People

Dr Deborah Wright

Senior Lecturer
Department of Psychosocial and Psychoanalytic Studies
Dr Deborah Wright
  • Email

  • Location

    5A.206, Colchester Campus

  • Academic support hours

    Southend Room GB.3.54, 12-1 Tuesday Colchester Room 5A.204 12-1 Friday

Profile

Biography

Deborah Wright, PGCHEP FHEA, D.Psychodyn.Psych. is a psychotherapist trained at the Westminster Pastoral Foundation and is PPS Co-Director of Undergraduate Studies Programme Director for the Professional Doctorate Programmes: Doctorate in Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy Doctorate in Psychodynamic Psychotherapy Doctorate in Analytical Psychology Doctorate in Psychodynamic Counselling Lecturer and Module Supervisor on MA Psychodynamic Counselling Programme. Lecturer and Module Supervisor on BA Psychodynamic Practice, BA Childhood Studies and TCTO Therapeutic Communications and Therapeutic Organisations as well as teaching on MA Child hood studies. She previously worked as a Deputy Manager, staff trainer and training consultant in residential care for people with learning difficulties and mental health problems. She is a trained artist and her patient and client work, as well as her academic and art work, relate to humans’ relationship with their environment. Registered member of: British Psychoanalytic Council (B.P.C.) The Foundation for Psychotherapy & Counselling (F.P.C.) Registered Member, Member British Association of Counselling and Psychotherapy (M.B.A.C.P.) Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (F.H.E.A.) Member of the Association for Psychosocial Studies (A.P.S.) Member of the Association for Psychoanalysis of Culture and Society (A.P.C.S.) BPC Scholars Network - In the 'Clinician Scholar' category of the Scholars Network for existing clinical BPC (British Psychoanalytic Council) registrant. Member of Cultural Literacy Everywhere (C.L.E.) Additional Roles in PPS: Director/Convenor of the PPS Psychosocial and Psychoanalytic Studies Clinical Research Group Honorary Secretary of the PPS EDI (Equality Diversity Inclusion) Committee Organiser and Facilitator of the PA123 Student enrichment Club Previous Teaching Responsibilities at the Department of Psychosocial and Psychoanalytic Studies, University of Essex: Understanding Individuals Groups and Organisations : An Introduction to Psychodynamic Concepts (PA123) Child, Adolescent and Adult Development (PA125) Trauma and Recovery: A Psychodynamic Approach (PA223) Advanced Psychodynamic Observation and Reflective Practice (PA224) Violence and Projective Processes in Individuals and Society (PA225) Work-based Learning for Therapeutic Care (PA227)

Qualifications

  • Postgraduate Certificate in Higher Education Practice (PGCHEP) University of Essex, (2022)

  • Doctorate in Psychodynamic Psychotherapy University of Essex,

  • Fellowship of the Higher Education Teaching Academy (FHEA) University of Essex, (2020)

  • Postgraduate Diploma in Psychodynamic studies/WPF Qualification in Psychodynamic Psychotherapy University of Roehampton,

  • BA (Hons) in Visual Communication Edinburgh College of Art and Design,

  • Art Psychotherapy Foundation Certificate Goldsmiths University of London,

  • Certificate in Counselling Skills & Attitudes Westminster Pastoral Foundation (WPF),

  • Skills for Clinical & Case Supervision The Skills Development Service,

  • Certificate in Supervision Level 2 (Intermediate) Norman Mark Training,

  • Understanding Organisational Dynamics Westminster Pastoral Foundation (WPF),

  • Certificate in Delivering Training at Foundation Level (N.V.Q.) in a Care Setting Malvern Partnership,

  • Child Protection and Safeguarding London Borough of Hounslow,

  • Understanding Early Years Outcomes London Borough of Hounslow,

Appointments

University of Essex

  • Programme Director for the Professional Doctorate Programmes: Doctorate in Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy, Doctorate in Psychodynamic Psychotherapy, Doctorate in Analytical Psychology, Doctorate in Psychodynamic Counselling, Lecturer, MA Psychodynamic Counselling Programme, Department Disability Liaison Officer (DDLO), Department of Psychosocial and Psychoanalytic Studies, University of Essex (1/9/2021 - present)

  • Lecturer in Therapeutic Studies on BA Psyhcodynamic Practice (Therapeutic Care) and BA Childhood Studies Programmes, Department of Psychosocial and Psychoanalytic Studies, University of Essex (1/8/2019 - 1/10/2023)

  • Assistant Lecturer (G T A)), Department of Psychosocial and Psychoanalytic Studies, University of Essex (1/10/2016 - 31/7/2019)

  • Senior Lecturer, Department of Psychosocial and Psychoanalytic Studies, University Of Essex (1/10/2023 - present)

