Sunday Morning Workshops
Using Imago Relationship Therapy to Empower Your Couples Work
Ian Tomlinson
Come to this workshop and learn the basics of the Imago Relationship Therapy model used primarily with couples.
Ian will cover:
- Basic beliefs of the model
- How the theory connects with the practice in the therapy room
- The Imago Dialogue process
By the end of the workshop you will see how Imago Relationship Therapy encourages validation and empathy as part of its central processes and how, by working with this model you empower your couple to shift their relationship towards closer connection without having to continue therapy.
Ian Tomlinson is a UKCP registered psychotherapist working with individuals and couples. He is an Advanced Imago Relationship Therapist and Workshop Presenter. As a Member of The Imago International Training Institute, Ian trains therapists in Imago Relationship Therapy and supervises them to certification and beyond.
Equine-Guided Therapy: The Journey to Self-Agency
Jacci Jones and Julie Lewis
"Equine-Guided Therapy: The Journey to Self-Agency" is a transformative workshop designed to explore the profound impact that equine-guided therapy can have on personal development and the cultivation of self-agency. During this two-hour session, participants will engage in an in-depth discovery of how interactions with horses can lead to enhanced self-awareness, emotional regulation, and a strengthened sense of personal empowerment.
A two-hour session led by Jacci Jones, a psychotherapist from Lancashire, and Julie Lewis, an equine facilitator from Stafford with a rich background in equestrian coaching.
This workshop is an experience designed to explain and bring to life the principles of equine-guided therapy for personal empowerment, empathy, and self-agency.
Jacci brings to the table her background in Transactional Analysis Psychotherapy and a life enriched by her love of horses and nature, while staying firmly on the ground! Equine Guided Therapy offers clients a unique space to find peace and clarity, guided by the intuitive presence of horses.
Julie's extensive experience as a British Horse Society qualified instructor and passion for sharing Equine Guided Therapy has enabled her to facilitate remarkable transformations. Through her work, she has seen the impact of the special bond between humans and horses, further solidifying her commitment to this therapeutic approach.
Together, Jacci and Julie founded 'Equine Guided Therapy' in 2023, combining their skills to help others discover the therapeutic benefits of equine interactions. This workshop is an opportunity to learn from their journey and explore how equine empathy can lead to greater self-awareness and emotional growth. Join us for a workshop that promises not just insights but a path to a more empowered self.
Players on the World Stage
Uzma Khan
The Pyramid of Hate will be explored within a TA and Integrative framework to help understand how a negative bias towards the ‘other’ can be a predictor of acts of violence and atrocities.
Emphasis will be on the relationship between the intrapsychic process, changing world events and global connectivity.
Aim of Workshop:
For therapists to gain a better insight when working with their own or a client’s unconscious biases.
Provide practical support and signposting opportunities for therapist.
Promote inter-group Okness through awareness, discourse and dialogue.
Uzma Khan is an experienced practitioner who has worked in mental health for over 15 years helping a variety of clients suffering from a range of psychological and psychosocial issues. Her main interests are working in community based projects with Muslim the BAME (Black, Asian and Minority ethnic) projects. She currently works with MIND (UK Mental Health Charity) and New MIND Counselling Service (NMCS) where she is the Deputy Chair for the board of Trustees.
Presently she is one of three Clinical Lead’s within IHSAAN (Ihsaan.org.uk) which is the first specialised psychotherapy and counselling service in England that provides psychological therapies compatible with Islamic psychology. This is a holistic integrative service that is language, culturally and spiritually sensitive and caters to the needs of Muslim clients suffering from mild to moderate mental health issues in West Yorkshire (England).
Uzma’s interests include working in a TA and integrative framework. The ethos driving her work is that healing comes from awareness and change.
Working with Trauma and Addiction
Amanda Onwuemene
This workshop will focus on my work with clients who have learnt in childhood to distract and dissociate from their trauma and anxieties through the adoption of various addictions.
I will discuss how we work together, not to stop the addiction but to heal the trauma.
Bio:
I've worked in private practice for 16 years using Transactional Analysis and Integrative Psychotherapy methodologies.
During that time I have worked with a number of clients with both personality disorders and addictions.
Nurturing the Healer
Melita Mihajlović Košak
This is a workshop on self-care of psychotherapists. Very often in the demanding and emotionally charged field of psychotherapy therapists easily prioritize their clients’ well-being at the expense of their own. Together we will try to address this crucial aspect of the profession and create a space where we can explore and enhance our self-care practices.
