The PWP Educators BABCP Adventures: Preparation and Purpose

What is the BABCP Conference?

The BABCP is the British Association for Behavioural and Cognitive Psychotherapies and each year they host an annual conference for students and professionals to attend to develop their knowledge and competence in CBT considering a range of different themes.

Why is it important to us that the PWP team from UoR attend?

The PWP Educator Team at the University of Reading attended the BABCP conference in July 2022 and presented a poster on Embedding Diversity and Inclusion into the PWP Curriculum. This is something that the team are passionate about spearheading as it remains a key focus for training providers, as seen in the recent PWP curriculum review in 2022. Although our final module within the course focuses on adapting clinical practice for patients’ diversity considerations, leaving these important discussions to the latter part of the training presented some challenges. Our first poster detailed how we as a team considered this and were making steps to embed this earlier on throughout the course. This year, we felt it was important to maintain our presence at the conference, and showcase the continued development we have made towards this overall aim, and our goal of Decolonisation and Diversification of the PWP course.

Our aims for attending the BABCP conference this year, and presenting our poster, were to showcase the progress we have made, while also sharing best practice and our future plans on how to continue this work moving forwards.

Why are we focusing our poster on EDI/decolonising and diversifying the curriculum?

The University of Reading have a proud history of diversity and inclusion, so the PWP course team felt it was important to prioritise and embed EDI through all aspects of our course whilst understanding the wider importance of this. As a team we recognise how our own intersectionality and unconscious biases, and that of our trainees, may influence therapeutic alliance within the therapy space. Therefore, we have increased teaching content focused on this and dedicated space to discuss these themes in more detail in smaller supervision sessions.

More specifically, diversifying and decolonising the curriculum continues to remain a key area of focus within the most recent PWP Curriculum Review (2022). As a result of this, we have made many changes to our teaching and assessment materials including decolonising our curriculum to include more diverse scholars and by increasing students' confidence and ability to sensitively address and be competent in adapting sessions based on individual need.

What inspired you to get involved with the poster?

Levi: As I was new to the team around the time initial discussions were taking place regarding the poster, I felt it was important to get involved to deepen my knowledge around what the PWP course team have already considered and implemented around decolonising and diversifying the curriculum. However, the main motivation for me was to ascertain where I could make a difference regarding next steps within the poster to ensure I could continue making a meaningful difference both through teaching and through engaging with the wider university.

Molly: I joined the team as an Associate Lecturer in August 2022. Since joining I have been struck by the dedication we have as a team to ensure Equality, Diversity and Inclusion for our staff and students, and by extension, the clients our trainees treat. I have felt inspired by my colleagues, learning from them, hearing their lived experience, and seeing the steps they had already taken to begin embedding EDI into the PWP Curriculum. It has been great to see how much this has benefitted our trainees and their competence in considering diversity across the training year. It therefore felt like a no brainer for me to want to get involved in creating our poster. It felt like a key opportunity to share our progress and best practice, and consider on a wider scale how we can develop this work even further in the future.

With all this in mind, how did the team go about preparing the poster?

Our first step in preparation was to review our previous poster and consider our focus from last year. We were able to reflect on the next steps outlined previously, and realised that we had gone above and beyond our previous aims. We felt that our work on this, although definitely progressed, could continue to be developed. It felt a natural course to create a follow up on our previous aims and consider how we can embed this even further. Thus we came up with ‘Beyond Module 3: Decolonisation and Diversification of the PWP course; a springboard to constructive alignment’.

We included some of the key frameworks that we teach on the training course to help guide our poster. This included the COM-B model (Michie et al., 2011), to consider the barriers presented to us, and how we plan to overcome these, and the use of SMART goals (Bennett-Levy et al., 2010), to consider where we go from here, with clear and measurable next steps.

One great advantage this year was the expansion of our PWP Educator team, which meant being able to split the workload and bring everything together at the end. This was an invaluable experience, with this being the first conference some of the team had attended, it was great to all be able to contribute to the final product.

With embedding EDI in mind when putting together the final poster, it felt crucial to ensure the poster was as accessible as possible. We therefore made use of CWI’s resource materials to ensure our poster was accessible for anyone with learning needs. This involved using accessible colour schemes, layouts, font choice and sizes. If you are interested in seeing our final poster, it can be found through the BABCP online platform.

What was your main learning points from preparing for the poster presentation?

Molly: My key learning point from preparing the poster presentation was not to underestimate myself and what I can bring to the team. Being new to the role when the process began, and new to academia in general, I think it is normal for clinicians to feel a sense of imposter syndrome. This can definitely be true for myself. However, I have worked hard to develop my teaching and keep EDI at the centre of what I do within my role. The learning I have taken from this, and my colleagues, has been invaluable, and I was able to support in creating a poster that showcased what we have been working towards and will continue to work towards in the future. I will continue to keep diversity and inclusion at the forefront, especially as I move into my Lecturer and Module Convening role from here.

Levi: I think my main learning point from preparing the poster presentation was how much of an impact as a team we are making on embedding diversity in trainees clinical work right at the start of their clinical journey. It was particularly helpful to read such positive feedback from the students and staff but also seeing where this feedback and our work can take us in terms of next steps. Decolonising and diversifying the curriculum is an ongoing process and preparing the poster helped me gain an insight into what future action plans need to be considered to ensure this remains a priority especially as I embark on a new role as a Lecturer with more responsibility for co-leading our Module dedicated to diversity and inclusion.

Conclusion

Stay tuned for our next blog post on attending the BABCP conference, presenting our poster and being involved in an exciting panel around embedding EDI within the PWP Curriculum.