Event - Workshop based on Careif’s new book ‘Social Justice, Social Discrimination, and Mental Health’

Ben Amponsah (Amponsah Consulting Ltd) and Rachel Tribe (Chair of Careif) conducted an engaging and informative workshop on day 1 of the British Psychological Society’s Division of Counselling Psychology Conference 2025 that had a full house of attendees.

Ben Amponsah speaking at workshop.

Based on the recently published Careif book - Social Justice, Social Discrimination and Mental Health - the workshop asked the question ‘Is advocacy work within mental health, an issue of social justice or an inappropriate challenge to professional neutrality?’

The workshop started with a role-play by Ben and Rachel taking opposite sides in what is often cited as a reason to not engage in advocacy work i.e. that it conflicts with the idea of professional neutrality. This made some participants consider what ’neutrality’ means and others state clearly that we are tasked with advocating for our clients by our philosophy and governing bodies. 

A version of the 'walk of privilege' was also explored, with a twist being that the group were assigned roles and then asked to step forward if the question read out applied to them. This had the attendees reflecting on what it might be like for clients from marginalised groups and by admission ’took them out of their own frame of reference’. 

Finally, there was a small group discussion of what advocacy meant for people in the settings that they operated in, which prompted a lively and engaging debate. 

Afterwards there was some very positive feedback on how thought-provoking the workshop had been and interest in learning more from the Social Justice, Social Discrimination and Mental Health book.