Continuing Professional Development

Grief is unavoidable, yet many of us live as though it won’t happen, avoiding talking about it, making an intolerable situation even more painful.

If, as psychotherapists, we find grief hard to discuss, how can we help our grieving clients open up about one of the most tumultuous and life changing events they may ever experience?

Facilitated by psychotherapist, writer and podcaster Sasha Bates, this workshop covers:

• Physical and creative exercises to compassionately explore your losses and approach your own feelings around this sensitive subject.
• How grief – our own and that of our clients – can be borne, within and outside therapy, and discuss resourcing, in the widest possible sense.
• Grounding our experience within the context of several grief theories: Kubler-Ross’s 5 stages, Worden’s 4 tasks, Dual Process, and Continuing Bonds; examining their usefulness, or otherwise, in helping us navigate the ways we attempt to bear the unbearable, and give voice to the unverbalizable.

Book your place on Languages of Loss now.

We’re currently developing our programme of CPD events for 2024. Check back here for the latest announcements, or follow us on social media.

An introduction to using the arts as projective method and using the art image as ‘the third’ in the supervision space – with Roshmi Lovatt.

Participants will have the opportunity to use different creative techniques, including small world objects, drawing/art, movement, drama and puppets.

The afternoon will consist of a group Supervision of Supervision drawing upon and integrating the morning’s learning.

Please note that this workshop is open to qualified professionals only.

We are proud to announce that Minster tutor Cecilia Jarvis’ book How to Succeed in Your Counselling and Psychotherapy Training has been published by Open University Press.

Come and join her at this free event for a friendly and informal Q&A, a chance to buy a copy of her book, and to enjoy some cake. This event is particularly relevant for those at the beginning stages of their study.

How to Succeed in Your Counselling and Psychotherapy Training is an accessible and friendly guide for new trainee counsellors and psychotherapists. It outlines the difficulties that a new trainee may encounter and provides guidance on the main aspects of the training journey, both in the classroom and in a clinical placement.

This will be an excellent opportunity for trainees to seek advice and network with your peers, so please book early to avoid disappointment. We look forward to seeing you there!

Trauma Sensitive Yoga for trauma survivors, and their therapists – with Sasha Bates.

With trauma embedded in the body, research shows that talking therapies can only go so far. The Boston Trauma Centre’s research in bodily based, non-verbal ways of working resulted in “Trauma Sensitive Yoga” (TSY) – an enquiring, therapeutic form of yoga helping those with PTSD and complex trauma reacquaint themselves with their bodies.

What is it, why do I need it, and how do I get it? – with Sasha Bates.

Finding ways to influence the nervous system, particularly its sensitivity to threat, increases connection with ourselves and others. In a massively dysregulated world, with therapists more than ever confronted by their own stress and the traumas of their clients, an ability to self-regulate has a huge impact on therapist and client wellbeing.

Gender and sexual identity are lenses through which all of us are constantly negotiating our place and meaning in the world, against a background of powerful binaries and stereotypes, most notably male/female and gay/straight. Yet, in recent years there has been a sea change amongst teenagers and young adults, who are increasingly resisting traditional, binary gender identities and not defining themselves as heterosexual.

Using a mixture of creative, open exercises and small and whole group discussion, we will:

-Focus on our own unique gender and sexual identities – connecting to and safely sharing our own feelings, thoughts and experiences from our professional and/or personal lives.
-Explore the reality of lesbian, gay, bi, trans, queer (LGBTQ+) and gender-fluid children and young peoples’ lives and the discrimination they face in the UK and beyond.

Abolition Revolution by Aviah Sarah Day and Shanice Octavia McBean is a historical, theoretical and practical guide to revolutionary abolitionist politics in Britain. The authors trace the evolution of policing and criminalisation from their colonial roots to their contemporary expression. They also draw out a rich history of grassroots resistance, from the founding of the Notting Hill Carnival in 1959 to transformative responses to repressive community policing today.

The Minster Centre is proud to present a live Q&A session with Abolition Revolution co-author Shanice Octavia McBean, in which she will explore how these issues might inform a psychotherapist’s role.

An introduction to using the arts as projective method and using the art image as ‘the third’ in the supervision space – with Roshmi Lovatt.

Participants will have the opportunity to use different creative techniques, including small world objects, drawing/art, movement, drama and puppets.

Please note that this workshop is open to qualified professionals only.

In this talk, Professor Jeremy Holmes will outline aspects of affective neuroscience with its evidence-based underpinning. Within the rubric of therapeutic relationship, explanatory language, and change promotion, Professor Holmes will try to show how biobehavioural synchrony, embodied mentalising and Friston’s free energy/surprise model can illuminate the everyday work of psychotherapists, and even improve outcomes!