BOOKINGS, WORKSHOPS & PROGRAMME

Amy Lew, PhD, LMHC, is an Adlerian therapist working with individuals, couples and families. She is also a trainer, supervisor, and mentor. Amy has developed the model of the Crucial Cs and the Connexions Focusing Technique for interpreting early recollections. Dr. Lew serves on editorial boards and has authored numerous journal articles and books for parents, teachers and couples, which have been translated into 6 languages. Amy brings an international perspective to understanding human behaviour.

WORKSHOPS:

Module A: Early Recollections, the Crucial Cs and the Connections Focusing Technique: A How-To Course

This didactic and experiential course will take the “magic” out of interpreting ERs. Participants will learn a step-by-step process that helps clients understand why they are having difficulty dealing with current issues. We will use the construct of the Crucial Cs to uncover mistaken childhood beliefs that led to the development of coping strategies that interfere with current problem-solving. This encouraging and collaborative approach helps take the therapist's bias out of early recollection interpretation and provides insight into the purpose of the client’s choices and behaviours.

Module C: The Crucial Cs Through the Life Span

We develop our beliefs about the Crucial Cs in our first 5 years. We unconsciously make conclusions about what it means to connect, be capable, to count and have courage with a child’s cognitive ability. These conclusions influence our behaviour throughout our lives. The Cs are necessities, so we look for them in all our life tasks: love, social and work. We behave differently when we feel we can have them and when we feel discouraged about getting them. Certain life transitions force us to reevaluate how we will fulfil these needs. We will explore how looking through the Crucial Cs lens can give us insight into feelings and behaviours and help us cope with challenging situations.

Calvin Armerding is a counsellor, teacher, and supervisor based in Travellers Rest, South Carolina, working with young adults, couples, and families in private practice. He is the author of The Cooperative Family and co-creator of The Telos Project, a web-based Adlerian self-help programme. Calvin presents nationally and internationally on mental health, parenting, and counsellor education, and co-founded the Alfred Adler Fellows Program to train postgraduate counsellors.

WORKSHOPS:

Module A: Using & Living Adler’s Life Tasks

This workshop explores Adler’s three life tasks as essential arenas of social interest. We will learn how to use the life tasks as assessment, goal identification, and even intervention for clinical and personal life. We will examine lifestyle patterns that support or hinder each task and learn practical strategies for fostering courage and cooperation.

Module C: Why We Feel: Understanding the Purpose of Emotion

A practical course on Adler’s view of emotion as purposeful, functional, and always in service of a goal. Participants learn how feelings guide movement, reveal private logic, and reflect a person’s goals and strategies—offering clear, usable frameworks for clinical practice, relationships, and everyday life.

Dr Karen John is a developmental psychologist and Adlerian psychotherapist and clinical and leadership supervisor and mentor. Over the past 30 years, she developed and facilitated university-linked leadership and work-based supervision training programmes, supporting leaders and teams of integrated educational, social care, health, and community services for children and families. Karen serves on the faculty and is Secretary-Treasurer of the International Adlerian Summer Schools and Institutes (ICASSI), and a vice president of the UK Adlerian Society (ASIIP). Karen has authored numerous articles, chapters and books, in part as an editor of the ASIIP Year Book. In her work, she has identified developmental, social psychology and organisational research evidence for the Crucial Cs and other prescient Adlerian insights.

WORKSHOPS:

Module A: Understanding Suicide and Suicidal Behaviour

It is vital that we recognise the disturbing and traumatic effects of suicidal behaviour and suicide, and address our own practice needs and dilemmas in working with issues surrounding suicide. We will consider Adlerian theory and lifestyle reasons for suicide, alongside the research-derived Interpersonal Theory of Suicide and the Integrated-Volitional Model of Suicidal Behaviour. Participants will be encouraged to share their own issues regarding the topic, to speak openly and empathetically about suicide and suicidal behaviour with clients, families and others, actively engaging in small and large group discussions, exploring ideas and feelings, and how what is learnt can be applied in practice.

Module C: What’s keeping you from where you want to be?

The question, ‘Am I where I want to be?’ often accompanies milestone birthdays, transitions between life stages, health issues, unplanned or even planned changes, and dissatisfaction with jobs, careers or other aspects of life. Participants will be guided through a series of interactive, experiential exercises, exploring the highs and lows of their lives so far, as well as early memories connected with current and past dilemmas, towards clearing their path to where they want to be.

Janina Bell – Adlerian Counsellor, Supervisor, Trainer, Parenting Advisor, Dip Adlerian Counselling (IIP); MBACP; BA (HONS); PGCE

Module C: Betwixt and Between – Exploring Liminal Space

Sometimes in life, we find ourselves in a place of transition between the end of one thing and the beginning of something else. This can be a disorienting and uncomfortable place, this place of betwixt and between. In this experiential and creative workshop, we will explore through the lens of Adlerian theory how we move through this liminal space, the space between what we leave behind and what is to come.