Welcome to the therapist connect podcast Dr. Peter Blundell, interviews therapists about their work and experiences in the therapy community.
Peter Blundell :Hello and welcome to this episode of the therapist Connect podcast. My name is Dr. Peter Blundell. And today I'm interviewing Caz Binstead, who is a therapist who works in private practice, she is very busy as she sits on the BACP, private practice, divisional executive. And we are co facilitators of trainee talk, which is a Twitter discussion group that happens every Monday between two and three. And I'm really I'm glad to welcome her to the podcast today. You know how you doing? I'm alright, thank you. How are you?
Caz Binstead :Yeah, not too bad. Yes.
Peter Blundell :Um, so should we crack on with some question? Let's go for it because we're normally used to chatting And then it like it is a bit formal, isn't it? So well the first question that I was gonna ask you because you mentioned you wanted to talk about this a little bit. So why did you decide that you want to become a therapist in the first place? Kind of what drew you to this as a profession?
Caz Binstead :Yeah, so it's quite interesting because I don't think I ever would have found therapy at all. Had I just kind of if I think about my upbringing and the way my life was going yeah, so it's it's what I always say you know, things happen in life and there's always like, difficult things maybe but then there's good stuff that comes out of it. And certainly one of the good things that came out of what what was it a very, very difficult event that happened to me in my in my 20s was the discovery of therapy, going into therapy, and then ultimately decided to become a therapist. And it was a very traumatic incident of which I'm thankful to be alive for. And I think so I think when when I first went into therapy, it was kind of a bit alien to me. But the more that I knew more than I went along with my own process and my own development, and the more that I thought about previous study that I've done, and how it kind of fitted in with philosophy and religion, and kind of how you look at the world, how human beings look at the world. I thought, yeah, you know, this. This is something I'm interested in, I guess. It really, really feeds into my work now. And, yeah, I'm just interested in human beings. I love my work. I'm, I'm one of those therapists to kind of talk about how much I love my work. And, you know, I yeah, I do a very full practice. And I'm happy with that, even though do lots of other things. I know some people kind of will take on lots of other things. And then as a result, may see, you know, less clients or maybe not see clients at all, but for me, that's not really part of my understanding of what it is to be a therapist. So yeah, so I take a lot from my own. My own understanding of life, my own experiences of life, and kind of, I guess, it's always it's always there with me in my room, and yeah, it's a view. Yeah. Yeah.
Peter Blundell :So how long ago was it that you qualified then and what was your what was the training that you bought? What were you trained in originally?
Caz Binstead :So, originally I trained in it was officially a humanistic integrative course. But we actually did psychodynamic as well. Object relations, stuff like that. So it felt a bit more like it was just an integrative course, And then after that I've kind of gone on and done further training after my supervision training as well. And yeah, so I feel like I still feel like I am very much an integrative practitioner, which certainly talking to a friend the other week, and we were saying I was saying I was, I was quite relieved when I went to Mick Cooper's recent workshop on pluralism. I was quite relieved. To see that there were other interpretive therapists out there, because all you hear about these days is pluralism. And I think that's like the new kind of integrative and I suppose I suppose there's questions about what are the similarities? What are the differences, all of that? But interesting, they started the seminar with the question, what modality are you and they had all all the modalities and interpretive wasn't on there. So they said, if you if you if yours isn't on there, write in the comment box, I was like, that's a bit odd. So I kind of wrote it in the comment box and loads of other people had written it. And then and then it was just interesting through the day kind of interacting more with Yeah, with people who were trained in the modality that I was trained in and, and that I still, I mean, I do work quite existentially. But I do I would still classify myself as Yeah, integrative.
Peter Blundell :Fantastic. And you mentioned there about kind of training over the years kind of how do you think kind of Training CPD has evolved over the years because there's a lot of online stuff. Well, just in the past few months has been a lot of online stuff.
