Liverpool has been chosen to host the Division of Clinical Psychology’s annual conference – ‘The Future Is Now’ and Clinical Psychology Fringe Festival between 18th – 21st January 2017.
Alongside the main conference will be the Clinical Psychology Fringe Festival in several venues around the city, bringing together the arts and discussions centred on mental health, and exploring issues such as sexuality and mental health, homelessness, suicide and addiction. The event will take place in popular venues such as Leaf, The Everyman Theatre, Open Eye Gallery, FACT, The Shipping Forecast and The Brink. Each venue will host unique events encompassing poetry, dance, theatre, photography, music and more.
The final day of the event will feature the Beyond The Therapy Room conference at the Gateway Centre, where a number of guest speakers will consider ways in which health professionals and services can improve physical and emotional wellbeing and help to build a more psychologically caring society, in broader ways than traditional one-to-one psychological therapy.
The week will culminate with a closing party curated by Soul Inspired Events – Soul Food will be a night of musical performances and food. There will also be psychological therapy, health and wellbeing conversations taking place on Saturday the 21st of January.
Dr Stephen Weatherhead of the Clinical Psychology Fringe Festival said; “It’s time for psychology to get out of the therapy room, and get mental health into community conversations. The festival brings us together in a city where we tell it how it is, care about each other, and really know how to put on a show!”
Saeed Olayiwola, Health Consultant at SO Health and Co Director at Soul Inspired CIC said; “We are delighted to be part of the Clinical Psychology Fringe Festival. We are passionate about expanding psychological wellbeing conversations in the public domain. This a great opportunity for us all to say its ok to talk about the challenges relating to mental health that we face as a community, helping the public be more aware of treatments and support available whilst celebrating the achievements of individuals, and organisations that champion work within the health psychology arena.”
The Clinical Psychology Fringe Festival has been borne out of the Beyond The Therapy Room conference, which ran in London in June 2015. The conference featured psychologists, academics and writers speaking about ways in which mental health and wellbeing can be supported by taking a social and community approach to distress, instead of seeing mental health as being individual problems addressed by individual solutions.
Soul Inspired CIC seek to deliver events and activities to raise health awareness, develop and inspire creative energy within the community. Along with partners, they have been running health and music events in Liverpool since 2014. In 2015, they launched Liverpool SoulFest, which has been labelled a “truly astonishing” achievement by influential Liverpool music blog Getintothis.
For more information visit the Clinical Psychology Fringe Festival and Soul Inspired CIC online.
