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BALINT STYLE SEMINARS

*after Clifford Rutter and Selby (2000) see ref below

These seminars offer an experiential group training and provide an opportunity for nurses and healthcare professionals to meet and study the issues about psychosexual awareness and care of patients or clients in their EVERYDAY PRACTICE. The training involves the study of feelings in the practitioner /patient relationship, in relation to psychosexual issues, as well as the observations and use of therapeutic touch in nursing care.

This has been shown by reflective practice to: 

The focus is on the psychosexual needs of the patient/client in health or illness. The study is always the professional work of the nurse or healthcare workers and the relationship with their patients or clients and does not involve the personal lives of the professionals. Members of the practitioner Balint groups have always been encouraged to keep individual written accounts of the seminars they attend.  These have often been informal, when the seminar is not part of a course or a module but, in a validated training diaries can be one of the assessment tools.  

The basic Balint group does not train psychosexual nurse counsellors, rather it promotes psychosexual awareness. The training seminar is composed of a group of co-equal colleagues and an experienced nurse leader.  The seminar provides space for reflection and supervision (critical appraisal) of each other's working in a safe and informed environment. In this way professional sensitivity, confidence and skill are developed.  This is one of the ways of doing clinical supervision using a specific format. Examples of current work are presented by group members for consideration by the group. This can reveal complex feelings, not always comfortable, which are empathetically discussed and understood as a possible indicator of the patient's feelings.  Such experiences provide models of work with patients, showing  how an understanding of feelings can provide insight into psychosexual aspects of nursing practice.  There are advanced seminars for those practitioners who are receiving referrals and who have previously attended the basic seminars. 

                                              Jane Selby in Section 3 of our recommended book * gives a comprehensive account of Balint style seminar group training and a short history of the method which was developed by Dr Michael Balint and his wife Enid. Dr Balint was a Hungarian-born doctor who trained in psychoanalysis. The initial training groups were developed at the Tavistock Clinic in the early 1950s. Balint's seminal text on the patient-doctor therapeutic relationship  The Doctor, his patient and the Illness  was published in 1957.  

*Caring for Sexuality in Health and Illness (2000) Edited by Dianne Wells, Authors: Doreen Clifford, Marjorie Rutter and Jane Selby. Churchill Livingstone ISBN 0443064431  (for book-cover synopsis click here)

 If you are currently involved in clinical work and you interested in attending a seminar group, please contact the Association for details. 

The Association of Psychosexual Nursing can give help and information on the administration of setting up a group and can provide an experienced leader. The focus of the group is about the 'work' we can do with patients, it is not about disclosure about personal feelings/sexuality.

Please contact us for further details:- psychosexualnursing@btinternet.com