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
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