Saturday Workshops
Saturday Workshops
Workshop Session 2: 11.00 – 13.00
(choose 1 workshop from 9 available)
1. Working with men - the absence of intimacy and the role of internet pornography
Examining the development of neurodivergent script beliefs in a neurotypical world
John Paradise (He/Him): PTSTA
Psychotherapy / Clinical
Men who present in therapy very often have an absence of intimacy in their lives and yet at the same time there is a hidden longing for love and intimacy. This workshop will explore and examine how internet pornography plays a key role in furthering this absence of intimacy and love. Internet pornography use can carry such shame that it may often remain absent from the clinical setting, furthering the absence of intimacy.
I identify as cisgendered white male with Maltese heritage
Workshop outcomes:
Understand how men presenting in therapy often long for intimacy
Explain the role of internet pornography in creating a pseudo relationship
Explain the impact of internet pornography upon intimacy and its link to ED
Describe the three archetypal script messages that men must live by to be a 'successful man' and the link to internet pornography
Presenter:
John Paradise - I live and work in the SW (Devon). I have a small clinical practice in Exeter and have a professional and personal interest in men's mental well being.
Level of prior experience required: None
Focus: Education and Training; Counselling and Coaching; Psychotherapy and Clinical; Organisational
Style: Didactic Teaching; Discussion and Small Group and Pairs work; Experiential Work
2. Tensegrity
The interplay between integrity and flexibility in the art and science of connecting minds
Jane Tillier (She/Her): PTSTA; Silvia Baba Neal
Psychotherapy / Clinical
Tensegrity is the architecture of living organisms, an interplay of rigid elements ( bones, fibre) and malleable tissue (fascia, muscles). Optimal living is negotiating contradictory demands: to maintain structural coherence whilst also adapting to a changing environment. Think of bamboo stalks in a storm. We will explore how insights from complexity theory (chaos) can inform our understanding of the mind-body connection (embodied cognition) and how it shapes interpersonal communication.
The art of being a creative and ethical transactional analyst (in whichever human field) is forged through a deeper understanding of the profound dynamic relationship of fixed points and flow.
Silvia: I am a 45-year-old woman, married with two children. I am Romanian and I have lived in the UK since 2004. I used to be a journalist
Workshop outcomes:
Outcomes: Participants will be able to define concepts such as: integrity, flexibility, tensegrity, complex systems and dynamic boundaries. Participants will be able to skilfully monitor their bodies through interoception and proprioception in the form of handling interpersonal boundaries. Participants will have an expanded notion of boundaries, which includes open boundaries (think of the wave-beach type of boundary).
Presenter:
Jane Tillier: Mixed experiences of apparent privilege (e.g. higher education degrees) alongside many challenges (including a dyslexia diagnosis at 60) have sometimes left me feeling confused about my identity. My experiences of comfort and discomfort in different contexts mean that I am sensitive to the comfort and discomfort of others. I grew up on a council estate with parents who left school at 16, yet I went on to study at Cambridge and Oxford to PhD level and beyond. Working as a priest in the church of England in diverse contexts for over 30 years gives me a broad-based life experience upon which I draw.
Silvia Baba Neal: It's hard to write about my identity without overplaying areas of vulnerability. I feel like I want to be seen for my intellectual ability, rather than fragments of identity such as gender, class, and sexuality. I grew up in a council flat, yet I live in a Regency house. My parents divorced, yet I have a stable marriage of 20 years. I was brought up with a working-class aesthetic, yet my life is distinctly shaped by middle-class values. I am an immigrant, yet I feel fully integrated in British society.
Level of prior experience required: Any level
Focus: Education and Training; Counselling and Coaching; Psychotherapy and Clinical; Organisational
Style: Didactic Teaching; Discussion and Small Group and Pairs work; Clinical Demonstration; Experiential Work
3. Advancing Knowledge & Enhancing Practice for Appearance-Based Distress / Body Dysmorphic Disorder (BDD)
Hidden Hurt: Relational TA for Appearance-Based Distress & Body Dysmorphic Disorder (BDD)
Jem Gunn (She/Her): TA Diploma (UKATA or RTE); UKATA Trustee,
Counselling and Coaching;Psychotherapy / Clinical
Body Dysmorphic Disorder (BDD) isn't about vanity - it's about trauma.
This experiential workshop led by Jem Gunn - BDD survivor-advocate, Founder of the International Association for Body Dysmorphic Disorder CIC, TEDx Speaker, Clinical Supervisor and Integrative Psychotherapist (BACP Registered) - advances our collective understanding of BDD as a relational wound, not a cosmetic concern.
Grounded in Transactional Analysis and lived experience, this session offers practical tools and fresh insight into how we treat appearance-based distress, to advance knowledge and enhance practice and a chance to rethink how we see 'body image' work - not as symptom management, but as relational repair.
Join Jem to enhance your clinical practice, and reframe 'body image' work as identity repair. Essential for anyone working with shame, trauma, identity and body image.
Neurodivergence (Autism/ ASC L1) & Body Dysmorphic Disorder (BDD).
