Atrapos.eu » Training/CPD

“Blogging as a research tool” seminar next week!

atrapos — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 22:27:42 +0000

I am very excited about being invited to run a session for the Kenyan visiting students and the taught doctorate counselling students that wish to join is next Wednesday here at Manchester University! I will bring my blog to an audience and offer my insights so far about how a blog like this can be used for the purposes of qualitative research. I was thinking that this ‘virtual space’ can actually be more useful for those who are doing distance learning or those who reseive supervsion from afar, amongst other reasons. I will be interested to hear the reactions/feedback from the African students in particular, as related to their context back in Kenya:

Would such a medium be appealing to them?
Would it be compatible with their culture-specific values towards learning or conducting research studies?
Is internet a medium they use widely for their training programmes and what sort of communication is mostly adopted in a more ‘collectivist’ context?

These are some of my few questions and am looking forward to meeting the group. As for my preparation for the session, i have downloaded and printed off a few very interesting papers about the use of blogs in research and in HE. I have been rehearsing my input in my head and all seems very interesting to me, i take time to reflect on my own use of this blog too, as triggered of this invitation to work with this group.

Congress in Berlin (20-25 July 2008)…impressions and reflections

atrapos — Mon, 28 Jul 2008 12:31:58 +0000

I spent one week in Berlin/Germany attending and presenting at the International Congress of Psychology. This is not a conference i would usually go to, as its content does not usually match with the counselling field and its philosophy and approaches to research but it was a good experience to fing myself in an environment like that to actually see the huge contrast of ‘cultures’ that exists within the so called helping or therapy professions. This event lasted 5 full days and there was massive attendance, i figured out that there were more than 10.000 delegates from all over the world, with about 4.400 oral presentations besides the symposia, posters etc etc. The website of the Congress with more details can be found by clicking here.

I had prepared a presentation about Counselling in the Greek culture, resulting from a joint study we conducted together with Maria from the University of Athens, in which I used data from the Greek sample i include in my PhD study. It all went well, although we didnt have a very big audience (about 12-15 people i would say) but overall, there are several things i wish to record in here that i gained through attending this conference and they inform my thinking in relation to my own research. (more…)

My Dr. Who presentation at the Manchester Conference

atrapos — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 16:27:43 +0000

What an interesting and inspiring day was today! It has been a while now that, together with my fellow doctoral student S., we have been working on the topic of the relationship between the qualitative researcher and the PhD process, the impact on each other and how this interaction forms and unfolds at the different stages of doing a doctoral study in counselling, although the insights are relevant to other disciplines too. Today we had the chance to present our findings at the Student Research Conference, held at the School of Education/University of Manchester and run the session in a workshop format. We had about 15 people attending and all gave us great feedback, they actually confirmed that we shall work more on that and offer it as training session cause it is so relavant to the whole concept of reflexivity when conducting qualitative research. (more…)

Attending “Race, Culture and Psychological Therapies” Conference in Manchester

atrapos — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 19:03:51 +0000

I came back today mostly inspired and left with a lot of ‘food for thought’ from attending this conference. Due to the subject matter, the audience was very diverse and interesting (I met African, Asian, other European delegates) and the presentations were particularly engaging and relevant to my research topic. A summary of the content of the conference and the full programme can be found in this weblink.

I found myself processing many issues that come up in my PhD and making relevant notes. Each presentation offered different insights and although i have attended such conference before and am pretty familiar with the topics, i learnt and thought new things, it was not just repetition of what i already know. the presentations proceeded as follows: (more…)

Reflections from attending Pathways Careers Event

atrapos — Mon, 16 Jun 2008 15:04:14 +0000

I attended an interesting event today organised by Manchester University Careers Service about issues related to careers of PhD studnets and research stuff. I am at a stage in my PhD that i have another year yo go when i will be writing my Thesis and although this will take over most of my time, i am also looking at how i can make best use of all the learning and skills i have gained to explore and plan what could be good moves or the next step after the PhD, something that i have been talking about with my supervisor too.The full programme of the day and further infor can be viewed by clicking on this weblink. It was a full day event that provided a number of workshops. I attended the following sessions: (more…)