Melita Mihajlović Košak is a psychologist, a certified Transactional Analytical Psychotherapist (EATA), Provisional Teacher and Supervisor (PTSTA) and mindfulness teacher. She is working with adult clients and supervisees in her private practice. She is collaborating with Institute for integrative psychotherapy and counselling, Ljubljana, implementing workshops for students, included in four year trainings of Transactional Analysis and Integrative Psychotherapy. For the past 15 years she has been organizing Mindfulness-Based TA programs at the institute and has been leading the groups that are included in different mindfulness programs. In her work approach she combines transactional analysis and mindfulness.
Symbiosis to Self Agency
Steff Cooke
In this workshop we will be looking at the journey out from Symbiosis to a healthy position of Self Agency and Autonomy. We will look at the different stages of Symbiosis and how to get out of the stuckness that keeps people bound in the unhealthy symbiotic place. This workshop will be a mixture of experiential and didactic content.
Stephanie Cooke has a wide range of experience, working with children and adolescents. She began in the early eighties working as a Social Worker specialising in children and adolescents in all areas of childcare. At this time in her career she also worked in a CAMH’s unit as a counsellor for disturbed adolescents and children who had been traumatised and abused. Stephanie also worked for Norfolk Childrens projects with young offenders, working with them on projects within their local communities. Stephanie has worked as a counsellor and psychotherapist for twenty years, and presently works at the Manchester Institute as a Trainer and Supervisor and has been working as psychotherapist since the early 1990s.
Sunday Afternoon Workshops
Free Will and Self Agency in Psychotherapy
Paul Mitchell
Determinism is arguably the fundamental tenet of modern approaches to Psychology. Our scientific framework relies on a basic assumption of cause and effect, how we have become who we are in relation to what we have experienced.
What then of Free Will, Self-Agency, Creativity, our Ability to do Otherwise?
Leaning in to the work of amongst others, Philosopher Robert Kane, Psychoanalyst Otto Rank and Academic Psychiatrist John Callender we will explore a need for approaches to Psychotherapy which stress “The Will”, “Individual Agency”, “Autonomy” and our ability to influence or own “Self-Forming Actions”.
This workshop will explore both the Philosophical and Practical dimensions of Free Will and Self Agency in Psychotherapy
Paul Mitchell is a Psychotherapist, Supervisor, Trainer and Mental Health Nurse with over 40 years’ experience working with Individuals, Couples, Groups, Families and Organisations.
For over 15 years he was the Clinical Lead for Personality Disorder Services in the North Wales NHS, Mersey Care NHS and within Independent Hospital settings. For over 40 years he has worked as a Principal Psychotherapist, Mental Health Commissioner, Group Therapist, Psychotherapy Trainer, Organisational Consultant, CMHT Manager, Inpatient Unit Manager, CPN and Mental Health Nurse.
Paul has an Independent Practice based in North East Wales.
Dreams – Illusion – Control
In this workshop we will explore dreaming from the perspective of different therapeutic modalities. The workshop will include teaching, discussion, and experiential exercises.
Exploring how dreams may amplify unconscious messages in need of conscious attention alongside the phenomenological importance of working with dreams in the therapy room.
Sava Allott is a UKCP registered psychotherapist and works from the Manchester Institute for Psychotherapy in Chorlton, Manchester.
Her training was in Transactional Analysis from an Integrative Perspective and she has a continuing passion in the subject's of dreams, dream analysis, mythology and alchemy.
The Climate Within: Understanding and Healing Climate and Eco Distress
Mario Uosis-Martin
Join me in a dynamic and creative workshop where we, as mental health professionals, address the pressing issue of the climate crisis's impact on mental health. We'll explore eco-anxiety and ecological grief, understanding their prevalence and psychological effects and processes. Our journey will blend humanistic and existential perspectives, examining internal dialogues and their role in emotional responses to environmental challenges. The workshop focuses on equipping you with practical strategies to support clients facing climate-related distress, enhancing both your therapeutic skills and empathetic understanding.
