Continuing Professional Development
We provide a variety of professional development opportunities. Some of these are available only to our members whilst others are available to other qualified psychotherapists and counsellors and we are committed to developing training provision aimed at giving an attachment orientation to other professionals.
Clinical Forums
Online Clinical Forum
‘An account of working with a client who transitioned later in life’
Saturday 25th October 2025
11am to 1pm
Speakers: Sophia Tickell
Synopsis:
As issues of trans identity have been sucked into the vortex of the culture wars, fears of making mistakes or causing offence risk inhibiting free-flowing clinical discussion about clients who have transitioned.
Myriam transitioned late in life, having lived for decades as a cis man and father of nine children. Cut off from her former family, Myriam sought to create new family and connections to heal the intense loneliness and ensuing depression she was experiencing. Myriam also identifies as Asperger’s and sees this as important to her identity as being a woman. In the workshop, I would like to explore the work Myriam and I have done together over nearly two years and the mutual learning involved in the process.
Bio:
Sophia Tickell is a psychodynamic counsellor working in private practice and for an affordable counselling service. She has a masters in psychodynamic practice from the University of Oxford, and is an accredited member of the UKCP. Her special interests are siblings in psychotherapy, the impact of early emotional neglect, and the interface between attachment theory and psychoanalysis. Sophia came to psychotherapy after a career in sustainable finance and working on issues of social and environmental justice.
Date: Saturday 25th October 2025
Cost: £30 non-Bowlby Centre members | £10 Students from other organisations | Free for Bowlby Centre Members and Students
Location: Online via Zoom
CPD: 2 hours (CPD certificate provided)
SAVE THE DATE
November 15 – Briony Mason
Events
Safeguarding Awareness Training for Counsellors and Therapists
A two-hour workshop designed and facilitated by Lynn Findlay
Monday 17th November 2025
What is it about? The workshop will increase your knowledge and confidence about making safeguarding decisions about children and adults in the therapeutic context. We focus on joined up thinking across families and networks.
Is it for me? It is for therapists working with both adults and young people. Many adult clients have contact with children in some capacity, and all children are cared for by adults. You can be in private practice or employed by an organisation.
What will I learn? The session covers:
- The legislative and statutory framework which promotes and safeguards a child’s welfare, including understanding terminology and comparisons with safeguarding adults (joined up thinking).
- An overview of the types of harm and abuse in child and adult safeguarding
- The role of the therapist within this framework, exploring issues of confidentiality and contracting in the counselling context.
- Making sense of your concerns and threshold dilemmas
- Guidance on recording and reporting concerns
- Signposting – what next.
How is it delivered? This is delivered via Zoom, with information sharing, whole group discussion, and opportunities for questions and personal reflection.
About Lynn:
Lynn is a qualified counsellor and psychotherapist, working with both adults and young people. She is a registered social worker with over 25yrs experience working in safeguarding, with many years’ experience designing and delivering training sessions in social care and therapy.
Date: Monday 17th November 2025
Time: 6.15pm – 8.30pm
Cost: £40 non-Bowlby Centre members |£30 Bowlby Centre members
CPD: 2 hours and 15 mins
(CPD certificate provided)
Working with Suicidality and Safety planning – A Cross Modality Approach
A two-hour workshop designed and facilitated by Lynn Findlay
Monday 24th November 2025
What is it about? This workshop is part of the specialised safeguarding training courses and is now offered as a stand-alone seminar. We discuss working with suicidality and distress in the therapeutic context, exploring risk assessment and management, and drawing upon techniques from a range of therapeutic modalities to offer a toolkit for understanding and intervention. We locate this within the safeguarding framework and therapeutic contracting.
Is it for me? It is for therapists and allied professionals working with both adults and young people. We continue to focus on joined up thinking across services and networks. You can be in private practice or employed by an organisation.
What will I learn? The SASP session covers:
- The Government Suicide prevention strategy.
- How to work with risk assessment and risk management.
- Techniques from different of therapeutic approaches.
- Understanding risk and protective factors.
- Confidentiality and contracting in this context.
