Welcome to the Branch and Message from the Chair
Welcome to the website of the London and Home Counties (L&HC) Branch of the British Psychological Society.
With over 9,500 members, we are the largest branch of the BPS with all the potential for running a lively and interesting branch that that offers. Even though we have only been operating as a branch since the summer of 2006 we are trying to establish a serious presence in the world of psychology and be a valuable resource to London psychologists. What we are able to do is based on the efforts of the voluntary work of your enthusiastic committee and the help of volunteers.
Aim
The branch exists to promote and advance psychology as a whole and plans to enable both professional and academic psychologists to meet regularly to exchange ideas, present papers, run workshops, invite guest speakers, develop potential research collaborations and perhaps more importantly, make contact with other colleagues in the region. It may also help to facilitate Continuing Professional Development opportunities and career support for the large number of student and graduate members in the area.
Our aim, therefore, is to bring London based psychologists, trainees and students from all disciplines of psychology together to promote and advance psychology as a whole.
Who the Branch encompasses
The London and Home Counties Branch is a free service offered by the Society to all members living or working within this geographical area. Our catchment area covers Central London, Luton, Harpenden, St Albans, Enfield, Watford, Uxbridge, Harrow, Romford, Slough, Twickenham, Bromley, Ilford and Dartford.
Recent Activities
Since September 2006 we have held a series of near monthly scientific meetings that have been very well attended and usually oversubscribed. These can be found in the Events section of the website. We have held a career related event for students and plan more, and have also been able to host presentations by two world famous American psychologists - Professor Phillip Zimbardo on The Lucifer Effect: Understanding how Good People turn Evil in February 2007 and Professor Martin Seligman on Positive Psychology and Positive Interventions in November 2007. It is important and gratifying that these events have been valued by the branch members as over a thousand tickets were sold for each talk. A DVD is being produced of the Professor Seligman talk, and will be announced under Forthcoming Events as soon as it is available.
Our plans
We are currently working on organising a Psychology for All event to take place in the summer of 2008. This will bring members of the public face-to-face with psychologists, allowing for the direct dissemination of psychological knowledge with opportunities for promoting the benefits of psychology to individuals and society, displaying the scientific and professional interests of psychology as well as promoting the opportunities for learning and gaining qualifications in psychology. We will be publishing more information about this on the website.
We plan to continue the monthly scientific meetings and career planning events for students and look at other activities which members of the branch would value such as Networking and facilitating research collaborations.
The new L&HC website is a step towards spreading our activities and establishing more direct communication with our members. We would like to hear from you about the services you feel your branch might be able to offer and which you would like. So please get in touch by emailing us and letting us know your views and wishes. If you can help on some of the events too, we would like to hear from you.
Karen Powell-Williams
Chair
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