Being Human in Complex Times
Small-group experiential CPD for therapists, counsellors & supervisors
A series of live, 90-minute online workshops for practitioners who want a place to slow down, think together, and return to the presence their work depends on.
The Courage to Stay in Conversation
Saturday 23 January 2027 · 2.00–3.30 pm UK / 9.00–10.30 am ET · Online
Standard £35 · Reduced £25 · Supporter £45 · CPD certificate included
Why Being Human
Presence is not a technique
Much of contemporary practice pulls us towards speed and certainty. We feel pressure to explain quickly, to formulate well and to keep going. Clients increasingly arrive with interpretations already formed elsewhere, sometimes by AI. Colleagues and supervisees can close down when a conversation becomes difficult. And when we are tired, we listen less well than we would wish.
Our work depends on something slower. We need to stay present while meaning has time to emerge, and to tolerate discomfort and difference. We also need to remain open to being changed by the person in front of us.
Being Human offers a small, protected space in which to return to that capacity together. It is not a lecture series, and it is not a therapy or supervision group. Each session takes one question into shared inquiry through embodied reflection, guided dialogue and a short teaching contribution. Then we see what emerges.
The power to be human is to share.
I explore some of the thinking behind the Staying Human series in What the System Remembers.
Opening session January 2027
The Courage to Stay in Conversation
Saturday 23 January 2027 · 2.00–3.30 pm UK / 9.00–10.30 am ET · Online
Withdrawal can feel safer than staying. A supervisee ends the conversation, a client stops engaging, or a colleague decides that some subjects cannot be discussed. A couple brings AI’s version of their difficulty into the room and asks us to respond to it.
In this session, we will explore what it takes to remain in relationship when something difficult needs to be spoken, and what happens to our own capacity when we are tempted to withdraw too.
- What helps us stay present when a conversation becomes uncomfortable?
- How do we tell the difference between a necessary boundary and avoidance?
- What changes when an account from outside the relationship, including an AI-generated one, enters the room with authority?
How do we hold our authority without using it to close the conversation?
What changes in a single encounter when no one needs to win?
How do we notice the moment we move from meeting someone to managing them?
What does it feel like when power is shared in the room, rather than held over it?
Book this session
Continuing sessions
The opening session stands on its own. For those who wish to continue, three further sessions will follow monthly. You can book them as a short series or individually.
Listening Without Rushing to Know
When we are tired or under pressure, we reach for explanation, advice or reassurance. This session explores empathy exhaustion and treats not knowing as a capacity rather than a deficit.
Showing Up Human
Our field is becoming more manualised and formulaic. What does it mean to bring our humanity into the work without burdening clients with it? We will explore humility, authenticity, and theory held as an aid rather than a shield.
The Space Between
Humanistic practice begins in the space between two people. This session explores presence across difference, including age, generation, culture and life experience, and what helps us meet someone without assuming we already know them.
Continuing sessions: Saturday 20 February, Saturday 20 March and Saturday 17 April 2027, 2.00–3.30 pm UK.
For psychotherapists who would like to grow together. Training, supervision and CPD for psychotherapists and counsellors who want to stay present, responsive and ethically grounded in complex relational fields.
Details
- Live online, 90 minutes per session
- Small groups: a maximum of eight participants, so everyone has room to be heard
- Joining details and any visual materials are sent in advance
- Sessions are not recorded
- CPD certificate of attendance (1.5 hours) for each session
- Single session
- Standard rate — £35
For qualified practitioners and supervisors. - Reduced rate — £25
For trainees, early-career practitioners, UKAHPP members, and those working in community or under-resourced settings. - Supporter rate — £45
For those whose circumstances allow them to contribute towards reduced-price places. - Continuing series (three sessions) — £100
I want these sessions to be accessible to practitioners working in very different circumstances, while recognising the care, preparation and facilitation involved.
Who is this for?
Qualified psychotherapists, counsellors, supervisors, dramatherapists and other relational practitioners. It is especially for those who want a space to slow down, take stock, and reconnect with why this work matters.
How we will work
Each session includes:
- Arrival and an optional embodied settling practice
- A short teaching contribution on the session’s central question
- Guided dialogue, listening practice or creative reflection
- Time to notice what supported or interrupted presence
- A closing reflection on what you will take into your practice
An invitation into a reflective, collegial space that nourishes your work: deepening your presence and your capacity to stay with uncertainty, difference and what is not yet known.
How this series began
Being Human grew from Staying Human in Complex Times, a workshop held in October 2026 on moral distress, AI and the changing ecology of practice. The group was small, and that turned out to be its strength. It gave us room to slow down, to disagree and to think together without needing immediate answers. These shorter sessions are designed to keep that intimacy and depth.
In continuity with my wider work
This workshop stands on its own as a focused CPD event.
For therapists who want an ongoing space in which to deepen embodied presence, relational intelligence and conscious attunement in their work, Embodied Relational Supervision Circle offers a slower and more sustained container for this exploration.
A space to think together
About me
I am a UKCP-registered, UKAHPP-accredited consultant psychotherapist, couples therapist and clinical supervisor based in London, with more than 25 years’ experience.
My work is rooted in dialogue in its many forms, the spoken dialogue of humanistic and Gestalt practice; the embodied, enacted dialogue of drama, forum theatre and dramatherapy; dialogue across conflict, difference and power, informed by conflict resolution and nonviolence; and dialogue with the unconscious, through myth, ritual, image and play. I draw on healing traditions from different cultures, and I care about creating conditions in which silenced or marginalised voices can be heard, individually and collectively.
Much of my work is supervision and consultation for therapists, particularly around power, consent and the conditions that shape practice.
I am interested in what becomes possible in therapeutic work when therapists have a sufficiently reflective, relational and humane space of their own, and in what may be compromised when that space is absent.
The outcomes
Recognise more clearly the moments when you, a client or a colleague begin to withdraw from a difficult conversation.
Distinguish between a necessary boundary and an avoidance, in your own practice and in others’.
Have experienced, in the group itself, what helps you stay present when something is uncomfortable.
Take away one question or intention to bring into your next difficult conversation with a client, supervisee or colleague.
I want these sessions to be accessible to practitioners working in very different circumstances, while recognising the care, preparation and facilitation involved.
The reduced fee is offered for humanistic, UKAHPP, Imago and other relational practitioners, trainees, and those on lower incomes.