MIDLANDS & EAST ANGLIA

Welcome to the ACC Midlands and East Anglia page


HOPE AND SUFFERING

DATE: Friday 3 February 2012
TIME: 9.00 am registration to 1.00 pm plus lunch
VENUE: Hothorpe Hall, Theddingworth, Leicestershire, LE17 6QX
SPEAKER: Carolyn Spring
COST:

Please book online - cheques only by agreement. To book and pay online by credit/debit card or Paypal please go to www.tasc-online.org.uk/hothorpe.html or email briggs.debs@googlemail.com if you would like further details.

Carolyn will talk both from her own experience and that of the many people with whom she connects and whom she supports in her work. When faced with clients who have endured extreme suffering in their life – survivors of ritual abuse, torture, or perhaps refugees from war-torn nations or dictatorships – what hope is there for recovery?

Is hope something we glibly profess in the midst of extreme suffering? Is it something to which we pay lip-service but that then vanishes when faced with ‘difficult’ clients? Or is it something that really will enable recovery from trauma?

What does the enormity and reality of trauma in people’s lives do to you as you come alongside them – to your worldview, your faith, your sense of security, and the hope that you may (or may not) have that you can help these people put their lives back together again?

Carolyn Spring is a survivor of extreme abuse in childhood, as a result of which she developed Dissociative Identity Disorder. Her talk will not focus on DID and dissociation, as she teaches and speaks on such topics extensively throughout the country, but will focus instead on two things that she also knows a fair bit about: hope and suffering.

Carolyn will talk both from her own experience and that of the many people with whom she connects and whom she supports in her work. As a Christian, she will speak from her own faith perspective, which is not so much doctrinally ‘prescribed’ as experientially ‘attained’, and so may not fit others’ expectations of what the label ‘Christian’ represents. Her own hope, which at times barely survived as she tried on several occasions to end her own life, was nurtured and held for her at those times by others around her, leading her to believe that a counsellor or therapist’s own belief system and basis of hope is crucial if they are to see their clients’ lives transformed.

For more information about the work of ACC Midlands and East Anglia, Christine Blissett can be contacted on 084 5123 5265 or midlands@acc-uk.org

“ACC Midlands and East Anglia is here to support and equip Christian counsellors and pastoral carers in our area,” says Christine Blissett, ACC Midlands and East Anglia representative.

NB: ACC is hoping to organise a "mini-tour" of East Anglia, to meet and listen to existing and prospective ACC members in the area. Christine Blissett would be very keen to hear from East Anglia-based counsellors and pastoral carers who would be interested in this.

Each year ACC organises a busy schedule of both regional and national training events and conferences, covering a wide range of issues and topics relevant to its counselling and pastoral care members and to the everyday stresses of modern life.

The Association of Christian Counsellors (ACC) is a registered charity and the leading agency representing the voice of Christian counsellors and pastoral carers in the UK. Founded in 1992, it today represents around 2,000 members and 150 affiliate organisations. ACC Midlands and East Anglia has 406 members and 30 affiliates.

ACC aims to be a catalyst for excellence through its standardisation of good practice; accreditation; the recognition of training; its journal accord and its conferences.