Conference Schedule
7 November 2026 Brighton
08:30 – 09:30
Registration
Tea, coffee & pastries
09:30 – 09:45
Conference Opening
Organising Committee
Welcome and introduction to the day
09:45 – 10:45
Opening Plenary
Rachel Cook, TSTA, CTA (Psychotherapy), MSc, MA, PGCE
“Showing Up as Ourselves: An Existential View of Self-Disclosure in Practice”
How much of yourself do you bring into the room? It’s a question trainees wrestle with, and it doesn’t have a simple answer. Self-disclosure appears in our competency frameworks as something to be done “appropriately.” But what does appropriate actually mean? Drawing on her recent book Existential Perspectives in Transactional Analysis: The Development of the Adult Self and the Human Search for Meaning, Rachel explores the space between authenticity and boundaries. When does sharing serve the client? When does it serve us? And what does it really mean to show up as ourselves?
10:45 – 11:15
Morning Break
Tea, coffee & biscuits
11:15 – 12:30
Morning Workshops
Choose one of four parallel sessions (75 mins)
Option A
Dr Helena Hargaden
Searching for Normal
Option B
Amanda Bradley, CTA(P)
The Business of Therapy
Option C
Cazzy Stilwell, TSTA, CTA(P)
Beyond the Sandtray
Option D
Peter Golder, CTA(P)
LGBTQ+ Affirmative Practice
12:30 – 14:00
Lunch
14:00 – 15:15
Afternoon Workshops
Choose one of four parallel sessions (75 mins)
Option A
Dr Hulya Hooker, PhD
Research Without Fear
Option B
Nancy Dalton
Client Assessment
Option C
Holly Simmonds
Minding the Gaps
Option D
Julie Shepherd & Emma Castledine
Neuroinclusive Practice
Neuroinclusive Practice
15:15 – 15:45
Afternoon Break
Tea, coffee & biscuits
15:45 – 16:45
Closing Panel
Mandy Atkinson, TSTA & Patrick Brook, TSTA (with presenters from the day)
“Getting More from Training, Supervision, and Beyond”
By the end of a day like this, you’ll have taken in a lot. But what will you actually take away? And how do you make sure the things that matter don’t just fade by Monday? Adults learn differently, and the environments we learn in matter. Our prior experiences of learning shape how we engage with new ideas. We need relevance, and we want to be active participants rather than passive recipients. Much of our deepest learning is co-created through dialogue and discourse. This closing session draws on principles of adult learning (andragogy) to explore what that means in practice. It’s not a lecture about learning styles. It’s an honest conversation about what helps us grow as practitioners — and what gets in the way. Chaired by experienced educators and supervisors, Mandy and Patrick, with a panel of presenters from the day, this session invites you to explore how you learn, how you might make better use of supervision, and how you continue to develop as your work and career progress.
16:45 – 17:00
Conference Close
Organising Committee
Reflections and farewell
Workshop Details
Morning Workshops (11:15 – 12:30)
Please choose only one from the following four
“Searching for Normal: What Timimi’s Challenge Means for Relational Practice”
Dr Helena Hargaden, DPsych, MSc, TSTA (Psychotherapy)
Sami Timimi’s book ‘Searching for Normal’ asks uncomfortable questions about the diagnostic frameworks we’ve all grown up with professionally. If mental health categories are culturally constructed, politically shaped, and commercially driven, what does that mean for how we sit with our clients? And what happens when we stop reaching for a label and start reaching for the person? This workshop puts Timimi’s critique into conversation with relational psychotherapy. His argument — that distress is better understood through context, culture, and relationship than through diagnosis — resonates deeply with the relational tradition. Helena draws on her own work at the intersection of transactional analysis and relational psychoanalysis to explore what it means to hold a client’s experience without the scaffolding of diagnostic certainty. This isn’t a workshop about abandoning all frameworks. It’s about examining which ones serve the relationship — and which ones get in the way.