Caz Binstead :Yeah, yeah. I mean, it's, I mean, it's just, it's just completely different. And I think this is a really good thing. What's come out, I mean, online events or all power to them, because, you know, they've been so generous, I think with what they've offered over the lockdown. And one of the issues I think about CPD is, is the money and maybe want to talk a little bit about much more in the profession. But, you know, I think it's really difficult for people to sometimes do all the extra training that they want to, and that obviously we know is very important as therapists because it can be quite a costly business and I know that the membership parties over the years have kind of changed their understanding of what CPD is, so that includes things like reading and a multitude of other activities, actually. Yeah, I think there's a lot of change. And I think it will probably continue to change. Yeah, I mean, I suppose in terms of longer term training, there's been a lot of change in that as well that I've seen over the years. I've been qualified. And I think it's a minefield, I think it's really I think it's really difficult maybe for people coming into the profession to know where to start with what they need to do to train. I think it's a good thing that there's not many more universities now offering counselling and psychotherapy courses, which I think has grown over the years. I think it is probably much more kind of private colleges and stuff. Yeah, but nothing's kind of, nothing's the same. So I think it can be very confusing for people potentially. I mean, if you find the right course, it's great. And you know, or if you do training and then you, you think I want to do I want to do more training or whatever. And you have the means to do that. Brilliant, but I know that that's not always accessible to everyone.
Peter Blundell :It's difficult, isn't it as well, when you're starting out early on, and particularly if you don't have an appreciation of the different approaches to counselling and therapy, it can be quite confusing, trying to understand or figure out where where to start really. Yeah, it'd be quite challenging.
Caz Binstead :Yeah, definitely. I agree.
Peter Blundell :If someone is listening to this, and they were thinking about kind of starting out in the professional start in their training, and is there any advice that you wish give to somebody. What advice would you give them?
Caz Binstead :I'd say make sure you do your make sure you do your research in terms of your course. Talk to other therapists, that that would be something I would say join Therapists Connect because, you know, actually, you'll learn more from therapists than you might kind of reading, reading about stuff. For example, you know, like the BACP accredited courses, I did a BACP accredited course. And I remember when I, when I searched for courses that was quite important that I did that because I read that the BACP was the main body and I've read somewhere that's what you need to do. And I think it is important, but also we do know as therapists that actually there's no difference. Well, there is one difference, which is that if you do a BACP accredited course, you don't have to do Certificate of Proficiency. exam if you want to be BACP registered, but apart from that, there's very little difference actually. So, you know, I think if you talk to therapists, you can get a better understanding of that, I think also have a understanding of the the kind of the realities of the profession. And by that, I mean, you know that this is a wonderful, wonderful career. I have been, I consider myself to be extremely lucky. I've worked since I qualified basically, I never planned to go into private practice. But there was originally jobs so I did and dies. Hi, I, I'm one of the lucky ones. So I've kind of got a full practice and it and it's been like that since I've qualified so that I know I know through a lot of friends and colleagues and things that they see it A big difficulty with with jobs in the profession. And for sure there's nothing more frustrating than trainings, spending lots of hours and stuff to train in something that you may love, and then not actually be able to do it when you when you qualify. So I think making sure that people know about the realities of the profession at the moment or hopefully, you know, things are going to move on. Fingers crossed. And then the other thing I would say is, therapy is as a cliche, but it's a it's a journey, you know, it is it's not like you have your therapy, you do your however many hours of therapy that you have to do in your course and then you're all sorted and ready to go out and, you know, I don't I tell people how to live or be like a mighty Sage or something. Know, you are learning all the time and I would say personal therapy. For me, it's a really, really important part of therapy training. And also, many qualified therapists spend their life dipping in and out of therapy when they need it themselves. And I think that's very, very important. For many reasons. I mean, I think if we, if we're sitting with clients, and we're asking them to do things that maybe we've not experienced ourselves, or we're not doing ourselves, I yeah, I don't want to think about that. But also, also, it's about being a human being living in this life. And we are going to have things that are going to come up and I mean, it's amazing when you first qualifies, and it's amazing and scary when you first qualify, because you you just learned so much about yourself. And even when you can't think oh, you know, I've done all that work on myself. I know who I am. I know that stuff. In the past that's affected me, and we'll have that actually then you you go on and then you get a cup of iron and you suddenly think, oh, okay, what's this? Or, you know, so I would say make sure you take into account. Yeah, the importance of that. And, again, I know, I know, in reality, there are barriers to that. Which again, are financial, but I think, you know, it is, in the ways that supervision is it is kind of a necessary part, particularly for trainees.
