An In Person Writing Workshop for Psychotherapists
CPD Credits
5
Event Type
Live In-Person Event
Location
10 New Street, London EC2M 4TP
Time (UK)
10:00 am - 4:30 pm
Standard
£120.00
Trainee/NHS
£102
An In Person Writing Workshop for Psychotherapists
Saturday, October 4, 2025

An In Person Writing Workshop for Psychotherapists

With Josh Cohen, Kate Thompson & Lorna Robinson

 

We are delighted that this workshop has filled so quickly and sorry if you have missed out this time. If you would like to join a waitlist please email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. Also sign up to our newsletter as we have future writing workshops in the planning.

Clinical writing is an important way of processing and refining our thinking as therapists, of opening our work up for development and dialogue with peers and of communicating the important thinking that goes on inside the consulting room to the widest possible audience. This full-day event is aimed at encouraging therapists to put pen to paper, and to overcoming the obstacles that can get in the way of writing for publication.  

The morning session will see Josh Cohen identify and explore some of the key issues at work in psychoanalytic writing. Using examples from published papers and books, he will look at the different options for writerly voice in clinical work: should we strive for a tone of distanced neutrality, or on the contrary, insist on writing out of the subjective experience of our patients? He will also ask how the problem of patient confidentiality affects what and how we write, and to what extent we should follow the well-established generic blueprint for the structure of papers that we find in most psychoanalytic journals. 

In the afternoon, Kate Thompson and Lorna Robinson, editors-in-chief of the Journal of Couple and Family Psychoanalysis, will workshop these ideas. They will provide an insight into the writing and editing processes of the journal, and will take participants behind the scenes in how to put together a paper for publication. Vignettes from Freud’s Rat Man, along with contemporary examples and film clips will be considered, with the emphasis on the practical business of writing. 

Participants will discuss ideas for a short piece of writing in the group, consider how to write clearly, concisely and, above all, vividly and will consider how to go about refining and developing their ideas. The aim is to leave the day with some notes jotted down, some ideas germinated, and the imagination freed up to take the creative process forwards.  

Programme

10:00 Welcome and Introduction 
10:10 Josh Cohen 
The Art of Writing  

This session will focus on three key issues: finding a voice in psychoanalytic writing; managing the problem of confidentiality; and finding a structure for your long- and short-form writing. We will consider whether psychoanalytic writing is primarily a professional enterprise geared towards contributions to theoretical and clinical understanding, and what space there might be for thinking of psychoanalytic writing as an imaginative and creative endeavour. 

11:30 Group Discussion and Q&A 
12:00 Lunch Break 
13:00 Kate Thompson & Lorna Robinson 
How to get started with your writing

In this session, we will think about how to get started in writing a case study for journal publication, with discussion of vignettes from Freud, the originator of the form, and, a contemporary master. We will bring a paper from the journal and go through its development from conception to execution, guiding participants through the process of creating a clear, engaging and reflective piece of writing. We will also think about how the need to protect confidentiality can be viewed not as an obstacle to writing but as an imaginative spur, freeing up a different kind of creative process.

Key Topics:
    Structuring a paper
    How to write authentically without compromising confidentiality or ethical standards
    Using clinical vignettes to illustrate key therapeutic moments 

13.45 Kate Thompson & Lorna Robinson 
Editing and Refining Your Work  

This session will use a film clip as a starting point for a piece of writing. We will focus on refining and editing case studies for clarity, flow, and emotional depth. Facilitators will provide practical tips on editing drafts, ensuring the case study is both clinically rigorous and readable, and discuss how to integrate personal reflections and theory in a cohesive way. 

Key Topics:
    Editing for clarity and structure: removing jargon, balancing theory with practice 
    Ethical considerations when editing: What to include and exclude
    Tailoring the case study for different audiences i.e. publication 

14.30 Break 
15.00 Writing Exercise and Group Sharing

Participants will spend the last half hour working on a brief writing exercise based on the film case study or an anonymised example from their practice. They will apply the concepts covered earlier in the workshop to begin drafting their work. Participants will have the opportunity to share their drafts with the group, receive feedback, and discuss their writing process. 

16.00 Final Questions 

Final questions and insights on the writing process and how to continue developing their case study writing skills after the workshop. 

16.30 End 

Lorna Robinson

Lorna Robinson is a psychoanalytic couple psychotherapist and an individual psychodynamic psychotherapist trained at Tavistock Relationships, London. She was formerly a faculty member of Tavistock Relationships, where she now works as a supervisor, tutor and clinician. She maintains a private practice in London and online, and is an associate of Queen Anne Street Practice, London. She is one of the editors-in-chief of Couple and Family Psychoanalysis, where she is also the book reviews editor.

Kate Thompson

Kate Thompson, MA, Pg Dip, Couple Psych. is a couple psychoanalytic psychotherapist with over 25 years of experience working with couples and individuals. For the last 10 years she headed Tavistock Relationships’ (TR) Couple Therapy for Depression training in the NHS and adapted the model for perinatal services and to use with couples coping with substance misuse. Kate supervised TR’s Parenting Service for 9 years and co-edited/co-authored ‘Couples as Parents’ (Routledge 2024). Kate writes and lectures widely, in the UK and abroad. She co-edited ‘Engaging Couples: New Directions in Therapeutic Work with Families’, (Routledge, 2018), and Couple and Family Psychoanalysis on Divorce and Separation, (Phoenix, 2021). Kate is co-Editor in Chief, Journal of Couple and Family Psychoanalysis. Registered with the BPC and BACP, her private practice is in South West London.

Josh Cohen

Josh Cohen is a psychoanalyst in private practice and Emeritus Professor of English at Goldsmiths University of London. He is the author of numerous books and articles on psychoanalysis, literature and modern culture, including How to Read Freud, The Private Life, Not Working, How to Live. What to Do, Losers and, most recently, All the Rage. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature. 

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