Business Fit Magazine July 2019 Issue 2 | Page 38

iCAAD London 2019 - A story of hope This year iCAAD 2019 was about the realisation of challenging times both at a collective and an individual level. It was also about the hope and the faith that we, Human Beings, the one species with consciousness and adaptability, with creativity and curiosity, can and are facing the challenges. And the resounding theme this year was, in the words of Dr Claudia Black, “I hang onto hope because I see it.” No matter what the methodology, treatment, model, programme, belief or clinical approach - all who gathered together at iCAAD London 2019 were that hope. Hope for the future of the prevention and treatment of behavioural, mental and emotional health issues; the continuum of recovery; quality of life, and the healing of individuals and families - because the people who were there see it and experience it daily, and together they are all collectively shaping the future. iCAAD London 2019 was a shared moment of humanity - beyond the bio-psycho-social – it weaved together an even more eclectic combination of topics than ever, provoking dialogue, discussion, debate, conversation, exchange of information, mutual learning and progression. iCAAD London told the story of opposing perspectives seen through a multidimensional and universal lens, from global fear and pain to the most intimate human detail. It was a story of cutting-edge neuroscience and new therapeutic models, where the biochemical, psychological, spiritual and cultural meet the destructive forces of loneliness, the private hell on earth of isolation and lack of connection, the reverberations of trauma across the world and across generations. The conference united the mind with the body, the theory with the experience, the medical science-based mythology, with its causal simplification into pathology, disease, or illness, with experience and emotion, seeking how to become, and better understand, our best selves. Could it be that depression, burn out, addiction, PTSD, border line disorders, bi-polar, sexual compulsion, and many more, are true facets of a complex polygon, the polygon of the mind, hiding something much more profound? The iCAAD experience gave a narrative voice to the future generation: Our world is increasingly operating with a millennial’s value system, they now make up more than 35% of the workforce. It is time for psychology to adapt to the next generation. It is not about just integrating them, it is about handing what we do not know over to them, and walking with them into our future. We looked at fear and pain from a global and societal perspective, to enrich the clinical pathologised vision of them: at any given moment not only are there over 200 human conflicts in the world, but they knock at our mind’s door through billions of web pages and dramatic images, opinionated subjective commentaries infusing the experience with depressing and dramatised fears. And that’s before we even consider how the developing adolescent brain deals with such information. In all areas we can look to the rich knowledge and history of those who have been before, to shape what is yet to come. “We are all afraid – for our confidence, for the future, for the world. That is the nature of the human imagination. Yet every man, every civilisation, has gone forward because of its engagement with what it has set itself to do. The personal commitment and the emotional commitment working together as one, has made the Ascent of Man.” Prof. Jacob Bronowsky At iCAAD in London they invited you to walk with their presenters rather than to just listen to them, they invited you to join the dots, to look at things not only for what they are but for how they interact, to open your minds with the consciousness, imagination, hope, pain, fear and courage, which is our unique humanity. In the words of Dr Tian Dayton, “everyone has a story and everyone needs a stage.” iCAAD London was a stage where everybody was welcome, and everyone became part of the story of humanity. www.icaad.com 39