Pakistan’s first national psychotherapy conference at the Aga Khan University (April 12-14, 2025) in Karachi was a huge success: 350 delegates across 3 days, mostly young people with a voracious interest in psychoanalytic psychology, psychotherapy and mental health.

Attendees came from a range of backgrounds, some clinical, but many from education, philosophy, politics and literature. As well as presentations, we held clinical demonstration and supervision workshops giving delegates the opportunity to bring theory alive with practice reflection.    

Transgenerational trauma was a key theme throughout the conference, particularly with processing the impact of partition, East Pakistan (now Bangladesh) secession and the on-going troubles in Kashmir. The delegates were bright, informed, and impressively fluent in English even when it came to quite detailed clinical ideas. There were powerful presentations and debates from key speakers and students about feminism, religion and empowerment. Professor Gary Winship:

"In my address I shared my qualms about being an old white male editor of the British Journal of Psychotherapy (BJP), and the question of Britishness, colonial guilt and shame. I told delegates that we had been wondering about changing the title of the journal to reflect something that was more international. The discussion that ensued among delegates was that Britain had provided a safe haven and shelter for many psychoanalytic refugees, a long list, including Masud Khan from Pakistan (from Lahore born before partition but subsequently claimed as a son of Pakistan), Sigmund Freud, Melanie Klein, Hannah Segal, Michael Balint and many others from across the globe. The general conclusion was that the British Journal of Psychotherapy represented something that was inclusive and welcoming. Psychoanalytic ideas and practices have been bubbling away below the surface in Pakistan, but it is official now that a Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy Association of Pakistan has been born. It was an honour to be among the midwifery team."

Conference organisers have already submitted a proposal to the BJP for a special edition, capturing the landmark papers of Pakistan’s first national psychotherapy conference. If you'd like to find out more about psychotherapy developments in Pakistan, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.