Psychotherapy, Attachment and Intellectual Disability 

A one-day online conference in partnership with the International psychotherapy and disability (IPD)
The 29th Annual John Bowlby Memorial Conference

Saturday 10th October 2026 | 

Details coming soon 

Date: Saturday 10th October 2026

Time estimated : 10.00 – 4.30 (UK time)

Location: Online via Zoom

Cost: Early Bird Tickets £125 | Bowlby Members and Supervision and Certificate Students £100 | Bowlby ABPP & APL Students Free

Safeguarding Awareness Training for Counsellors and Therapists

A two-hour workshop designed and facilitated by Lynn Findlay
Monday 28th September 2026

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 currently via Zoom, with information sharing, whole group discussion, and opportunities for questions and personal reflection.

Please read before booking

• Due to the interactive nature of the training, sessions are not recorded and course content is only provided to attendees after the session.  Any Case Studies, references, reading or weblinks will be sent in advance of the session.
• Colleagues from Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland, and other countries are welcome, but any safeguarding legislation and practice guidelines referred to applies to England.

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 28th September 2026
Time: 1.15pm – 3.30pm (UK Time)
Cost: £40 non-Bowlby Centre members |£30 Bowlby Centre members
CPD: 2 hours (CPD certificate provided)

Substance use and other dependencies: Enhancing Insight and Therapeutic Efficacy Through Supervisory Practice

A half-day workshop designed and facilitated by Charles Brown
Saturday 17th October 2026

What is it about? The workshop will help supervisors contextualise addiction through an intercultural lens and provide tools you can use straight away. Through facilitated discussion and breakout conversations, participants will reflect on how these dynamics affect supervision — whether as supervisors or supervisees — and identify practical interventions to deepen practice and strengthen clarity, courage, and accountability in work with supervisees.

Is it for me? If you’ve ever felt unsure about supervising work involving addiction or compulsive behaviours, this training is for you. However, you do not need to be a clinical or training supervisor to attend this session. It is open to qualified psychotherapists, counsellors, therapeutic coaches, addiction therapists, academics, and members of the public.

What will I learn? The workshop aims for you to walk away with:

• A deeper understanding of addictive behaviours as meaningful and adaptive, rather than pathological, opening the door to deeper therapeutic engagement.
• Skills to help your supervisees meet their clients where they are, without insisting on abstinence, so you can build trust, reduce resistance, and collaborate on goals that support the client’s capacity for change.
• Greater confidence in navigating traumatic loss, anger, shame, ambivalence, and risk, enabling you to remain effective and to support supervisees towards insight and regulation.
• An intercultural and inclusive framework you can apply immediately in your work to support your supervisees and their clients in an evidence-informed manner.

How is it delivered? This is currently -delivered via Zoom, with information sharing, breakout rooms, whole group discussion, and opportunities for questions and personal reflection.

About Charles Brown:

Charles Brown is a UKCP Honorary Fellow and a member of the Council for Psychoanalysis and Jungian Analysis (CPJA). He is also an Honorary Fellow of the British Association for Psychoanalytic and Psychodynamic Supervision (BAPPS). He is an addictions therapist, group facilitator and supervisor.

Charles is a former UKCP/CPJA ethics chair who served two terms and led part of the CPJA’s review and rewrite of the 2009 code and the revision of the Central Complaints Procedures (CCP). He was the first chair of the CPJA Race and Culture Standing Committee and served two terms on the Executive Committee. He was also chair of the British Association for Psychoanalytic and Psychodynamic Supervisors (BAPPS).

His career as a therapeutic practitioner has spanned more than three decades, and his approach is informed by life experiences, clinical practice, teaching, and supervision. He has published clinical papers and contributed to book chapters, including innovative work on supervision. He delivers lectures and workshops on race and identity, as well as clinical presentations.

He has an interest in culture, race, identity, and meaning. He maintains a small private practice in South and Central London

Date: Monday 17^th October 2026
Time: 10.00 am – 1.30 pm (UK Time)
Cost: £60 non-Bowlby Centre members |£50 Bowlby Centre members
CPD: 3.5 hours (CPD certificate provided)

Limited Spaces – 30 places available

Attachment Based Experiential Group: Exploring the Dynamic of Attachment in Adult Life.

A three-day in-person experiential workshop using the McCluskey* Model facilitated by Jane Cato on 6, 7 and 8th November 2026

The Bowlby Centre is pleased to announce a new CPD Opportunity and training pathway in collaboration with colleagues from The Association for Exploring the Dynamics of Adult Attachment (AEDAA).

Overview

The exploratory work will take place within the safety of a structured, confidential group setting. Participants often find that this method of group work quickly establishes a sense of safety and trust, creating an environment that supports deep exploration and meaningful reflection.

