the conversational model

Human suffering is as old as time itself, as is the impulse to offer comfort to those in distress, confusion, and grief. When suffering persists and cannot be adequately soothed or treated through usual means, it suggests that the pain resides beyond conscious awareness and the reach of words. This hidden wound requires a particular kind of attention.

Psychotherapists trained in the Conversational Model of Psychotherapy possess a profound understanding of how developmental history affects the brain's neurobiology and the crucial role of connection and relationship in the healing process. Within the therapeutic conversation lie the clues that guide both therapist and client on a journey of discovery and exploration of the inner world.

The safety and trust nurtured in the therapeutic relationship over time allow for the emergence of a narrative. This narrative fosters a stronger connection to the sense of self and reveals the richness of life when all aspects of the self are experienced and understood.

About the Conversational Model

The Conversational Model is a psychodynamic psychotherapy based on the work over many years by Prof Russell Meares and Dr Robert Hobson. It is a relational model, emphasising how early developmental relational trauma shapes many severe adult psychiatric problems and how to deal with this in short, medium and long-term therapy.

Incorporating contemporary outcome research, affect theory, neuroscience, infant research and trauma research.The Conversational Model is an evidence-based treatment for depression, deliberate self-harm, complex somatic disorders and borderline personality disorder. More importantly, the Conversational Model principles are practical and down-to-earth, and can be used even in emergency situations and one-off mental health assessments.

The Model has been developed for a range of chronic psychiatric syndromes that are difficult to treat, particularly borderline personality disorder, dissociative disorders, other personality disorders, treatment resistant depression and somatic disorders.