Alessia Newman
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Email
an23954@essex.ac.uk -
Location
Colchester Campus
Profile
- Object Relations Theory
- Physical Disability
- Oncology and End of Life Care
- Suicidal Ideation
Biography
Alessia is an MBACP Psychodynamic Counsellor and Psychotherapist, who trained with the Birkbeck, University of London. She is currently pursuing a doctoral degree at the University of Essex in the Department of Psychoanalytic and Psychosocial Studies. Alessia has experience of working in NHS Primary and Secondary care services. She currently works in an acute hospital, providing Psychodynamic Counselling and Psychotherapy to oncology patients who may also be receiving end of life care. In this role, she is also responsible for delivering crisis interventions and assessment training to staff within the oncology department and wider Trust, as well as delivers "Psychological Skills Level 2 Training" in line with NICE Guidelines. Beyond her clinical work, Alessia is an Associate Lecturer for the University of Hertfordshire DClinPsych program, where she provides reflective spaces for disabled trainees, and also delivers seminars on psychodynamic perspectives in relation to physical disability. Before working as a counsellor and psychotherapist, Alessia began her work in the Health and Social Care sector by providing interventions and assessments for people who were suicidal or in a mental health crisis, either over the telephone, in person or via the NHS Mental Health Helpline. This led her to work as a Senior Operational Manager within the third sector, where she was responsible for developing and delivering countywide, crisis alternative services in line with the national suicide prevention strategy and crisis care concordat, in partnership with the NHS, Police Crime and Commissioners, Local Authority and Ambulance Service.
Research and professional activities
Thesis
Disability that can be seen in the therapist: an analysis of the dynamics in the transference and how it manifests in the consulting room.
Psychoanalytic consideration has evolved over time to explain the nuances of death anxiety and it's connections to the castration complex in relation to disability and physical difference of the body. However, minimal work has been done to explore the phenomenological connection between the physically disabled therapist and the internal world of the client. Traditional psychoanalytic theory and object relations theory can be applied to interpret the transferential experience between client and a
Supervisor: Dr Deborah Wright , Dr Zibiah Loakthar