(For supervisors only)
with Juliet Layton and Rachel Jennings
Creative working is "using any technique which is more than talking". It uses all our senses in a focussed way so that we can "gain access to preverbal and subverbal intelligence to tell ourselves things which ... have not been accessible to our reasoning self" (Inskipp and Proctor 2009).
This workshop aims to look at what creativity means and how creative practices can offer a different perspective and approach to the supervision space and relationship as making use of creative techniques can open up a wealth of information we have been unaware of; in short a way of tapping into one's internal reality or unconscious.
with Nick Luxmore
Boys get a bad press. They can be wonderful, dreadful, straightforward, complicated. They say they don't care when, clearly, they do.
This workshop will be about understanding and supporting boys we work with, the boys who delight and disappoint us, who surprise and frustrate us.
Amongst other themes, we'll explore boys and sex, schoolwork, intimacy, mother-figures, anger, dependency, father-figures, girls, groups, separation and sexuality.
with Nick Luxmore
How do girls make sense of a world in which they must be all things to all people: glamorous and hard-working, assertive and caring, collaborative and single-minded?
How do we help girls when they can't talk about these things and get stuck, enacting their feelings at their own and other's expense?
This workshop will be a chance to share our learning and expertise. There will be some theory but the emphasis will be practical and experiential. We will share ideas, experiences and learn together. We will think about and practise ways of helping girls who are disappointed, hurt, angry, bitter, despairing, cut off from the world sometimes and, at other times, waging war against it.
with Dr Meg-John Barker
Sex is something that many therapists feel uncomfortable discussing in the therapy room. This is despite it being a key area of most clients' lives which is often intrinsically linked to mental health problems and which may - if worked with - open up a path to deeper understanding and creative ways of engaging with our struggles.
In this one day workshop we will consider how our own attitudes around sex and sexuality - and talking about sex - may impact upon our client work. We will look at the ways in which sex is understood in wider culture - and within psychology, psychotherapy and psychiatry - questioning the common approach of delineating 'normal functional' sex from 'abnormal, dysfunctional' sex and taking a goal-focused approach to sex and sexual difficulties.
with Angela Kelly
What is PDA?
Has it become present in your counselling relationships?
Do you get clients where you feel completely stuck and no matter what you try in sessions or support you receive from supervision nothing appears to work?
Does your client present with PDA or do you have a client with a partner or child who may present with PDA?
In this workshop we will explore what is PDA, the impact of PDA on relationships, the emotional damage it may cause to families and to partners and how boundaries work differently but are important for reducing the profound anxiety that PDA causes.
with Ruth Morgan
What happens to a couple relationship when one or other partner has experienced childhood sexual abuse?
Many things bring couples, or individuals, into therapy, and the emergence or disclosure of childhood sexual abuse in the history of one partner may seriously derail the relationship. The abuse may have only surfaced recently, or may be known to only one partner.
In this workshop we will explore the nature of childhood sexual abuse and the damage it may cause.