Cost £150

Most of us have the ability to listen to the ‘gut feel’ of a situation or notice a discomfort in the body that may be hard to explain. Focusing provides a way to develop these capacities so that our ‘felt senses’ can be attended to and used to help us through life. 

This session will be for those with no previous knowledge or experience of focusing, or those who have tried it without success.  It will be mainly practical, aiming to give each participant experience of their own focusing style and confidence to develop this life skill.

The session will be particularly useful for counsellors and trainee therapists who would like to use focusing in their work.  It offers the basic skills and experience that will be needed for a further two day workshop on Focusing in Therapy.

-To introduce focusing as a life skill to those who have not practiced it before and in preparation for focusing during therapy.

-To help participants connect to their focusing capabilities and experiment with them.

-To establish the basis for practice through a focusing partnership.

-To have fun.

All participants will:

• Be assisted to understand the ‘felt sense’ as it relates to their own experience and everyday living.
• Observe demonstrations of the focusing and focusing accompaniment that illustrate basic principles and techniques.
• Be offered a series of opportunities to practice focusing and focusing accompaniment, building confidence through manageable steps.
• Participate in discussion of blockages and difficulties that can occur in focusing and how they may be overcome.
• Receive detailed notes that set out recommendations for practice, key theoretical principles and references to guide further exploration.
• Encouraged to form focusing partnerships after the training and will be offered a free focusing/coaching session with Alan (via Skype/Internet) after the training.

Participants from this workshop in September last year commented:

Alan is very experienced and knowledgeable about his subject.  His way of being creates a sense of safety for exploring your experience of the ‘felt sense’ in a welcoming and accepting way. Inspiring.

Thoroughly enjoyed it. An insight and deeper awareness of the complexity of a human being at a level that’s within reach.  And what a genuinely caring person Alan is.

To sum it up in a few words – “thoughtful, compelling, magical, instructive and extremely well structured”.  Thank you Alan

Alan delivered the training from start to finish very sensitively and professionally.  His knowledge and understanding of the subject is excellent and provided excellent notes and references and provided books for us to borrow. Excellent!

The training really brought to life how focusing can bring up unconscious issues.  Having the opportunity to do some focusing with someone was very powerful.  I had not ‘got’ focusing at all when just reading about it.

Alan Tidmarsh is a Focusing-Oriented Therapist, Supervisor and Focusing Trainer with substantial experience in the application of focusing in a therapeutic setting.  His PhD research drew on 10 years counselling in a drug and alcohol agency and represents the first systematic exploration of focusing therapy for this client group.  He now works in private practice, concentrating on focusing-oriented supervision, and counsels for a charity supporting survivors of sexual abuse.  His conference papers can be found at https://eastanglia.academia.edu/AlanTidmarsh.

Alan has focused with the same partner every two or three weeks for the past eight years and knows from his own life how valuable this can be.  Having undergone training in Focusing-Oriented Therapy with Campbell Purton, Alan is also aware how focusing can contribute to therapeutic work from a variety of orientations.  He has enjoyed introducing other therapists to the experience of focusing and the possibilities it offers to practice.

Due to popular demand and the amazing feedback from Robin's last training day in September 2017, we have secured another training day with Robin this summer, The subject is

'                                                'Supervision as a spiritual practice'.

The training was again very well received,to veiw the feedback from this training click here or see 'Our Services' page

The shekinah Centre, Newchurch in Pendle

Cost £125

1 day training  workshop 28th June 2018

This training was attended by staff working in the NHS, see their feedback on 'Our Services page or click here to follow the link.

Diploma in Supervision

Training for Counsellors and Psychotherapists

See our dedicated page for more information about the Diploma in Supervision.

Module one will be held over 3 weekends:

March 2018

April 2018

 May 2018

Module two will be held over 3 weekends during:

September, October and November 2018

This course has been developed for Counselling & Psychotherapy Professionals who want to develop their supervision skills and knowledge

This is a practical course which emphasises the value of: skills development, professional discipline, self awareness and is underpinned by the theorectical uderstanding of three models.

Love, Change, Loss

Exploring and gaining insight into

Grief and Bereavement

One Day Workshop

to be held on Tuesday 16th October 2018

Cost £125

click here to read the feedback from this workshop held on

14th March 2017

Please contact us for a leaflet about this workshop, or download one below.

