Your monthly Members Matters update is packed with news of what's going on at the BABCP, interviews with our key members, and practical guidance from the CBT community from your hosts; Rachel Handley, Steph Curnow and Helen Macdonald. In This Episode: BABCP News & Updates Helen Macdonald gives you fresh perspectives on ethical and inclusive CBT practice as she shares updates on anti-racist and anti-oppressive practice webinars and gives a sneak peek into the upcoming EABCT conference. Introducing… Past President Saiqa Naz Helen welcomes Saiqa to the podcast as they reflect on her presidency, key achievements, and the work she did to support underrepresented groups in the CBT field. Spotlight on, Mental Health Wellbeing Practitioner Registration Erin Graham, the Accreditation and Registration Liaison Manager joins Steph Curnow to shed light on the importance of registration for Mental Health Wellbeing Practitioners (MHWP) for public protection and professional recognition. Ask Me Anything Senior Clinical Advisor Helen Macdonald answers a listener question: When might CBT not be the right fit for a client? Podcast Picks, hear what other podcasts are coming up this month from the BABCP Let’s Talk About CBT – featuring Tafi and Sherrie Research Matters – with insights from Kerry Young Practice Matters- Augmented Depression Therapy with Barney Dunn Links and resources: Join a Special Interest Group (SIG): https://babcp.com/Membership/Special-Interest-Groups Find a CBT supervisor on the CBT Register: https://www.cbtregisteruk.com More information on our Journals Special Issues can be found here Check out our other podcasts Let’s Talk About CBT, Practice Matters, and Research Matters in our podcasts hub: https://babcp.com/Podcasts Contact us: podcasts@babcp.com New episodes every month – subscribe now so you don’t miss out. Credits: This podcast was produced by Purposeful Podcasts Music is Autmn Coffee by Bosnow from Uppbeat Music from #Uppbeat (free for Creators!): https://uppbeat.io/t/bosnow/autumn-coffee License code: 3F32NRBYH67P5MIF Transcript: Rachel: Hello and welcome to Members Matters, the podcast made exclusively for BABCP members. I'm Rachel Handley, and I'm here with my co-host, Steph Curnow and Helen Macdonald. In each episode of this podcast, we'll bring you the latest news and information from members. You'll get to meet some of the key figures in the organization in our introducing section, and you'll get the chance to get involved too and ask me anything. Our senior clinical advisor, Helen Macdonald is going to take any question you'd like to ask. You'll also hear a bit more about the new Mental Health Wellbeing Practitioner registration in our spotlight on session. But first up, hello to my co-host, Steph and Helen. How are you both? Steph: Hi, I'm good. Thanks. So it's been really busy here at BABCP. How about you, Helen? Helen: Yeah, I'd agree with you. It's been busy. I guess some of the things that I've been up to in my role here is I've been part of a working party where we're reviewing our Standards of Conduct, Performance and Ethics at the moment, which is a big piece of work and so far we've been working with the Standards And Ethics Committee and we'll be bringing proposed updates and asking for feedback from all our members in the next few months while we try to make sure that what we are doing is really up to date and consistent with our values and ethical principles. So that's one of the pieces of work in other things that I've been up to thinking about our series of anti-racist, anti-oppressive practice webinars that have just started with the wonderful Leila Lawton and Rani Griffiths on Friday, and we've got a whole series coming up for you. And then other things, we responded to the Supreme Court ruling on gender and put out a statement, particularly supporting people who are trans, non-binary or intersex in terms of the impact that the ruling might have on people. Then finally, the other thing is that we are coming up soon to the EABCT conference, the European Association for Behavioural and Cognitive Therapies Conference that we are hosting in Glasgow in September, and all of our members are by being a member of BABCP they're also members of EABCT, and there's a really exciting program developing with experts from all over, speaking on such a variety of things. There'll be something for everybody. Rachel: So there's two for the price of one there. EABCT, and BABCP membership. And please come to the conference. It's going to be fantastic up in Glasgow. There's a lot going on, Helen, in the, in this space of diversity, but also kind of all these kind of ongoing developments around ethical practice, et cetera. So that. Sounds like again, you haven't been sitting with your feet up. How about you, Steph? How, how are things going in the, the world of the journals? Steph: Yeah, journals are good. They've been very busy at the moment. We've had a bumper