The workshop aims to address the following:

1. Broad categories of offending behaviour
2. Overview of the forensic / criminal justice system
3. Overview of mental health in the forensic population
4. Consideration of mental health issues (including trauma) that are associated with offending
5. Consideration of neurodevelopmental conditions (e.g. ASD and ADHD) that are associated with offending
6. Addressing signs of offending risk in clients
7. Working in counselling on issues which may lead to offending, or with those who have offended

There will also be space for questions and answers.

The workshop will involve a combination of didactic teaching and interactive exercises in order to enhance learning.

Facilitator: Dr Anna Preston

I am a Consultant Clinical Psychologist previously working for 16 years within the NHS psychiatric inpatient, community, personality disorder, and forensic services. I now work as an independent practitioner, trainer and expert witness. I deliver a range of training packages to mental health professionals working both within and outside of NHS services. I work as an expert witness providing assessments for the Family, Immigration and Criminal Courts.

Please Note: Because of the experiential nature of the workshop, places are strictly limited to 6 persons.

CPD Title: Understanding Forensic Issues in Mental Health and Counselling
Date: Saturday, 14th December 2024
Time: 10am - 4pm
CPD Hours: 5
Trainer: Dr Anna Preston.
Venue: CCT Training Room, 27/28 Roper Close, Canterbury, Kent CT2 7EP
Fee: £85 / £68 students & staff

Workshop aims

• gain an awareness of healthy and pathological forms of disappointment, embitterment, grievance, and entitlement
• understanding narcissism in the context of early development
• learn how to navigate through the self-defeating coping strategies of the narcissist
• raise awareness of the feelings generated in the therapist – avoid colluding with the “victim” in favour of working with the “shadow”

This workshop will look at the spectrum of relational difficulties associated with feelings of disappointment, embitterment, entitlement, grievance and introduce participants to the concept of narcissism.

Misplaced feelings of disappointment and an inflated or excessive sense of entitlement are amongst the most challenging and at the same time common presenting problems that we are likely to face in practice. We delude ourselves into believing that if we offer a safe, caring, and therapeutic space, the client will resolve their sense of injustice, but instead the client’s problems begin to deepen, and in time, this may include a growing sense of disappointment, with us!

Normal or healthy entitlement involves giving and receiving - rights are balanced with responsibilities. In contrast, excessive entitlement is associated with a lack of empathy or appreciation of the others point of view - arrogance and a pervasive sense that one has been wronged begin to dominate when life’s realities conflict with unrealistic, polarised, or magical thinking. When challenged by the therapist, underlying feelings of fragility may give rise to rage and a sense that one has been mortally wounded.

Facilitator: Steve Sharkey

Steve is a UKCP registered psychotherapist and former NHS Consultant Adult Psychotherapist (retired). Steve continues to practice on a private basis a day a week and teach. He has a special interest in personality disorder - he completed a post graduate training in forensic psychotherapy in the NHS and is a former executive council member of the International Association for Forensic Psychotherapy.

He has completed the internationally recognised trainings in both individual and group schema therapy. He has had over seventy hours videoed supervised practice on imagery techniques with Dr Alessandro Carmelita, Past President of the Italian Society for Schema Therapy and inventor of the Mindful Interbeing Mirror Therapy approach.

CPD Title: Disappointment, Embitterment, Entitlement, Grievance - An Introduction to Narcissism
Date: Saturday, 19th October 2024
Time: 10.00 - 4.00
CPD Hours: 5
Trainer: Steve Sharkey
Venue: CCT Training Room, 27/28 Roper Close, Canterbury, Kent, CT2 7EP
Fee: £85 / £68 students & staff

The workshop aims to address the following:

1. The link between trauma, attachment, and dissociation
2. Understanding the spectrum of dissociation and dissociative disorders
3. Understanding Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID)
4. Identifying and responding to dissociation when it happens in the room
5. Working with trauma related-dissociation
6. Understanding the perspective of someone who experiences dissociation/DID
7. How we can help in counselling
   
   

The workshop will involve a combination of didactic teaching and interactive exercises in order to enhance learning. There will also be space for questions and answers.

Facilitator: Dr Anna Preston

I am a Consultant Clinical Psychologist previously working for 16 years within the NHS psychiatric inpatient, community, personality disorder, and forensic services. I now work as an independent practitioner, trainer and expert witness. I deliver a range of training packages to mental health professionals working both within and outside of NHS services. I work as an expert witness providing assessments for the Family, Immigration and Criminal Courts.

