick, clever fixes. What we need is quite different: the ability to tolerate intolerable feelings, to sustainably change and grow

14/05/2025

Intensive psychotherapy can help you delve deeper into your problems and worries, with the aim of bringing to the surface underlying issues and causes that are often from the past, but which continue to impact the present.

Are you interested in having intensive psychotherapy? We have spaces in our low-fee scheme for people living in , , , and . You can find out more here:

https://www.britishpsychotherapyfoundation.org.uk/find-a-therapist/low-fee-intensive-psychotherapy/

Subject to availability, the bpf offers some Intensive Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy or Jungian Analysis vacancies at a low fee.