Each workshop will run twice during the day, once in the morning and once in the afternoon.  Please choose one for the morning and one for the afternoon.   

A look at the parallel process

Phyllis Coulter

Are we thriving or merely surviving? This session is for supervisors working with counsellors who are working with children and young people, and also for those particular counsellors/supervisees themselves.

We will explore the particular needs of the supervisee and the challenges these needs raise for both supervisor and supervisee.

We will use the idea of a parallel process - highlighting the work in the counselling room and exploring the possible echoes of that work, which can exist in the supervision room.

By using metaphor, didactic teaching and, hopefully some experience-sharing, we will evaluate the best use of the supervisory space when working in the area of children and young people.  The session will end with, we hope, time for questions and discussion.

On becoming a practitioner-researcher

Katie McArthur

This workshop is designed to encourage and enable interested practitioners to become more involved in research.

It will include a personal perspective on the experience of conducting RCTs.

Playing in Therapy - The Place2Be

Hilary Kean & Natalie Johnson

This workshop is aimed at counsellors and psychotherapists.

The Place2Be is a counselling service for children and young people in schools. We are an organisation that draws upon counsellors and therapists from a range of therapeutic modalities and so have developed an integrative model of working with children over the past 16 years.

This workshop will introduce creative therapeutic skills for working with children and young people, with a particular focus on the use of metaphor and play, using the Place2Be model of practice as a guide. During the workshop participants will explore the power of images and metaphors as containers of conscious/unconscious experiences and feelings. The workshop aims to develop further understanding of the value of images and metaphors in the therapeutic process, as a way of exploring emotions and thoughts at a symbolic level. We will also consider different theories of play and child development.

Introducing a school-based counselling practice research network 

Andy Hill

This workshop will introduce participants to the school-based counselling practice research network (PRN) and the rationale behind it. The PRN aims to bring together practitioners, researchers and trainers to engage in research and evaluation, in order to develop the evidence base for school-based counselling. This in turn will provide opportunities to improve the effectiveness and acceptability of counselling interventions, and to impact on policy decisions. Participants will be introduced to the PRN website and how to become a member. The workshop will provide opportunities for structured activity and discussion aimed at developing the PRN research strategy, and generating ideas relating to how members can interact and collaborate. The workshop is open to anyone who is interested in the relationship between research and practice in this field. 

Time 4 me ­- How was it for you?

Dave Stewart

This session is suitable for anyone wanting to discover more about counselling children in a primary school setting. Drawing on recent qualitative research of Barnardo's Time 4 Me counselling service, participants will hear children's views of their counselling experience, including what they liked, how counselling helped them make changes, how it affected their learning and how it might help in the future. The session will also share children's ideas about what makes the counselling process work for them. Participants will hear the views of teachers too. They share observations of how a school-based counselling service can respond to a wide range of children's emotional wellbeing and mental health needs, and how it increases their teaching capacity. Teachers also make links between effective counselling outcomes and improvements learning capacity. The session will conclude by mapping out key priorities for delivering an effective school-based counselling service for younger children.

Sand, Soothing, Silence - the therapeutic sand tray

Jennie McNamara

Sand Tray therapy is a creative and powerful method for working with clients and supervisees. It has many uses with a wide ranging client group as well as for people who cannot easily put their thoughts and feelings into words.

Discover the way in which Sand Tray therapy offers an alternate mode of expression that the spoken word struggles to reach. This thought provoking workshop will provide you with an introduction into the use of the Sand Tray method in therapeutic work. Participants will be encouraged to gain sufficient insight to enable them to utilise the sand tray at a basic level.