Professional development: online counselling and supervision

atrapos — Sun, 14 Oct 2007 20:47:30 +0000

As i am reflecting on my blogging as a research tool, i have also been thinking of developing my cross-cultural counselling and supervision practice…with a new medium: the use of the internet, of course!. This is sth i have been thinking for a while now, as the web could be a very good ‘host’for my cross-cultural work, amongst else, especially cause i can do it without having a physically geographical commitment at a certain place and i can be available to clients worldwide, where i can offer my bi-cultural/bi-lingual and cross-cultural expertise. (more…)

At the Research Conference…

atrapos — Tue, 03 Jul 2007 10:44:21 +0000

We had the Student Research Conference here in Manchester at the School of Education. I did two presentations which were both well attended and received positive/constructive feedback. (more…)

Preparing for conference

atrapos — Sun, 01 Jul 2007 13:48:51 +0000

1st July today…it is raining cats and dogs here whereas it’s boiling back ‘home’ ( i dont ever dare say this word still since it doesnt feel like that at all…). I have been preparing for my presentation at the conferenc eon Tuesday. I guess am still very tired from the review panel and woudl rather have a break now. However, i feel more relaxied about presenting to this audience and the whole presentation will be at a more personal style, i want to grasp the audience’s feeling responses and invite them to reflect upon their own ‘at home-ness’ and cultural identity. The title of my conference presentation came us :”Counsellors moving between cultures: where is home and how does this affect our self and practice?” . It will be interesting to see if i get any volunteers for research interviews.

My ’story’ of attending a workshop on storytelling

atrapos — Fri, 01 Jun 2007 23:11:07 +0000

I had the joy to attend a workshop here in Manchester about ’storytelling in counselling’, delivered by my Greek colleague (and friend!) Sophia B. William, my friend F., another Greek called M. was there and also some other interesting people…the day was ‘full’…of stories of course! Mine and those of the fellow attendants. (more…)

Meeting at the Career’s service

atrapos — Wed, 16 May 2007 14:43:28 +0000

I had an interesting meeting at the Career’s service of the University today (with Janet Willis – Careers consultant and Amanda Wood – Head of International & Alumni Career Development). They want to offer me an Internship to develop further skills that i can combine with my counselling and want in excvhange my consultancy/feedback and contributions in training, resources etc around the Greek labour market and employment procedures as well as my cross-cultural skills. This is definitelly another area where i can apply my cross-cultural competencies…and i can observe the various cultural attitudes/behaviours/ways of thinking/ways of communicating etc.Here is their website for any updates – click

About using ‘mother tongue’, teaching ‘Greek-home’ audience, ‘re-entry’ anxieties etc

atrapos — Sat, 14 Apr 2007 13:03:17 +0000

I will soon teach a workshop titled “Cross-cultural counselling and the therapeutic relationship: exploring our cultural selves and cultivating cross-cultural empathy”.This will be my first teaching experience in my home country as a counsellor and interestingly enough i hold a lot of anxieties around that: How will the Greeks perceive me? How will I manage to teach in my first language when am so used to operate within my counselling role in english for years now? What sort of reactions will the topic of ‘culture’ provoke to the Greek colleagues? How will i be seen by the organisers, the Greek person-centred training institution?…I just realised that “what used to be my own/native culture is a whole new culture for me” !!! and i have so much anxiety around operating ‘within’ it…It is as if I have become a stranger, a foreigner in my own ‘home-land’…. This realisation, although anxiety-provoking, is quite interesting from a research point of view… (more…)

Such a long, busy day…need time to digest (supervision, careers, CRG)

atrapos — Tue, 27 Feb 2007 23:32:56 +0000

I feel tired but had a very ‘full’ day, my brain feels like exploding-but it was worth it, it was productive!I had many meetings that left me with loads of info and processes to digest and reflect on. I will record the main points of the day, things that worth keeping in mind: (more…)

BACP-Equality & Diversity Forum

atrapos — Thu, 01 Feb 2007 23:47:58 +0000

I attended the BACP Forum in Coventry today, titled ‘Facing the Self’. I feel disappointed that I didnt find myself getting moved,excited or inspired…Ifelt like sth was missing, i was feeling that there was something incongruent in the whole thing although people seemed to be making conscious efforts to engage and voice things. I was once again frustrtaed by the whole discourse around ‘culture’ and ‘difference’, which didnt seem to match my experience

However, it was very nice meeting with C.L. and Sue S.I. after so long. I know I was feeling quite drained towards the end though and couldn’t engage much in further conversation. I am still contemplating around finding good research questions and it is frustrating that they dont come out easily, depsite my efforts…time for rest now…