Female, White British
Workshop outcomes:
By attending this workshop, participants will:
Deepen their understanding of BDD as a trauma-rooted, relationally driven condition‚ not a superficial appearance issue.
Learn to identify common shame scripts and ego states (e.g. Be Perfect, Be Strong) that underpin appearance-based distress.
Gain practical tools and language to safely explore body image distress through a Transactional Analysis lens.
Strengthen their ability to contract and work relationally with clients who present with identity erosion, perfectionism, and shame.
Reflect on their own unconscious biases and cultural conditioning around appearance, and explore how to foster identity-safe spaces in therapeutic work.
Leave with an introduction to the BDD D.E.F.E.N.C.E. Model, to enhance trauma-informed, integrative practice in clinical, coaching, or organisational settings.
Presenter:
Jem Gunn is a BDD survivor-advocate, Clinical Supervisor, Integrative Psychotherapist (BACP Registered), and founder of the International Association for Body Dysmorphic Disorder (IABDD) CIC.
With lived experience and clinical expertise, Jem developed the BDD D.E.F.E.N.C.E. Model (R) to support identity repair in appearance-based distress, and offers CPD UK accredited training programmes for mental health professionals working with appearance based distress.
Her TEDx talk 'Body Image Laid Bare' has reached thousands globally. Jem is known for her emotionally intelligent, relational approach that blends clinical depth with human warmth. She's committed to systemic change, practitioner training, and making shame-visible recovery not only possible - but powerfully relational.
Level of prior experience required: None
Focus: Education and Training; Counselling and Coaching; Psychotherapy and Clinical
Style: Didactic Teaching; Discussion and Small Group and Pairs work; Experiential Work
4. The Hunger-O-Meter
Binge Eating: Hungry for Change
Ruxandra Blidaru (She/Her): TA Trainee registered with an RTE
Counselling and Coaching;Psychotherapy / Clinical
This interactive workshop introduces the Hunger-O-Meter, a new TA-based model for understanding binge-eating and the psychological dynamics underpinning it. The Hunger-O-Meter explores how unmet psychological hungers and the drive for recognition and strokes can shape binge-eating behaviours and our relationship with food. Through theory, group discussion, and experiential exercises, participants will learn to apply the model in clinical practice, enhancing their capacity to support clients in building healthier, more compassionate relationships with food and self.
The Hunger-O-Meter model has an "Intersectionality impact" section through which practitioners are encouraged to reflect on diversity and how this impacts approach. Happy to discuss and share as an attachment. I self-disclose and reflect on a lot of my own personal experience through the model.
Workshop outcomes:
Through theory, case material, group discussion, and experiential exercises, participants will learn to map ego states, identify stroke patterns, and apply the model in clinical practice, enhancing their capacity to support clients in building healthier, more compassionate relationships with food and self.
Presenters:
Ruxandra is in her final year of TA psychotherapy training at Physis Scotland. Her main areas of interest within psychotherapy and TA are neurodiversity, disordered eating, and trauma. She lives in Edinburgh and insists that she moved to Scotland for the weather.
Level of prior experience required: All levels welcome
Focus: Counselling and Coaching; Psychotherapy and Clinical
Style: Didactic Teaching; Discussion and Small Group and Pairs work
5. Working with Groups: Considering Love, Intimacy, the Radical and Intersectional
Mike Meleady (He/Him): PTSTA (P); Barbara Wattiez: PTSTA (P)
Psychotherapy / Clinical
This experiential workshop invites trainee and qualified psychotherapists to explore group work through a relational TA lens. Together we'll examine how love, intimacy, power, and identity shape group dynamics and how these forces can foster connection, belonging, and transformation. Through our own thoughts, reflective discussions, and creative group tasks, participants will reflect and consider practical skills for co-creating inclusive, courageous spaces. Exploring radical and intersectional perspectives, we'll consider traditional power structures within groups and reimagine group work as a place where authenticity, care, and collective growth become catalysts for meaningful therapeutic change.
As facilitators, we both hold various parts of our identities that differ from the hetero-normative in terms of Sexuality, Class, Cultural Heritage, and English as a first language. With Intersectionality in mind, we aim to engage with content exploring the radical and intersectional perspectives that challenge normative ideas about belonging, intimacy, power, and relationality within a group therapy context.
Our hope is to support participants in considering how reflective and practical skills in holding group spaces can centre on mutual recognition, vulnerability, co-creation, and systemic awareness.
Workshop outcomes:
The outcomes our workshop will be working towards are: Identifying how love and intimacy manifest, are sometimes resisted, and often can be co-created at a systemic level in therapeutic group spaces. To analyse how power, culture, identity, and intersectionality shape relational dynamics and intimacy. To consider and reflect on facilitation strategies that support awareness of social inequalities in order for real authentic connection and co-created transformation for those who engage in Group Therapy.
Presenter:
Barbara Wattiez: PTSTA (P) - Barbara is a relational TA psychotherapist based on the South coast. Alongside her private practice, she supervises, teaches, and runs a therapy group.
She believes that groups provide a unique healing space allowing members to practice authenticity and experience intimacy.
