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Clinical Complexity in the Therapy Room

We often encounter clinical presentations that challenge our theory, touch our own histories, and test our capacity to remain regulated and relational. The Clinically Complex workshop series is a chance to slow down, explore the roots of difficult presentations, and expand your toolkit for supporting clients with depth and safety:​

  • 6 November 2025 Anger, Safety, and Expression

  • 13 November 2025 Working with Passivity and Apathy

  • 20 November 2025 Ethical responses to risk & self-harm

  • 27 November 2025 Understanding Dissociation

  • 4 December 2025 The Defensive Adult: Revisiting Decontamination 

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Course Information

Content

We encounter clinical presentations that challenge our theory, touch our own histories, and test our capacity to remain regulated and relational. The Clinically Complex workshop series is a chance to slow down, explore the roots of difficult presentations, and expand your toolkit for supporting clients with depth and safety.

 

Led by therapist, supervisor and trainer Ben Groves, each 2-hour online workshop will explore a specific area of clinical complexity, combining theoretical insight with grounded, practical interventions. ​​

The sessions will include group discussion, experiential reflection, and breakout room exercises — creating space not just to learn, but to process.

 

Whether you're in training or already qualified, this series is designed to deepen your confidence and creativity in the face of the complex.

Anger, Safety and Expression: Reconnecting with anger and its behaviours

6 November 2025  6 - 8pm, Online, £12  

As a society, we often struggle to tolerate anger — or the behaviours that can accompany it. This discomfort can lead to anger being disavowed, suppressed, or dissociated, both in our clients and in ourselves. Yet anger is a vital, protective emotion, deeply linked to our sense of safety and boundaries.

In this workshop, we’ll explore why anger becomes disconnected for some clients, and how we can begin to talk about it safely and ethically in the therapeutic relationship. We’ll consider what it means to stay grounded in the face of anger — our own and our clients’ — and develop practical ways to help clients re-establish a safe, embodied connection with this powerful emotion.

The Quiet Resistance: Working with Passivity and Apathy

13 November 2025  6 - 8pm, Online, £12  

Working with passive behaviours in therapy can be particularly challenging. These patterns often result in over-adaptation, a lack of relational depth, therapeutic stuckness, and even enactment. This practical workshop will help you recognise these dynamics early, support clients in developing awareness of their patterns, and offer tools for reintroducing movement and agency into the work.

We’ll begin by exploring the underlying function of passive or apathetic presentations, and consider how to identify and engage with them in a compassionate, effective way. From there, we’ll look at practical strategies to help shift the dynamic — allowing the therapy to deepen and become more collaborative.

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Working Where Risk Lives: Ethical responses to risk and self-harm

20 November 2025  6 - 8pm, Online, £12  

Within the medical model, many practitioners hesitate to explore suicide, suicidal ideation, or self-harm — often out of fear, perceived risk, or concern about making things worse. Yet avoiding these topics can inadvertently increase risk, leaving clients without a safe space to bring their most painful experiences.

This workshop offers a grounded and ethical approach to working with clients who express a desire to die. We’ll explore how these experiences may present in the therapy room, and consider how to respond in ways that foster safety, trust, and connection.

Together, we’ll look at how to assess and manage risk without shutting down the conversation, and develop practical tools for navigating these complex clinical moments with care and clarity.

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Understanding Disassociation

27 November 2025  6 - 8pm, Online, £12  

Dissociation can take many forms — from the presence of distinct alters to subtle disruptions in bodily awareness, such as difficulty sensing basic needs. In this workshop, we’ll explore the broad spectrum of dissociative experiences, considering both medical and psychotherapeutic perspectives.

We’ll examine how dissociation might show up in the therapy room — sometimes clearly, but often in less obvious ways — and reflect on how we can recognise and respond to it effectively. The focus will be on developing practical approaches to support clients in staying connected, both during sessions and in their wider lives.

The Defensive Adult: Revisiting Decontamination

4 December 2025  6 - 8pm, Online, £12  

Decontamination, or ‘Adult strengthening,’ is often seen as one of the foundational stages of therapeutic work. Yet this process can easily stall, with clients appearing to hit a kind of internal plateau or homeostasis. This stuckness is frequently rooted in defensive material — such as early scripts or unresolved trauma — that resists change.

In this workshop, we’ll explore the dynamics that interrupt or block decontamination, and consider the protective function behind these responses. By understanding the internal purpose of the stuckness, we can begin to work with it rather than against it.

We’ll also introduce practical tools to support clients during this phase of therapy, helping to strengthen their Adult ego state while respecting their defensive needs.

About the trainer

Ben Groves – PTSTA(P), CTA(P), MSW, UKATAdip, CTF, PEP2, BA(hons). UKCP and SWE registered.

Ben is a psychotherapist based in York, previously a social worker for over 10 years, He has a private practice and also offers supervision, training and consultancy. Ben has a deep passion for working with and helping people in the most effective ways he can.

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