Kate Brown

I offer individual supervision to psychotherapists or counsellors. I started my training at the Bowlby Centre in 2005 and registered with the UKCP in 2011. I have taught at the Bowlby Centre various aspects of the curriculum including psychosis, the Freudian Legacy, Ethics, Sexuality and Object relations. I have a thriving part time psychotherapy practice in Bournemouth where I work relationally with a number of diverse issues such as trauma, dissociation, body image and eating distress, disability and the impact of early relational trauma and neglect. I am also in the final stages of a PhD at Middlesex University in the history of the Therapeutic Community Movement (a case study of the Cotswold Community.)

I began my work in the mental health field as a young graduate in 2000 when I started working in a therapeutic community for adults with mental health problems. I then went on to work at a therapeutic community for adolescent boys who had experienced trauma and disrupted attachments before starting my clinical training. My experience in therapeutic communities has given me an extremely rich wealth of experience to draw from, and I remain passionately committed to democratic values associated with therapeutic communities and aware of power imbalance and the impact of social inequality and injustice. My experience working within mainstream psychiatric services within the NHS has given me an awareness of issues about inclusion and diversity.

The theoretical perspective I take is informed by attachment theory, and contemporary relational psychoanalysis. I have written and published widely in this area, and enjoy writing. This theoretical perspective also informs my approach to the supervisory relationship.

My aim as a supervisor is to allow a safe reflective space to explore the clinical work. This involves striking the right balance between offering guidance or advice and encouraging the therapist to develop their own confidence and creativity. I work collaboratively with supervisees, offering a secure base from which they are able to hold the difficulties of the clinical work. When a therapists life circumstances and attachment history become apparent as part of supervision, this is addressed in a non-pathologising manner. Some of the supervisory relationship will focus on how the clinical work impacts on the interaction in the supervisory space, and to identify whether there may be parallel processes emerging.