Training & Development
All MC's training programmes are evidence‑based, highly experiential, practical and centred around play as a mechanism for growth and learning. The programmes are designed to support attendees to cultivate compassion in therapeutic and staff support settings.
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Build therapeutic competency in compassion‑focused approaches.
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Equip professionals, with practical skills and models to support patients and teams.
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Frame compassion not just as an ethical stance but as an operational therapeutic process.
“I cannot teach anybody anything; I can only help them think.”
Socrates
Compassion Focused Group Psychotherapy - 3 Day Introductory
This experiential workshop introduces a structured five-phase Compassion Focused Group Psychotherapy (CFGP) programme, designed to meet the diverse needs of group members across the lifespan. The model is adaptable to a wide range of settings, including health services, higher education, community contexts, and specialist psychotherapy services.
The workshop includes:
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Detailed exploration of a modular Compassion Focused Group programme, including demonstrations and opportunities for skills practice.
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Introduction to Compassion Focused Games and embodied movement exercises, with experiential practice designed to strengthen and deepen the psychotherapeutic process.
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Opportunities for connection and small-group practice, enabling participants to reflect, integrate learning, and develop confidence in facilitation.
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Lived-experience perspectives from individuals who have completed the programme, offering insight into the impact and process of the model.
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Opportunity to purchase the accompanying handbook, which provides detailed guidance on all aspects of the model and its implementation.
This workshop is suitable for clinicians, therapists, and professionals interested in applying Compassion Focused Therapy principles within group psychotherapy settings.
Testimonials
“I thought that it was delivered so well, Kate shared so much helpful information with us in a way that was very engaging. I particularly like to learn through hearing about others experiences which she thoughtfully shared, and I liked how we had a small group we got to work with consistently throughout. I feel like I learnt so much about group facilitation as well as CFT, but also about myself, which I can reflect on for my own practice. I was not expecting it to be this brilliant and am really pleased to have been part of it. I also really enjoyed the activities we learnt and practiced together. I feel quite excited and inspired by this workshop.”
Compassion Focused Group Psychotherapy
3 Day Advanced
How do we develop the confidence and skill to bring embodied movement and action methods into our psychotherapeutic group practice? Perhaps by practising them ourselves — learning from the inside out through the lens of compassion. Getting out of our chairs and out of our heads, and into our bodies and compassionate intention, can be challenging for us all.
This three-day workshop offers experiential learning in working with action methods within a process-driven Compassion Focused Group Psychotherapy framework. Participants will have opportunities to observe demonstrations and practise creative, embodied interventions designed to support patients in cultivating compassion in mind and body.
We will explore the theoretical foundations underpinning group-based chair work, role-taking, reworking early relational trauma, and play-based interventions. The focus will be on deepening patients’ understanding of their difficulties while stimulating care-giving and care-receiving capacities.
We begin with the foundation of all such work: cultivating safeness — in ourselves and in our group spaces.
This training builds on introductory and intermediate CFT and CFT for groups, with an emphasis on developing process skills, confidence and embodied capacity in group work.
Testimonials
“I liked the focus on the importance of the group process and the development of relationships within the group. It was extremely helpful to have this mirrored in our break-out groups. I found the experiential exercises very useful, particularly the role taking. Also, the section on managing difficult groups and the role play and discussion within that was very helpful. Also, the section on transference helped me to reflect on what may be happening in groups, but also within other ‘groups’ within our organisation.”
Workshops and Away Days
I provide bespoke workshops tailored to the unique needs of your team and organisation. These sessions can be delivered either online or face-to-face, depending on your preference. A wide range of topics is available, including Compassion-Focused Staff Support, Working with Complex Attachment, and Relational Trauma. Each workshop is interactive, evidence-informed, and grounded in real-world practice, ensuring relevance to the challenges professionals face in their settings.
In addition to commissioned workshops, I offer a series of annual in-person training events focused on developing clinical skills and confidence in delivering Compassion-Focused Staff Support and Group Psychotherapy Programmes. Both introductory and advanced options are available. These workshops are held in Birmingham, conveniently located near public transport and local amenities.
Away Days: I also offer fully facilitated Away Days and Staff Support Days, designed to foster cohesion, mobilise compassion, and bring a sense of play into teams and organisations. These days can be entirely facilitated or tailored to incorporate additional elements, depending on the specific needs of your service or organisation.
Contact for more information about costs or to discuss your needs.
Supervision
Individual Supervision
“In supervision holding and containing are being provided for the therapists rather than for clients. Bion describes containment as necessary in order for frustration to be tolerated, a necessary condition for learning to take place.” (Smith & Gallop, 2024: 106).
The approach for Individual supervision for therapists and mental health professionals is reflective, process-oriented, and grounded in compassion, supporting practitioners to explore their own responses, develop clinical confidence, and deepen their skills in working with complex relational trauma and emotional difficulties. Drawing on CFT, group analytic principles, and action methods, therapists are supported to integrate theory and embodied practice to enhance their work with patients.
