Open Seminar Series

Working with couples requires a different therapeutic approach to working one to one.  This seminar will focus on a number of key concepts when working therapeutically with couples, such as the ‘Couple Mind Set’ an approach which focuses on working with the relationship rather than with the two individuals in the room, as well as a developmental model, as a tool to conceptualise the stage the relationship is at. The intention is to invite interest and excitement in this area of this therapeutic work.  During the seminar there will be theoretical input, experiential exercises, and time for questions. psychotherapy provision.

Deborah Blagden is a UKCP registered Clinical Psychotherapist, Supervisor and Trainer as well as a BACP member. She holds a MSc in Transactional Analysis Psychotherapy and is a Certified Transactional Analyst, undertaking her masters at the Metanoia Institute London in the mid 1990’s. Over the last 20 years she has also trained as an EMDR practitioner, Developmental Couple Therapist and completed training in Clinical Supervision. She is endorsed by the European Association of Transactional Analysts as a (provisional) Teaching and Supervising Transactional Analyst. She has worked in a variety of therapeutic settings, including the NHS and for the last 26 years in a Forensic setting facilitating therapeutic groups. She also manages a private psychotherapy practice in Derbyshire, working with individuals, couples, and groups.

Energy psychotherapy methods, which clients self – apply, facilitates the regulation of stress and triggers by calming the nervous systems and bringing balance. It is empowering for clients to release the dense resonances of guilt and shame from their bodies, making way for the higher frequencies of love and peace. In this talk Ruthie explores the paradigm shift, with its transformative methods, where the task of relational therapy becomes one of clearing the dense energy of trauma to make room for more light in our bodies, thus bringing about healing and transformation.

Ruthie Smith is an author, musician and energy psychotherapist with a passionate interest in the ‘shift’ of humanity’s awakening consciousness, and in integrating energy and spirituality within psychotherapy. After training in work with subtle energy and vibrational healing, Ruthie founded The Flame Centre in London in 2009, specialising in trauma work.

Stepping out of the network of a training institute or group into life post-graduation can be a place where the hopes that we held of being a therapist collide with the challenges of clinical practice, and this can sometimes be a lonely place too. Aimed at therapists who are earlier on in their therapeutic careers, this seminar will support, validate and normalise this next stage in your career with both reflective space and practical guidance. This will also offer an opportunity to come together informally with other recently qualified therapists from across modalities to network and share together.

Anna Robinson is an Integrative Psychotherapist, Supervisor and Trainer with a breadth of experience across health, social care and education. The majority of her work has been with hard to reach, marginalised and high-risk groups at individual/family and system leadership levels. Anna is passionate about the psychotherapy field and the role that therapists can have in supporting not only individual growth but also influencing wider population-level approaches to wellness. Along with private practice, Anna therefore continues to work with multi-agency and research colleagues to develop innovative responses to improving access, understanding, training and interventions that are culturally and contextually relevant to diverse communities. She is accredited with UKCP.

This seminar will introduce the concept of working creatively with children and going beyond just sitting and talking, but using creative media to either facilitate the conversation or to provide a way for the child or young person to express their thoughts and feelings in a nonverbal way.

Phill is an integrative practitioner who works creatively to engage children and young people in therapy. Phill’s background as a therapist includes working with vulnerable children within maintained and independent special schools and specialist units schools. Phill has a passion and strong belief that all children and young people should have the best start in life, and that they can access the appropriate therapy and safeguarding services to ensure this can happen.

Following on from contributing skills to a study trial published in The Lancet, it would be our pleasure to present our experience to other therapists. ACT, a psychotherapy from the CBT family, incorporates mindfulness and encourages acceptance of life’s inherent difficulties while focusing on what truly matters. The therapy aims to develop psychological flexibility through 6 core principals. The trial was implemented in the hospice setting, which also have a specialist multidisciplinary team for MND, a devastating and fatal disease.

For the trial we were trained in ACT and provided with a manual and worksheets. Our sessions were recorded and reviewed to ensure adherence to protocols. We presented ACT psychoeducation over 8 sessions, tailoring it to the participants experiences and teaching them exercises. This allowed participants to observe their distress and refocus on their interests, promoting psychological flexibility and a feeling of getting some control back in their lives.

We aim to share our experience with you, give you an understanding of working in a hospice setting, understanding MND, how ACT trial was implemented and the findings of the research on completion.

