Conference: Talking our way to mental health

Date:  Monday, 16 May, 6.45pm (nibbles from 6.30pm)

Venue: Blackwell University Bookshop, The Precinct, Oxford Road, Manchester, M13 9RN. A charge of £5 (£3 concession) to cover incurred can be paid in advance by using the PayPal Donate button on the Manchester Salon website, but can also be paid for on the night if booked in advance by emailing .

Details: With the idea of talking therapies taking shape as government policy, The Manchester Salon is leading a discussion on the benefits of positive thinking therapies such as CBT.

More than £400m of public money has been earmarked for talking therapies as a way to combat mental illness in an increasingly unequal society.

One of the speakers at the debate, Professor Dennis Hayes, will question the growing army of counsellors and therapists cashing in on unhappiness.

Dennis Hayes is Professor of Education at the University of Derby and a visiting Professor at Oxford Brookes University and was awarded a National Teaching Fellowship in 2010.

Dr Kenneth McLaughlin is a lecturer in social work at Manchester Metropolitan University, with mental health one of his specialist subjects. He will talk about how the ?authoritarian? consequences of politicising mental health therapies.

This discussion will be of particular interest to mental health professionals, teachers, anyone who has suffered from depression or undertaken therapy. It will question the trend for therapeutic intervention which politicians seem so intent to confer.