Some Reflections on one persons experience of the Systemic Café

Carmel O’Hara of the Clanwilliam Institute has done a nice review of the Systemic Café evenings that we have been held at the School House, two so far  – here are her thoughts.

Having attended the two systemic café evenings I found them to be lively, engaging challenging, and interesting. The free glass of wine (or softer drink) contributed nicely to warming my body as it thawed out after a day’s work.

The two topics that were addressed by the speakers were: how does systemic therapy speak to the body, and conversations on pornography, generated much lively discussion not least amongst the speakers themselves who presented very diverse ideas in a lovely informal way and this in turn sparked many other reflections from others at the café.

The café organizers have also attempted to make it truly systemic with a range of speakers from across different psychotherapy and psychology/psychiatry/political disciplines. Not bad for starters! Oh yes I nearly forgot you get two CPD points for each café attended but you don’t get any further points if you stay chatting afterwards that’s just the after café craic!

I have a sense that as further systemic café’s happen that more people attending this informal setting will put voice on their thoughts and ideas so that a rich sharing of ideas will continue to take place. .It may well be that more café’s around the country will start up and who knows where it will all lead to…………!

Some Practical Reflections about location and seating.

The first night we were all seated in a nice cosy side area at the Schoolhouse, there was however such a great attendance, that for those who came in a little later they had to either stand or take very peripheral seats. There was as lot of background noise from the nearby bar and so it was hard to hear the speakers.

This was duly noted by those fantastic people who have taken the trouble to organize the café and so on the second night a room was secured upstairs with the hope that it would hold more people with better sound quality. However the seats were arranged in lecture row by row format with no tables to put one’s drink onto and so it gave the semblance of being more formal than the intended very appropriate title of Systemic Café.

However this will not put me off in the slightest attending again as I know every effort is being made to secure a venue with a decent size room (with a bar and coffee facility) with tables and a much more relaxed setting than on March 22nd.  See you there!