Courses Spring 2024
13th May - Working with relationships - Using Couple's skills for individual clients Or, how to work on relationships when only one client is in the room! We'll look at how to meet your partner's needs or get your own needs met, understanding communication difficulties, the impact of early relationships & trauma... and find ways to make changes.
20th May - Working with Nesting Dolls or other objects In this popular workshop we'll demonstrate through practical demo & instruction how to use objects in our therapy work, consider the benefits and any counterpoints to using them.
3rd June - Working with trauma - What about us? How often do we think about the impact of therapy work on us? Particularly if we work with trauma frequently, it's so important to face the topics of compassion fatigue, burnout and vicarious trauma. They don't disappear if we just ignore them! Protecting ourselves, and others, maybe our supervisees, is a really important facet of being an effective practitioner.
For more information see full list of workshops and dates below. If you have a query or anything isn't clear please contact us via the email link.
How to book a place
Complete the online booking form on the bookings page. You'll receive an automatic email confirmation, which includes instructions on how to pay. Your place is not confirmed until we receive payment. Once payment is received you'll receive an email confirming your place.
We send joining instructions approximately a week before each course.
Cost of courses
All courses on zoom cost £85 from March 2023. Workshops in the room are £95. We are currently offering a discount of £25 if you book 3 of our Trauma series or £40 off if you book on all 4.
Workshop location - we remain online
We've decided due to the success of our delivery of workshops on zoom we will remain on that format for the time-being. Please be assured that they are just as interactive and practical as when we deliver in the room. We've really great feedback and 99.9% saying they'd do a zoom workshop with us again.
Although we can understand that some people would like in the room training, and in fact we like delivering it, there are great advantages to working online which mean that for now the majority of our training is delivered this way.
We do everything we can to make our training as similar to being in the room as we can.... and we're pretty successful at doing that! We always get positive feedback and often it's something like "this was the best zoom training I've ever done!"
If you'd like to attend our training but would prefer "in the room" then do email us to let us know as that's what will encourage us to consider doing so!
USING COUPLE'S COUNSELLING SKILLS FOR INDIVIDUAL CLIENTS
13th May 2024
9.30 – 3.30
Where: on zoom
Cost: £85
When we work with individuals the focus will often be their personal relationships, and the interpersonal dynamic with their partner that we’ve never met. If you’ve not had any couples training, then sometimes it can feel like you’re not sure where to focus? How best to encourage better communication? You can feel a bit out of your depth, or in the dark, uncertain of how to aid the client in making significant & lasting change.
In this brand new workshop we’re going to look at some of the ways you can help clients – even when you’re only working with one half of the couple.
We will look at:
This workshop will give you confidence when working with individuals around relationships and introduce you to some of the concepts & theories utilised in couples therapy that you can put to excellent use when just working with a single client.
As with all our courses there will be both experiential elements and direct links to practical ways of working with clients. We will provide practical examples and there will be lots of opportunity for you to explore, ask questions and discuss issues with other therapists.
Working Creatively with Nesting Dolls, Shells & other objects
20th May 2024
9.30 am TO 3.30 pm
On ZOOM
COST: £85
Would you like to work creatively with clients using nesting dolls or other objects?
Do you worry about how to introduce these methods?
Have you used them yourself and found it enlightening but lack confidence to do it with your clients?
If so this workshop will help to give you the confidence you need to expand your therapeutic repertoire in a way that will help clients to explore the different aspects of self, or relationship dynamics
On this practical AND experiential workshop we will cover:
This course is suitable for anyone who would like to bring more creativity into their therapy or supervision practice. It’s suitable for qualified counsellors, psychotherapists, supervisors, coaches as well as therapists in training.
Working with Trauma: What about Us?
Vicarious trauma, Compassion Fatigue or Burnout
3rd June
9.30 am - 3.30 pm on zoom
Cost: £85
Course 4 in our new series on working with Trauma. Discounts available if you book 3 or 4 of the series.
What if we’re not just tired?
What if it’s our souls that are exhausted?
The kind of tired that sleep won’t remedy.
You see, when the world is in crisis (and it is),
your soul becomes weary with the weight of collective grief….
Donna Ashworth
From History Will Remember
This is one of a number of poems by Donna Ashworth on themes around the pandemic, from her book “History Will Remember”. These words really capture some of the exhaustion that many therapists, frontline workers, and those who support others are feeling. We hear it every day in the therapy room and with our supervisees. Many are exhausted.
Plus, it’s not just that our jobs are demanding and tiring because we’re supporting others who are finding life and the world difficult, but we’re expected to do this whilst we also deal with the same issues ourselves. Add into that the ever-growing number of people needing support, working from home and working remotely for 18 months or more and you’ve a recipe for exhaustion!
