Previous Events

Ties that Bind – The Impact of Trauma on Attachment - Conference with Norma Howes, October 2008

This conference was an opportunity for those attending to gain understanding of the complexities of a trauma bond and as a result more effectively intervene to protect children and adults.

Therapeutic Accompaniment as a Spiritual Discipline - Seminar with Canon Professor Brian Thorne, December 2008

In this Seminar Brian presented his view on counselling as an essentially spiritual undertaking and will explore the implications of this for the training and development of counsellors and psychotherapists.

Trauma and the Body - Conference with Norma Howes, January 2009

This conference was an opportunity for those attending to gain understanding of the complex nature of trauma and the impact trauma has on the brain and the body.

The Challenge of Relational Depth in Therapeutic Working - Seminar with Professor Dave Mearns, March 2009

Within the field of person-centred therapy Dave Mearns has developed the notion of ‘working at relational depth’, a stronger relational engagement that challenges the therapist to offer an unusual quality of relational contact. This seminar presented analysis of the theory, the practice and the developmental agenda incumbent on the practitioner working at relational depth.

Existentialism: Challenges and Contributions to Therapeutic Practice - Workshop with Mick Cooper, May 2009

This one day workshop offered counsellors and psychotherapists of all orientations an opportunity to develop their understanding of existential philosophy and therapeutic approaches, and to look at ways in which it may help them to enhance their therapeutic practice.

Integrating Prayer and Counselling - Dr Peter Gubi University of Central Lancashire, June 2009

This experiential and informative workshop was a day for participants to discuss the issues around integrating prayer in counselling. The focus of the day was the suggestion that prayer (connectedness) is at the centre of all spirituality (and arguably counselling), and is enabling of mental health well-being.

Love in Therapy - Suzanne Keys, July 2009

This day was an opportunity to explore what love means in therapy relationships focused on client experience and person-centred theory.

A Relational Perspective on Supervision - Working with the counsellor’s developmental agenda in supervision Seminar with Elke Lambers, September 2009

In this seminar we explored supervision as a relationship that supports the development of the counsellor's ability to meet clients at depth.

Interpersonally Sensitive CBT - Seminar with Dr Frank Wills, October 2009

Cognitive behaviour therapy (CBT) is most well known as a form of therapy with many techniques. This seminar focused on the notion that CB therapy is vastly strengthened when therapists are able to use interpersonal skills such as immediacy to recognise and work with these processes.

Look and Listen - The Social Psychology of Clustering: Innovative Prevention Strategies in Working with Parasuicidal Teenagers - Seminar with Dr Arthur Cassidy (Northern Ireland), October 2009

‘Look and Listen’ was a day seminar designed to help caregivers and those in positions of trust to become more ready and able to help young people at risk.

Teenage Kicks Self Harm, Drugs and Alcohol: Part of Adolescence or a Consequence of Abuse? Conference with Norma Howes and Mark Limmer, November 2009

The conference considered teenager sex and sexuality and what it means to be a teenager biologically, socially and emotionally. The day included research and information including the neurobiology of the teenage brain whilst looking at understanding their risk taking behaviours, links between alcohol and teenage pregnancy in the context of risk taking and included ideas for creative interventions and engagement strategies.

Trauma and the Body (Part One) - Workshop with Norma Howes and Deborah Robinson, 23rd January 2010

Following the popularity of this workshop in January 2009 and requests for its repeat Norma Howes this updated workshop was co-presenting with the added expert input of Deborah Robinson.

Trauma and the Body Advanced (Part Two) - Workshop with Norma Howes and Deborah Robinson, 6th March 2010

This workshop is offered to practitioners who have some level of understanding of ‘Body Work’ and how trauma impacts the body. This day event is not only for people who have attended ‘Trauma and the Body Part One’ (although we would recommend you come to both if possible).

‘Trauma and the Body Part Two’ is very much about putting theory into practise and blending ‘Body Work’ into ‘Talking Therapy’ and the ways we work as counsellors, therapists, care professionals and pastoral workers at present. The workshop will begin with an hour’s overview of ‘Part One’ and will include further insight, research and information including the neurobiology of the brain in relationship to the body.

This day event will further develop theory in relation to therapeutic practise and will include ideas and suggestions for empathic, informed and understanding responses, creative interventions, engagement strategies and strategies for change for the client.