Redecision therapy was developed by Robert and Mary Goulding, combining Transactional Analysis with the techniques of Gestalt therapy to provide a powerful means of personal change. Based on the premise that internal and external conflicts could be resolved through ‘enactment’: the gestalt approach was the first to apply ‘chairwork’ within one-to-one therapy contexts. Goulding and Goulding used this technique in Redecision therapy when working with stuck parts of self to help clients own the different parts of themselves and/or to help clients resolve old conflicts with their significant others in their environment when growing up. 

Chairwork, also known as the “two-chair technique,” is a powerful and dynamic therapeutic intervention that is used in psychotherapy. It is an experiential and interactive approach where clients engage in a dialogue or role-play with an empty chair or chairs representing different people or aspects of themselves. This seminar will provide participants with an overview of the 2-chair approach, outlining the theoretical approach and including a demonstration of the method. Knowledge of the TA concepts is not necessary as they will be taught over the course of the seminar. 

This seminar aims to provide an informative overview of the presentations, and pre-determining factors of functional symptoms, from the perspective of my experience as a specialist psychotherapist within the Neurology Psychotherapy Service at STH Hallamshire. Making links to the relevance of this for the wider field of psychotherapy provision.

Helen Appleton is an Integrative psychotherapist and supervisor working in the field of medically unexplained symptoms or functional non-organic symptoms within the Neurology department of STH Hallamshire and in private practice. She also has a special interest in working with neurodiversity, learning and communication difficulties and with the mind/ body connection

This workshop aims to offer clinical input by exploring various aspects of South Asian culture and how to therapeutically meet their specific needs. I will explore: South Asians and mental health, identity developmental models, common presenting issues, clinical implications for practice.

Rajan Rai (he/him) is a graduate of MSc Integrative Psychotherapy and runs his own private practice in Nottingham. A second-generation British-Indian himself, Raj’s interest lies in how South Asian clients in the UK engage with psychotherapy and issues they may typically present with. A near lack of representation of this demographic in psychotherapy literature fuels his interest. For more information, contact: raicounselling@gmail.com

This workshop includes why we might offer outdoor therapy, some useful theories and some considerations for practice. I will introduce seminar participants to some of the research into the positive impacts of spending time outdoors and why we might think about taking our clients outside. I will offer some ECOTA Theory (including Protocol, Script and Frame of Reference). I will talk about my practice and some key considerations such as privacy and confidentiality. I would like to share my passion and enthusiasm for outdoor practice with the participants and some of my thinking around how moving outside can enliven our work, and our clients.

Sarah Devine is a qualified psychotherapist, trainer and supervisor with an Advanced Diploma in Counselling, and an MSc in Psychotherapy. Sarah is a Provisional Teaching and Supervising Transactional Analyst (PTSTA) with extensive training in Outdoor Therapy and ECOTA. Sarah is a full clinical member of the UKCP and a member of UKATA.

We have all grown up with the knowledge that our brains are divided into two hemispheres – the left and the right. How often though might we question why? And more importantly are the commonly held answers to our question sufficient and even incorrect? In this seminar we will look at the latest research into the divided brain. After briefly summarising the theoretical understanding of the role of each of the hemispheres up to about 2012, we will move to the main contributor to the field – the work of Iain McGilchrist. We will conclude by summarising the implications for ourselves as human beings and as clinicians.

Rosemary has extensive training and experience as a counsellor, psychotherapist, supervisor and trainer and is trained in both Gestalt Psychotherapy and Integrative Psychotherapy and has completed additional elements of training in Transactional Analysis, Behavioural Therapy and Client-Centred Counselling. Prior to this Rosemary was a qualified Psychiatric Nurse and has more than twenty years’ experience working in the NHS, including a specialist role as a Nurse Therapist. She is accredited with the UKCP and runs a private practice working with individuals, couples and groups.

My objective will be to enable participants to understand that from a relational human-development perspective, sexual compulsivity can be understood both as a clients’ best attempts to meet unmet developmental needs and their need to hold a sense of their own sexual autonomy as adults. Clients come with varying defences and shame is always present. All my clients will have varying levels of developmental trauma. Clients who sexually offend will often have additional sexual compulsivity difficulties. Clients who are sexually compulsive will not necessarily become sexual offenders. My objective will be to explore briefly why I think this is an important distinction.

Sezal is a UKCP registered psychotherapist who currently works part time for a national charity providing couples and individual therapy and provides an IAPT contracted service for couples where depression is an underlying factor in their relational distress. Sezal has her own private practice where her special interest is working with clients experiencing sexual compulsivity with or without the consequences of illegal activity.  Sezal also works as a sessional practitioner for a children’s charity dedicated to the prevention of child sexual abuse.