month for submissions lately. Not just to our special issues, but also just general papers coming in as well. So thank you to everyone who's been submitting to us. I think people are desperate to get things off their desk before they finish for the summer. So it's keeping us very busy. We've also been really busy working on the new BABCP website that is coming out. Hopefully it should be out before this podcast is. Um, and yeah, so it's really exciting, but there's a lot of work going on behind the scenes to get that all up and ready and running. Rachel: So we're all ready to surf our away to that website and see all the, the brand new shop window for BABCP. Looking forward to that very much. Okay. So should we get into the podcast? First up is our introducing section where we'll be bringing you an in-depth conversation with some of the key people here at the BABCP. In this episode, Helen's going to be chatting to Saiqa Naz, our past president. Helen, it must have been really interesting to talk with Saiqa cause she was a president who forged a new path in many directions, both personally and professionally in the role. Helen: Yes, absolutely. I mean, it's a real pleasure always to talk to Saiqa and she does indeed, pioneers new pathways. She comes from a background, which unfortunately is, is perhaps unusual in our profession in the sense of coming from a working class background as a British Muslim from the northwest of England, coming from her personal involvement in community supporting and advocating for her community and that leading her into a career in mental health where she's eventually become our president of BABCP at the same time as being a clinical psychology student, which really speaks to her motivation and determination. And along that way, she's, for example, been the first chair of our Equalities and Culture Sig, our first recipient of the Engagement and Involvement Award. So she's a real example of someone who has overcome a number of different intersecting barriers to success and has succeeded anyway. Rachel: So let's hear from Saiqa and I'm particularly fascinated to hear what she does in her spare time given all of that Helen: Saiqa, would you like to introduce yourself? Saiqa: Hi Helen. I'm Saiqa Naz, past president of BABCP. So I completed that role in November 2024, so I'm not that long ago. I'm still on the board until September. I'm a CBT therapist. I'm also clinical psychologist. Helen: We're absolutely delighted to have you with us today, and I just wondered whether you would tell us a little bit about your reflections now that you've completed two years as president and it's a little bit further down the line since you became past president. Saiqa: In hindsight, I think it was a bit of a brave move. There's no, no regrets. And if I was presented with the same option again, I'd be like, yeah, I'm going to do this. So yeah, I think that's what I'd say. Sometimes we, we do things where we take the plunge, let's call it, but nothing can prepare you for the role. Helen: Okay. So when you say take the plunge, it really felt like you were in the deep end some of the time. Saiqa: Yeah. And there was things happening that we couldn't have foreseen to be fair. And it was those moments like, oh, okay. Didn't see that one coming. But then that's, that's the thing about leadership. You have curve balls thrown at you from different angles sometimes, sometimes at once, and you have to try and battle with them or manage them. So it was an eventful presidency for sure. Helen: Okay, so I wonder if I can ask you a bit about things that stand out to you about perhaps things that you are really proud of, either proud of our members, proud of the association, and proud of your work while you were president of BABCP. Saiqa: I think in terms of representation, we've not had many female past presidents, so I think on that front, I was probably the youngest, you know, I probably wasn't one of the few that wasn't a professor towards the end of their careers. So actually I, in terms of the intersectionality and what I was bringing, I think I was bringing a lot into the role, I think. But in terms of, you know, and I was thinking about this today and I was thinking, you know, BABCP, it is gone through a huge transformation and there's things happening around NHS England at the minute, you know, the media and lots of organizations are going through a transformation, and I think the BABCP have done it really well. If I may say, some staff and, you know, credit to the staff. We made some quick decision, bold decisions. We try to drive the association forward and staff are on board with that change. And I really would like to thank the staff and the membership. COVID got in the way and it created disconnect, I think not just within our association, I think in society. In general, the members like coming back into the room and getting more involved with the association. We had som