Each session includes a short theoretical input on one of the seven adult attachment systems, followed by an opportunity to work alongside others to explore your own experiences. The group setting provides a collaborative learning space, where each person’s exploration offers opportunities for reflection, learning and growth.

*“The dynamics of attachment consist of several goal-corrected systems. These are careseeking, caregiving, sexuality, exploratory interest sharing with peers, the personal system for self-defence, the internal supportive or unsupportive environment and the personally created external supportive environment (home/lifestyle). The theory suggests that these systems work together as a single process to contribute to and maintain maximum wellbeing.” Una McCluskey 2014.

Is it for me?

This course is for professional caregivers, therapists or counsellors looking to explore the impact early relational experiences have on adults, as they go about offering care to others and seeking care for themselves. According to attachment theory, our experiences related to seeking and providing care stem from infancy and significantly influence our expectations and responses in adulthood. This experiential programme provides a structured and facilitated invitation for you to explore and recognise how these patterns manifest in your behaviours and relationships. It provides you with an opportunity to enhance your ability to identify these experiences and, when appropriate, explore new approaches that may enhance your well-being and creativity.

This experiential workshop is part of the pathway towards the ‘Attachment-based Group Facilitator Training:  Exploring the Dynamics of Adult Attachment using the McCluskey Model’.

How is it delivered? This training is delivered in person; we anticipate the course will be for no more than 12 participants.

About Jane Cato:

Jane Cato is a psychotherapist, supervisor, trainer and consultant with over 30 years’ experience working with individuals, couples, families and groups. Her first psychotherapy training was at The Minster Centre in the 1990’s, and she went onto study Attachment Based Psychotherapy: Exploring the Dynamics of Adult Attachment within the McCluskey Model (2013-2015), with Una McCluskey. Jane has a career long interest and experience in working with life limiting illness, palliative care, end of life care and bereavement. She has applied the McCluskey Model to this work and has presented at a number of conferences. She has years of experience facilitating groups and has been teaching and running groups with trainee psychotherapists at The Bowlby Centre for 10 years. Jane is a founder member of The Association for Exploring the Dynamics of Adult Attachment (AEDDA) and is a member of the committee. Jane is deeply committed to the wellbeing of professional caregivers and runs attachment-based retreats for counsellors and psychotherapists.

Due to limited numbers we advise you to book and secure your place as soon as possible

Date:

•Friday 6th November 2026 – 10:00 to 17:00
• Saturday 7th November 2026 – 10:00 to 17:00
• Sunday 8th November 2026 – 10:00 to 16:00

Location: The Dance Space, 2 Market Square, Circus St, Brighton and Hove, Brighton BN2 9AS
Cost:£450 Bowlby Members. £495 Non- Bowlby members
CPD: 15 hours (CPD certificate provided)

Specialised Safeguarding Training for Counsellors and Therapists

A two-hour workshop designed and facilitated by Lynn Findlay
Monday 16th November 2026

Working with non-recent abuse and the LADO process AND Domestic abuse, including the DASH risk assessment and the MARAC process

This workshop is designed for counsellors and therapists, who have either completed the Safeguarding Awareness session, or who have a sound knowledge of child and adult safeguarding and are looking to expand their knowledge on working with disclosures of non-recent abuse and working with domestic abuse in therapy. The workshop offers knowledge of tools and procedures which can be used in therapy and opportunities for further discussion around thresholds and safeguarding dilemmas.

This is a two hour session and we spend around one hour on each topic.

Working with non-recent abuse covers:

• What is non-recent abuse?
• Managing a disclosure in therapy – duty of care, confidentiality, and self-care
• Making a referral to the police and/or social care
• Allegations against persons working with children/vulnerable adults: Role of the LADO
• Continuing with therapy alongside an investigation –role of CPS and pre-trial therapy

Working with domestic abuse covers:

• What is domestic abuse?
• How domestic abuse is located within child and adult safeguarding
• Contracting with a client experiencing domestic abuse
• Working with a disclosure of domestic abuse
• The DASH risk assessment tool and how this can be used in therapy
• Understanding the MARAC process

There will be a blend of information sharing and small group work to discuss thresholds and dilemmas.

How is it delivered? This is currently via Zoom, with information sharing, whole group discussion, and opportunities for questions and personal reflection.

Please read before booking

• Due to the interactive nature of the training, sessions are not recorded and course content is only provided to attendees after the session.  Any Case Studies, references, reading or weblinks will be sent in advance of the session.
• Colleagues from Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland, and other countries are welcome, but any safeguarding legislation and practice guidelines referred to applies to England.

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 16th November 2026
Time: 1.15pm – 3.30pm (UK Time)
Cost: £40 non-Bowlby Centre members |£30 Bowlby Centre members
CPD: 2 hours (CPD certificate provided)