In a world that often leans towards individualism and polarisation, she feels experiences of difference and connection are essential for the soul.
Mike Meleady PTSTA(P) - Mike is a relational TA psychotherapist based in Central London, is currently in Private Practice, supervise's, and is an experienced Group Facilitator with a particular interest in supporting those in group who have experienced impaired mental well being due to their marginalisation.
Level of prior experience required: None
Focus: Psychotherapy and Clinical
Style: Didactic Teaching; Discussion and Small Group and Pairs work; Clinical Demonstration; Experiential Work
6. Holding Connection
Holding connection when the connection feels threatened
Annette Terry (She/Her): PTSTA
Psychotherapy / Clinical
In this experiential workshop we'll share stories of times when we've experienced broken connections, and how we re-connected. Sometimes we describe this as 'working through a rupture', but what if we change the emphasis to 'feeling our way through'? I believe both pathways are necessary but sometimes we turn to theory to understand, rather than trusting our attunement. I will invite us to lean into the felt experience in order to develop our felt sense of distance and intimacy.
We will focus on the client's language by tuning into ulterior transactions and counter-transferential responses. Please bring your experiences to share.
I identify as neurodivergent and am continually investigating creative ways to embrace all learning styles in my teaching. I will endeavour to be inclusive and interactive and integrate this in the topic I am teaching.
Workshop outcomes:
Workshop Goals:
- Learn to recognise the individual 'languages' of clients
- Explore ways in which clients express themselves non-verbally using Ulterior Transactions
- Relate client's expressions of feelings to their Script e.g. early attachment
Learning Outcomes:
- Deepen understanding of the range of client communication styles
- Develop trust in therapist's own internal calibration and interpretation
- Attune to transference and counter-transference when analysing transactions
Presenter:
Annette Terry MSc (TA Psych) PTSTA(P) DipHyp runs a private practice in Leicestershire, UK. She works creatively with therapy clients and supervisees and is interested in the spontanity of mutual growth and learning. She enjoys working in the liminal space, where the unknown can become transformational.
Level of prior experience required: Developing Level - Middle Years of Training
Focus: Psychotherapy and Clinical
Style: Discussion and Small Group and Pairs work; Experiential Work
7. The Invisible Wound: Neurodiversity and the Hurt We Carry
Exploring the Unspoken Impact of Neurodivergent Relationships in Families, Friendships, and Work
Nea Clark (She/Her): PTSTA
Psychotherapy / Clinical
What if the hurt in your relationships wasn't personal, but neurological? In this experiential and reflective workshop, we'll explore how neurodiversity both diagnosed and undiagnosed can unknowingly create pain and disconnection in families, friendships, romantic and workplace relationships. By identifying neurodivergent traits in ourselves and others, we can reframe past wounds, bring compassion to misunderstanding, and begin to heal. Grounded in Transactional Analysis, we'll explore inherited scripts, generational patterns, and the impact of neurodivergent processes on relational dynamics. Come to be moved, to reflect, and to reclaim a sense of freedom, connection, and balance for yourself and for your clients.
I present as a TA psychotherapist, supervisor and trainer working cross-culturally. My perspective is shaped by long-term clinical work with neurodivergent clients and systems, collaboration with ND colleagues, and ongoing study of neurobiology. I recognise the privileges I hold (professional status, language fluency, access to training) and how these can shape power in the room. I aim to centre ND-affirming language, invite co-creation, and remain transparent that my lens is partial and situated.
Workshop outcomes:
Participants will leave this workshop with a deeper sense of emotional balance and relief, having explored how long-held relational pain may have neurological not personal roots. Through an intrapsychic journey, they will gain new insight into themselves and their patterns, with opportunities for self-compassion, healing, and reconnection.
Cognitively, they will learn a structured process for identifying neurodivergent dynamics in relationships, and how to support clients in doing the same. The workshop offers practical frameworks grounded in Transactional Analysis, enhancing therapeutic skill while supporting personal integration. This is a space for liberation, clarity, and learning how to meet pain with understanding.
Presenter:
Nea Clark (PTSTA-P) is a psychotherapist, supervisor, NLP practitioner and ADHD coach based in Leeds, UK. She specialises in neurodiversity especially ADHD and dyslexia supporting clients and supervisees to harness strengths while meeting real-world challenges. Nea provides individual and group supervision (online and in person), teaches across multiple institutes, and regularly leads webinars and seminars.
She created a 12-layer treatment plan and training programme for ADHD work. Her books, Travel into the ADHD Mind: How to Work with ADHD Clients (2024) and ADHD Coaching (2025), offer practical, neurodivergent-affirming tools for therapists and coaches. Warm, clear and client-centred, Nea champions effective, humane practice.