CPD Title: Awareness of Dissociation and Dissociative Disorders
Date: Saturday, 7th September 2024
Time: 10.00 - 4.00
CPD Hours: 5
Trainer: Dr Anna Preston
Venue: CCT Training Room, 27/28 Roper Close, Canterbury, Kent, CT2 7EP
Fee: £85 / £68 students & staff

An evidence-based intervention for childhood trauma

Imagery Rescripting (ImRs) is a powerful therapeutic technique that has recently been shown to be effective for adverse experiences and PTSD like symptoms arising from childhood trauma (IREM Study. Katrina Boterhoven de Haan. PhD.2022). In this international, multi-centred, randomised clinical trial (RCT), ImRs was compared with EMDR. Researchers found no significant differences between these therapies for childhood trauma, both were found to be effective.

Taster sessions introduce you to the theory, practice and growing evidence base for ImRs and an opportunity to experience the magic of Imagery Rescripting for yourself.

The taster aims to introduce participants to:

• The Origins of Imagery Rescripting
• Recent developments – ImRs as a stand-alone treatment for PTSD like symptoms arising from childhood trauma
• Personal experience of the Imagery Rescripting technique
• Acts as a taster day for those who may want to join the certificated practitioner training at CCS in the Autumn 2024 intake

Who is this workshop for?

Those who might be thinking about joining the certificated practitioner training (Level 6) in the Autumn, 2024.

The taster session is offered in two formats, face to face in a small group and online, mirroring how this therapy can be successfully used in a remote format.

Facilitator: Steve Sharkey

Steve is a UKCP registered psychotherapist and former NHS Consultant Adult Psychotherapist (retired). Steve continues to practice on a private basis a day a week and teach. He has a special interest in personality disorder - he completed a post graduate training in forensic psychotherapy in the NHS and is a former executive council member of the International Association for Forensic Psychotherapy. He has completed the internationally recognised trainings in both individual and group schema therapy. He has had over seventy hours videoed supervised practice on imagery techniques with Dr Alessandro Carmelita, Past President of the Italian Society for Schema Therapy and inventor of the Mindful Interbeing Mirror Therapy approach.

Please Note: Because of the experiential nature of the workshop, places are strictly limited to 6 persons..

CPD Title: Imagery Rescripting (Taster Sessions)
Date: Saturday, 27th July 2024
Time: 9:30am - 1pm
CPD Hours: 3.5
Trainer: Steve Sharkey
Venue: CCT Training Room, 27/28 Roper Close, Canterbury, Kent CT2 7EP
Fee: £40

Abuse can occur in a variety of interpersonal relationships – romantic, work and in the larger community and can be motivated by a range of factors such as sense of entitlement, the need for power and control, a reaction to trauma, mental health problems, substance misuse, as well as personality disorders such as Antisocial Personality Disorder, Borderline Personality Disorder or Narcissistic Personality Disorder.

Domestic and Narcissistic Abuse is correlated with people who display narcissistic traits, as well as people who have Borderline Personality Traits. As not all interpersonal abuse is predicated on narcissism or narcissistic traits, it is necessary to understand the nature and dynamics of narcissistic abuse and how it links to domestic abuse and other forms of interpersonal abuse.

This advanced training on working with survivors of Domestic abuse aims to identify the spectrum of narcissistic abuse which ranges from love bombing to devaluation, ignoring other people’s feelings to violent aggression. It will examine the patterns and cycle of narcissistic abuse including the use of idealisation, devaluation, repetition and discarding, hovering.

It will highlight the range of narcissistic abuse including mental, physical, financial, spiritual, sexual , or verbal, abuse, alongside the use of strategies such as manipulation, gaslighting, stonewalling, negative contrasting, sabotage, gaslighting, exploitation, objectification, projection, love bombing, lying, withholding, character assassination, isolation, violence and how lack of responsibility or accountability and remorse is used to distort reality, often long after the relationships is ended.

In addition, the impact of narcissistic abuse will be examined in particular, confusion, self-doubt, the erosion of sense of self, the loss of relational worth, compromised integrity and a range of physical and mental health problems such as anxiety, depression, PTSD and Complex-PTSD.

