This one-hour CPD training invites supervisors and supervisees to revisit Inskipp and Proctor’s Functional Model of supervision through an attachment-informed lens. The session explores the three core functions of supervision — formative, normative and restorative — and considers how each may be experienced differently depending on attachment history, relational safety, power, culture and identity.

Rather than seeing supervision as a purely professional or task-focused space, this training asks what happens beneath the surface of supervisory conversations. How safe does it feel to learn, be challenged, be accountable, or ask for support? How might supervisees respond when shame, uncertainty, authority or vulnerability are activated? And how can supervisors offer a secure base and safe haven while still supporting ethical practice, professional growth and accountability?

Participants will reflect on how different attachment strategies may show up in supervision, including anxious, avoidant and disorganised patterns, and how supervisors can respond with curiosity rather than judgement. The session also considers how culture, race, class, gender, professional hierarchy and lived experience shape what feels possible to bring into supervision.

This CPD is suitable for supervisors, supervisees, counsellors, psychotherapists and practitioners in mental health or social care who want to deepen their understanding of supervision as a relational, reflective and attachment-informed process.

By the end of the session, participants will have explored how to use the Functional Model more relationally, how to notice safety and threat in supervision, and how to support supervision that is safe enough for honesty, challenge, repair and growth.

PLEASE NOTE: The time of the recording has been adapted from a live session and includes time for reflection!

Avoidant attachment can be one of the most misunderstood attachment patterns in adult relationships. Clients with avoidant attachment may appear calm, independent, self-contained or emotionally detached, yet underneath this apparent self-sufficiency there may be deep fears of closeness, rejection, vulnerability, dependency or emotional overwhelm.

This attachment-based CPD training explores how avoidant attachment develops, how it presents in adult relationships, and how therapists can work safely and effectively with clients who protect themselves through emotional distance, withdrawal, intellectualisation or self-reliance. Drawing on attachment theory, clinical reflection, case material and relational practice, the session offers a compassionate and practical framework for understanding avoidant attachment in therapy, couples work and everyday relational dynamics.

Participants will explore how avoidant attachment can shape romantic relationships, family relationships, friendships, workplace interactions and the therapeutic relationship itself. The course looks at common patterns such as emotional distancing, fear of dependency, discomfort with vulnerability, difficulty naming feelings, and the well-known pursuer–withdrawer dynamic often seen in couples and intimate relationships.

Using the metaphor of the relational “dance”, this training invites practitioners to think about what happens when an avoidantly attached client’s attachment alarm system is activated. Rather than viewing withdrawal as coldness, resistance or lack of care, the session reframes avoidant strategies as protective responses that once helped the client feel safer.

The course also considers how avoidant attachment may show up in the therapy room. Participants will reflect on countertransference, emotional flatness, disconnection, humour, minimisation, intellectualisation and the therapist’s own experience of trying to build connection with a client who may find closeness threatening.

A central focus of the session is how therapists can become a secure base and safe haven for avoidantly attached clients. This includes working with attunement, co-regulation, pacing, clear boundaries, curiosity, consistency and emotional safety. The aim is not to force vulnerability, but to create the conditions in which vulnerability becomes possible.

Participants will also be introduced to practical therapeutic approaches for helping clients recognise their relational patterns, understand what happens in moments of disconnection, develop greater mentalisation, communicate their need for space more safely, and gently explore younger parts of self when appropriate.

This course is suitable for counsellors, psychotherapists, supervisors, trainees, couples therapists and mental health professionals who want to deepen their understanding of avoidant attachment and feel more confident working relationally with clients who protect themselves by pulling away.

Learning Outcomes

By the end of this CPD training, participants will be able to:

• Understand avoidant attachment as a protective relational strategy.
• Recognise how avoidant attachment may present in adult relationships.
• Identify common avoidant patterns such as withdrawal, emotional distance, minimisation and intellectualisation.
• Explore the pursuer–withdrawer dynamic in couples and relational work.
• Reflect on how avoidant attachment may appear in the therapeutic relationship.
• Consider the role of countertransference when working with avoidantly attached clients.
• Use attachment-informed interventions to support emotional safety, self-awareness and relational change.
• Help clients understand their need for space without shaming or pathologising them.
• Apply concepts such as attunement, co-regulation, mentalisation, secure base and safe haven in clinical practice.

Who Is This Course For?

This attachment CPD training is ideal for:

• Counsellors
• Psychotherapists
• Clinical supervisors
• Couples therapists
• Trainee therapists
• Mental health practitioners
• Relationship therapists
• Attachment-informed practitioners
• Professionals supporting adults with relational difficulties

This CPD course helps counsellors, psychotherapists and mental health professionals understand avoidant attachment in adult relationships. It explains how avoidant attachment can appear as emotional distance, self-reliance, withdrawal, minimisation or discomfort with vulnerability. The course explores how therapists can work safely with avoidantly attached clients using attachment-informed approaches such as attunement, co-regulation, pacing, secure base, safe haven, mentalisation and relational reflection.

PLEASE NOTE: The time of the recording has been adapted from a live session and includes time for reflection!

Research can often feel intimidating, overly academic, or disconnected from the reality of therapeutic practice. This CPD video, Becoming Research-Confident, offers a gentler and more accessible way in.