Peter Blundell :Yeah. And it's key, isn't it? And also, like you were saying, there, there is so many occasions I can think of where things surprise you, you know, in terms of things that you need to explore in your own personal therapy, things that you weren't expecting, and you never know how you're going to react to something and that there's always opportunity for more growth and development isn't that throughout your whole career as a as a therapist, it's it's an ongoing journey, as a As you say, we've we've touched on this a little bit, but because I think I know what your answer might be to this, but what are the kind of challenges that you think that we face as therapists or that you may be faced as a as a therapist coming into the profession? And what are the kind of big challenges you think that we've got on our hands at the moment?
Caz Binstead :And, yeah, I mean, I suppose it does, it does touch a little bit on some of the things that I've said on the previous question there. You know, you know, it's funny because I work in a, in a top floor in a building when I when I am working in the consulting room, and, you know, I go in and I work quite, I work quite late. And I kind of sit with my clients and I'm just like, it's just me and the client. And, you know, I'm listening to them and I'm listening to what it means to be a human being and then finding meaning and everything and I'm, I'm so Um, so like satisfied with, with with my work, I kind of, you know, and obviously, you know, all kinds of feelings from client work but you know, on the whole I'm feeling like yeah, you know, I'm so happy that I'm here in this place but then I kind of come out of my consulting room and go on Twitter or like, you know, really terrible stories about people who have got no money who are kind of, you know, living on living on the breadline going to food banks, stuff like that these are qualified. These are my contemporaries, people who are qualified and I feel really it makes me feel really sad. And I think that we have to be absolutely have to be taking that on as a profession. We can't we can't consider You need to just ignore it. And I know there are many people and obviously the counsellors together group have been a big part of this raising awareness, actually, I think, over the past couple of years in particular And I think it's about, you know, kind of recognising that people who spend money training and putting so many hours you and I both know how many hours students put into their training, that they are qualified and they do. They do deserve to be kind of given a chance to work. Not not, you know, I know some of you say, Oh, you know, you're not entitled to a job well, no one's entitled to a job. But actually, if you do kind of trade in a profession, you do expect that there's a chance that you can get a job. And I think that there's all kinds of we won't even have time today to talk about all the kind of systemic problems. within the profession that leads to this, but we know obviously there are, there are agencies who use free counsellors, and some of those agencies are, you know, behaving in a very ethical way and maybe are helping trainees and things like that. And maybe other companies are making a lot of money off people who are working for free. And you know, and I think I mean, I I've never actually become accredited myself as a as a silent protest. I thought I was like, the only one in the whole in the whole profession who didn't agree with accreditation for many years. And then I, I met met Maria and she was kind of like, Oh, this is my group. And I was like, oh, we're not the only one. Because I do think I mean, if you want to do accreditation, that's great. Yeah, and I mean, I could, I guess be kind of senior accredited now if I if I wanted to be but I choose not to be Because around the time, you know, in progression of my career, the register has come out, which obviously wasn't there before accreditations needed before the registers there, but the register is net there now, and I am a big supporter of the register. So for me, you know, actually, I think sometimes we have to take a stand on some things. And I think that, you know, people, people who qualify and are registered, yes, they still got a lot of development, as we've just talked about. And they can get support on that through the supervisors and supervisors are therefore, from hopefully membership bodies as well, in certain areas, like practice, which is what I've been interested in. Yes. Well, I think that's a that's a big issue. I think the other issue is just on a on a nationwide level. In terms of our provision, and, you know, provision of counselling and psychotherapy to members of the public, I quite often find myself tweeting, we are here, you know, cuz it's, it's like, it's almost like we just kind of ignored and, and I know that some of that comes back to, you know, some of those difficulties within within the profession. And this is why it's really important that discussions are going on, and the discussions continue to go on. Because, you know, it's no good at the moment the way I see it, is it in some ways, our profession isn't working for therapists. And in some ways, our profession isn't working for clients. And that's no, that's no good, really, you know, that's a good sign that actually something needs to evolve and yeah, change Exactly. And that we need to be having those discussions to enable that change because I mean, it's great. I live in southwest London. And people can come and see me and my practice is constantly full. There's a lot of people seeking therapy in some parts of England. And those, I mean, I live in a place where people can afford to pay private therapy. And so in a way that helps me as you know, maintain my own living and do what I love doing. And it also helps those people who, you know, maybe I mean, at one point in Lambeth, here, the NHS waiting this was about six months, I think. I think I'm writing that. I know that it can be Wansworth is much less but you know, and again, that can differ from place to place. If you need mental health help, you kind of need it straightaway and it needs to be available.
