Date: Saturday, 9 November 2024
Times: 09.30 – 17.00
Location:
Benjamin Lay Suite, 2nd floor, Friends House, 173-177 Euston Road, London NW1 2BJ
Cost: £95.00
The fee includes hot fork lunch and tea and coffee throughout the day.
Please register and pay here.
For those who would find it financially impossible to attend, we are able to give some help with the cost of the Conference. To discuss this in confidence please write to us. If you have already asked for financial help, please register by paying the amount you said you are able to pay.
For all those attending the conference:
The Friends House is on Euston Road, directly opposite Euston Station.
Please let us know (info@bss-support.org.uk) if you have any special requirements.
The Friends House accommodates special diets, but they do need to be ordered in advance. If you let us know your requirements, one of us will make sure that a correct lunch will be waiting for you! If you need dairy or gluten free also let us know for the coffee and tea breaks.
Conference – Saturday, 9 November 2024
The Boarding School Survivor’s Journey
Benjamin Lay Suite, Friends House, 173-177 Euston Road, London NW1 2BJ
PROGRAMME
Morning session
09.15
2nd Floor Landing and Suite Catering Area
Welcome, registration and refreshments
BSS-S directors will be on hand to welcome you
09.50
All move to Auditorium
10.00
Welcome – Allison Ujejski
Chair and Director of Boarding School Survivors – Support
Allison will introduce the programme and outline the theme for the day –
THE BOARDING SCHOOL SURVIVOR’S JOURNEY
10.15
Guest speaker – Person Irresponsible
Like the best adventures, healing hurts
The author and presenter, enigmatically known as Person Irresponsible, was a third country kid who rebelled against being sent “home” to boarding school. Having lived in 15 countries and never settled, she had always assumed that the problem was her rather than the system. She fell out of this delusion quite abruptly, as she will relate…
Author of Everywhere I NEVER Wanted To Go and Everything You Ever Taught Me
Presenter of Boarding School is not OK
10.55
Questions and answers
11.05
Break – Tea and Coffee in the Catering Area
11.25
Guest speaker – Anne Power
The Boarding School Survivor falls in love, but where will it lead?
Annie, a psychotherapist and relationship expert grounded in attachment theory, will consider how years spent in boarding school may affect our attachment patterns and experience in couple relationships. Core attachment style, laid down in the first two years of life – but made more or less secure by subsequent events – has a key role in how young adults manage long-term partnerships: and a history of boarding can profoundly influence the outcome.
Practionier in emotionally focused couple therapy (EFT)
Author of Contented Couples: Magic, Logic or Luck?
12.05
Questions and answers
12.15
LUNCH in CATERING AREA
During the lunch break, you will be able to sign up for your preferred afternoon discussion session
Afternoon Session
13.20
All return to the Auditorium
13.30
Personal Stories
Two stories from Boarding School Survivors –
Caroline Rollings and Chris Braitch
14.10
Group Sessions – The Boarding School Survivor’s Journey
Introduction to the four group discussion topics, which will be facilitated by therapists:
1. Understanding what happened to us
Not “What is wrong with me?”, but “What was done to me?” – and how I survived
2. Reconnecting to the damaged child within
Rediscovering and connecting with the abandoned one
3. Finding Compassion – and help – for the task
Learning to treat ourselves kindly and finding help for recovery
4. Reframing relationships with self and others
Discovering anew ourselves and those we love
14.15
Divide into Auditorium, Catering Area and two break-out rooms
15.45
Break – Tea and Coffee in the Catering Area
16.05
Feedback from the four discussion groups
Facilitators summarise their groups’ discussions
16.45
Return to the Auditorium for:
• Feedback on the discussion groups
• Round-up and reflections from the day
• Where and how to find help and support
• Thanks and close
17.00
Tea and Coffee in the Catering Area
The refreshment area will remain open for those wishing to decompress before travelling home