Designed for counsellors, psychotherapists, supervisors, trainees and attachment-informed practitioners, this workshop reframes research as something many practitioners are already doing: noticing patterns, asking thoughtful questions, reflecting on relational dynamics, and making meaning from complex human experience.

Rather than presenting research as something distant or reserved for academics, this CPD explores research as structured curiosity. You will be invited to consider how the skills you already use in clinical practice — reflective awareness, ethical sensitivity, critical thinking and tolerance of uncertainty — are also the foundations of good research.

The video introduces key types of research, including qualitative research, quantitative research, mixed methods, systematic reviews, case studies, practice-based research and clinical trials. It also supports you to think about how clinical curiosity can begin to develop into a clear, ethically considered research question.

This CPD is particularly helpful for practitioners considering Level 7 study, preparing for academic writing, developing a research project, or wanting to feel more confident engaging with research literature. It is also valuable for therapists who want to connect attachment-informed practice with evidence, inquiry and professional development.

Throughout the workshop, you are encouraged to explore not only what research is, but also your emotional relationship with it. Many practitioners carry anxiety, self-doubt or old academic wounds around research. This CPD offers a compassionate space to recognise those responses and begin building a more secure relationship with curiosity, uncertainty, evidence and learning.

By the end of this CPD video, you will have a clearer understanding of how research connects with therapeutic practice, how different research methods answer different kinds of questions, and how your own clinical curiosity may already contain the seeds of meaningful professional inquiry.

Who Is This CPD For?

This CPD video is suitable for:

• Counsellors and psychotherapists
• Attachment-informed practitioners
• Trainee counsellors and psychotherapists
• Supervisors and clinical educators
• Practitioners preparing for Level 7 study
• Therapists developing research confidence
• Practitioners who feel anxious or uncertain about academic work
• Therapists interested in practice-based research, case studies or systematic reviews

Learning Outcomes

By watching this CPD video, you will be supported to:

• Understand research as structured curiosity
• Recognise how research thinking begins in the therapy room
• Explore your own emotional relationship with research and academic learning
• Understand different types of research and what kinds of questions they answer
• Begin shaping clinical curiosity into a possible research question
• Connect attachment-informed practice with professional inquiry
• Identify realistic next steps towards becoming more research-confident
• Prepare for further study, including Level 7 research or systematic review work

Key Topics Covered

• Research confidence for therapists
• Research as structured curiosity
• Clinical curiosity and research questions
• Attachment-informed practice and inquiry
• Qualitative, quantitative and mixed-methods research
• Systematic reviews and case study research
• Practice-based research in counselling and psychotherapy
• Research anxiety and academic confidence
• Level 7 study preparation
• Ethical thinking in therapeutic research
• Using supervision and peer discussion to develop research ideas

PLEASE NOTE: The time of the recording has been adapted from a live session and includes time for reflection!

Autism and attachment therapy requires clinicians to hold two important lenses at the same time: attachment-informed practice and neurodiversity-informed understanding. This training video explores how autism and attachment can appear similar in the therapy room, while arising from very different internal processes.

Designed for counsellors, psychotherapists, psychologists, supervisors and trainee therapists, this course supports clinicians to differentiate between attachment-based relational defences and neurodevelopmental difference. It considers how autistic clients may be misread in therapy, particularly around eye contact, silence, emotional expression, communication style, sensory processing and relational engagement.

Autism is a lifelong neurodevelopmental difference that can affect social communication, sensory processing and behavioural patterns. Attachment theory explores how early relational experiences shape a person’s strategies for safety, closeness and distress. When these two areas overlap, therapists need careful clinical judgement to avoid misattunement, over-pathologising difference, or interpreting neurological expressions as relational resistance.

Based on training by Darren Sharpe, this video introduces practical ways to adapt therapy for autistic clients, including clearer contracting, predictable structure, direct communication, sensory awareness and environmental adjustments. The training also explores the importance of asking, “What is the nervous system communicating?” rather than assuming disengagement, avoidance or resistance.

You will learn how to:

• Distinguish between autism traits and attachment-based relational patterns
• Understand the difference between neurodevelopmental difference and relational defence
• Recognise common therapy room misreads with autistic clients
• Adapt communication, pacing and structure in therapy
• Support sensory safety as a foundation for relational safety
• Use supervision to reflect on countertransference, bias and clinical uncertainty

This training is suitable for practitioners developing attachment-informed, neurodiversity-informed and trauma-aware practice.

Common questions explored in this training

What is autism and attachment therapy?
Autism and attachment therapy is an approach that helps clinicians understand how autistic clients may experience relationships, safety and communication through both a neurodevelopmental and attachment-informed lens.

How can autism be mistaken for avoidant attachment?
Autistic clients may avoid eye contact, prefer solitude, communicate directly or need more processing time, which can sometimes be misread as avoidance, resistance or emotional withdrawal.

Why is sensory safety important in therapy?
Sensory safety supports relational safety. When a client’s nervous system is overwhelmed by light, sound, smell, seating or pace, deeper therapeutic work may become difficult or inaccessible.

PLEASE NOTE: The time of the recording has been adapted from a live session and includes time for reflection!