Rod Holland to become President of European Association
The BABCP's annual conference organiser, Rod Holland has been confirmed as the new President of the European Association of Behavioural and Cognitive Therapies.
Rod, an Honorary Fellow of the BABCP, was nominated by the Association and five other national associations at the EABCT Congress which took place in the Finlandia Hall, Helsinki.
More than 1200 delegates, representing 29 European countries, as well as visitors from outside Europe, including the USA and Australia attended the three-day Congress.
Keynote addresses were given by Jeff Young, on Schema Therapy, Adrian Wells, on Meta-Cognitive Therapy; Claudia Herbert, on complex trauma and Dissociative Identity Disorder, as well as Lars-Goran Ost, Tom Borkovec and many others at the leading edge of CBT, with a well-balanced mix of research and practical applications throughout the conference.
The congress also included an opening address by Paul Gilbert, on Compassionate Mind Training.
Social events included an opening reception at the Finlandia Hall, being greeted by the deputy mayor at Helsinki City Hall and dinner on the island fortress of Suomenlinna, 20 minutes by boat from Helsinki.
Paul Salkovskis gave the closing address with an entertaining and challenging presentation. He used the analogy of a complex case of Dissociative Identity Disorder to discuss the difficulties in some psychotherapy modalities in relation to evidence and high profile but poorly informed comments about CBT in the media. His presentation was followed by another highlight: the Helsinki Conference Choir.
Assembled from delegates attending the conference, 20 people from 11 different nations performed a song in the style of shepherds from Lapland - calling their cattle down from the mountains to the winter pastures!
Next year, the conference takes place in Croatia. Nada Anic, the conference organiser, will welcome delegates to Dubrovnik in September.
Helen MacDonald