Alongside this factors that underpin narcissistic abuse such as the traits of the grandiose narcissist, the vulnerable narcissist and the malignant narcissist and how these are enacted in interpersonal relationships to cover up shame will be explored and how this can lead to the need to minimise others in order to aggrandise the self, to attack others as to protect the shamed self, and how the fear of closeness, fear of intimacy, abandonment and exposure of vulnerability can lead to attacking behaviour.

In addition, consideration will be given to traumatised narcissists whose self-protective behaviours such their need for control, especially when they feel insecure or are overwhelmed by unrelenting trauma reminders or reaction, and their emotional dysregulation can lead to impulsive and explosive mood swings in which they can be abusive, and unable to empathise or take responsibility for their behaviour. This can lead to the traumatised narcissist becoming the traumatising narcissist.

In having a deeper understanding of the nature and impact of narcissistic abuse, practitioners will be more equipped to work with survivors of domestic abuse and restore their reality. Emphasis will be placed on helping clients, to break free from the narcissistic abuse cycle and to recover and heal from their abuse. It will also examine how to support clients who are in narcissistic abuse relationships to manage the impact, enable them to be safe or extricate themselves from such relationships and learn how to strengthen and protect the self, to rebuild self-esteem, self-worth, confidence, set boundaries and build a support system, to enable them to recover and heal from domestic and narcissistic abuse. Emphasis will be placed on incorporating the Power Threat Meaning Framework and the fundamental principles of the Trauma Informed Practice Model, and the use of the Phase Oriented Approach to Trauma Recovery.

Learning Outcomes

• Identify the nature and dynamics of Narcissistic Abuse and how this links to domestic abuse, trauma, mental health, and personality disorders such as Narcissistic Personality Disorder, Antisocial Personality Disorder and Borderline Personality Disorder
• Understand the spectrum and range of narcissistic abuse.
• Identify the cycle of narcissistic abuse – idealisation, devaluation, repetition, discarding, and hovering.
• Highlight the signs and impact of such as erosion sense of self, loss of self-worth, and mental health ranging from anxiety, depression to PTSD as well as physical health.
• Examine factors than can lead to narcissistic abuse.
• Identify different types of narcissists such as the grandiose narcissist, the malignant narcissist and the traumatised narcissist.
• Explore factors that underpin to such as shame, self-protective strategies, impaired attachment, fear intimacy, fear of abandonment and vulnerability which can lead to attacking behaviour in both the traumatising narcissist and the traumatised narcissist.
• Identify how to help survivors to break free from the narcissistic abuse cycle and enable them restore self-worth, build support networks, reclaim reality, and recover and heal from narcissistic abuse.
• Familiarise practitioners with the Power Threat Meaning Framework, the fundamental principles of the Trauma Informed Practice Model and the use of the Phase Oriented Approach to Trauma Recovery- Recognise how elements of domestic and narcissistic abuse can be re-enacted in the therapeutic relationship especially when survivors feel insecure or overwhelmed and how to remain engaged and empathic towards the survivor.
• Explore practitioners own narcissistic wounds and how these manifest or can be triggered in the therapeutic process.

Facilitator: Christiane Sanderson

Christiane Sanderson is retired senior lecturer in Psychology at the University of Roehampton. With over 35 years’ experience working in the field of childhood sexual abuse interpersonal trauma and domestic abuse.

She is the author of:

• Counselling Skills for Working with Shame
• Counselling Skills for Working with Trauma: Healing from Child Sexual Abuse
• Sexual Violence and Domestic Abuse
• Introduction of Counselling Survivors of Interpersonal Trauma
• Counselling Adult Survivors of Child Sexual Abuse 3rd Edition
• The Seduction of Children: Empowering Parents and Teachers to Protect Children from Child Sexual Abuse
• The Hidden Taboo of Sibling Sexual Abuse: Working with Adult Survivors
• The Warrior Within: A One in Four Handbook to Aid Recovery from Childhood Sexual Abuse and Sexual Violence
• The Spirit Within: A One in Four Handbook to Aid Recovery from Religious Sexual Abuse Across All Faiths
• Responding to Survivors of Child Sexual Abuse: A pocket guide for professionals, partners, families and friends
• Numbing the Pain: A pocket guide for professionals supporting survivors of childhood sexual abuse and addiction

CPD Title: Advanced Training in Domestic Abuse and Narcissistic Abuse
Date: Saturday, 13th July 2024
Time: 10.00 - 4.00
CPD Hours: 5
Trainer: Christiane Sanderson
Venue: CCT Training Room, 27/28 Roper Close, Canterbury, Kent, CT2 7EP
Fee: £95 No Discount

A mainly experiential day, we look at how our beliefs and ‘norms’ about sex and pornography use can impact work within the therapy room and of the lives of our clients. Covering the changes in attitudes and expectations, you will gain insight into what you can work with and when to refer; what the client may be struggling with and why.

