311 Courses in Birmingham delivered Live Online

Sanity is privileged over insanity, which is stigmatized. A therapoet views differences without hierarchy, valuing each unique expression. We aim to explore the lived experiences on irregular perceptions of reality with an open mind. Each Saturday includes: a live dialogue between Prof. Ernesto Spinelli and an International Existential Therapist; a moment to share your thoughts and feelings with the teachers; and a final integration facilitated by Bárbara Godoy. This series of ten dialogues set out to explore the multifaceted dimentions and complexities associated with Existential Therapies. It attempts to engage with various interpretations of insanity through the lens of patients often painful, confounding, and deeply unsettling life experiences. Difference - between Prof. Ernesto Spinelli and Dr. Todd DuBose "Sanity and insanity have been situated in relation to each other on a hierarchical scale that privileges sanity over, beyond, above, and more than its “less than” subjugated copy, insanity. Framed in this way, insanity can only be stigmatized, devalued and pathologized, while sanity is that to which we are to strive, uphold, and genuflect. The therapoet as a phenomenological hermeneutic horizontalizes a spectrum of “sayings of suffering souls”, or “befallings”, which is the originally meaning of “symptom”, not as a pathogen to be excised. Countering supremacist hierarchies of sanity/insanity, or health/illness, the therapoet sees difference, not as deficient, but just different, anew, and not in relation to any centric norm, but just to other differences. The relation to other differences is a relative gradation, whose incomparability resists any kind of nothing-but-ism any more than a fish can be said to be nothing but a squirrel with fins, or dirt as nothing but dry water. The therapoet, therefore, attends to each showing or saying of the suffering soul, sufficient in itself, as it is, in its own way of presencing, by being with it, letting it be, without why.” Dr. Todd DuBose. Dr. Todd DuBose is a world-renowned, Distinguished Full Professor at The Chicago School’s College of Professional Psychology. He teaches philosophical foundations of practices of care, ethics, loss and mourning, psychology and spirituality, psychopathology, among other courses, all from a human science perspective, and with a particular focus on therapoetic care. He is a licensed psychologist, supervisor, consultant, and former chaplain, with over thirty-five years of experience. He holds degrees in continental and comparative philosophy of religion and existential-hermeneutical-phenomenological human science clinical psychology and integrates these approaches as a way of caring for such experiences as the impossible (no way out, boundary or limited situations), extreme experiences (such as psychosis, nihilism, suicidal and homicidal ideation), and the taboo (the places no one wants to go: the unwanted and unacceptable, unsayable, unforgiveable, forbidden, and irreverent). He regularly presents workshops in several international venues such as the Circulo de Estudios en Psicoterapia Existential, in Mexico City, Mexico, the Zhi Mian International Institute of Existential-Humanistic Psychology in Dali, China, and the Centre for Existential Practice in Melbourne, Australia. He is widely published and has written on caring for others in very difficult situations including traumatic loss, surviving the COVID-19 pandemic, and meaninglessness. He has also written a short dialogue with Miles Groth, edited by Loray Daws, called, Dialogues on The Soul of Existential Therapy, published by The Society for Existential Analysis. Most of all, he considers himself simply a fellow human being. Prof. Ernesto Spinelli was Chair of the Society for Existential Analysis between 1993 and 1999 and is a Life Member of the Society. His writings, lectures and seminars focus on the application of existential phenomenology to the arenas of therapy, supervision, psychology, and executive coaching. He is a Fellow of the British Psychological Society (BPS) as well as an APECS accredited executive coach and coaching supervisor. In 2000, he was the Recipient of BPS Division of Counselling Psychology Award for Outstanding Contribution to the Profession. And in 2019, Ernesto received the BPS Award for Distinguished Contribution to Practice. His most recent book, Practising Existential Therapy: The Relational World 2nd edition (Sage, 2015) has been widely praised as a major contribution to the advancement of existential theory and practice. Living up to the existential dictum that life is absurd, Ernesto is also the author of an on-going series of Private Eye novels. Date and Time: Saturday 22 March from 2 pm to 3 pm – (UK time) Individual Dialogue Fee: £70 Venue: Online Zoom FULL PROGRAMME 2025: 25 January “Knots” with Prof. Ernesto Spinelli and Bárbara Godoy 22 February “Healing” with Dr. Michael Guy Thompson and Prof. Ernesto Spinelli 22 March “Difference” with Prof. Tod DuBose and Prof. Ernesto Spinelli 12 April “Polarisation” with Prof. Kirk Schneider and Prof. Ernesto Spinelli 3 May “Character” with Prof. Robert Romanyshyn and Prof. Ernesto Spinelli 21 June “Opening” with Dr. Yaqui Martinez and Prof. Ernesto Spinelli 19 July “Meaning” with Dr. Jan Resnick and Prof. Ernesto Spinelli 25 October “Invention” with Dr. Betty Cannon and Prof. Ernesto Spinelli 15 November “Hallucination” with Prof. Simon du Plock and Prof. Ernesto Spinelli 13 December “Hysteria” with Bárbara Godoy and Prof. Ernesto Spinelli Read the full programme here > Course Organised by:

BCG Course

This expert-led training course will provide you with a comprehensive understanding of the role of the designated governor for mental health and wellbeing.

Wellbeing Champion Facilitator Training course enables you to train your students or pupils to become Wellbeing Champions within your school or college.