Research and professional activities

Research interests

Freud, Klein, Bion, Winnicott and Object Relations

Human relations with the non-human world

Psychosocial and psychoanalytic perspective on humans’ relationships with their environment

Childrens’ and residential care clients’ relationship with their (bed)rooms

Patients’ relationship with the consulting room

Spatialisation, environmental usage and political connotations

 Houses, homes, safe and un-safe dwelling places and room spaces

Open to supervise

Conferences and presentations

The Virtual Consulting Room Space as a Chamber that Echoes the Physical Room and Additional Potentially Spatialised Home-safety

‘Association for the Psychoanalysis of Culture & Society’ (APCS) 2023 Conference ‘Orphans of the Real: Emerging from the Echo Chambers Psychosocial Perspectives’, Rutgers University Continuing Education Conference Centre New Brunswick, NJ, 27/10/2023

‘PPS PA123 Club’ in the ‘Students as Active Participants’ section

Invited presentation, University of Essex Directors of Education Insights Network, Wivenhoe House Hotel, 17/10/2023

‘Digital Pedagogical Creativity: An Online Higher Education Student Enrichment Club Model to Support Students’

Cultural Literacy Everywhere: 'Digital Creativity 2023 Conference' 15th – 17th June, University of Oslo., 17/6/2023

‘Creativity and Spatialisation Workshop'

Invited presentation, TCTC (The Consortium of Therapeutic Communities) ‘Ideas in Therapeutic Communities 4 – Beyond the Medical Model The Therapeutic Community and Alternatives to Psychiatry, Birmingham and Online Conference 2022, 25/10/2022

Presentation and Book launch of new book, Wright, D. L. S. (2022) The Physical and Virtual Space of the Consulting Room: Room-object Spaces Oxon/New York: Routledge

Invited presentation, Department of Psychosocial and Psychoanalytic Studies Open Seminar Series Event, University of Essex, 11/10/2022

The Virtual Consulting Space: Room-object Spaces and the Physical and Virtual space of the Consulting room

Psychoanalytic Reflections, Open Event Online, Department of Psychosocial and Psychoanalytic Studies, University of Essex, 12/7/2022

Feminine Consulting Room-object Spaces; Unconscious aspects of the creation of the clinical consulting room, spatialised in the physical and the virtual space of the Consulting room - unsafe room spaces, moving towards safety.

Invited presentation, ‘Feminisms and Spaces: a depth psychology enquiry Conference July 8th – Amnesty International Building, Shoreditch, London and online’., 8/7/2022

‘Dwelling spaces as sites for the Virtual Consulting room space: Psychotherapy in the Dwelling room-object spaces enabling in-dwelling’.

Invited presentation, Cultural Literacy Everywhere (CLE) 2022 ‘DWELLING Symposium’ University College Dublin/ Online (Zoom)., 13/5/2022

‘Drawers, secret memories, and the spatial array of the inside and outside of drawers, the brain, the body and the mind in Room-object spatialisation’

Invited presentation, the ‘P o c k e t s, P o u c h e s & S e c r e t D r a w e r s’ Conference at IMLR (Institute of Modern Languages Research, School of Advanced Study, University of London, 4/12/2021

What does a psychodynamic psychotherapist do? How do you create a vibrant, fulfilling career as a psychotherapist?

Invited presentation, WPF Therapy Yearly Free Lecture for WPF Pre-Clinical Certificate Students, 4/11/2021

‘As it was in the beginning, so it shall be at the end; A psychosocial perspective on spatialised dying bodies in their final rooms (End Room-objects) - the de-formation of objects and de-spatialised Post Room-objects at the ending stages’.

Invited presentation, The Association of Psychosocial Studies 2021 APS Psychosocial Bodies Conference., Venue: University of Essex (Virtual), 2/7/2021

Gendering room-spatialisation in the physical and, post COVID-19, the virtual work room spaces of the psychotherapeutic consulting room and the higher education teaching room’

Invited presentation, The 2021 Gender, Work and organisation Virtual Conference (University of Kent) Stream: Gendered Spaces, Places and Temporalities of Work: Methodological Directions and Challenges (Session 4- Psycho-social spaces, culture and gender)., 1/7/2021

Spatialising playfulness in the time of COVID 19 in the psychotherapy and higher education virtual/on-line room spaces; clinical and pedagogical vicissitudes

Invited presentation, PLAYFULNESS Interdisciplinary Approaches to Cultural Literacy CLE 2021 A Virtual Symposium Thursday 13th – Friday 14th May 2021, Virtual Conference on Zoom, London, 14/5/2021

'The spatial array of the brain, the mind, rooms and places in the time of Covid-19'.