Level of prior experience required: Early Level - TA101, Foundation, Year 1
Focus: Education and Training; Counselling and Coaching; Psychotherapy and Clinical; Organisational
Style: Experiential Work
8. Wellness, and Rave Culture: Is It Therapy?
Gemma Hunt (She/Her): Diploma in Counselling; James Maltby: Diploma in Counselling;
Psychotherapy / Clinical
This is my church. This is where I heal my hurt. For tonight, God is a DJ. Faithless offered us this message in their 1998 dance track. But what if to some, the rave did feel like a place of safety and worship? Fellow ravers, forming part of a neo-tribe. Rooted in the ethos of PLUR (Peace, Love, Unity, Respect), can the rave scene offer core therapeutic principles like acceptance, empathy, and authenticity? The rave, a nurturing parent, healing our inner child. Forging connections through a love of music and synchronized movement. Our script, abandoned.
The rave is a diverse place. I remember when I first went to an actual rave in a club (not a warehouse, unfortunately), I was amazed at all the 'difference'. Men, women, old, young, different races, fashion statements, crusties, metal heads, punks. It is one of the only places I have ever truly felt that. Looked around and seen so much diversity.
Workshop outcomes:
To learn about the potential healing benefits of rave culture. Community, movement, connection, self acceptance, identity formation and belonging. We look at the importance of neo-tribes and ritual, PLUR (warm fuzzies), connection, the rave as a nurturing parent, somatic healing and a feeling of transcendence. Perhaps a realisation that some clients are seeking more than just a night out from the rave.
Presenter:
Gemma is a therapeutic counsellor who completed her diploma in counselling with The Link Centre in 2025 and will now continue to complete her higher diploma. She is neurodivergent (AuDHD) and for this reason, her doors are always open to the neurodivergent community. Gemma also loves working with children and young people. She is a prolific raver and festivalgoer, enjoying the joy that comes from movement, self-expression, and a sense of freedom. Gemma harks from Kent but now lives in Sutton, London, with her partner. All that's needed is a cat, and life is nearly complete.
Like Gemma, James is a qualified therapeutic counsellor and is continuing his studies at the Link Centre. Alongside his therapeutic work, he is also a professional classical musician, with music having played an integral part of his life since childhood. He often reflects on how both music and therapy can speak from the same place, with potential to access the transpersonal quickly. In recent years, James has discovered the profound power of moving to music, and the community this opens him up to. He feels a beginner in this place and is excited to explore it further.
Level of prior experience required: None
Focus: Counselling and Coaching; Psychotherapy and Clinical
Style: Didactic Teaching; Discussion and Small Group and Pairs work; Experiential Work
9. Treatment Plans:
Ethically essential or rigid and prescriptive?
Tim Small (He/Him): CTA
Psychotherapy / Clinical
This workshop will explore tensions identified between treatment planning and 'client-led' spontaneity, in TA psychotherapy practice. Examples of published treatment plans will be examined and critiqued; participants will be invited to formulate and share their own approach to treatment planning; a solution will be offered for group evaluation, which has the potential to resolve the tensions above, allow for idiosyncracy and support flexible, client-led practice within a theoretically sound and purposeful structure.
Coming from a place of privilege, as a white, highly-educated male in his seventies with a background in educational leadership, I am a passionate advocate of empowerment through participatory learning. I offer this presentation 'as a listener', providing a framework for participants to create their own unique solutions to a shared question that requires answering by all practising and aspiring therapists
Workshop outcomes:
I would like attendees who are practising or preparing for client work to leave feeling empowered, encouraged, liberated, supported and more authoritative in how they identify, address and meet their clients' diverse needs.
Presenter:
Following a career in education, including school leadership, I started my psychotherapy training in 2013 and qualified as a CTA in May 2024, in Florence, Italy. I have a small private practice in Southwest England and volunteer with a national mental health charity weekly. I am still extending my experience and understanding through spiritual and ecological aspects of TA and enjoy regular group therapy and supervision.
Level of prior experience required: None
Focus: Counselling and Coaching; Psychotherapy and Clinical
Style: Didactic Teaching; Discussion and Small Group and Pairs work
Workshop Session 3: 14.00 – 17.00
(choose 1 workshop from 9 available)
1. Advancing Knowledge: Becoming You
A Sanological Perspective On Identity Development
John Fleming (John in all sentences) TA Diploma (UKATA or RTE)
This immersive workshop invites participants to explore identity development through a sanological lens, focusing on health and resource rather than pathology. Drawing on my Uncover, Embrace, Be framework, I will integrate Transactional Analysis concepts such as the accounting cycle, permission wheel, and functional fluency with coaching, therapeutic, and holistic practices. Participants will engage experientially‚ head, heart, body, and soul‚ through group processes that deepen self-connection and enhance professional practice. Together, we will uncover how a sanological approach can expand possibilities in working with clients on their identity journeys.
I am a gay, queer, multi neurodiverse, white, Irish, middle class, cis man and I bring an intersectional lens to all of my work.
Workshop outcomes:
- Gain an understanding of identity development through a sanological lens, focusing on health and resource rather than pathology.
- Explore how Transactional Analysis concepts (e.g., accounting cycle, permission wheel, functional fluency) can be applied to identity work.
- Experience immersive, whole-person methods (head, heart, body, soul) to deepen their own connection to self.
- Enhance their professional practice by integrating coaching, therapeutic, and holistic approaches to support clients' identity journeys.
- Reflect on the impact of systemic and social inequalities on identity development and client work.
