At Talking Therapies UK, we are passionate about equipping professionals with the knowledge, confidence, and compassion to support mental health across diverse settings. With decades of combined experience in clinical practice, public health leadership, and service transformation, our training programmes are rooted in evidence-based approaches and real-world application.
We specialise in delivering high-impact, trauma-informed mental health training tailored to the needs of health, education, social care, and voluntary sector teams. From safeguarding and suicide prevention to emotional resilience and therapeutic communication, our courses are designed to empower practitioners at every level—whether you’re frontline staff, a strategic commissioner, or part of a multi-agency partnership.
Our facilitators bring many years clinical expertise , and a deep understanding of the social determinants of mental health. We prioritise co-production, reflective practice, and inclusive learning environments that foster curiosity, empathy, and professional growth.
Whether you’re looking to upskill your workforce, embed mental health into your organisational culture, or meet statutory training requirements, we offer flexible delivery formats including in-person workshops, webinars, and bespoke consultancy.
Together, we can build psychologically safe, responsive systems that promote wellbeing, reduce inequalities, and improve outcomes for individuals, families, and communities. Let’s shape the future of mental health—one conversation, one training, one transformation at a time..
A Comprehensive CPD Programme for Experienced Counsellors and Psychotherapists
Welcome to Advanced Relational Practice: Deepening Clinical Mastery, a comprehensive thirty-hour continuing professional development programme designed specifically for experienced counsellors, psychotherapists, and psychological wellbeing practitioners seeking to elevate their clinical work to an advanced level. Grounded in contemporary relational approaches, attachment theory, and intersubjective systems, this rigorous curriculum bridges complex developmental theory with nuanced, in-the-room clinical intervention, integrating neurobiologically informed trauma models with third-wave cognitive behavioural and acceptance-based frameworks. Throughout this immersive learning experience, practitioners will refine their ability to work with intricate psychological presentations, moving beyond protocol-driven work to master the living, breathing relational matrix of the therapeutic encounter.
The curriculum is structured across seven core modules that systematically examine the multifaceted dimensions of relational practice. The first module, Advanced Relational and Intersubjective Frameworks, explores the profound paradigm shift from one-person to two-person psychology, examining how co-created dynamics, mutual regulation, and intersubjective fields shape the therapeutic space. Building upon this foundation, Mastering the Therapeutic Use of Self deepens the practitioner's capacity to recognise, tolerate, and judiciously use countertransference as a primary diagnostic and therapeutic instrument, turning internal emotional responses into vital clinical data. In the module dedicated to Developmental Trauma and Attachment Re-enactments, learners integrate modern attachment theory and neurobiology to understand how early relational deficits manifest as repeating relational patterns in adulthood, allowing clinicians to intervene with precision when clients recreate past dynamics in the consulting room.
Clinicians will also study Navigating Alliance Ruptures and Repair, which provides advanced micro-skills for identifying subtle micro-ruptures and facilitating transformative repair processes within the therapeutic dyad, thereby strengthening the working alliance during moments of clinical impasse. Working at the Edge: Affect Regulation and Dissociation focuses closely on pacing, titration, and window of tolerance stabilisation when working with severe affective dysregulation, fragmentation, and structural dissociation, ensuring practitioners can safely navigate high-arousal and low-arousal states without causing retraumatisation. Furthermore, Ethics, Power, and Complex Boundaries examines the subtle intersections of power, privilege, institutional dynamics, and complex boundary management in contemporary practice, encouraging clinicians to interrogate the Social GGRRAAACCEEESSS and their impact on the therapeutic relationship.
The final module, Deliberate Practice and Reflective Clinical Mastery, anchors the entire programme in experiential learning, utilising targeted rehearsal, video review, and structured feedback loops to foster sustained skill acquisition. By the conclusion of this thirty-hour CPD course, practitioners will possess an enriched conceptual vocabulary, enhanced somatic awareness, and a refined clinical repertoire capable of holding profound therapeutic change in complex cases.
▶ See inside the digital classroom1 minute 36 seconds · how a course is laid out, how each lesson is taught, and how the tutor helps
Before you start
This is a premium, in-depth programme: 7 modules and 36 lessons written at Advanced level and beyond, with a worked clinical example, a reflective question and the common pitfalls in every lesson. It assumes that you already practise, or are training to practise, in this field; it does not assume a particular course before it, and it covers its foundations itself before going well beyond them.
33.5 study hours33.5 CPD hours certified12 months of accessAI tutor in every lessonCertificate on completion (pass mark 80%)
What you will be able to do
✓Critically evaluate and apply advanced relational and intersubjective frameworks to complex client presentations.
✓Master the therapeutic use of self through sophisticated navigation of countertransference and parallel processes.
✓Integrate neurobiologically informed attachment theories into clinical assessment and intervention strategies.
✓Effectively identify, hold, and work through ruptures and repairs within the therapeutic alliance.
✓Implement trauma-informed interventions that balance stabilization with deep affective processing.
✓Maintain robust ethical, legal, and boundary management in high-complexity and high-risk clinical scenarios.
✓Utilize deliberate practice and clinical supervision models to sustain lifelong reflective practice and prevent burnout.
What you will study
Module 1: Advanced Relational and Intersubjective Frameworks
Explores the shift from one-person to two-person psychology, examining how co-created dynamics and mutual regulation shape the therapeutic field.
Foundations of Two-Person Psychology- Two‑person psychology views the therapeutic encounter as a co‑constructed field rather than a unilateral transmission of knowledge.
Intersubjective Dynamics and Co-Construction- The therapeutic encounter is a dynamic, co‑constructed field where therapist and client mutually influence each other.
Co-Regulation and Mutual Regulation Mechanisms- Co‑regulation is a bidirectional, intersubjective process that stabilises affect.
Field Theory and the Therapeutic Space1. View the therapeutic encounter as a dynamic field of interdependent forces.
Integrating Relational Frameworks into Practice1. Use field mapping to visualise the therapeutic space and track emotional dynamics.
Module 2: Mastering the Therapeutic Use of Self
Deepens the practitioner's capacity to recognise, tolerate, and judiciously use countertransference as a primary diagnostic and therapeutic instrument.
Foundations of Self‑Use and Countertransference- The therapeutic use of self is a structured, relationally grounded practice that recognises the therapist as a co‑participant in the intersubjective field.
Recognising Countertransference: Awareness and IdentificationCountertransference is the therapist's unconscious emotional response to the client, distinct from client transference.
Tolerating Countertransference: Emotional Regulation and Self‑ReflectionImmediate physiological containment prevents affect from overwhelming cognition
Using Countertransference Judiciously: Diagnostic Insight and InterventionIdentify and label countertransference feelings in the moment to create reflective distance.
Ethical, Professional and Supervision ConsiderationsEthical integrity is the non-negotiable foundation of the therapeutic use of self.
Module 3: Developmental Trauma and Attachment Re-enactments
Integrates modern attachment theory and neurobiology to understand how early relational deficits manifest as repeating relational patterns in adulthood.
