Lessons from Prisons and Its Relevance to All of Us

I spent eight years working on a therapeutic wing in a high security prison. I worked as a group therapist, individual therapist, manager and supervisor and subsequently ran reflective practice sessions for multi-disciplinary teams and senior staff. 

Having always been drawn to prison work, my personal research and motivation was to discover why it was that people are capable of doing really bad things. I wondered what it was within psychotherapy theory that might help me to understand and work with extremes in human behaviour. I was also drawn to group work and the opportunity to run groups with a five-year duration appealed. I came to realise that prison is a microcosm of society and that what happens in there also happens out here. 

The issues that prison raises are issues for all of us and instead of shutting these problems away we would do well to consider them for our own liberation as well as for the good of the wider society in which we live. It would give me great pleasure to share with you my top ten take aways as a standalone workshop which for some may prompt deeper exploration into the dilemmas, pain and joy about what it means to be a human being in this challenging and wonderful world.