Presenter:
John Fleming is the founder and lead practitioner of Becoming You, a personal development practice supporting people to uncover, embrace, and fully be themselves. John is a TA trainee in all fields of application and is an accredited UKCP psychotherapist, BACP counsellor, ICF & EMCC Coach & Coach Supervisor. Drawing on a complementary blend of coaching, therapeutic, holistic, and psychological modalities, John specialises in identity development through a sanological lens that engages the head, heart, body, and soul. All of John's work centres on inclusion, authenticity & wellbeing. You can read more about John's work here: www.becomingyou.ie
Level of prior experience required: Developing Level - Middle Years of Training
Focus: Counselling and Coaching;Psychotherapy and Clinical
Style: Didactic Teaching;Discussion and Small Group and Pairs work;Experiential Work
2. From fragmentation to integration
Personal and collective
Geoff Hopping (He/him): TSTA
Psychotherapy / Clinical
This workshop will explore ways to think about the relationship between the personal and the collective.
We may look out into the world and see fragmentation - my hypothesis is that this is in part a projection of the collective onto the world.
There will be some didactic input from a variety of ancient and contemporary thinkers , some small group exercises and an opportunity for a small reflective fishbowl group.
We will consider how TA can help us to think about the concepts of shadow and the collective.
I identify as a queer presenter and the lens through which I will explore fragmentation will include all aspects of separation, marginalisation and exclusion.
Workshop outcomes:
To have a clearer understanding of the relationship and similarities between the inner world and the external world and to think about ways that TA can contribute to this contemporary world view.
Presenter:
Geoff is a TSTA and and interfaith minister. He is currently a partner at The Link Centre and has spent 30 years in TA and 50 years in mental health. He has worked with many marginalized groups.
He is passionate about the link between spirituality and science.
Level of prior experience required: None
Focus: Education and Training;Counselling and Coaching;Psychotherapy and Clinical;Organisational
Style: Didactic Teaching;Discussion and Small Group and Pairs work;Clinical Demonstration;Experiential Work
3. Addressing the White Supremacy we are folded within
Making use of the co-creative principles to facilitate co-regulation, empowerment and a co-loosening of the bonds of trauma.
Beren Aldridge (He/Him); Julia Pool; Nicole Turner;
Psychotherapy / Clinical
The violently profound impact of Britain's history as a colonial power is an enduring white supremacy that resonates throughout every aspect of our lives, regardless of our race or our home, often in ways that are hidden to the white population. As transactional analysts, the languages we speak, the theories we use, the media we share, the institutions we inhabit, the organisations we join. All are unavoidably influenced and continuing the damage of white supremacy and colonialism.
This workshop will explore these issues in dialogue with the participants - inviting an ongoing and lifelong commitment to be an activist for change of the white supremacist and colonialist systems we all inherit regardless of our individual intent, which harm us all, some much more than others.
Workshop outcomes:
A heightened awareness of how the social construct of being 'white' has been used for 500 years to confer status and privilege upon the descendants of colonial European nations.
An increased awareness that much as we all train to find the unconscious and parallel processes in our work, it is our job to grow our competency and capacity to see the hidden processes of white supremacy, and to address their harms.
To recognise that white privilege needs to be owned and discussed and addressed by the people that that privilege is conferred upon.
Presenter:
Beren is a TSTA (P) and CTA (P), and a psychotherapist, supervisor, trainer and writer, working in private practice in Kendal. He is a member of the teaching faculty on the TA Masters programme at the Sherwood Psychotherapy Training Institute. He is the chair of UKATA's Training, Accreditation and Standards Committee, the TA Cumbria Conference, and a member of the Editorial Board of the Transactional Analysis Journal.
Julia is a CTA (P) in private practice in Oxfordshire. She is interested in exploring how the harmful effects of systemic oppression surface in the most fleeting relational moments.
Nicole is an advanced TA psychotherapy trainee living and working in London, UK. She comes to psychotherapy as a second career after thirty years working in media. She brings her experiences and history as a Jamaican immigrant to both the US and UK to her work and is working to bring black feminisms and liberation psychology central to her practice.
Level of prior experience required: None
Focus: Education and Training;Counselling and Coaching;Psychotherapy and Clinical;Organisational
Style: Didactic Teaching;Discussion and Small Group and Pairs work
4. Voicing the Inarticulate Cry
Hearing the wound beneath the defense
Rosalind Sharples (She/Her): TSTA
Psychotherapy / Clinical
The core of our work may be to contact our clients' pain and release their capacity for joy. We meet defences that interrupt contact with self, others, and life. I have found that the painful process of hearing the 'Inarticulate Cry' - both my own and clients - releases Physis and increases capacity for radical acceptance, joy and connection.
I am inspired by the therapeutic transaction (Hagaden and Sills, 2001), Jungian theories, existential life positions (Berne, 1961), and John McNeel's (2021) work on injunctive messages.
In this workshop, I will use a combination of theories, experiential exercises and shared reflection. I will invite you to bring your work, so that we can integrate your experiences directly into your practice.
