Psychotherapy in the Community
At WMIP, we believe that psychotherapy and psychoanalytic thinking should not exist only within consulting rooms, training institutions and professional conferences. The ideas at the heart of psychotherapy concern all of us: how our past shapes the present, why relationships can become difficult, how we manage loss and suffering, and the ways in which feelings we struggle to understand can influence how we live.
Our work with Black Country Radio is part of our commitment to taking psychotherapy beyond the consulting room and into the wider community.
Through Black Country Matters: Psychotherapy in the Community, we aim to make psychological and psychoanalytic ideas accessible without losing their depth. Rather than relying on technical language or professional jargon, we try to connect these ideas with ordinary experiences: family life, relationships, anxiety, grief, dreams, masculinity, conflict, endings and the parts of ourselves that can sometimes be difficult to acknowledge.
Radio offers a particularly valuable space for this. People can encounter an idea while driving, making dinner, working or sitting at home. They do not need to be in therapy, studying psychotherapy or already familiar with psychoanalytic thinking. It creates an opportunity for a different kind of conversation about emotional life.
For us, outreach also means remaining connected to the communities around us. WMIP has a long history of developing psychoanalytic psychotherapy in the West Midlands, and we want that knowledge and experience to have a life beyond our Institute.
Psychotherapy has something important to contribute to public life. It can help us think more deeply about ourselves, our relationships and the communities we belong to. Sometimes a conversation heard on the radio may simply give somebody a different way of understanding an experience they have carried for years.
That is why this series matters to us: bringing psychotherapy out of the consulting room, into conversation, and back into the community.
1. What is WMIP? – Shane Sneyd and Laura Chaisty 22/6/2025
A warm welcome to the series, beginning with the West Midlands Institute of Psychotherapy — who we are, where we came from, and why it matters that our work is rooted in local communities. We’ll explore how psychotherapy has often felt ‘posh’ or distant, and how WMIP is working to bring it closer to real people and real lives.
Recording not currently available
2. What is Psychotherapy? – Jill Eley 03/8/2025
What actually happens in therapy? In this session, we bust myths and explain the core of psychotherapy: a talking relationship that helps us understand the deeper patterns behind our behaviour and emotions. It’s not advice or fixing — it’s a space to reflect, feel, and grow.
3. What is the Unconscious? – Carrie Worrell 14/9/2025
We explore the part of us that’s always there but rarely seen — the unconscious. Why do we act in ways we don’t understand? Why do we keep repeating the same mistakes? This episode looks at the unseen forces that shape our choices, relationships, and fears — and how therapy brings them into the light.
4. Babies and Their Parents – Jinny Sumner 02/11/2025
What happens to us before we have words? This session looks at how our earliest relationships lay down emotional foundations that echo into adulthood. We explore attachment, containment, and how psychotherapy sometimes involves ‘reparenting’ the parts of us that didn’t get what they needed.
5. When We Can’t Let Go of the Past- Jill Rowbottom 14/12/2025
Why do we feel stuck — even when life moves on? Whether it’s childhood wounds, past relationships, or moments of shame or hurt, some things won’t leave us alone. This episode explores how we unconsciously hold onto the past and how therapy helps us begin to loosen its grip.
6. The Defences We Use (Without Knowing It) – Sheila Bonas 18/1/2026
Laughter, blame, scrolling, keeping busy… we all have ways of avoiding pain. This session looks at psychological defences — the strategies we develop to cope with difficult feelings — and why recognising them (gently) can be the start of true emotional freedom.
7. The Shadow in the Community- Rachel Dunkley Jones 08/3/2026
What do we push out of view, in ourselves and in society? This session explores the concept of the shadow: the parts of us we disown or deny, and how they show up in prejudice, group dynamics, and scapegoating. We ask: what happens when a community faces its shadow?
8. Why Don’t Blokes Talk? – Shane Sneyd 19/4/2026
A direct conversation about masculinity, silence, and emotional survival. We look at why so many men struggle to speak about their inner world, how it affects relationships and health, and how therapy can offer a new model of strength, one that includes vulnerability.
9. Loss and Suffering: Ghosts and Ancestors- Myra Connell 31/5/2026
Grief doesn’t always look like tears. This session explores how loss, whether recent or passed down through generations, can linger in us like ghosts. But when we begin to name and understand our trauma, those ghosts can be transformed into ancestors: figures we can relate to, learn from, and honour. We reflect on intergenerational pain, mourning, and how the past can be carried differently when it’s no longer carried alone.
10. Dreams- Laura Chaisty 12/7/2026
Why do we dream? What do our dreams mean? This session enters the night-time theatre of the unconscious, exploring symbols, repetition, and the way dreams can speak truths we’re not yet ready to say aloud. Listeners are invited to bring their own dreams into the conversation.
11. What Connects Us- Hellen Mabhikwa 23/8/2026
Underneath it all, we are wired for connection. This episode looks at how psychotherapy reveals the threads of love, longing, fear, and belonging that run through us all. We explore empathy, community, and what it means to feel truly seen by another and by ourselves.
Recording not currently available
12. Reflections on the Series: What’s Next? – Shane Sneyd and Laura Chaisty 04/10/2026
A look back and a look forward. What have we learned? What questions have emerged? And how do we keep the conversation going in everyday life, beyond the therapy room? This final session invites listeners to reflect, respond, and imagine a community that supports emotional depth and dialogue.
Recording coming soon