Peter Blundell :Absolutely. And I think that's one of the difficulties and I think was frustration for me is trying to To make sure that actually, as a group of people, therapists are engaged together and talking about some of these issues, and that actually you can make a difference, you know, if we all work together, actually, we can create change within the profession, but it means people need to be engaged in those discussions and kind of trying to make a difference. And I'm glad that some of these groups on social media that have been set up now are kind of helping people to access those discussions a lot more so that people could be a bit more educated about the different situations that counselling faces over the next few years.
Caz Binstead :Definitely, yeah, completely agree with everything you say.
Peter Blundell :So there's some of the challenges What about some of the rewards then that you feel that you that you have as a as a therapist, what what are those some of those been for you?
Caz Binstead :Well, um, I mean, I mean, as far as as I've said, I love my job, so you can't ask good stuff, or not everybody loves a good place to start, but I think it's very rewarding for me, having, you know, just worked pretty much full time in my, in my practice sitting with people who are human beings like me and struggling and it's quite, it's quite. It's quite something actually, I think the work that we do, some of those people won't have talked to anybody before maybe about things. So to just be able to kind of hear another person and help them work out, whatever it is they need to work out, you know about what's going on for them, you know, and, you know, and to really just see life, I mean, you can you can categorise those things you can say, you know, you know People have issues with or difficulties with anxiety or depression. And, and I mean, I tend to think I'm kind of a bit in both camps, I don't think it's, I don't really agree with the whole kind of, that's your words, you know, and let's work on depression or whatever. But I do think that there, they can be quite useful in describing what someone is going through. And actually sometimes for clients, they like to have that description, it helps them to have that description. But also, you know, it's just that life is happening. And, you know, whether it's something that's happened a while ago that's maybe been buried, whether it's a bereavement I've tried to work with. I work a lot with people with high levels of anxiety and difficulty with their self esteem. And also with bereavement. They're my kind of main areas that are I mean, I've worked with everything but you know, that that's what I like to work with. And, you know, these things happen, and sometimes it takes people completely unawares. And you know, they might say, and I didn't think I'd be here. And I think one of the really good things is, although maybe the provision isn't there, one thing that is changing in society is less stigma around seeking therapy. It's great, it's great that you know, people will come I see a lot of people in their 20s and 30s. And they're, you know, that they'll say, 'Oh, my friend recommended that came' or, or whatever, and, and many more men as well. You know, which I think is, you know, I just think it's really, really important that it can be some thing that is yes, just seen as Okay, just seen as like a part of life and why wouldn't you in the same way that you kind of exercise? Why wouldn't you, you know, just be with yourself. Connect with yourself. find, find your truth, I guess
Peter Blundell :iIt's interesting isn't how so many more people are becoming aware of that possibility and aware that's the kind of therapy is out there and open to that. And as you were kind of saying before, but the real disconnect that there is there with actually the lack of jobs and employment out there for therapists and counsellors, but actually the need is, you know, there is so many people out there who are now open to it, want to actually access that support. So, it's a real, it's real, it's never been more in our conscious awareness. I think as a as a as a as a group of people. But there's some difficulties there in people being able to access access it, I think, yeah,
Caz Binstead :Yeah, definitely. Yeah. I mean, one of the other things that I I really enjoy doing is I really enjoy I've enjoyed working with students that I really enjoy working with newly qualified as well. Because, you know, I think I think when you get to a, you know, a certain place in your in your own mind career in you, and you can give back, it's good to give back. And, you know, I, I feel quite passionate about helping people who, you know, maybe in their latter stages of trading and going into particularly maybe private therapy or even not therapy, but just that kind of beginning beginning journey. Again, you know, because we Yes. When, when you're in supervision, you're, you're, you're a therapist, and also, you know, you're, you're a person and you're trying to work out your identity as a therapist and how the kind of the person comes out there as well. And I think that's quite important, particularly in private practice. So I do I do enjoy that side of it, and I, you know, I, I enjoy, I enjoy writing, about therapy and, you know, I I've really been quite Yeah, quite excited, I suppose over the last couple of years when I've just been doing a lot more of other things alongside my kind of my clinical work. Yeah, that's felt very rewarding as well.
