Tuesday 18th September
A Community Based Psychotherapy Group for People with HIV/AIDS
Annie Hoile
HIV and AIDS remains a life threatening illness which has devastated under developed parts of the world. In this country and the more developed parts of the world HIV is now classed as a chronic illnesss and the prognosis for newly diagnosed individuals is good. There is a high incidence of depression and other emotional difficulties for this client group and research into the groups and help offered showed that there was no psychoanalytic psychotherapy group specifically for this client group. As a result of this research a heterogenous psychoanalytic psychotherapy group was started in February 2008 and is ongoing. This is a community based psychotherapy group and the membership is eight.
This paper will describe the processes involved in setting up and maintaining the group and will include material from the group highlighting the specific issues for the infected individual and the group as a whole. Annie Hoile is a nurse by background and has for the last twenty years worked as a specialist nurse for HIV.
About the Speaker
Annie completed the Msc in psychodynamic counselling in 1999 and the Msc in group analysis in 2008. She has recently retired from nursing and is now in private practice working with individuals and groups. Annie is also a tutor and Academic advisor for year two of the Certificate in counselling at Birkbeck college.
