Mental Health Professionals Day

To inform your practice, share good practice and network with other professionals in the Mental Health Space.

Keynote Speakers:
Prof Windy Dryden: Leading REBT
CBT TherapistOliver Welsby: Brightmore Consultancy

Structure of the day:
Key note addresses in the morning
Break out / networking groups led by professionals in your area of expertise
Lunch and refreshments included

Oliver Welsby                  

Consultant, Trainer & Keynote speaker 

Delivering comprehensive, reflective, and transformational training and consultancy.  

Oliver is the Lead Consultant at Brightcore Consultancy, a specialist organisation providing expert advice and support to education settings in the fields of mental health and safeguarding. He has extensive experience as a senior leader; both as DSL and a senior mental health lead, and as a School Governor, currently serving as a Governor for Millfield in Somerset and St John's in Shropshire.   Having worked with, and supported, over 850 schools, colleges and Trusts nationwide as a consultant, Oliver is regularly invited to speak at and chair sector conferences on these topics.  

Oliver also works as a Local Authority Safeguarding and Wellbeing Champion and he and his team have been commissioned by a number of Local Authorities across England to improve their safeguarding and mental health provision.  In addition, he supports Lead DSLs/Safeguarding Directors and Lead SMHLs/Wellbeing Directors within large trusts and school groups to develop and enhance their safeguarding and mental health governance.   He is both an advanced safeguarding trainer and senior mental health lead trainer, and regularly writes and delivers highly acclaimed, bespoke training programmes to support settings in these areas.  

Student and staff wellbeing have always been at the heart of Oliver’s approach to education. He is known for his dynamic, authentic and non-judgemental approach to all aspects of his delivery. 

Windy Dryden

Professor & Keynote speaker

Windy Dryden is Emeritus Professor of Psychotherapeutic Studies at Goldsmiths University of London and is a Fellow of the British Psychological Society. He has authored or edited over 275 books. His current interests are in single-session and very brief interventions within a therapy and coaching context. Relevant publications include: Single-Session Therapy: 100 Key Points and Techniques’ (Routledge, 2019) which outlines the theoretical underpinnings and practical applications of the single-session mindset and The Single-Session Counselling Primer: Principles and Practice (PCCS Books, 2020) which is a comprehensive introduction to SST for counsellors.

His book, Very Brief Therapeutic Conversations (Routledge, 2018) is focused on work he has done conducting live demonstrations of therapy/coaching in front of an audience that last 30 minutes or less. He has done more than 780 such demonstrations all over the world.

His goal is to disseminate SST, or what he refers to as ONEplus Therapy, with the hope that it might help provide help at the point of need within the NHS. His latest book is Dryden, W. (2024). ONEplus therapy and common emotional problems (Onlinevents, 2024)