I am a privileged white woman. I have experienced the benefit of financial stability and educational riches. I am lucky enough to live in a beautiful part of the world, surrounded by nature. I am also neurodiverse, and work with people who have suffered deprivation, economically, culturally and through abuse. I am challenged by my trainees and supervisees to continually expand my frame of reference to understand differences with humility and openness.
Workshop outcomes:
A way to develop effective practice to stay steady in self when meeting the intensity of own and another's pain. How to stay balanced in the splitting of conflict. And how to think about how to structure the work towards acceptance and joy.
Presenter:
Rosalind is the Director of Transactional Analysis Cymru. She is passionate about working with the process as it unfolds in the room and using this experience to bring theory to life. She has a background in the arts and a long history of working in creative fields, which she applies to psychological processes.
Over the last decade, she has successfully brought learners and learning facilitators together to create a vibrant TA community in West Wales. From an area where there was little psychotherapy practice, a thriving population of robust, effective practitioners has emerged.
Level of prior experience required: Developing Level - Middle Years of Training
Focus: Education and Training;Counselling and Coaching;Psychotherapy and Clinical;Organisational
Style: Didactic Teaching;Discussion and Small Group and Pairs work;Clinical Demonstration;Experiential Work
5. Keep it live, keep it loving, keep it now:
A rough guide to transformational experience
John Heath (He, Him): TSTA; Alexandra Logan: MSc
This workshop will be led by two practitioners who started their professional lives in very different places and discovered through working together that they were inspired by the same vision. One of us started out as a priest who later became a therapist. The other began as a strictly evidence-based psychologist who became a therapist and eventually felt called to spiritual ministry.
We have worked together for almost a decade now and feel we have, between us, developed ways to understand the deep nature of the work of helping people find their way in life. We also believe that in our troubled times it is no longer possible to ignore the pathogenic aspects of modern culture which pushes so many towards a sense of futility.
Offering vitality, loving intent and presence in the therapy room provides a way to push back against the futile life position. In guided and experiential exercises we will explore ways to optimise these three aspects of the therapy experience and potentially to open the heart again.
Authentic expression of our own identities is key to the way in which our work together has developed. We will be clear about this and share deails as and when necessary
Workshop outcomes:
Increased awareness of:
1. spirituality as a natural (unlearned) feature of human consciousness
2. a place for the consideration of spiritual aspects in diagnosis and treatment planning in therapy
3. the pathogenic nature of materialist culture which does not acknowledge and promote life as inherently meaningful
4. the potential for all helping professionals to be addressing (implicitly or explicitly) this cultural vacuum
Presenter:
Alexandra Logan, MSc, finds herself living in a strange half light between the altar table and the therapy room. She loves the bones of this incarnated experience in which heaven and earth continue to vie for her attention. She has been an Anglican priest for 22 years, working in parishes and chaplaincies. She is also a qualified integrative psychotherapist, most recently working in private practice and as a part time prison chaplain.
John Heath, M.Ed, TSTA is now in semi-retirement but admits to an undimmed desire to contribute to our collective drive to heal ourselves and our world. He has been a psychological professional for all his working life and has been running a TA therapy, supervision and training practice for more than thirty years. More recently he trained with the One-Spirit Interfaith Foundation and was ordained as an Interfaith Minister in 2023.
Level of prior experience required: All levels of experience will be welcomed
Focus: Education and Training;Counselling and Coaching;Psychotherapy and Clinical;Organisational
Style: Discussion and Small Group and Pairs work;Experiential Work
6. Integrating Parts Work with TA
Stabilisation to Empower Trauma Survivors
Jo Moores (She/Her): PTSTA
Psychotherapy / Clinical
As TA therapists how do we adapt and integrate our theory and practice to work more safely with trauma and dissociation? In this workshop we will play with ideas, exercises and movement, to help us deepen our understanding of embodied experiences such as regulation and resourcing as essential tools for stabilisation. We will also explore the destabilising presence of Structural Dissociation in the therapy room, using Janina Fishers (2017) TIST model, and link to theories and practice of TA that help empower and steady our clients.
I have privileged identity as a white, cis/het professional, I'm also from a working class family, have a trauma history and am Audhd.
Workshop outcomes:
Develop a deeper appreciation of safety and stabilisation in working with trauma survivors
Integrate ideas from trauma theories into TA
Develop an embodied awareness of regulation and resourcing
Practice a practical safety exercise
Presenter:
Jo Moores is a PTSTA based in Manchester in the north of England and has a particular interest in trauma, neurodiversity and work with the body. Whilst her main modality is TA, Jo has trained in and received supervision for many years around working with complex developmental trauma and dissociation. She is currently undertaking additional training in Family Constellations, to explore a systemic view of transgenerational trauma.
Jo's background is in social justice work and she is interested in exploring themes of intersectionality and Social Trauma and how issues of power, privilege and oppression show up in our work.
