The concept of intimacy combines a number of human needs and capacities: openness, transparency, close proximity and safety, which when combined allow for a deepened connection with another person. The notion of intimacy is very positive, associated with secure attachment and a special type of closeness to and knowledge of the self and other; it assumes a basis of sympathy and capacity to care about the object of one's intimate attachments.

Intimacy, like all emotional positions, is underpinned by neurophysiology. Specific neuropeptides and hormones are released when the individual experiences a state of safe proximity to another such as vasopressin and oxytocin. These are hormones that play key roles in social behaviour and social understanding, helping to regulate sexual behaviour, mother-infant and adult-adult pair-bond formation and social memory/recognition.

The combining and sustaining of the psychological, social and biological properties required for ease with familiarity is not a small assignment. Intimacy can be easily distorted as we attempt closeness without feeling safe or without a deep capacity for connection Problems with intimacy will be a frequent issue in the consulting room for psychotherapists, counsellors and psychologists. So how are we to work with these? Do we need to begin by examining the individual's attachment patterns, working with their unconscious fears of other people, specific past traumas or with the body?

This conference is am ambitious attempt to explore the science and psychology of intimacy, how we can more easily open ourselves to the pleasures and safety which it provides, and what psychotherapeutic approaches are most able to resolve obstacles in experiencing this level of closeness.