Peter Blundell :And every time I've spoken to before now, you're always so passionate about them all as well. Everything's kind of you really into it all. I think it's fantastic.
Caz Binstead :One of the things, hobbies, right.
Peter Blundell :I'm the same I totally understand workaholic, there's always a project. Yes, I am. So I can totally relate. That's probably why we got on so well, I think. Talking about students one of the things and this was this was completely your idea, even though we do it together now, but you contacted me, and with the suggestion of of setting something up on Twitter for students, which we eventually decided on the name or the hashtag Trainee Talk for anyone who's listening. Do you want to kind of maybe explain what what that is? And and and how people can get involved with that?
Caz Binstead :Yes, yes, definitely. Yeah. So yeah, we've been running for I don't know what I've been running for three months to three months, I think. Yeah And yeah, basically, it's a discussion for trainees. And we run it on Mondays between two and three. And Peter and I, generally are the facilitators. And what we'll do is we'll kind of take a subject or an area of interest within counselling and psychotherapy, probably very similar to things that people might already be thinking about in their training. But it's basically a space outside the training room, to meet other students from other courses. And to just have a kind of discussion, an open discussion, obviously, we don't talk about clinical material. But to be able to kind of just in a very non pressurised way, think about think about some questions around the subject. So depending on who's leading, Peter and I will read on alternate weeks, we will set maybe five or six questions for people to kind of start off with, but we're also very happy for people to kind of put their own questions or, or ask us anything, or, you know, converse with the other students. And yeah, I mean, I mean, we tend to find that sometimes. We talk about this though that sometimes the hour is a bit crazy. It's like super fast and what we do I mean, this is part of Peters Therapists Connect group as well. So we tend to retweet the the responses with the hashtag trainee to talk and therapists Connect, which then enables anyone who can't join us via our to pick, pick things up later by just putting those in the search engine. So we're kind of retreating and then trying to answer people and making sure we haven't missed anyone. And it kind of often goes from being quite quiet. And we're thinking, oh, oh, is anyone turning up today to suddenly everybody turning up and it's becoming very, very fast paced. So, you know, I, I'm, well, I like to think that I'm improving my typing skills. I don't know whether that's actually correct or not.
Peter Blundell :I'm definitely great at retweeting. I mean, I count myself a pro at that now because I just have so used to kind of doing it now. But I do find when the discussions are happening, actually, because it's only an hour retweeting and answering questions and typing responses. It's It's so fast paced, you've got to be very kind of quick in your mind and you're typing to kind of make sure you're covering everything and answering the questions promptly as well. So it is is a bit of a blur for about about 55 minutes of that hour.
Caz Binstead :I think I think both of us go out for a walk off. But then we were really happy. And I think this has just happened very organically, that the rest of Therapists Connect kind of been joining the discussion after the hour. And what Peter and I will do is generally, you know, step step back, we will just have the hour where we kind of comment on things. But we will continue to then retweet people who join in.
Peter Blundell :And it's been really nice, isn't it, some of the feedback we've had from students and they're not necessarily people can't come necessarily every week, which is fine. You can engage, engage with it as much or as little as you want. And there's some students that maybe just observe the discussions and get a lot from that, whereas there's other people who actually get actively involved. And I think some of the specialist kind of facilitators we've had over the past few weeks. It's been good as well. And when we looked at specific topics where you wouldn't necessarily get the opportunity on your course to ask those people, you know, specific questions. So it's been, it's been I think it's been successful so far as as far as I'm concerned.