Level of prior experience required: Developing Level - Middle Years of Training
Focus: Psychotherapy and Clinical
Style: Didactic Teaching;Discussion and Small Group and Pairs work;Experiential Work
7. Chacun Cherche Son Chat (Everyone is looking for their cat)
Developing Your Authentic Professional Philosophy Within a TA Framework
Rachel Cook (She/Her); Patrick Brook: TSTA
Psychotherapy / Clinical
All TA practitioners are asked to engage in multiple philosophical tasks: embrace TA's philosophical underpinnings, develop your own personal philosophical stance and professional identity, and engage in philosophy as critical thinking. "Chacun cherche son chat" - everyone is looking for their cat - recognises each therapist's, supervisor's and educator's search for their unique philosophical home, with this workshop offering a structured philosophical exploration of your developing authentic professional identity. Through reflection, group discussion, honest dialogue, and helpful practical frameworks, Rachel and Patrick offer a way to navigate these tensions and help forge your authentic philosophical path with confidence and integrity.
The workshop is centred around exploration of each individual's own personal and professional identity, and how the two are intertwined. This includes exploration of each participant's intersectional identity and how this impacts their values, beliefs, philosophical underpinnings, and favoured methods, methodologies and theories as practitioners.
We will also explore the difference between identity as a CTA and PTSTA/TSTA (and the inherent power/privilege in these respective positions), and Rachel and Patrick will be offering examples from their own work and lives to illustrate how their differences (e.g., gender, family, education, sexuality, cultural history) impacts their own philosophies and personal identity as practitioners.
Workshop outcomes:
By the end of this workshop, participants will:
Distinguish between 'philosophy' and 'a philosophy' and recognise the pressure to and the importance of developing a personal philosophy as a TA practitioner (clinician, supervisor, teacher).
Critically evaluate the philosophy of TA in relation to their own developing philosophical stance
Experience the process of articulating/developing a personal philosophy
Apply a structured framework to consider key variables in personal philosophy development
Presenter:
Rachel Cook TSTA, CTA (Psychotherapy), MSc, MA, PGCE is a highly experienced relational psychotherapist, supervisor, trainer, and author, and has been an educator for 30 years. She facilitates groups and training courses in Hampshire and is a visiting tutor for Connexus Institute. She is widely published, sits on the editorial board of the Transactional Analysis Journal, and is author of "Existential Perspectives in Transactional Analysis: The Development of the Adult Self and the Human Search for Meaning" (Routledge, 2026). Rachel is passionate about relational existentialism and co-creativity, striving to use her humanity, humour, integrity and authentic self in her work.
Patrick Brook TSTA, CTA (Psychotherapy), MA, is a founding director and academic director of the Connexus Institute, Hove. As a highly experienced psychotherapist, clinical supervisor and trainer, he brings decades of expertise from a career as a university lecturer and academic manager, having taught extensively in the UK and internationally. Patrick has developed particular expertise in syllabus and curriculum design and learner-centred approaches, with a deep belief that authentic engagement is the key to achieving successful learning outcomes and growth. He has dedicated himself to creating transformative educational and therapeutic experiences through genuine connection in all aspects of his practice.
Level of prior experience required: Our workshop is aimed at all trainees, CTAs, PTSTAs and TSTAs
Focus: Education and Training;Counselling and Coaching;Psychotherapy and Clinical;Organisational
Style: Didactic Teaching;Discussion and Small Group and Pairs work;Clinical Demonstration;Experiential Work
8. Who are we? We're who we are: applying group lens to working with couples
Ronen Stilman (Him/His): TSTA
Psychotherapy / Clinical
Berne developed Transactional Analysis in groups and was deeply interested in their process, structure and dynamics. In this workshop we will explore how long-term couple work can be aided by a group lens that attends to group process informed by systems theory. Using concepts from Landaiche, Berne, Bion and Bowen, we will explore how applying a group lens can support the exploration of a couple's relational templates origins and manifestation in the couple's past, present, and therapeutic systems of relating.
My Identity is plural and definitely not singular
Workshop outcomes:
Familiarise with some group theory ideas and how it applies to working with couples.
Presenter:
Ronen Stilman MSc (TA Psychotherapy), Teaching and Supervising Transactional Analyst (P) is a psychotherapist, supervisor, and trainer. He works with individuals, couples, and practitioners both in his Edinburgh city-centre practice and in Cyberspace.
With a deep curiosity about how humans embody, relate, and shape their identities within cultural, political, and social contexts, he integrates his background in technology and organisational change into his therapeutic and teaching approach. His work explores the intersections of embodiment, identity, and community, fostering deeper awareness and relational engagement in clinical practice.
Level of prior experience required: Advanced Level - Towards CTA and beyond
Focus: Psychotherapy and Clinical
Style: Didactic Teaching;Discussion and Small Group and Pairs work;Experiential Work
9. Co-Creative Research through a TA Lens
Research "On," "With," or "For" Our Participants and Who's Missing?
Andy Williams (He/Him/His); Hulya Hooker (She/Her); Lori Hedges (She/Her) Alison Mackiewicz (She/Her) Emma Jackson (She/Her) Pawel Jedras (He/Him)
Psychotherapy / Clinical
This workshop explores how co-creative TA concepts such as we-ness and shared responsibility can transform research from an extractive to an emancipatory practice. Centring a live research question from UKATA's Intersectional Cultural Committee‚ What are the systemic, structural and cultural barriers to accessing TA training, therapy and supervision, especially at the intersection of multiple minoritised identities?"Participants will engage in collaborative inquiry in real time. Together, we will examine power, ethics and consent, and co-design mini-research steps that bridge theory and action. Beginning before the conference and including contributions from non-attendees, the project enhances knowledge, improves practice and models a participatory, intersectional approach.
