Working with Risk & Adolescents - part 2

Risk needs to be integrated into all our clinical practice, directly and in relation to supervision and teaching.

This is a brief training seminar for qualified members working clinically with young people.

Following feedback from the part 1 of this training in 2023, this session will include more clinical vignettes for consideration. Each presenter will offer a clinical dilemma for consideration by the group of presenters before being open to all participants.

The presenters include Bernard Roberts, a training supervisor and child analyst of the British Psychoanalytical Society, Katie Lewis, child psychotherapists working in independent practice and Valentina Levi, child psychotherapist who works at the Brent Centre.

We will be particularly focused on the dilemmas that managing risk can pose.

This training will be chaired Jo Goldsmith, Director of Professional Standards.

We invite all qualified members - including newly qualified members - working in the independent/private sector as well as the NHS and other third sector organisations to attend.

Aims & learning objectives

To think clinically about risky adolescents, particularly in terms of suicidality, and what treatment issues this presents in psychoanalytic psychotherapy with this patient group.

• To understand issues in relation to assessing risk in psychotherapy with adolescents.
• To have a deeper understanding of managing some of the complexities associated with risk in this patient group.
• To understand the issues that can arise in the multidisciplinary management of risk.

About the presenters

Bernard Roberts is a Teaching and Supervising Analyst and Child Analyst of the British Psychoanalytical Society. He is Interim Chair of The Brent Centre for Young People. Bernard trained at The Cassel Hospital and Tavistock Clinic and was an NHS Consultant for 30 years. He is the Safeguarding Lead for the British Psychoanalytical Society, Honorary Consultant Psychiatrist in Psychotherapy at the Central North West London Foundation NHS Trust and is now working in private psychoanalytical practice.

Jo Goldsmith is a Consultant Child and Adolescent Psychotherapist. She worked in CAMHS for many years providing direct work with highly risky adolescents including those admitted to A&E. In addition, she provided supervision for colleagues also challenged by their clients who were suicidal and presented as high risk. She currently overseas the delivery of psychotherapy on neonatal units in Surrey and Kent. She investigates serious incidents in the her Trust. She is Director of Professional Standards.    

Valentina Levi trained at the Tavistock as a Child & Adolescent Psychotherapist. She has a background in clinical psychology. She has several years of experience in CAMHS settings and in specialist work with children on the autistic spectrum. Since 2010 she has specialised in working with adolescents at the Brent Centre for Young People, where she is now Head of Clinical Services. Prior to the current role she has been involved in clinical roles in the Brent Centre’s Schools Project, YOS Service, the In-House Service and the Private Service. She acts as Clinical Supervisor to trainees working in placement at the Centre, as well as to qualified Child Psychotherapists and other members of Staff. Valentina has had experience teaching in various courses at the Tavistock and Anna Freud Centre.

Katie Lewis has worked in private practice in Newcastle for the past eight years. She trained in Scotland and worked in the NHS in a general CAMHS team, in the regional team for autism and in specialist teams for children in the care system and was Clinical Lead for Child Psychotherapy in the Trust. She is Chair of the ACP Ethical Practice Group and an Honorary member of the Polish Society for Psychoanalytical Psychotherapy.