Caz Binstead :Yeah. It's really felt like it. I mean, it's been a very interesting initiative. I say, you know, we didn't know how it was going to be. I'm pretty sure there was every chance that it might just just been a non starter. So it's been great. It's been useful for people, I think. Yeah, definitely mentioning the specialist sessions. Yeah, we've had we've had a couple so far in the recent, most recent one being Susan Cousins who spoke on kind of racism. And prejudice and microaggressions are so interesting, actually, that went on literally all week. Still getting responses. I'm not sure when this podcast is coming out, but the next one is actually going to be me. You obviously did yours on boundaries before so I'm going to be talking a little bit about students who are thinking of going into private practice. And then we're going to have grappling one probably before we break for the summer. So we're going to kind of do this famous as everyone will be doing in their training app on one will be with Dr. Debra Lee and Janine Conner, who are both writers both have books coming out or around now. And editors, as well of journals, and magazines, in our profession. So that's gonna be that's gonna be a really useful one. I'm really interesting. I think for people who are interested in writing in therapy, it says,
Peter Blundell :and I think it's going to be a unique opportunity actually to be able to ask some people with with experience within writing within the therapy community, some advice and tips around getting things published, kind of how you can develop your writing skills and stuff like that. So I think that I think you're right, I think that's going to be a very interesting one for students really like I'm looking forward to it. You briefly mentioned there about kind of support. And you're going to do your special assessment on students setting up in private practice. But you obviously you set on the BACP, private practice, division, don't you? On the executive there. Can you just tell us a little bit about that work? Because there's been some exciting stuff going on with that recently hasn't there?
Caz Binstead :Yes. Yes. That has. Yes. So, yes, it's been a really exciting time. It's slightly threw everything up in the air with with COVID. Because we were, we were working on this project. And the likelihood is it actually wouldn't have been launched. Now, it would have been launched later in the year, but we, we kind of recognise that practitioners are in some way, you know, have been having a tough time. So we wanted to kind of launch to help with what we had so far. But yeah, my whole reason really well, there's two reasons for me joining the executive. One is because you know, I guess because of some things we've talked about today, I've had some frustrations Aas a therapist them I'm wondering about, you know, where do I Where do I sit in terms of, you know, membership bodies and stuff like that. And the way I see things is you either kind of walk away from something today and think like, Okay, I'm just going to go and go somewhere else, or you get involved and you try and change things. And for me, the BACP does a lot of very good work. And I think that's really important to say. There are some things and obviously they are part of the culture and, you know, the things that we've talked about today with the profession and you can't ignore that, but they have a lot of good stuff and they have really a lot of good people working I mean, some of the people I work at kind of, you know, in membership events and you know, I don't want to kind of miss anyone out but you know, those times levels of people doing the work and a lot of them, you know, maybe aren't therapists themselves and they, a lot of them really genuinely care and, you know, it's, it's quite it's quite known within the BACP that there are some things like I'm quite, I'm ScOPEd sceptical. And you know, it's, it's quite nice for me to just be able to be myself within there, but to also say, you know, actually, at the end of the day, there's 52,000 members here. And, you know, I think it's, it's good to be able to try and provide something. So this is well, why I joined the private practice executive because obviously, this is my speciality area. And I had an idea of joining, which was that I wanted to deliver something like this. Interestingly, I'm kind of about six months later when I was trying to get it going with the division. We then found out that within the BACP own strategy Whatever they call it, programme meeting, big thing that they have, they had also identified membership, this is a potential thing. So effectively, we kind of had the same idea at the same time, which was really, really useful. And we spent a bit of time working out, how can the division works with membership on this? How is that going to look? You know, how do we serve both our divisional members, but also make sure that we can get as much free material as we can to the membership as a whole. And for those, you know, registered therapists who want to be able to do private practice, I don't think you know, tell me if you disagree with this, but one thing I feel is that because well, students frankly have enough on their plates, but this and there's so much to cover in courses that they can sometimes be a little bit of a lack of talking about in some courses. Yeah,
Peter Blundell :yeah, no, no, no, I'd completely agree with that. And I think, you know, whatever stage of your career that you're at, you need the right up to date advice and guidance if you're deciding to set up in private practice. And I think just looking through some of the resources that I've seen, that you you've kind of put together, I think it's fantastic, actually, because it's a lot of things all in one place that people could kind of access when setting up or even if you're in private practice, and that I think, would be really helpful to members actually.