Facilitator: Kate Fronda

Kate is a COSRT registered Psychosexual, Couples and EMDR Therapist, and Supervisor. She is Director of Training at Community Cousellor Training.

CPD Title: Understanding Sex & Porn Issues in the Therapy Room
Date: Saturday, 22nd June 2024
Time: 10.00 - 4.00
CPD Hours: 5
Trainer: Kate Fronda
Venue: CCT Training Room, 27/28 Roper Close, Canterbury, Kent, CT2 7EP
Fee: £85 / £68 students & staff

It is estimated that one third of sexual abuse is perpetrated by children, with some as young as four engaging in sexually harmful behaviour. Overt peer to peer abuse is commonly seen in sexual harassment and sexual bullying, peer to peer sexual exploitation, and the use of sexual violence and rape in gangs. There is however a more nuanced, often unspoken type of sexually harmful behaviour which is usually under-reported as it masquerades as consensual sexual experimentation between children, especially siblings, step siblings and cousins.

To fully differentiate between consensual sexual experimentation and sexually harmful behaviour it is critical to understand both typical and atypical sexual development in children and young people. This workshop will examine the nature and dynamics of sibling sexual abuse (SSA) by children and young people, its impact and long-term effects. We will distinguish between typical age-appropriate consensual sexual curiosity and sexual experimentation and atypical sexual behaviour which is non-consensual and sexually harmful. The aim is to enable practitioners to identify sexually abusive behaviour between siblings and help clients distinguish this from consensual sexual play. The workshop explores the role of grooming and examines how such abuse is normalised by being presented as consensual sexual exploration and experimentation. Strategies such as enticement through playing games that lead to sexually harmful behaviour and encouraging sexual activities with other children will be unpacked to provide a deeper understanding of how non-consensual sexual experimentation can make it harder for children, parents or adults in the child’s psycho-social world to legitimise this as sexual abuse and respond appropriately. To do this, the day explores how parents and primary caregivers can talk to their children in an age-appropriate way about sex and sexuality to help protect them from sexually harmful behaviour.

The day will also examine how to work with adult survivors of sibling sexual abuse, facilitate disclosure and identify their experience as sexually abusive so that they can begin to legitimise their abuse and understand how it has impacted them to begin the journey of recovery and healing.

Learning Objectives

• Awareness of the range of sibling and peer on peer sexual abuse
• Understand the nature of sexually harmful behaviour in children
• Awareness he nature of typical age-appropriate consensual sexual exploration between siblings
• Distinguish between typical and atypical non-consensual sexual behaviour between siblings
• Acquire knowledge of the role of grooming and ‘normalisation’ of sexually harmful behaviour
• Identify the long-term effects of sibling sexual abuse
• Be knowledgeable about how to facilitate disclosure
• Understand how to work with adult survivors of sibling sexual abuse and how to legitimise the abuse to facilitate recovery and healing
• Awareness of the difficulties faced by parents and primary caregivers when sibling abuse is disclosed
• Awareness of how to talk to children about sex and sexuality to help protect them from sexually harmful behaviour
  
  

Facilitator: Christiane Sanderson

Christiane Sanderson is retired senior lecturer in Psychology at the University of Roehampton. With over 35 years’ experience working in the field of childhood sexual abuse interpersonal trauma and domestic abuse.

She is the author of:

• Counselling Skills for Working with Shame
• Counselling Skills for Working with Trauma: Healing from Child Sexual Abuse
• Sexual Violence and Domestic Abuse
• Introduction of Counselling Survivors of Interpersonal Trauma
• Counselling Adult Survivors of Child Sexual Abuse 3rd Edition
• The Seduction of Children: Empowering Parents and Teachers to Protect Children from Child Sexual Abuse
• The Hidden Taboo of Sibling Sexual Abuse: Working with Adult Survivors
• The Warrior Within: A One in Four Handbook to Aid Recovery from Childhood Sexual Abuse and Sexual Violence
• The Spirit Within: A One in Four Handbook to Aid Recovery from Religious Sexual Abuse Across All Faiths
• Responding to Survivors of Child Sexual Abuse: A pocket guide for professionals, partners, families and friends
• Numbing the Pain: A pocket guide for professionals supporting survivors of childhood sexual abuse and addiction