LOOKING FOR: ADULT FICTION Louise Buckley has worked in publishing for well over a decade. She was inspired to enter the publishing industry after completing an MA in Creative Writing and then spent a hugely enjoyable year working as a bookseller for Waterstones, wishing that she could have a hand in publishing books. After a year working at Dorling Kindersley, she then spent almost five years working in the commercial fiction division at Pan Macmillan, where she published a mix of commercial bestsellers and award-winning authors. Most recently, she was an Associate Literary Agent at Zeno Agency Ltd. As an agent she represented a roster of commercial and literary fiction, including Anne Griffin’s When All is Said, which spent five weeks at number one in Ireland and sold into 17 territories. She is delighted to be working with Hannah at Hannah Sheppard Literary Agency. Louise is looking for:- Literary and upmarket fiction that focusses on the underdog, the repressed, the suppressed. Louise is especially interested in novels that represent working-class people or children going through difficult circumstances (think Shuggie Bain by Douglas Stuart, My Name is Leon by Kit de Waal or Boys Don’t Cry by FÍona Scarlett). Irish literary and book club fiction. Think Claire Keegan, Louise Kennedy or Anne Griffin. In commercial fiction she loves novels set during the Second World War, such as The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah, The Beekeeper of Aleppo by Christi Lefteri or The Midwife of Auschwitz by Anna Stuart. Louise recently read and loved The Last List of Mabel Beaumont by Laura Pearson and would love to see anything in the same ‘older person going on a journey’ category, a more recent The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry. Louise had a lot of fun publishing a ‘pet fiction’ novel as an editor (Molly and the Cat Café) and would love to find an author who can write an Alfie the Doorstep Cat/Dog. She has a soft spot for novels featuring time-travel or parallel universes, a ‘what if’ that plays around with conventions. At the literary end this would be books like Life After Life by Kate Atkinson, The Shining Girls by Lauren Beukes or This is How You Lose the Time War by Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone. At the more commercial end Louise loved Wrong Place, Wrong Time by Gillian McAllister, Dark Matter by Blake Crouch and Oona Out of Order by Martina Montimore. She also enjoys novels set in the real world but featuring a hefty dose of magic or the supernatural. They can be commercial or literary, present-day or historical. Think Rivers of London by Ben Aaronovitch, Threadneedle by Cari Thomas, A Discovery of Witches by Deborah Harkness or The Gifts by Liz Hyder. And also cosy fantasy in the vein of Legends and Lattes or The House in the Cerulean Sea. Cosy or humorous crime. Recently, Louise absolutely loved Over My Dead Body by Maz Evans. When she was an editor Louise published the hit Luckiest Girl Alive by Jessica Knoll and would love to represent incisive, intelligent suspense written by authors such as Jessica Knoll and Gillian Flynn, or something a little more subversive and blackly comic like My Sister, the Serial Killer by Oyinkan Braithwaite. More generally, Louise would also love to see novels with a disabled protagonist or someone (like herself) who is living with an invisible disability. As an ex-primary school teacher, she also warmly welcomes submissions from teachers, especially if the submission falls into one of the other categories she has listed. Following-on from this, she enjoys reading stories that follow a ‘beating the system’ narrative. Horror. Louise is currently really enjoying the horror resurgence and would love some more horror for her list. She is looking for all types of horror from the more literary, suspenseful horror along the lines of Andrew Michael Hurley to the more commercial like Witchcraft for Wayward Girls by Grady Hendrix. Louise is also a big fan of horror mash-ups, especially body transformation horror such as Nightbitch, and horror mixed with, say, vampires, in the vein of Hungerstone or The Lamb. She would also love to see some dark academia. Think If We Were Villains or In My Dreams I Hold a Knife, and is a huge fan of gothic horror, so would love to see something that’s a modern-day Shirley Jackson or Rebecca. Louise is NOT looking for: -romance -romantasy -epic, traditional fantasy -space opera -straightforward women’s fiction -children’s fiction of any kind -non-fiction Louise would like you to submit a covering letter, 1 page synopsis and the first three chapters or 5,000 words of your manuscript in a single word document. (In addition to the paid sessions, Louise is kindly offering one free session for low income/under-represented writers. Please email agent121@iaminprint.co.uk to apply, outlining your case for this option which is offered at the discretion of I Am In Print).  By booking you understand you need to conduct an internet connection test with I Am In Print prior to the event. You also agree to email your material in one document to reach I Am In Print by the stated submission deadline and note that I Am In Print take no responsibility for the advice received during your agent meeting. The submission deadline is: Tuesday 18th March 2025

This masterclass will enable you to gain comprehensive awareness and be a supportive guide for Key Staff through fully understanding recent changes and developments in one of the fastest growing categories of safeguarding concerns.

Wellbeing Champion Facilitator Training course enables you to train your students or pupils to become Wellbeing Champions within your school or college.

Brightcore Consultancy delivers Senior Mental Health Lead training in schools and colleges which meets the Department for Education’s quality criteria, and our course is in fact the highest rated of all the nationally DfE approved Senior Mental Health Lead training courses, scoring a perfect 5/5 in each of the 9 DfE quality assurance standards during the quality assurance process.

This session will provide a clear update for governors as to the latest developments in terms of risk, updates on statutory guidance and KCSIE requirements from the governance perspective, and an overview of what the safeguarding team should be working on.

This week long CPD accredited training is ideal for those Real Estate professionals, who are looking to bolster the DCF modelling skills. This course covers Real Estate Investment, Development, Finance & Risk.