TIME, LANGUAGE, AND EMBODIMENT

Sunday 12 May 2024: 2.30 – 4.30 pm

In Person and on ZOOM

In my talk I shall discuss themes from my book, Time in Practice: Temporality, Intersubjectivity, and Listening Differently (Routledge 2024), an exploration of the significance of time in the therapeutic relationship and its importance as a vital catalyst for change. I shall reflect on the limitations of spatial metaphors, binaries of ‘inner’/‘outer’ in addressing the socio-political and historical specificity of individuals’ conscious and unconscious experiences. The impact of the Corona virus, the escalation of climate change, current political crises in the U.K. and globally, including the outbreak of wars, have highlighted for many psychotherapists that interpretations focusing primarily on the past do not suffice. From a relational perspective, the question of how we live our lives within intersubjective networks lived in the present in anticipation of the future and affected also by the past is crucial. Through case material (composite) and references to literature, autobiography, and contemporary philosophy, I shall explore how an attention to time and creativity in the therapeutic relationship can open out previously unimagined possibilities of being and speaking as embodied individuals.

Mary Lynne Ellis is a relational analytical/phenomenological psychotherapist in private practice in London. With nearly forty years’ experience, she has also worked as an art therapist in the NHS and the voluntary sector. In the 1990s she established a therapeutic community in London. She has taught on psychotherapy and art therapy trainings and lectured widely in the UK, Ireland and Chile on questions of time, language, embodiment, and identities in psychotherapy, particularly in relation to experiences of marginalization and discrimination. Her publications include a wide range of articles and two books: Questioning Identities; Philosophy in Psychoanalytic Practice (co-authored with Noreen O’Connor, 2010) and Time in Practice: Analytical Perspectives on the Times of our Lives (2008). An updated edition entitled Time in Practice; Temporality, Intersubjectivity, and Listening Differently (Routledge, 2024) has recently been published. She is also a practising visual artist.

Venue: Association for Group and Individual Psychotherapy, 1 Fairbridge Rd London N19 3EW

Tickets: £10 – £15

In Person: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/860980946187?aff=oddtdtcreator

Online : https://www.eventbrite.com/e/861394212277?aff=oddtdtcreator