Hello! I'm Mario, your workshop guide, with a diverse journey from Lithuanian classrooms to the UK's pharmaceutical sector, culminating in psychotherapy. After achieving a Postgraduate Diploma in Transactional Analysis, I established my private practice in 2019, transitioning to online therapy exclusively last year. My interests extend from gardening to the magical world of Harry Potter, and a deep admiration for Freddie Mercury's creativity. This workshop combines my passions and expertise, aiming to deepen our collective understanding of climate change's psychological impacts
This is an invitation to a brave space
Zahra Patel, Caroline Topham and Charmini Glo
Together we will consider the systemic realities impacting our personhood and ask, what does it take to truly encounter and be impacted by “the other” who has been cast in the shadow of society and within ourselves? What does it take to truly contend with the power and privilege we own at different intersections of our sociocultural and political identities? What are the voices at the fringes telling us about why this concerns psychotherapy?
Bios:
Zahra Patel
I am a trainee psychotherapist in Transactional Analysis from an Integrative Perspective and a registered psychiatrist, working in and around Greater Manchester. Through my work, I’ve developed a deep appreciation of just how much the quality of our relationships matter in determining our sense of self, belonging and wellbeing. More recently, I’ve been increasingly interested in just how much systems of power and our intersectional identities shape the nature of these relationships.
Caroline Topham
I am a 4th year trainee psychotherapist in Transactional Analysis from an Integrative Perspective and run a small private practice in Manchester. I am also a part-time lecturer in the field of Biomedical Science. Training as a psychotherapist has deepened my contact with, and curiosity around, the anger, confusion and defences I experience in response to the many injustices I see normalised in our society. I am on a journey to know these parts of myself better to reveal and challenge my unconscious bias, and to authentically account for the experiences of myself, my clients and my colleagues.
Charmini Glo
I am a 4th year trainee psychotherapist in Transactional Analysis from an Integrative Perspective and a qualified Cognitive Behavioural Hypnotherapist. I have a private practice based in Manchester and Liverpool, working with both modalities. My training and work have deepened my appreciation of the impact of authentically, vulnerably, and sometimes uncomfortably accounting for the deeply personal ways we assign meaning to ourselves and each other. I am increasingly curious about the shadow parts of myself, and how systems of power and intersectional identities shape our self-concept, relationships, and the way we make sense of the world.
Religious, spiritual and Belief Identity in the psychological and arts therapies: (un)comfortable bedfellows?
Mandy Carr
The report into religious and belief diversity and the common good in Britain, notes, ‘Much greater religion and belief literacy is needed in every section of society, and at all levels. The potential for misunderstanding, stereotyping and oversimplification based on ignorance is huge’ (Butler-Sloss, 2015, p.8). The importance of the notion of intersectionality in acknowledging complexity and power imbalances of self, also underpins Mandy’s approach and aims to take into account the multiple forms of identity that impact life outcomes. (Collier and Eastwood, 2021). Her recent doctoral research highlighted ways in which participants from a variety of backgrounds, may experience an inner monologue of assumptions others might be making about their beliefs or background.
The session will start with a short presentation, explaining the main principles and findings of Mandy’s research. This will be followed by a workshop which aims to engage participants in briefly and safely exploring their own religious/spiritual/belief selves and to find out more about each other, through playful connection and in the spirit of curiosity. Participants will be invited to use games, visualisation, gesture and movement, creative writing or drawing to explore their commonalities and differences. There will be opportunities to work as a whole group and individually, as well as processing experiences through small and large group discussion. Every activity is offered by invitation having been fully explained, so that informed decisions can be made about whether to actively participate or feedback insights in the final plenary.
Finally, the group will consider:
* What might be the implications if religious and spiritual aspects of identity are unconsciously overlooked, repressed or discouraged in psychotherapy?’
* Can practice be improved in this area? In what ways?
Dr Mandy Carr is an HCPC registered arts psychotherapist (drama), trainer and clinical supervisor. Formerly a senior lecturer in dramatherapy at Anglia Ruskin University in Cambridge, she has recently completed a professional doctorate in which she explored the connections between religion, spirituality, belief and therapy. Her background as a Liberal Jew from Liverpool is a key factor driving her passion for widening inclusion in society. In her 11 years as convenor of the British Association of Dramatherapists’ Equality and Diversity Committee, she co-ordinated the development of the organisation’s ‘Intercultural Good Practice Guidelines’.
A range of publications include 'Dramatherapy and Religion: (Un) comfortable Bedfellows? In Honour of Dr Roger Grainger' (with Ditty Dokter) and Dramatherapy 39, No.1, pp.16-28, Routledge and Dramatherapy 39, No.3 Special edition focusing on the needs of LBGTQ+ clients and therapists, co-edited with Ryan Valadas, both published in 2018.