If you work with trauma, and who doesn’t as a therapist, then you’ll recognise “burnout”, “vicarious trauma”, “compassion fatigue” as key concepts…. You might even be wondering if that’s the path you’re on?
How can we protect ourselves, or the people that we employ or who volunteer, from what are very real challenges when working with trauma, and traumatised individuals? We’re constantly told to practice self-care…but do we walk the walk? And what if we are and it’s still not enough?
In this new course we’ll take a practical look at the difficulties and what we can do to help keep ourselves healthy and functioning, so that we enjoy our work more! It will cover:
Exploring the Father Wound
Date: 17th June 2024
Time: 9.30 - 3.30
Where: zoom
Cost: £85
Our Mother Wound course has been so popular we thought we would take a look at Fathers too!
Fathers are so often absent in our lives – through divorce/separation, work, or most often simply emotionally absent. We explore the personal impact and ways of working with clients to address their wounds.
This workshop combines some didactic theoretical learning with experiential exercises to help you explore your own relationship with your father, and ways of exploring this with clients.
In particular we will explore:
Pre Trial Therapy Guidance - New Guidance published in 2022
We waited a long time for this revision of the Pre Trial Therapy guidance and it was finally published in 2022. It's safe to say in many areas of the country the Police & CPS are still getting to grips with it... and many therapists are unaware of its existence!
In this new and completely rewritten workshop we will consider what the impact is for therapy and therapists. As well as covering all the important and fundamental principles we will allow plenty of time for you to ask questions and we'll use case studies to bring it to life.
Pre Trial Therapy Guidance - in depth
22nd July 2024
Time: 9.30 to 3.45 pm
Cost: £85
Where: On zoom
After attending delegates will be able to:
The Self-compassion Struggle
8th July 2024
9.30 - 3.30
On zoom
Self Compassion can have a massive impact on our clients, helping them to understand their inner critic, find ways to counter it and gain better ways of coping with emotional dysregulation. But, how do you or your clients respond to the notion of self-compassion?
Do you embrace it – or struggle with it? Our experience has been that many clients, especially trauma survivors, really struggle with self-compassion as a concept – albeit they usually have lots for other people!
In this new workshop we will explore the concept of compassion and provide a practical guide for introducing compassion into your practice. We will:
Compassion is a bit of a buzzword at the moment – and for good reason – because there is a wealth of evidence to suggest that it is really effective in bringing about positive change. So if it's that simple and so effective why aren't we all using this more?
We will consider:
We will:
Exploring the Mother Wound
Feedback from JJ from 1.11.21 - "Thank you for such a fantastic training. One of the best I think for me not only with you but in my whole entire life of counselling. Thank you."
Date: 2nd September 2024
Time: 9.30 - 3.30
Where: Zoom £85
Mothers seem to occupy a special place in the therapy room. There is seldom a client whose story is not impacted in some way by their relationship with their mother. For so many clients the ‘good enough mother’ was not a concept they experienced - often leading to a profound ‘mother wound’. In this workshop we look at the impact of mothers who are:
We will explore ways of working with clients that can both help to identify the mother wound and take steps towards its healing.
Working with suicidality
*** NEW COURSE ***
Date: 16th September
9.30 - 3.30
£85
One person dies by suicide every 40 seconds somewhere in the world. By the nature of our work every therapist can expect to experience at least one suicidal client. Clients who have suicidal thoughts and managing the risk of that are two things that therapists can find most challenging in their work. The fear of judgement should a client die by suicide can invade the therapeutic space, interfering with the relationship. Wherever you are working it can feel scary and lonely to carry the weight of suicidal clients. Therapists may feel compelled to break confidentiality rather than risk censure. So how do we manage the balance? In this new workshop we will look at this subject from both an experiential and practical perspective. In particular we will look at the cutting edge IMV model of suicide and how that assists us in having a much clearer idea of who may be most at risk.
In this workshop we will we will:
Adult Attachment & Relationship: What does it mean for therapy?
7th October 2024
Time: 9.30 - 3.30
Where: zoom
Cost: £85
Moving on from Bowlby, we look at the latest in adult attachment theory and how it impacts on client, therapist and the therapy as a whole. We will look at the links between trauma and attachment and the latest neuroscience developments. As with all our workshops we'll take a practical look at how we can utilise current knowledge in our work with clients and what it adds to our understanding of how we work with our clients. Inevitably with this course we'll look at our own attachment styles and ways of being in relationship with others.