- Space for thoughts and reflections.
How is it delivered? This is currently via Zoom, with information sharing, whole group discussion, and opportunities for questions and personal reflection.
About Lynn:
Lynn is a qualified counsellor and psychotherapist, working with both adults and young people. She is a registered social worker with over 25yrs experience working in safeguarding with many years’ experience designing and delivering training in social care and therapy. She is now an independent safeguarding consultant and trainer.
Date: Monday 24th November 2025
Time: 6.15pm – 8.15pm
Cost: £40 non-Bowlby Centre members |£30 Bowlby Centre members
CPD: 2 hours (CPD certificate provided)
Open Days
Psychotherapy Training Open Days
The Open Day provides an opportunity to meet staff from the Bowlby Centre to find out more about our approach and the details of our training programme. The event is a facilitated workshop, with an overview of the curriculum, a clinical vignette and a discussion about our approach and the theoretical influences that have informed our work. It is also an opportunity to meet some of those who may be training alongside you, should you decide to join us.
The Open Days will be held in person at the In-person Training Centre: Highbury Grove School, 8 Highbury Grove, London N5 2EQ
Upcoming Dates:
Join Waitlist
Conference
Supporting Connection: Attachment And Autism
A one-day online conference
Saturday 11th October 2025 | 10:00am – 5:30pm (UK Time)
What is it about?
The Bowlby Centre’s annual 28th conference is an opportunity to open up a vital conversation about the complex, under-researched, and often misunderstood relationship between autism and attachment.
While traditional models of attachment have focused on neurotypical development, emerging perspectives challenge us to reconsider attachment models with neurodevelopmental complexities in mind.
Autistic individuals and families deserve the attention and containment that attachment research and practice have to offer, from a stance of acknowledging and welcoming difference.
Chaired by Dr Lisa Greenspan, our international roster of speakers includes Dr Salma Siddique, Dr Ben Grey, Finn Gratton, Ann Hardy, Dr Gilbert Foley and Tal Baz. They will draw from clinical practice, lived experience, and current research to explore how autism intersects with themes of connection, regulation, and emotional development.
Who is this conference for?
This conference is open to therapists, educators, researchers, healthcare professionals; attachment and autism theorists and practitioners from a range of disciplines; and anyone seeking a deeper understanding of autism through a relational and attachment-informed lens.
We aim to prompt a conversation about how we can better listen, re-engage, offer adaptations, and design environments that reach people of all backgrounds, genders and abilities and highlight the often-overlooked emotional and relational needs of autistic people.
Historical and current systemic barriers to accessing support for autistic people
Bowlby emphasized the need for research to be conceived within the context of social structures. We will discuss how the complexity of autism discourse is informed by power structures and privilege, and environmental structures that impact us all.
What does attachment theory have to offer?
The conference aims to highlight current research and practice in light of autistic people’s experiences. A strong emphasis is on co-development amidst the neuro-spectrum, to facilitate insight on what can be done to build trust.
We will explore the nuanced relationship between early relational experiences and neurodevelopment, asking how early attunement shapes our experience within an environment of shared emotional safety. Whether in infancy, adolescence, or adulthood, a felt sense of safety remains foundational for emotional development.
New perspectives, shared Understanding
Our ambition is that this conference will explore how autism and other characteristics intersect with themes of connection, nervous system regulation, and emotional development. Together, we will examine how attachment-informed approaches can help bridge gaps in understanding and care, and how attachment theory can be expanded to reflect neurodiverse experiences and foster deeper understanding.
How is it delivered? Via Zoom, 10.00 – 5.30: including Q&A, Plenary and breaks.
Speakers: Dr Salma Siddique, Dr Ben Grey, Ann Hardy, Finn Gratton, Dr Gilbert Foley And Tal Baz
Chair: Dr Lisa Greenspan
Date: Saturday 11th October 2025
Time: 10.00 – 5.30 (UK time)
Location: Online via Zoom
Cost: Early Bird Tickets £150 | Bowlby Members and Supervision and Certificate Students £100 | Bowlby ABPP & APL Students Free