The relationship between psychotherapy and neuroscience - long rather static while the two fields appeared to have different interests and methods - is rapidly changing. This change has been primarily because topics that have long been of interest to the psychotheraputic community, most especially emotion, have now become viable matters for mainstream neuroscientific investigation. While emotion has often been regarded as a negative force for human decision-making, there are times when emotion is essential in order for human beings to make sensible choices. The basis for the phenomenon appears to be the hunches that we often generate about complex problems, typically described as intuition - a source of knowledge has a vital role to play in creativity and imagination. These talks will review scientific investigations on these borderlands between psychoanalysis and neuroscience, particularly in the domains of emotion, intuition, and the role of both in delusional beliefs.

Detecting the unconscious psychological trauma that lies at the heart of many psychological and psychosomatic complaints remains a particularly complex challenge facing a wide range of mental health professionals, and failure to diagnose unconscious trauma leaves a great number of patients suffering needlessly. Furthermore, unrecognised suffering may lead to the transmission of the underlying unconscious trauma to the next generation(s). Reflecting on methodological and theoretical issues, this presentation will illustrate the value and potential of an intuitive approach, both in diagnosing unconscious trauma and in generating therapeutic effects. Advance reading of his book Splintered Innocence. An Intuitive Approach to Treating War Trauma is highly recommended.

Freud once claimed that 'Analysts are at bottom incorrigible mechanists and materialists'. Over the years, though, as his paper on telepathy shows, he was forced to enlarge his understanding of the processes involved in unconscious communication. Starting with Freud, and drawing on post-Freudian, Jungian, and Group Analytic thinking, as well as clinical material, thhis presentation will explore the often unremarked implications of deeply unconscious analytic experience and its part in the therapeutic process.

Rachel Charles will present the results of her original research into intuition as experienced within the consulting room. She will discuss the conditions that favour intuition, what constitutes an intuitive type of therapist and the advantages and disadvantages of such an approach. She will also consider the essential features of intuition such as its holistic and allological nature and its relationship to empathy and creativity. Drawing on case histories, she will then look at how an intuition may be applied in the session and the outcome for the client.

In this session, using a combination of Myers Briggs, Gestalt awareness techniques and the visualizations of Psychosynthesis, you will have an opportunity to embrace your own personal approach to intuition and your capacity to sense others at a subliminal perceptive level. Ways to deepen and develop your intuition within the therapeutic relationship will be explored.