Working with Emotions in Psychological Therapy: A 5 step model

Please note that all registrations have to be paid in full before the event takes place - otherwise you will miss out on receiving the Zoom link.

This event will be recorded for all those who are registered but can't make it on the day - recordings are available for a limited time (3 weeks) only.

As psychologists, it is our “bread-and-butter” to work with emotions in our clinical settings. However, that does not mean it is easy or that it comes naturally to us. In our academic training we may not have had much depth of teaching on this issue.

In this workshop working with intense emotions will be explored from an Attachment-based psychotherapeutic lens, which places primary importance on the therapeutic relationship for healing and co-regulating emotions that are too hard for the client to handle on their own. Neufeld’s 5 step model of working with emotions from an attachment-based development perspective will be presented as well as recent research from the affective sciences and emotion regulation theory. The topic of dealing with transference/counter transference in the therapeutic relationship will also be addressed as this is an area where we can be ‘blind sided’. Self-care strategies and mental hygiene tips will be offered to reduce burn-out, becoming ‘numbed out’ and suffer compassion fatigue due to prolonged exposure to client’s intense emotional responses.

PRESENTER: Dr. RUTH LAWSON-MCCONNELL (NZ)

Ruth has more than 30 years of experience counselling adults, children, adolescents and families. She trained in Scotland (PhD in Counselling Psychology), has worked in the UK, Canada and now resides in New Zealand. She was a Senior Lecturer in Counselling for many years and still does adjunct lecturing as well as Professional Development workshops, speaking at conferences and clinical supervision. She is a Professional Associate of the Neufeld Institute where she trained with Dr Gordon Neufeld in his Attachment based Developmental paradigm. She is also a certified Neuro-psychotherapist and has trained in the Partners of Sexual Addicts Trauma Model (APSATS). She specialises in Attachment issues offering counselling to those experiencing relationship difficulties, depression, anxiety and trauma, as well as parent consulting on behavioural and emotional issues in children and adolescents. Ruth has authored several journal articles and enjoys distilling current research into clinical application for mental health practitioners.