Andy's intersectional identity includes white maleness and queerness. Andy is now a second-generation of a family that survived the Holocaust. He believes in transgenerational trauma. He is dyslexic.
Hulya is a Turkish-born, Cis woman. Hulya came to the UK at the age of 22 for her postgraduate studies, aiming to expand and enrich her sense of self through a cross-cultural lens.
Emma grew up in a very working-class environment, and is a bisexual working ADHD woman.
Alison is a white cis-female.
Lori is an Irish/British neurodivergent white cis female.
Pawel, born in Krakow in 1985, speaks Polish and English. Raised in a family that endured World War II and life under communism, he experienced Poland's sweeping changes in the early 1990s. He was diagnosed with dyslexia at five and completed his university studies in the UK.
Workshop outcomes:
1. Differentiate between research conducted "on," "with" and "for" participants, using Transactional Analysis concepts such as co-creativity, we-ness and contracting.
2. Critically examine the power dynamics inherent in research relationships, including how positionality, privilege and institutional frameworks influence participation and knowledge production.
3. Apply TA-informed approaches to designing and facilitating idiosyncratic focus groups, exploring how to co-create methods that reflect participants' lived experience and intersectional identities.
4. Develop strategies for embedding ongoing consent, transparency and reflexivity into all stages of research design and delivery.
5. Evaluate how participatory research can become emancipatory, identifying practical steps to move from extractive to collaborative and "for" research models.
Presenter:
Dr Hulya Hooker, a member of UKATA and BACP, is a TA Counsellor (Dip) and a Psychologist (PhD) working towards her UKCP accreditation. She has spent nearly three decades working as a researcher in the UK after completing her Master's and Doctorate degrees in Psychology, the last 17 years working for the civil service as a Principal Researcher. Hulya runs a small private practice on the South Coast. She is passionate about using evidence to raise awareness and working towards reducing stigma surrounding mental health in the workplace. She loves her exercise classes varying from lifting weights, Pilates to HIIT and runs at the weekends as her playtime.
Lori Hedges is a TA psychotherapist, CTA(P), supervisor and trainer. Her initial training was as an integrative counsellor (using TA and IFS), and she went on to complete PgCert in Trauma Studies, and then Supervision, before completing her MSc in Transactional Analysis Psychotherapy. Lori has a private practice in the south of England, predominantly working with clients who have experienced developmental/childhood trauma and have associated mental health diagnoses of dissociative disorders or personality disorders. She also offers supervision in her private practice and teaches TA theory to trainees on an FNDC in Humanistic Counselling based on TA. Outside her professional life, Lori enjoys dancing regularly (modern jive/folk) and taking long walks in nature.
Dr Alison Mackiewicz is a chartered Psychologist and senior lecturer at Aberystwyth University, as well as running a small private practice as a counsellor and psychotherapist. She has a TA diploma (Dip TA practice), is a member of the BPS, BACP, and UKATA, and is currently working towards UKCP accreditation. Alison is passionate about nature and can often be found walking the beaches and hills in Ceredigion, Wales.
Andy Williams TSTA(P) is a Psychotherapist, Clinical Supervisor, Trainer and Researcher based in Leeds, West Yorkshire. He holds senior accreditation with BACP and NCPS. He is part of the Eco-Collective and enjoys working in partnership with the Earth. His research interests include the efficacy and relationship in clinical supervision. He is one of the co-editors of the Transactional Analysis Journal. Andy is also passionate about nature and sacred stones in the landscape.
Dr Emma Jackson has recently been awarded her PhD from the University of York and is now a lecturer at the University of York St John. She works in private practice and has completed her advanced clinical training at TATO. She is passionate about collaborative research with marginalised communities and thinking about how power structures are at play in both education and therapy settings, and how experiences of trauma impact how we relate to power. Emma enjoys getting out in nature with her dogs whilst indulging in her addiction to podcasts.
Pawel holds a BSc in Psychology, an MSc in Addictive Behaviours, and a PhD in Psychology from the University of Liverpool, where he explored motivation and emotion regulation. He has published research on addictive behaviours, appetite, and motivation, and has contributed to projects with the NHS and WHO. Pawel has delivered tutorials in Applied Psychology at master's level and run workshops on attachment, shame, and emotion regulation. Alongside his research, he trained in Person-Centred counselling and is in advanced training in Transactional Analysis psychotherapy. A member of BACP and working towards UKCP accreditation, he is currently expanding his private practice. Outside of work, he enjoys playing guitar, taking walks in Delamere Forest, and visiting Chester Zoo.
Level of prior experience required: None
Focus: Education and Training;Counselling and Coaching;Psychotherapy and Clinical;Organisational
Style: Didactic Teaching;Discussion and Small Group and Pairs work