Caz Binstead :Yeah, definitely. Because I think it The question is, you know, does this lie with training institute? So does it lie with, you know, some of the officer wants people to qualifies, as Yeah, I think probably both is true, but you know, if people can qualify and are supported in the right way, and I think this is very much the way we approach this project is not telling you what to do. Yeah, yes. They're all things if someone says to me, should I have a contract? I'd say You know what? Yes, that's a good idea. So maybe on things like that kind of strong persuasion. But other than that, I think it's about allowing people on their journey to be able to really think about and reflect on themselves and to use the documentation as a way of doing that. And as a way of self learning. And if they need more more help in certain areas, they can go into certain areas. And you're right, we've kind of got the categories and stuff, there's going to be a whole bunch of new resources, I've kind of identified what's missing, I'm going to be writing a lot of those resources, and then some of them are going to be written in house. So hopefully, we're going to, you know, really cover all the areas that need to be covered. And we're going to be taking feedback, I'm going to be running some, some small groups to to make sure that we're kind of along along the right lines, because we know that people need this. I mean, many years ago I used to run a course called 'new to private practice' it was always sold out. Always really successful, because people were desperate for it. Of course, these days, there's absolutely loads of these courses running. So we, you know, we know that it's something that can be a value to people. And I do think that it's important that people feel supported by their membership body because it is very much also LinkedIn to the lack of jobs because people maybe don't practice who wouldn't have necessarily considered it. So it's important that we will work together on that.
Peter Blundell :Well, I saw a statistic the other day that BACP tweeted that 30,000 of the members are in private practice or acknowledge that they're in private practice, which is obviously over half of of the members, which is a significant amount of people. So I think to kind of I think they need to provide some kind of resources really, because there's, there's absolute need out there. And I think I think you're right in what you're talking about there in terms of even with education providers, you can give some guidance and some answers to some specific questions. But actually, it's about practitioners kind of understanding and reflecting on how they want their private practice to be what they want from it. And, you know, their approach and things like that. So it's more of a reflective process. But there are certain things that do have to be in place when you kind of set up in private practice, like the minimum requirements, if you like. Yeah,
Caz Binstead :yeah. Yeah.
Peter Blundell :But I think it's great. And I think there's so many of those resources that are free aren't as for the BACP members, now they can go on and they can access those.
Caz Binstead :Yes, yes, absolutely. Yeah, actually, 80% of the current resources are free. So yeah, so all you have to do is go on. I haven't got the actual I should have, I should have had the website.
Peter Blundell :So we can put a link to it.
Caz Binstead :Thank you. Put a link on that link. And yeah, and then it's still there. And you can kind of we've got full sections, you can go into whatever sections and you know, work at it. You Paste, it might feel like there's a lot there and then there will be more there but that's fine. It's meant to be a kind of a. Yeah, a gradual thing for people to work through.
Peter Blundell :Brilliant, that's fantastic. And talking about something else, which I think is really really positive for counsellors and psychotherapists at the moment is we've got national counsellors day coming up. Tell us a little bit about that. Is it? It's the second 1 am I right, then it's the second or is it the third? Second one, right? Yeah.