Both days will offer challenge, perception, insight and awareness for participants from all backgrounds. These workshops are suitable for counsellors, therapists, mental health professionals, nurses, physicians, teachers, mentors, youth workers, police, ambulance and emergency workers, correctional staff, school support staff, clergy and community volunteers.

Norma Howes – (Biography on other 2010 events information).

Deborah Robinson, MSW, BSc, DipSW - Deborah Robinson has been a residential worker and social worker for 10 years. Deborah was a Social Work manager in a secure adolescent psychiatric hospital for 4 years and spent 2 years in a CAMHS Team. Deborah now works in a community based multi-discipline team focussed on early intervention and prevention. A major part of her role is providing consultation and training on the impact of trauma on children's development. Deborah is a keen advocate for the reframing of behaviour as the solution, not the problem. Like Norma she has completed the Sensorimotor Psychotherapy (Trauma) and EMDR training.

Workshop with David Elias ‘Mindfulness for Therapists', 20th February 2010

‘Mindfulness is a way of becoming more consciously aware of our experience moment to moment. In this workshop we will explore the relevance of this as a skill for therapists in their work and life.’

Mindfulness can be described as ‘cultivating present moment, non-judgemental awareness’. It is a quality central to Buddhism which, in the last 25 years, has been developed into a number of secular and pragmatic clinical approaches for both mental and physical health.

If therapists need to be continually aware of ‘what is going on’ at a process level within and between them and their clients, then mindfulness provides a practical and profound methodology for becoming more skilful at this. It offers us a way to hold the unfolding process in awareness whilst becoming increasingly ‘present’ in the therapeutic relationship. This increased awareness can also be helpful to the well being and self care of the therapist.

The intention of this workshop is to provide an experiential taste of the potential for mindfulness to enhance our ability to track our moment to moment experiencing in mind and body. There will also be some investigative dialogue, discussion and information sharing including consideration of how all this might apply to our work with clients. This workshop is suitable for people with no previous experience of mindfulness.

David Elias works as a psychotherapist and counsellor both in private practice and in the NHS. His orientation is generally humanistic, having trained in TA and the Person-Centred Approach as well as being influenced by mindfulness. He is a trainer with the Centre for Mindfulness Research and Practise at the University of Bangor and has taught on their Masters programme for the last 5 years. David teaches mindfulness in various group settings and one-to-one in his therapist/counsellor settings, including in the NHS. He has had a daily personal meditation practice for 19 years and is particularly interested in the overlap and integration of meditation and therapy.

David’s first career was in wildlife conservation and He is deeply committed to environmental issues including the use of mindfulness to raise awareness about the state of our planet. As David explains “All of these activities are integrated by my personal commitment 'see more clearly and act more kindly' throughout my life.”

No Person is an Island - Race, ethnicity, culture and society: A Transcultural perspective to psychotherapy, workshop with Colin Lago - 24th April 2010

How does culture and society shape us in our development, our relationships, and our attitudes to others and what are the implications of these early influences upon for us, both as individuals and as therapists?

A day workshop looking at the challenges confronting us:

· At the individual level, (personal development),

· To working as a therapist (professional development)

· In the context of contemporary society, which is multicultural, multi-ethnic, multiracial and comprises multiple values.

An opportunity to take a step back and reflect upon these life shaping forces and to consider their relevance to the therapeutic task.

Colin Lago (M.Ed. - FBACP - UKRC - BACP Accr. Counsellor and Trainer) was Director of the Counselling Service at the University of Sheffield from 1987 – 2003. He now works as an independent counsellor, trainer, supervisor and consultant. Trained initially as an engineer, Colin went on to become a full time youth worker in London and then a teacher in Jamaica. He is a Fellow of the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy, an accredited counsellor and trainer and UKRC registered practitioner.

For leisure, Colin is a keen (but not very good) fell runner, enthusiastic (but incompetent) dancer and a lover of mountains, music, films and books. He is married with two grown up “youngsters”.

Deeply committed to transcultural concerns he has had articles, videos and books published. For more information about Colin and his work you can visit his website www.colinlago.co.uk.

A Weekend of Two Workshops Presented by Ffynnon PPD May 2010. Presented by Mick Cooper & Helen Cruthers, Saturday 29th May and Sunday 30th May 2010

Working at Relational Depth – Mick Cooper

What does it mean to engage with clients at a level of emotional depth?

