Working with the unconscious: Approaches to treatment in psychiatry

Dr Jo Talbot Bowen is a retired London NHS Psychiatrist, who, for many years, was a general adult and addiction specialist. In 2015, she established a psychological trauma and stress therapy clinic in Devon, specialising in hypnotherapy and eye movement desensitisation and reprocessing (EMDR) techniques. She is a trained mediator and holds a BA in Fine Art and an MA in Philosophy with a particular focus on personal identity. In 2019, she co-founded cRxeate, an online forum which supports medical professionals with their creativity and confidence.  

Dr Talbot Bowen was a Medical Liaison Officer at the Royal Medical Benevolent Fund. She also helped to deliver the Wellness Learning module for the MDU. Currently, she is the Creativity Lead on the Women in Mental Health Special Interest Group at the Royal College of Psychiatrists. Dr Talbot Bowen has spoken at medical conferences and has delivered seminars and workshops to a range of healthcare professionals. Her research on the impact of stress has been published in a range of peer-reviewed journals. She is a member of the British Society of Clinical Hypnosis and she actively campaigns on the benefits of creativity, hypnotherapy and maintaining positive mental health in the media.  

Dr Niels Detert is a Consultant Clinical Neuropsychologist and lead for Adult Neuropsychology at the John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford with special interests in Mindfulness and in Functional Neurological Disorders (FND). He has worked in particular with Mindfulness-based Cognitive Therapy to improve the management of stress and mental health problems in people with neurological and functional neurological disorders.

He is chair of the FND workstream of the Division of Neuropsychology Policy Unit currently developing a position statement on the role of clinical neuropsychology in FND. He is the chair of the UKFND Network, an FND liaison group of representatives of UK professional and voluntary sector bodies and stakeholders. He is also a member of the medical expert committee of the charity FND Hope UK. 

Alistair is a Director of the Scottish charity the Foundation for Positive Mental Health, and co-creator of the Feeling Good: Positive Mindset App which came out in 2016 and delivers the programme Positive Mental Training (PosMT). This app, based on an Olympic Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP) Coaching programme, has been proven to be extremely effective for mental health recovery, as well as reducing burnout, and was used by the Scottish Government for increasing personal efficacy and reducing burnout in Health and Social Care (H&SC) staff during Covid and is also used by Many Universities for staff and students. Positive Mental Training Tool (PosMT) has been used in primary care in Edinburgh since 2005, and has recently received approval for use in (Improving Access to Psychological Therapies (IAPT) London to reduce waiting lists. His special field of research is resilience and the understanding of how memory structures influence distress and recovery. He leads workshops for medical students in Edinburgh University (300 PA) and for GPs and H&SC staff across the UK. 

Dr David Erritzoe is Clinical Senior Lecturer in General Psychiatry in Centres for Neuropsychopharmacology and Psychedelic Research at Imperial and Consultant Psychiatrist at St Charles Hospital, Central and North West London Mental Health NHS Foundation Trust. From early 2021, he headed a new NHS-based research clinic at St Charles Hospital, the CIPPRes Clinic. 

Dr Erritzoe conducts psychopharmacological research, using brain-imaging techniques such as positron emission tomography (PET) and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). He was trained in PET imaging at Columbia University in New York and later undertook a PhD at University Hospital Rigshospitalet in Copenhagen. Since 2009, he has been involved in imaging research into the neurobiology of addictions and major depression at Imperial College. Dr Erritzoe has been investigating dopaminergic neurotransmission with measurements of the dopamine D3 receptor in alcohol addiction, studies of opioid neurotransmission in pathological gambling, and functional imaging studies looking at the role of dopamine D3 and mu-opiate receptors in cocaine, alcohol, and heroin addiction.  

Currently, he runs lab-based multi-modal brain imaging studies, often using pharmacological challenges, focusing on serotonin/dopamine/opiate neurotransmission as well as larger-scale prospective, naturalistic studies with online assessments and/or field-based data collection. Specifically, in the Centre for Psychedelic Research, where Dr Erritzoe is Clinical Director and Deputy Head, the team is investigating brain mechanisms and therapeutic potential of MDMA, ketamine and classic psychedelics. 

Dr Graham Kidd studied Medicine at St. Barts, qualifying in 1970; he then joined the Army and served first in Northern Ireland, and then as Medical Officer to 10th Gurkha Rifles in Hong Kong. On leaving, he studied Psychiatry at  St. Thomas’s Hospital, and his training included Cognitive Analytical Therapy (CAT), with Anthony Ryle, and CBT with renowned behaviour therapy pioneer, Prof. Isaac Marks.

He became a Consultant in Old Age Psychiatry and General Psychiatry in Woking; it was here that he specialised in the treatment of psychological trauma. On retiring from the NHS, in 2006, he worked at the Priory, Roehampton, and at the Cardinal Clinic, Windsor, until 2016. Since then, he has pursued his interest in psychotherapeutic techniques for resolving trauma—specifically, employing EMDR, a technique which he has been using since 1998. Dr Kidd is now largely retired although he still sees patients on Skype. His hobbies include painting and improvising on the piano.