Caz Binstead :Yeah. So yeah, this is obviously run by CT UK counsellors together. And yeah, it ran last year. I'm so fortunate to be their first one. And it ran in Lincoln last year. And, yeah, it's, I think, I think the purpose of it. I don't want to kind of speak for Maria here, but I think the purpose of it is twofold. So first of all, to talk about Some of maybe some issues that we've touched on a little bit today and I'll see that fit with their groups. I use a mission statement all that but secondly to celebrate counsellors and you know I'm really happy to be involved this year so I'm going to be acting as we're calling me
Peter Blundell :another string to your bow
Caz Binstead :Yeah, so it's gonna be online again. Thank you to john and Sandra for taking for taking it all online. I've got no idea really how it's gonna run. I'm talk to anyone about technicalities yet so hopefully, hopefully someone's gonna just say to sit on zoom and it will be fine. But we've got some fantastic speakers. I've seen a couple of speakers before like Elizabeth Cotton, who talks on on some of the stuff about profession and She talks a lot on IAPT and about kind of unpaid work or difficulties for therapists. She's an absolutely brilliant speaker. I'm gonna I feel like Phil actually does. I mean, there's some of them that haven't seen But Joe Watson I have seen before as well. And obviously she does all her kind of dropped the disorder stuff. And then there's some people I haven't seen, so but it looks like it's gonna be a really, really good day. And for me, you know, this is exactly what's needed. We need to celebrate ourselves, we really do. Because every other profession will be you know, celebrating themselves. Yeah. Why can't you know why cant we? I think, you know, yes, we do incredibly serious work. And, you know, it's not about blowing our own trumpets or whatever, but, uh, you know, about about, you know, helping people or whatever that might be but it There is something about, you know, actually this work is important work. It's incredibly important. It's You know, it's life saving in all aspects of the word. And, you know, we need to, I think, as therapists celebrate that and celebrate ourselves and kind of also, you know, I think I think there's something about if we can't see ourselves and validate ourselves and say, This is what we do, and this is why we're here, you know, how can we expect any more on a nationwide level? So, for me, it was part of part of that and, you know, and it's good excuse, to have cake .
Peter Blundell :Exactly. And I think that whole idea of connecting with each other as well and recognising, acknowledging the work that we all that we all do, and I think it's another event that can help us bring bring us all together really and kind of as you say, celebrate what we do on what we do well, and I think you know, this there's nothing wrong with that is there?
Caz Binstead :Absolutely. No, no, see, you're going to be there.
Peter Blundell :I am definitely going to be there. I will be there with my piece of cake. So that kind of brings us to the end, really, but I suppose the last question is really what is next on the cards for you? What are your kind of hopes for the for the future then in terms of the profession? And, and and what projects have you got on the go?
Caz Binstead :Well, I mean, I would say hopes and profession, just continual evolution. You know, lots of talking lots of debates, lots of, you know, talking collaboratively, collaboration, I think, is a really big part of this. So, you know, I'm really I really want to be part of that. And I hope, yeah, I hope I think we can get things going and really make things work. I mean, recent petition that has been put out in terms of, you know, utilising therapists in COVID, which I think has got over 10,000 signatures. That's pretty good start to that. So I'm really Hoping that it can work better for therapists and clients alike. And then for me, you know, I'm just, yeah, I'm just going to obviously be focusing a lot on this private practice project. So I expect that will kind of form a lot of this year. But yeah, I'm hoping very, very early stages kind of thinking, thinking about thinking about a book. So we're gonna say much more about that at the moment. We're in early stages. Yeah. And I just, I mean, I kind of I feel like, you know, this is a, I'm in a good place. I'm at kind of a, a good age really to have enough time, enough time left in in my career to do lots of things. But I've got enough experience behind me to be able to explore some of those things. I am thinking at some point that I will be doing a PhD and the likelihood is I'll be doing probably something interdisciplinary and so, so which, you know, kind of is important for me as well because I feel like you know, in my journey as a therapist, you know, I was in I was working in a very, very different industry beforehand. A creative industry and for me, there's something about Yeah, me, me being very, very integrated. And, you know, there's things that I would like to look back at and, and bring into my life now and what I do now, so lots of exciting things, hopefully and yeah, no pressure, just going along and continuing to you know, continue to do my work and hopefully, hopefully be useful for people.
Peter Blundell :I think there's no doubt about that Caz, about being useful. Sounds very exciting. I wish you the best of luck for the future
Caz Binstead :Thank you very much. Thank you.
Opening :Thank you for listening to the therapist connect podcast. Go To www.therapists-connect.com For more discussions and debates Transcribed by https://otter.ai