How can therapists facilitate their ability to encounter clients in this way?

This workshop will give participants an opportunity to explore their experiences of relational depth, and how it feels to meet others at this level of intensity and intimacy in both their therapeutic practice and everyday life.

Through small group exercises, pairs-work, discussion and theory input, the workshop will help participants develop a deeper understanding of such encounters, and also how they come to deepen their levels of relating in their therapeutic work.

With regard to this workshop it is worth noting that Mick Cooper is the co-author of ‘Working at Relational Depth in Counselling and Psychotherapy’.

Facilitator: Mick Cooper is a Professor of Counselling at the University of Strathclyde and a UKCP-registered existential psychotherapist. Mick is author of Existential Therapies (Sage, 2003), co-author with Dave Mearns of Working at Relational Depth in Counselling and Psychotherapy (Sage, 2005) and has written several chapters and papers on aspects of existential therapy, person-centred therapy and self-plurality.

The Therapeutic Power of the Arts – Helen Cruthers

Working with the arts in therapy can provide clients with broader opportunities to express themselves, explore their conflicts, and communicate with another person. Arts therapy can be especially facilitative for clients who have difficulty expressing themselves verbally, but creative expression and exploration can be therapeutic and enlightening for everyone.

Arts therapy can be particularly powerful in supporting the younger, experimental, joyful aspects of ourselves to come out and play, as well as providing powerful containment for expressing our pain and distress. The arts (movement, music, painting, drawing, poetry, puppets, sand-tray work, metaphor) can offer new languages with which to communicate and encapsulate experience.

This workshop will provide a safe and stimulating space for practitioners to explore their creative energies. There will be opportunities both for personal exploration and for facilitating others’ self expression.

Theoretical input will include: the role of the arts in humanistic therapy; the contribution of Gestalt theory; and ethical issues in working with the arts.

Absolutely no artistic talent is required for this workshop, and people who have a reluctant relationship with creativity are as welcome as those who are already comfortable expressing themselves in this way.

Facilitator: Helen Cruthers is an Integrative Arts Psychotherapist (UKCP). She has been working therapeutically with adults, children and families for a number of years, using a range of creative techniques. She is an experienced trainer in working with the arts in therapy, and in the field of anti-victimisation and empowerment. Her approach is creative, pragmatic and integrative and her orientation is broadly humanistic.

Workshop with Susan McGinnis - 'Potentiality: A person-centred approach to working therapeutically with young people' in schools and education, in care, in pastoral settings and in private practise. 19th June 2010

A workshop that focuses on understanding and engaging with a child’s inherent potential and responding in ways that develop resilience by bringing child-centred values to our work with children and young people in schools and education, in care, in pastoral settings and in private practise.

As practitioners working with young people, we can sometimes feel the tension between our wish to be child-centred and the expectations of society and the institutions within which we encounter our young clients. This course aims to give participants the opportunity to explore person-centred theoretical concepts from a child-centred perspective, including ways of thinking about, and working with, challenging behaviour. Taking the view that young people have inherent potential rather than deficiencies that need to be fixed, the person-centred approach can enable them to develop in ways that make them more resilient and resourceful. With that in mind, we will consider their physical, emotional and cognitive development. Additionally, we will think about how to hold child-centred values in relation to the organisations and institutions where we work, including issues of law, confidentiality and child protection.

The course will have a balance of interactive lecture, experiential work and practice and will focus primarily on adolescence, although the principles apply to work with younger children as well. It is aimed at counsellors who wish to extend their practice to young people and those from other disciplines and professions who are interested in a child-centred approach.

Susan McGinnis is founder and manager of the University of Strathclyde Counselling Unit’s Counselling in Schools Projects and continues to work as a counsellor for young people. She has been editor of the journal Counselling Children and Young People, wrote the BACP Good Practice Guidance for Counselling in Schools documents, and has contributed chapters to How We Feel: An Insight Into the Emotional World of Teenagers (Jessica Kingsley, 1997) and Safeguarding Children and Schools (Jessica Kingsley, 2008).

A long-time advocate of counselling provision for children and young people, Susan has an interest in policy-making and promoting child-centred values. She has recently been focusing on developing person-centred theory and practice with regard to counselling young people.