2025
Monday, 24th March from 7 to 9pm (UK)
Roz Carroll - Props in psychotherapy : why I love them & how I use them
‘Props’ in psychotherapy are any objects or materials that can be used to explore sensation, provide support, stimulate imaginative engagement or provide a creative ‘third’.
In this context ‘third’ means ‘potential space’ or ‘different perspective’. Clients can choose from a variety of items - stones, sandtray figures, Russian dolls, scarves – to map out a scenario, tell a story, name and explore parts of themselves. Occasionally I introduce Native American Medicine cards with their broad range of animals such as ‘fox’, ‘spider’ or ‘bear’, and the qualities they are believed to embody. At other times the client is encouraged to draw or make something. The purpose is to help the client connect to their own creativity, knowing and intuition, and to expand their understanding of themselves in relationship and in situations of challenge.
Within the crucible of the therapeutic relationship, props serve to amplify, enliven or illustrate processes which may be subliminal. They also enhance the client’s sense of embodiment. Weighted blankets, for example, supply deep tissue pressure, evoking a feeling akin to being ‘swaddled’. They help reduce clients’ anxiety, numbness and freeze. I use balls of various sizes, from colourful rubber filamented koosh balls, to tennis balls and a large pilates ball to open up dimensions of bodily experience in ways which are safe, surprising, grounding and often freeing and fun.
During this talk I will bring out these and other props to show how I use them, and I will read clinical vignettes from my book in progress ‘Embodiment Now’.
ROZ CARROLL is a registered body psychotherapist (UKCP). She taught on the MA in Integrative Psychotherapy at the Minster Centre for 14 years, at The Bowlby Centre for seven years, and was a regular speaker at Confer for over 20 years. She is co-editor with Jane Ryan of What is normal? Psychotherapists Explore the Question (2020).. She was a Founding Editor of the Journal of Dance Movement and Body in Psychotherapy. Her numerous writings include ‘The blood-dimmed tide: Witnessing War and Working with the Collective Body in Authentic Movement’ in the Journal of Psychotherapy and Politics International (2015), as well as chapters in Embodied Approaches to Supervision, Ed.C.Butte & T. Colbert ( 2022), and Talking Bodies, Ed. K. White (2014).
Monday, 9th June from 7-9pm (UK)
Christiane Sanderson - ‘The Perfect Client’: Shame, Narcissism, and Perfectionism in The Therapeutic Space
The corrosive nature of core, or chronic shame as a result of narcissistic injuries to the developing self can leave deep narcissistic wounds throughout the lifespan. This presentation will explore the nature of core shame and how that can lead to a range of defences such as withdrawal, attacking self, avoidance and attacking others (Nathanson, 1992) and their link to narcissism, grandiosity and perfectionism. It will examine how the pursuit of perfectionism as a protective survival strategy to mitigate and counterbalance a deep sense of shame manifests in the therapeutic space. Clients who have experienced shame through relational trauma, traumatic invalidation and stigmatisation will seek acceptance, approval and validation from others and are often seen as people pleasers. In the therapeutic space they tend to present as the ‘perfect client’ in being compliant, overly solicitous and echoistic in their interactions and responses. In order for such clients to have their unmet needs met, they need to disavow their shame and cover up their feelings of humiliated fury and rage.
This presentation aims to enhance clinicians understanding the link between shame, narcissism, perfectionism and the development of an alien, or inauthentic self that supports the illusion of the ‘perfect client’ and how to work with this to reclaim authenticity and authentic pride. Consideration will also be given to therapist’s vulnerability to shame and their need to be seen as ‘the perfect healer’ and how this impacts on the therapeutic relationship. Through compassionate curiosity, participants will be able to recognise the entanglement of client and therapist shame and shame re-enactments alongside how to create the requisite relational safety to express frozen and deeply buried feelings and acceptance of the authentic self.
CHRISTIANE SANDERSON is a former senior lecturer in Psychology at the University of Roehampton, of London with over 35 years of experience working in the field of childhood sexual abuse, sexual violence and complex trauma. She has delivered advice and training for parents, teachers, social workers, nurses, therapists, counsellors, the police and faith communities. Her research interests span trauma informed therapeutic practice, PTSD, Complex Trauma, CSA, domestic abuse and Narcissism. She is the author of We Are Still Here: What Counsellors and Therapists Can learn from the Lived Experiences of Child Sexual Abuse Survivors; Working with Survivors of Sibling Sexual Abuse: A Guide to Therapeutic Support and Protection for Children and Adults; Counselling Skills for Working with Shame; Counselling Skills for Working with Trauma: Healing from Child Sexual Abuse, Sexual Violence and Domestic Abuse; Counselling Adult Survivors of Child Sexual Abuse, 3rd edition; Counselling Survivors of Domestic Abuse; The Seduction of Children: Empowering Parents and Teachers to Protect Children from Child Sexual Abuse, and Introduction to Counselling Survivors of Interpersonal Trauma, all published by Jessica Kingsley Publishers. She has also written The Warrior Within: A One in Four Handbook to Aid Recovery from Sexual Violence 4th Edition; The Spirit Within: A One in Four Handbook to Aid Recovery from Religious Sexual Abuse Across All Faiths; Responding to Survivors of Child Sexual Abuse: A pocket guide for professionals, partners, families and friends, and Numbing the Pain: A pocket guide for professionals supporting survivors of childhood sexual abuse and addiction for the charity One in Four for whom she is a trustee.
Monday, 10th November from 7-9pm (UK)
Emmy van Deurzen - Living beyond Confrontation with Death
Confrontation with the reality of death can lead to insecurity and intense emotion, but beyond fear, anxiety and depression, lies the possibility of a renewal of existential courage. How can we face up to the paradoxes of human existence and renew our commitment to the future, after we have encountered the frontier of life?
This session will look at the philosophical wisdom and psychological knowledge that can enrich our work with people who have been confronted with the limits and boundaries of life and for whom each day will hold both enormous challenges and great new discoveries and consolations.
EMMY VAN DEURZEN is an existential therapist, counselling psychologist, philosopher, international speaker and author of 20 books. Her work has been widely translated. She founded the Society for Existential Analysis and its journal in 1988, the Regent’s School of Psychotherapy in 1990, the New School of Psychotherapy and Counselling in 1996 and the Existential Academy in 2010. She was the driving force behind the First World Congress of Existential Therapy in 2015, which also saw the birth of the Federation for Existential Therapists in Europe. She is visiting professor with Middlesex University and President of the worldwide Existential Movement.
Amongst her books are the bestseller Existential Psychotherapy and Counselling in Practice (Sage, 3d edition 2012), Psychotherapy and the Quest for Happiness (Sage, 2009), Everyday Mysteries (Routledge, 2nd ed, 2010), Paradox and Passion (Wiley, 2nd ed 2015) and Rising from Existential Crisis (PCCS books, 2021). Her book The Art of Freedom: Guide to a Wiser Life will be published by Penguin in 2025.