Invited presentation, Cross University Research Event: Brain and Mind https://www.essex.ac.uk/event-series/cure, University of Essex, 23/6/2020

Art to formulate and art to illustrate: methodological use of art work in theory building in empirical social science research

Invited presentation, Cultural Literacy Symposium: ‘Research in the Arts, the Arts in Research’, University of Łódź,,, Łódź, Poland, 15/5/2020

The geography, gendering, role and room-spatialisation of the physical space, and post COVID-19, the virtual space, of the higher education teaching room

Invited presentation, The Faculty of Social Sciences inter-disciplinary workshop: ‘Research on education and pedagogy’, University of Essex, Colchester, United Kingdom, 11/5/2020

Stages of the Room-spatialisation Matrix in Clinical Practice

PPS Research Conference 2019: The Unconscious and Everyday life., Colchester, United Kingdom, 30/5/2019

Spatialisation and the Fomenting of Political Violence

Panel Presentation of Chapter at Book Launch of book Fomenting Political Violence – Fantasy, Language, Media, Action, London, United Kingdom, 22/2/2019

Why a 'Psychoanalytic Society'?: The 'Enterprise' of Psychoanalysis, Wollheim and the Mind

Psychoanalysis Society Open Forum, Colchester, United Kingdom, 18/10/2018

Spatialisation and the Physical Space of the Consulting room

PPS Research Conference 2018: Interdisciplinary Interventions in Depth Psychology, Colchester, United Kingdom, 31/5/2018

Rooms as Replacements for People: The Consulting Room as a Room Object

– ‘Replacement Conference’, Birkbeck (Dept. Culture and Languages, School of Arts, The Birkbeck Institute for Social Research, Birkbeck Research in Aesthetics of Kinship and Community), London, United Kingdom, 10/12/2017

The Psyche and the Social: Marking out Meaning in the Physical Space of the Consulting Room

CPS Research Conference, Colchester, United Kingdom, 1/6/2017

The Physical Space of the Consulting Room – Safety of Violence? Political Violence Legacy and Fomenting Feelings in the Clinical Setting

Fomenting Political Violence Conference, Colchester, United Kingdom, 10/9/2016

Being in the Consulting Room: A Study of the Physical Space of the Consulting Room and Its Impact on the Therapeutic process

CPS Research Conference 2015, ‘Depth Psychology in Modern Perspective’,, Colchester, United Kingdom, 28/5/2015

Teaching and supervision

Current teaching responsibilities

  • Personal and Professional Development 3 (HS784)

  • Placement Based Observation Skills and Reflective Practice (PA142)

  • Counselling Contexts (PA215)

  • Psychodynamic Observation for Counsellors (PA216)

  • Personal Development (PA221)

  • The counselling relationship and counselling techniques (PA256)

  • Non-Psychodynamic Approaches to Practice (PA700)

  • Thesis (PA800)

  • Literature Review (PA804)

  • Research Methodologies and Research Design (PA805)

  • Research Proposal (PA806)

  • Research Processes (PA808)

  • Advanced Clinical Practice (PA809)

  • Critical Debates in Childhood and Childhood Studies (PA943)

  • Psychodynamic Theory and Practice 1 (PA961)

  • Psychodynamic Theory and Practice 2 (PA963)

  • Different Approaches (PA966)

  • Personal Development (PA967)

  • Professional Development 1 (PA968)

Current supervision

Publications

Journal articles (2)

Wright, D., (2023). The Queen is dead, long live the King: Spatialisation following the Queen’s death. New Associations (40), 9-9

Kegerreis, S., Wright, DLS., Hall, S., Horne, M., Langley, J., Norris, J., Quaile, E. and Shemesh, R., (2023). Becoming a researcher: psychotherapists’ experience of starting a professional doctorate. Journal of Child Psychotherapy. 49 (3), 474-489

Books (1)

Wright, DLS., (2022). The Physical and Virtual Space of the Consulting Room Room-object Spaces. Routledge. 1000591972. 9781000591972

Book chapters (2)

Wright, D., (2019). Spatialisation and the Fomenting of Political Violence. In: Fomenting Political Violence – Fantasy, Language, Media, Action. Editors: Kruger, S., Figlio, K. and Richards, B., . Palgrave Macmillan

Wright, D., (2018). Rooms as Replacements for People: The Consulting Room as a Room Object. In: On Replacement - Cultural, Social and Psychological Representations. Editors: Owen, J. and Segal, N., . Palgrave Macmillan

Reports and Papers (1)

Wright, D., (2020). ‘Room-object Spatialising in the Time of COVID-19: The Physical Space and the Remote, Virtual/On-line Space of the Consulting Room’ BPC (British Psychoanalytic Council) Scholars Newsletter https://www.bpc.org.uk/professionals/scholars-network/latest-scholars-newsletter/

Contact

dlswri@essex.ac.uk

Location:

5A.206, Colchester Campus

Academic support hours:

Southend Room GB.3.54, 12-1 Tuesday Colchester Room 5A.204 12-1 Friday