Watch this space for details of the new series of case study meetings starting in September (see item below)!

It is most important that anyone who has attended a RIG over the year fills this in so that we can continue to improve the RIGS along with all aspects of the training so that people’s needs are best met.

Even if you have already given informal feedback verbally or in writing to Pam or the office, please take the short time to fill in the questionnaire (click on the link above) so that your feedback can be processed in an efficient manner.

Naturally any confidential items and downloads for CCP members will still be kept on the password-protected Community page.

We’re hoping in due course to allow any CCP members to post news items here, and we’d like to include lots more photos as well as text. So if you’ve any images you’d like to see here, or any other suggestions, please email Mike Shallcross or the BeeLeaf office!

Please address all future written correspondence to:
BeeLeaf
FAO Carol West
34 Grove Rd
London
E3 5AX

Please do not send correspondence, such as essays, monitoring forms et cetera to Pam Gawler-Wright as this greatly delays their processing, sending them down the wrong route to a person who may not be available to attend to correspondence for up to a week.

And please do not include additional notes and information for Pam in these submissions; instead please use the dedicated e-mail address care@beeleaf.com as directed in your Handbooks and Manuals.

So from September the Practice Groups will have a new format that has more relevance and is more akin to the identity of the community by focussing the time on Case Studies. The emphasis will be on cases brought by participants to support the Case Study element of the Diploma assignments and to supplement Clinical Supervision with modality specific peer and group Supervision, with hours that can be added to your Continuing Professional Development Log.

Please watch this space for further details, and in the meantime I’m sure we would all like to join in thanking Tracy Jarvis for having organised the program of Practice Groups over the last months.

Research Interest Group meetings are for any CCP members who are are working towards completing the Research Module of the Advanced Diploma, or if you’re just interested in finding out about what’s involved.

The meetings are led by Dr Tom Werner, and they are held on Saturday morning about once a month on the 6th floor of the Physics Building, Queen Mary University of London (near Mile End station). We start at 9.00am so that the assistants from the BeeLeaf Intermediate Course have time to join us. You can find further details on our Community page and on our online forum.

Practice Group meetings are a great way to refresh your knowledge and practice your skills, and at the same time enjoy a lively discussion and sharing of experience with other CCP members travelling along the same path.

For full details of topics and presenters for each meeting, just go to our Community page. Here you’ll also find full details of our venue, on the 6th floor of the Physics Building, Queen Mary University of London (near Mile End station), which we share with the BeeLeaf Foundation Course.

What if your mind was like an apple tree,
that grew with time from one small seed?
Within that seed a blueprint be,
a mighty plan for your mind-like tree.

The roots fulfil a basic urgency
of hunger, thirst and security.
Growing thick, earth-bound cable.
Establish presence, making you stable.

And, like your spinal cord erect,
a trunk emerges to connect.
Sprouting branches, skyward grows,
like neuron fashioned internal lobes.

Picture the shape of your apple tree.
Filtering leaves distort what you see.
Scatty shadows, diffuse sight,
leafy breaks let through the light.

Blossoms flourish among your leaves
entice pollinating busy bees.
They bumble and buzz around your frame.
External influences in a genetic game?

From each blossom a fruit shall grow.
Emerge like thoughts, but not all on show.
Camouflaged by your many branches.
Obscured by your wind-swept, hypnotic dances.

Like an apple, thoughts may turn bad.
Ferment and fester into something mad.
Life could appear to rot away.
But within, those seeds will grow again.

In this work, Dr Flores shows how to give substance abusers an attachment experience and a sense of community where they feel they are accepted and belong. The theme of attachment, trust and safety is prominent throughout. Therapy, directed along the lines described, allows the chemically dependent person to get close and be intimate with others who are accepting of him without a cost to his identity and autonomy. Ultimately, it allows the alcoholic and addict to deal with the emotions and conflicts triggered by all intimate encounters without relying on alcohol and drugs to sedate, buffer or alter his or her feelings.

I often wonder about the world
I wonder about the people
I see the homeless every day
I think about them

I remember a man
Convulsing, skin so blue
Almost a coma
An addict
I presumed drugs and alcohol
Maybe a mixture
I didn’t care
The stench

A Life.

I looked through him
Our unconscious met
I saw him, just a boy
Only a boy
Nothing else
The ambulance came

I drove down the road
The sky so blue
The smell of summer and sweetness
The sound of trees
Delightful

Then I saw him
That boy
That boy with a beard
His skin so soft, unshaven
His bristles alive and well

I looked at him
I smiled
My eyes smiled tears of joy
And my heart sank
I cried

I still wonder about him.

Last week I rode past a needle
I stared, I still do
How many lives has it taken?
How many boys?
How many girls?

Aren’t we just the same?
Separated by our ability of choice