One Day Workshop

Date tbc

Cost £90

(10% discount for students)

Aims and Objectives 

AIMS

To explore, enhance and practice listening skills

To experience and reflect upon the various mediums of communication

To identify safe practice; contracting, boundaries and safeguarding

To specifically focus upon the different ways in which children communicate through sensory play, projectory play and embodiment play

To briefly explore history of theoretical development

OBJECTIVES

All individuals will have an opportunity to understand a brief theoretical history of communication using play

All individuals will have an opportunity to engage with a basic understanding of the power and significance of play within a child vocabulary

All individuals will have an opportunity to experience of giving a receiving feedback to peers  

All individuals will have an opportunity to consider different ways of how children engage when sharing their stories

All individuals will have an opportunity to engage with a basic understanding of safe clinical practice when working with children 

Cost £90

(10% discount for students)

 Understanding Addiction and Recovery

Using the 12 Step Programme

One Day Workshop

October 2018 date to be confirmed

Cost £125.00

Please contact us for a leaflet about this workshop, or download one below.

Saturday 24th February: The focus will be upon exploring the concept

of projection and how this can help reveal the unconscious messages from
different aspects of self. Individuals will be invited to explore their dreams
using techniques from the Gestalt Model. This will be facilitated by Richard
Davis who is a Senior Lecturer in Counselling & Psychotherapy with the
University of Central Lancashire; where he teaches Graduate and Post
Graduate students, he is a UKCP registered Psychotherapist.

Sunday 25th February: The focus will be upon exploring the story within
the dream using Jungian theory to support the learning. This will be facilitated
by Dr Phil Goss who is the Director of Counselling and Psychotherapy
programmes in the Centre for Lifelong Learning, University of Warwick. He is
a Humanistic counsellor and UKCP registered Jungian psychotherapist.

Cost £125 per day 

(includes lunch and refreshments)

Limited overnight accommodation is available for those who wish to attend both days and would like to take advantage of the excellent accommodation facilities at the Shekinah Centre.

The extra cost would be £50 pp

FEEDBACK from the Weekend of Dreams workshops

Click here to read the comments from the evaluation forms from each day of the Weekend of Dreams workshops. Or go to our 'Our Services page and click on Feedback on the side menu.

Tuesday 26th September 2017

The Shekinah Centre, Newchurch in Pendle

The Supervision Training hosted by Robin was a great success, all who attended agreed that the thought provoking day was insightful and worthwhile. Robin Shohet was engaging and inspirational, and all participants said they'd love to be included when Robin returns to Lancashire for future training days.

New dates for Robin's 2018 training day tnow confirmed - 3rd July 2018 

FEEDBACK from the Robin Shohet Workshop.

Click here to read the comments from the people who attended this workshop, or go to 'Our Services' Page and click on Feedback.

Creative Listening Skills for School Staff

This is a bespoke ten day course that recognises the individual needs of each school, and the needs that emerge as the course progresses. 

The course dovetails with the Government's recent blue paper on Counselling in Schools which focuses on improving the well-being and resilience of children and school staff.

Request an information leaflet today, or contact us to arrange a meeting to discuss how this highly regarded programme may be of interest to your school staff.

An Introduction to using Creative Materials when working Therapeutically with children

1 Day Workshop. Cost £105. (September 2018, date tbc)

More and more there are demands for counsellors and therapists to extend their therapeutic skills with children.  Having knowledge of the value of play is central to the therapeutic work and is why this training was devised to encourage professionals to reflect upon the skills and qualities required and experience the centrality of play for children’s social, emotional and psychological development.   More information about the  aims and objective of the day can be found on 'Our Services Page' click here to read more...:

As well as the new 12 day Supervision course and the Spa for the Soul Five Day Retreat, other 1 day workshops are scheduled for the coming months:

Please contact Joan at accordcolne@gmail.com,

to be added to our mailing list, we will let you know the dates of our next workshops.

  Available workshops and courses for 2017:

• Group Supervision - one day training 26th September 2017 - Facilitator: Robin Shohet
• Supervision (Counselling & Psychotherapy) Training - 15 day course beginning March 2018
• An Introduction to Understanding Addiction & Recovery using the 12 Step Programme - Facilitator: Jenny De-Maine
• Understanding Loss & Bereavement  - Facilitator: Mary Kinsella 
• Plus more see list above.

Understanding Containment & Emotional Regulation. Training for School Staff

See 'Our Services' page for the feedback on these recent training days at the Shekinah Centre in Newchurch in Pendle.

If you are interested in any of the above or have a training request, please do not hestiate to contact us either by email or telephone.