Creating Transformative Relationships in Supervision - a course for Supervisors
Next date - TBC
ON ZOOM
9.30 am to 3.30 pm
£85
We ran our first workshop for supervisors in July 2021 and we loved it and so did the delegates.... so we want to keep on doing at least one per year.
It will provide a space for supervisors to think and reflect on their relationships with supervisees and the process of supervision. This will be an experiential course but based on well understood & researched theories of supervision. We'll utilise theories of integrative & person-centred supervision as well as other models such as Appreciative Inquiry and the 7 Eyed Model of Supervision devised by Robin Shohet & Peter Hawkins.
We don't see many courses for supervisors so we wanted to offer something which we'd want to attend! Something that gives you time and space with other supervisors to think & reflect on the work.
We will offer:
This time we'll consider:
Trauma: Working with complex PTSD & Dissociation
2025 - TBC
9.30 am - 3.30 pm on zoom
Cost £85
Course 3 in our new series on working with Trauma. Discounts available if you book 3 or 4 of the series.
The impact of childhood abuse or neglect and of living in dysfunctional environments has long lasting effects on our clients. We need to understand the impact of long-term abuse, the role of shame and how dissociation presents in the therapy room to work effectively and safely with this client group. In this new workshop we’ll consider
This course was full of so many little gems - I can't possibly pick out one thing - thank you!
Achieving Safety & Stabilisation in Phase 1 Trauma Therapy
Date: TBC - Will run again in 2025
Time: 9.30 am - 3.30 pm on Zoom
Cost: £85
Course 2 in our new Trauma series
Feedback from SB 22.11.21 "I found it really interesting, inspirational and informative. Hope to be able to join you on another course soon".
Safe trauma therapy needs to be paced and the trauma left unexplored until the client has sufficient skills to feel more in control of trauma symptoms. This enables clients to manage primary symptoms such as hyper-arousal, flashbacks and dissociation and learn vital skills to reduce negative coping strategies such as self-harm and self-medication. However, this is often easier said than done as clients can find this incredibly hard.
Research (Herman 1992, Rothschild 2010) has shown that safe and effective trauma therapy is best conducted in 3 stages and that this can be successfully adapted whatever the therapist’s primary modality. This course looks at the first stage of phased trauma treatment where the primary aims are to establish safety and stabilisation.
There is no one method that works for all clients so in our practical workshop the learning (including experiential activities) will include:
This is course 2 in our new series of 4 workshops looking at the essentials of Trauma work. It is a revised version of a course we delivered previously.
Safe & Effective Trauma Therapy Essentials
DATE: TBC
9.30 am to 3.30 pm
£85
This is course 1 in a series of 4 looking at Trauma. Each of the courses can be taken as a standalone but form part of this series on the essentials of trauma work. This first workshop is particularly helpful for therapists new to trauma work, whether in training, or because you haven't worked in this area.
Sadly, if you work as a therapist you will inevitably work with traumatised people. Whether that be individuals who experienced childhood abuse and/or neglect, others who’ve experienced domestic or sexual violence in adulthood or maybe members of the armed forces, or others like police or ambulance workers who suffer trauma in the course of their working lives.
It may have been taught on your initial therapy training, but often not in great depth or with an understanding of the frequency within which it appears in the therapy room. If you trained 10 or more years ago then it may not even have been covered at all as this is a fast developing area of research and understanding within the fields of mental health and neuroscience.
To work safely and effectively with trauma you will need to know about, and understand, how to work with:
In this new course we’ll guide you through
This course is aimed at students/newly qualified therapists or any therapist who didn’t adequately cover trauma in their training. It will look at the impact and mechanisms of trauma, and will include up to date theory and neuroscience. As with all our courses it will also take a practical approach of how to work in this field.
Pricing & Cancellation policy
Just a word on pricing....
From 1st March 2023 we will charge £85 for Zoom courses, and £95 for any "in the room".
Fees are non-refundable. However, if you cancel 4 weeks or more prior to a course you can transfer your booking to another of our courses. Whilst we fully appreciate that life often happens last minute, we need time to be able to try and sell your space to another delegate, so we cannot simply transfer you to another course. If you cancel late we do offer you the option to re-book another course within the next 12 months at half price.
Running training courses is administratively hard work. We know that for most training organisations if you cancel you simply lose your fee completely, and many also charge a fee for amending bookings. We take the view that our policy is the fairest way of doing things, and whilst we realise not everyone will agree with us we have to have a plan & policy in place, which we hope people will understand and accept.
Booking Information
To book onto any of our courses please complete the online booking form on the bookings page.
You'll be sent confirmation of your booking once you've made payment.
If you have any specific needs around accessibility, suitability of courses or questions regarding this please do email us.
We look forward to seeing you on one of our courses!