“The Business of Therapy: What They Don’t Teach You in Training”
Amanda Bradley, CTA (Psychotherapy)
Our qualification frameworks expect professional competence, including clear business contracting. Yet most training focuses on the consulting room, not what actually surrounds it. We’re often left to muddle through the commercial, legal, and administrative foundations of running a practice. Amanda Bradley brings a unique perspective: twenty years in corporate finance before retraining as a therapist. This workshop draws on both worlds, helping you think through what a sustainable practice actually looks like and offering space to ask the questions you might not have felt you were able to raise elsewhere.
“Beyond the Sandtray: What Does Working Creatively Actually Mean?”
Cazzy Stilwell, TSTA, CTA (Psychotherapy)
When people talk about creative practice, they often picture sandtrays and art materials. But what if your therapy takes place in a context with little beyond a room and two chairs? Creativity appears in our qualification criteria, yet the meaning of it is rarely unpacked. What does it actually mean to work creatively? This workshop challenges assumptions and explores how to access creativity with whatever you have. Including the most important resource: yourself.
“Scripting, Culture, and Sexual Orientation: A Framework for LGBTQ+ Affirmative Practice”
Peter Golder, CTA (Psychotherapy)
While “LGBTQ+ affirmative practice” is central to modern ethical codes, its clinical application may trigger anxiety for some practitioners. But what does the term actually mean? And why do so many therapists, particularly those who don’t identify as LGBTQ+ themselves, still feel uncertain enough to refer this work elsewhere? This workshop, provided by a therapist from the LGBTQ+ community, provides a robust framework for understanding affirmation as an active relational process. Drawing on the TA concept of Script and Pearl Drego’s model of Cultural Scripting, we explore how heteronormative and cisnormative scripting function as powerful introjected social constructs, and acknowledge what this may mean for our clinical work. We’ll also look at what constitutes good and bad practice, and how our own cultural scripts may be shaping our responses in ways we haven’t yet noticed.
Afternoon Workshops (14:00 – 15:15)
Please choose only one from the following four
“Research Without Fear: A Practical Introduction”
Dr Hulya Hooker, PhD
There’s a myth that engaging with research means doing research. Designing studies, writing papers, collecting data. Most practitioners don’t need to do any of that. What they need is to be confident consumers of research: able to find it, read it critically, and know what to trust. This workshop is for anyone who feels uncertain about research. We’ll explore what it actually is, why it matters for practice, and how you can engage with it without ever running a study yourself.
“The Art and Skill of Client Assessment”
Nancy Dalton, CTA (Psychotherapy)
Assessment is an ongoing process, though those early sessions in any therapy do carry particular weight. You’re building rapport while gathering information. Forming impressions, making judgements, working out whether this is someone you can help. And it goes both ways: you’re also creating space for the client to decide whether they can and want to work with you. What should you actually be looking for? How do you think diagnostically while staying relational? This workshop offers a practical framework for thinking about assessment, with tools and ideas you can apply directly in practice.
“Minding the Gaps: A Five-Gap Model for Understanding Professional Vulnerability”
Holly Simmonds, BSc Hons., UKCP Humanistic and Integrative Psychotherapist, Clinical Supervisor, UKATA Advanced Practitioner, NCPS Senior Accredited Registrant
Our qualification frameworks expect ethical competence, self-awareness, and an understanding of our own limitations. But how do we actually notice when we’re becoming vulnerable in our practice? Holly Simmonds introduces her Five-Gap Model, a framework for identifying the areas where practitioners are most at risk of ethical difficulty. From unresolved personal material to role conflation, from knowledge gaps to organisational pressures and under-resourcing, this workshop offers a practical tool you can use wherever you are in your training or career, across several contexts.
“Neuroinclusive Practice”
Julie Shepherd
Emma Castledine, Integrative Humanistic Psychotherapist, EMDR Practitioner, Clinical Supervisor
Neurodivergence covers a vast and varied landscape. There’s no single profile, no universal set of accommodations, no checklist that works for everyone. Our frameworks ask for sensitivity to diversity, but what does that actually look like when every neuro divergent client is different? This workshop is designed to meet you wherever you are on that journey. We’ll explore how to create space for discovery rather than assumption, how to negotiate what works without imposing, and how to notice your own ableism — and your client’s internalised version of it. We’ll also consider where TA theory might need revisiting in an ND context. The aim isn’t expertise. It’s a willingness to learn alongside your clients.