Holding the whole story: Responding to social injustice in therapeutic work

Overview

The work of any mental health practitioner extends beyond the person we are trying to help to the wider context in which they live.

Social systems, culture, and community all play a powerful role in shaping mental health. If we overlook these factors, we risk reducing people’s struggles to ‘symptoms’ or ‘pathology.’

And of course, mental health challenges are far more common among those who experience discrimination, stigma, exclusion, marginalisation, or micro-aggressions.

Join us for a profound and deeply moving conference day exploring how social injustice shapes mental health – and how mental health practitioners can respond with awareness, confidence, and care, creating therapeutic spaces where healing and empowerment can take root – come and be part of the conversation of how, together, we can contribute to wider social change.

Including private showings of two incredible documentaries:

Holloway: Six women revisit the abandoned Holloway Prison to confront their pasts, share their stories, and seek healing through collective reflection.

Half Way: A raw, personal chronicle of a family’s descent into hidden homelessness as they navigate Britain’s punitive rehousing system.

About the speakers

Dr Margot Sunderland

Founding Director Institute for Arts in Therapy and Education Ltd

Presentation: Why training in social injustice matters for mental health professionals.

Aliyah Ali

CEO of Daddyless Daughters

Presentation: What it was like to be in the film Holloway, her personal and professional journey and social injustice in the school system, care system and prison system.

Dr Eleanor Longden

SU Research Manager of Psychosis Research Unit and Co-Director of Complex Trauma and Resilience Research Unit, Greater Manchester Mental Health NHS Trust

Presentation: Social injustice in the mental health system: Personal and professional journey.

Daisy-May Hudson

BAFTA Breakthrough Director of Halfway and also Co-Director of Holloway

Presentation: Homelessness and social injustice: What it was like making, living and directing Halfway in terms of her own and her family’s experience of homelessness.

Places are limited

Early booking is recommended.

About the venue

Divisible Space, 1 Sugar House Lane, Sugar House Island, London, E15 2QS

The Institute for Arts in Therapy & Education (IATE) is located in the heart of the stunning creative quarter known as Sugar House Island. Offering an inspiring selection of creative event spaces, it has been carefully designed to create a unique and stimulating environment for your event.