Making sense of distress beyond diagnosis. Child Sexual Abuse and the PTMF

Lucy & Sophie explore how the PTMF offers a hopeful alternative for survivors of CSA who are disproportionately labelled and pathologised

About the Workshop

A CSA survivor and clinical psychologist-led workshop introducing the Power Threat Meaning Framework, a hopeful alternative to diagnosis.

The Power Threat Meaning Framework is a non-diagnostic approach to understanding emotional distress which is attracting national and international attention.

The PTMF is a co-produced project drawing upon trauma-informed ideas in order to support the construction of narratives as an alternative to diagnostic labels. This can help to explain how and why distress arises in the contexts of life events and the sense people make of them. In this way, trauma survivors can be supported to create more hopeful narratives about their difficulties, instead of seeing themselves as blameworthy, weak, or 'mentally ill'. The Framework also shows why those of us without an obvious history of trauma or adversity can still struggle to find a sense of self-worth, meaning and identity.

In this interactive workshop, CSA survivor and founder of The Flying Child Sophie Olson will share her own story and journey through the mental health system as an example, and clinical psychologist Lucy Johnstone will guide participants to reflect on how it might have been framed in terms of the PTM Framework when Sophie first came into contact with services. Together, the attendees and presenters will discuss the differences between this and standard psychiatric approaches, and the contribution that it might make towards enabling everyone to choose the best path to healing.

The presenters work with the assumption survivors will be in any space they work, and care is taken to acknowledge this at the start, with clear signposting for anyone in need of support. There are references to child sexual abuse, rape, and self injury, addiction and references to suicide.

About the Trainers

Sophie Olson is a survivor of child sexual abuse, mother of 4, activist, writer, and founder of The Flying Child CIC - a nonprofit leading conversation about child sexual abuse through survivor-led training, campaigning, and support. Their core aim is to normalise speaking about child sexual abuse - in society, in professional settings and within the survivor community itself. Their training, Side By Side CSA supports professionals with the knowledge, skills and courage to recognise, and respond to child sexual abuse, and its impacts, and Sophie uses her lived experience to illustrate the potential for harm when child sexual abuse trauma is viewed solely through the medical lens. " Sophie’s book - The Flying Child - A Cautionary Fairy Tale for Adults, reimagines the societal response to child sexual abuse, and is co-authored by her once- therapist Patricia Walsh

Dr Lucy Johnstone is a consultant clinical psychologist, author of 'Users and abusers of psychiatry' (3rd edition Routledge 2021) and ‘A straight-talking guide to psychiatric diagnosis’ (PCCS Books, 2nd edition 2022); co-editor of 'Formulation in psychology and psychotherapy: making sense of people's problems' (Routledge, 2nd edition 2013); and co-author of ‘A straight talking introduction to the Power Threat Meaning Framework’, 2020, PCCS Books) along with a number of other chapters and articles taking a critical perspective on mental health theory and practice. She is the former Programme Director of the Bristol Clinical Psychology Doctorate in the UK and has worked in Adult Mental Health settings for many years, most recently in a service in South Wales.

Lucy was lead author, along with Professor Mary Boyle, for the ‘Power Threat Meaning Framework’ (2018), a British Psychological Society publication co-produced with service users, which outlines a conceptual alternative to psychiatric diagnosis. Lucy is an experienced conference speaker and lecturer, and currently works as an independent trainer. She is a visiting professor at London South Bank University, and lives in Bristol, UK.

This workshop will be recorded for those delegates who can't attend live