Zoom and F2F in Birmingham
Group Supervision
“Feeling a part of a group can help to relieve the isolation and exchange allows learning from other professionals” Smith and Gallop 2024
Group supervision which uses the group itself as a medium for learning and reflection. Practitioners experience first-hand how group dynamics, process, and embodied interaction inform therapeutic work, while exploring their own responses in a safe, compassionate setting. Drawing on Compassion Focused Therapy (CFT), group analytic thinking, and action methods, the group supports therapists to develop confidence, attunement, and skill in facilitating complex relational work.
Supervision of Supervision Groups also available.
60 and 90 min sessions (Zoom and F2F in Birmingham)
Testimonials
“The supervision has helped me to identify the impact of the work on me as well as developed my understanding of the model”
“Coming back to my own practice with the breathing space and check in is helping me to be more present in my [CFSS] work”
“The practical skills and wisdom from others in the group is helping me build my confidence”
Staff Support Reflective Practice and Mentoring
“Compassion focused staff support draws on the integrative and evolutionary model of CFT to create an opportunity for staff of all levels to turn towards their own distress and respond to that distress with compassion. The model helps us to understand organisational contexts including the human desire for power and hierarchy, the pull to threat-based drive and the FBRs that arise when we begin to turn towards suffering with compassion. By holding these in mind and focusing on our common humanity, our need for care and providing this containment and support, we are able to thread compassion through and influence the system.” (Lucre et al. 2022)
We offer reflective staff support groups for individuals or whole teams to provide a contained safe space to make sense of the impact of the wok. These can be face to face or online depending on need.
Mentoring for senior leaders in therapeutic, healthcare, and educational settings, is designed to support the development of compassionate, reflective, and effective leadership. This model draws on extensive experience in psychotherapy, group work, and organisational practice to help leaders navigate complex team dynamics, foster psychologically safe environments, and integrate embodied, compassion-focused approaches into their leadership style.
Retreats
Personal practice retreats designed for therapists and practitioners to deepen their self-compassion, embodied awareness, and reflective capacity. These retreats combine experiential exercises, mindfulness, movement, and group process to support participants in exploring their own therapeutic presence, restoring balance, and renewing energy for their clinical work.
Exploratory Group Psychotherapy Programme
Why Group Psychotherapy
Group psychotherapy offers an opportunity to slow down and share the precious artifacts of our lives with others, while turning inward and attending to ourselves. Amid the pressure to compete with one another, both at work and in our personal lives, this can be a valuable way to restore balance and connection. The group process can be especially beneficial for those working in therapeutic, health, or social care settings, where the risk of moral injury and burnout is high. Engaging daily with the suffering and needs of others can leave us vulnerable to becoming entangled in their overwhelming emotions. Within the group, we can begin to untangle this complex web and reconnect with our own feelings. Learning to be part of a group to both give and receive compassion takes time.
The groups are run weekly for 90 mins online, with 40 sessions over the course of a year.
Compassion Focused Staff Support
2 Day Introductory
This two-day experiential workshop will introduce Compassion Focused Staff Support as a means of managing the significant impact of working with troubled and troubling minds. Cultivating the conditions for inner safeness will be introduced at the beginning of the day and developed through the workshop, with consideration to how we can also co-create safeness in others. We will explore this model through the medium of play, embodied action and personal practice.
We will work with what gets pushed into us and what gets put on us (transference and projection) and the ways that we can bring a compassionate lens and understanding.
This small workshop has been designed for practitioners, therapists and anyone who wishes to develop their knowledge and practical skills in developing and delivering Compassion Focused staff support groups and individual sessions in a wide variety of contexts. We will offer insights into working in Health, Education, Financial Services, Social Care and beyond.
The days will be highly experiential with a mixture of role play demonstrations opportunities for practice, multimedia and small groups discussions. Personal practice is an essential underpinning to this work and therefore will form an integral part of this workshop with the opportunity for personal exploration of compassion and the practices which accompany the model.
There will be a theoretical overview of Compassion Focused Staff Support model, coupled with practical suggestions for developing and managing the dynamic and process aspects of working with groups.
For these two days we will immerse ourselves in a fully connected small and large group experience. There will be a range of experiential exercises, focusing on developing personal practice in compassion and delivering CFSS interventions online and F2F. Role play practice opportunities will be offered with small group discussions using an evolutionary psychology model to cultivate compassion as the basis for inner growth and change. These exercises will focus on way of cultivating safeness and working within a process driven model, attending to what is happening in the room.
Testimonials
“Actually doing the exercises helped me challenge my own biases and what I did not think would work. Somethings seemed straightforward but are actually quite deep”.
“Opportunities to practice without fear of judgement or failing” “The chance to practice and really experience the flows of compassion”
“Completing my own 3 circles diagrams helped me to understand the model in practice and I enjoyed the creativity of using things to make the model”
“The open discussions allowed me to realise that I am not alone in some of my struggle with self-compassion and that others thoughts can help me shape my own”
“Listening to other’s experiences and realising that I am not on my own in the way I think” “The training programme has helped me feel more confidence and supported in all areas of my work. I can’t wait to get started”