CPD Title: The Hidden Nature of Sibling Sexual Abuse
Date: Saturday, 13th April 2024
Time: 10.00 - 4.00
CPD Hours: 5
Trainer: Christiane Sanderson
Venue: CCT Training Room, 27/28 Roper Close, Canterbury, Kent, CT2 7EP
Fee: £95 no concessions

An evidence-based intervention for childhood trauma

Imagery Rescripting (ImRs) is a powerful therapeutic technique that has recently been shown to be effective for adverse experiences and PTSD like symptoms arising from childhood trauma (IREM Study. Katrina Boterhoven de Haan. PhD.2022). In this international, multi-centred, randomised clinical trial (RCT), ImRs was compared with EMDR. Researchers found no significant differences between these therapies for childhood trauma, both were found to be effective.

Taster sessions introduce you to the theory, practice and growing evidence base for ImRs and an opportunity to experience the magic of Imagery Rescripting for yourself.

The taster aims to introduce participants to:

• The Origins of Imagery Rescripting
• Recent developments – ImRs as a stand-alone treatment for PTSD like symptoms arising from childhood trauma
• Personal experience of the Imagery Rescripting technique
• Acts as a taster day for those who may want to join the certificated practitioner training at CCS in the Autumn 2024 intake

Who is this workshop for?

Those who might be thinking about joining the certificated practitioner training (Level 6) in the Autumn, 2024.

The taster session is offered in two formats, face to face in a small group and online, mirroring how this therapy can be successfully used in a remote format. (Note: This session is face to face.)

Facilitator: Steve Sharkey

Steve is a UKCP registered psychotherapist and former NHS Consultant Adult Psychotherapist (retired). Steve continues to practice on a private basis a day a week and teach. He has a special interest in personality disorder - he completed a post graduate training in forensic psychotherapy in the NHS and is a former executive council member of the International Association for Forensic Psychotherapy. He has completed the internationally recognised trainings in both individual and group schema therapy. He has had over seventy hours videoed supervised practice on imagery techniques with Dr Alessandro Carmelita, Past President of the Italian Society for Schema Therapy and inventor of the Mindful Interbeing Mirror Therapy approach.

Please Note: Because of the experiential nature of the workshop, places are strictly limited to 6 persons.

CPD Title: Imagery Rescripting (Taster Sessions)
Date: Saturday, 20th January 2024
Time: 9:30am - 1pm
CPD Hours: 3.5
Trainer: Steve Sharkey
Venue: CCT Training Room, 27/28 Roper Close, Canterbury, Kent CT2 7EP
Fee: £40

Workshop aims

• gain an awareness of healthy and pathological forms of disappointment, embitterment, grievance, and entitlement
• understanding narcissism in the context of early development
• learn how to navigate through the self-defeating coping strategies of the narcissist
• raise awareness of the feelings generated in the therapist – avoid colluding with the “victim” in favour of working with the “shadow”

This workshop will look at the spectrum of relational difficulties associated with feelings of disappointment, embitterment, entitlement, grievance and introduce participants to the concept of narcissism.

Misplaced feelings of disappointment and an inflated or excessive sense of entitlement are amongst the most challenging and at the same time common presenting problems that we are likely to face in practice. We delude ourselves into believing that if we offer a safe, caring, and therapeutic space, the client will resolve their sense of injustice, but instead the client’s problems begin to deepen, and in time, this may include a growing sense of disappointment, with us!

Normal or healthy entitlement involves giving and receiving - rights are balanced with responsibilities. In contrast, excessive entitlement is associated with a lack of empathy or appreciation of the others point of view - arrogance and a pervasive sense that one has been wronged begin to dominate when life’s realities conflict with unrealistic, polarised, or magical thinking. When challenged by the therapist, underlying feelings of fragility may give rise to rage and a sense that one has been mortally wounded.

CPD Title
Disappointment, Embitterment, Entitlement, Grievance - An Introduction to Narcissism
Date Saturday, 9th December 2023
Time 9:30am - 4pm
CPD Hours 5
Trainer Steve Sharkey
Venue CCT Training Room, 27/28 Roper Close, Canterbury, Kent CT2 7EP
Fee £80 / £64 Student Rate