A Day with Neil Young

As part of Pride month, this is an inspiring and insightful day of exploration, reflection, discussion and learning with the brilliant Neil Young, which will include time for discussion, self-reflection and awareness, and opportunities for creativity and private art-making.

Content Summary

Gender and sexual identity are lenses through which all of us are constantly negotiating our place and meaning in the world, against a background of powerful binaries and stereotypes, most notably male/female and gay/straight. Yet, in recent years there has been a sea change amongst teenagers and young adults, who are increasingly resisting traditional, binary gender identities and not defining themselves as heterosexual.

In this day-long session, the group will explore our response to this generational shift by focusing on ourselves – connecting to our own feelings, thoughts and experiences. We will also examine the reality of lesbian, gay, bi, trans, queer (LGBTQ+) and gender-fluid children and young peoples’ lives, including emergent gender and sexual identities, impact on attachment, discrimination, coping strategies and their implications for us in our professional practice.

Neil will offer up a space for small and whole group discussion, share contemporary research, media and resources as well as using the creative arts* to help our exploration and practice.

*Creative Arts:

Before we meet, do gather whatever art materials (paint, crayons, stickers, postcards, loo roll holders, toys, leaves – whatever you have, like or can get your hands on) as we will be creating during the session.

Participants will be given the opportunity to:

• Examine the reality of LGBTQ children and young peoples’ lives, including emergent gender and sexual identities, discrimination, coping strategies and their implications for us as professionals and organisations.

• Creatively explore anti-LGBTQ prejudice within your work and wider society

• Connect to their own experiences of gender and sexuality and how these has impacted on who they are, personally and professionally

• Consider developmentally helpful approaches to working with children and young people, including creativity and the arts.

• Understand the importance of a secure attachment in the developing child and how the absence of this for many LGBTQ and gender-fluid children and young people can have long-lasting impacts on their quality of life

• Explore the fluidity of sexual and gender identity formation and the enduring power of binary gender and sexual identities and dominant stereotypical roles

Please note: This day can be booked as a bespoke training day for your staff / team / group or organisation. Please contact [email protected] for more information.

About Neil:

Neil is an experienced integrative art psychotherapist, facilitator and youth worker with a longstanding interest in exploring gender and sexual identities.

Neil designs and holds safe, creative spaces in which children, young people and adults – and the professionals who work with them – can explore their diverse experiences and identities, against the persistent impact of anti-LGBT prejudice, in safe and interactive ways. For professionals, this includes trainings, lectures, workshops and embodied performances working with therapists, counsellors, youth-, social- and mental health-workers and other professionals and organisations.

Neil’s background also includes 25 years’ experience as a researcher and queer community advocate, including founding Mosaic LGBT Young People’s Trust in northwest London and working as an LGBT advisor to the first two Mayors of London.

In 2022, Neil co-authored a chapter in Queering Psychotherapy called ‘Don’t Panic! Queering the child’ building on a 2017 BACP University & College Journal article ‘Young People: Not Straight, Not Narrow’. Both were based on interviews with counsellors, therapists, academics and youth workers across the country, exploring emerging trends in gender and sexual identification among children and young people and offering advice for affirmative therapeutic practice.

Neil currently works 3 days/week as an integrative arts psychotherapist in private practice in London and teaches at the various institutes including the Institute for Arts & Therapy in Education (IATE) and HOMA.

CPD ACCESS PASS

This workshop counts as 6 CPD hours as part of the CPD Access Pass 12 hour allowance. The Access Pass is a key part of The Sunflower Network’s commitment to providing affordable and accessible high quality CPD to our peers, and can be bought by individuals who have joined our free Sunflower Hub multi-disciplinary resource.

CERTIFICATES & RESOURCES

The ticket price includes any handouts the trainer may wish to share with you – which will be sent out AFTER the event has taken place – and a CPD certificate. Please note: The decision whether to share content with attendees either during or after any event facilitated by the The Sunflower Network always rests with the trainer as the owner of the intellectual property.

ETHICAL CONDUCT AT SUNFLOWER EVENTS

It is a requirement that all participants adhere to ethical conduct in the context of events including:

Respect for Sunflower staff, trainers and other attendees
Adherence to policies and procedures
Maintaining confidentiality and privacy
Sensitivity to complex issues being discussed

Anyone in breach of these threshold requirements may be removed from an event and could be unable to attend further events in the future. This is to safeguard the staff and participants as well as to enable quality assurance for the safety and wellbeing of all attendees.

In booking an event these criteria are agreed to in principle and committed to in practice.

SELF-CARE NOTICE:

Therapeutic trainings can work with complex and emotive topics that may be deeply personal for some delegates, depending on their lived experience. There will be breaks included on the day and one to one support will be available if needed, but please do reflect on whether you feel able to attend.  Your safety and wellbeing is of paramount importance.

WAYS TO PAY

It is possible to arrange payments for tickets to our events in instalments on the condition that the full balance has been received no later than two weeks before the chosen event takes place. We also offer discounts for groups / teams of 3+, discounts for individuals booking multiple events, and to arrange invoices for your place of work to way for you (advance payment required).  To discuss or arrange any of these ways to pay, please email [email protected]

VAT

Please note that from 1st January 2024 we are required to add VAT onto all our services. This will be added at the point of payment on the website or onto your invoice if you choose to pay in instalments and we cannot make any exceptions.

RECORDINGS:

Please note – The Sunflower Network does not record events for purchase or view at a later date nor permit recordings of the event to be made. All our events are ‘as live’. This is to safeguard the nurturing and contained environment we create online in order to maintain our culture of safe, private and supported interactivity and sharing.

UNCREDITED USE OR REPLICATION OF CONTENT SHARED:

On behalf of the trainers we work with, we do not allow content shared during our CPD days to be replicated or used in any way without due credit to the copyright owner. Doing so without previous consent may result in exclusion from further Sunflower events.

BOOKING TERMS & CONDITIONS

All bookings to be paid in full except where private arrangements have been made to pay in instalments and agreed by us. Tickets &/ or any instalment payments are non-refundable once payment has been made. You can re-sell or transfer your ticket to another attendee up to 24 hours before the event opens – as long as we have notice in writing with their name. On request The Sunflower Network Ltd. may be able to help advertise and/or facilitate any re-sales but this will incur an admin fee of £15.00 to cover our costs including subsequent charges we receive from the ticket providers. Please note The Sunflower Network Ltd. cannot ever guarantee a successful re-sale and responsibility for finding a new purchaser remains with the original ticket holder at all times. No transfer or refund will be considered for a ‘no show’ on the day of the event or should you choose to leave the event early.

If you are booking a ticket as part of a discount offer, only ONE discount can be applied to a ticket at any one time.

The Sunflower Network Ltd. reserves the right to make changes to the booking terms and conditions, the timetable, content and/or any events at any time due to unforeseen circumstances. In the event of cancellation by us and if we cannot offer an alternative date, we will refund the cost of the ticket price for the event in full. We will not be responsible for any further cost incurred by you in relation to your booking.