Past Events

Especially in the global financial crisis, taking money off people in distress raises ethical and moral questions. Is therapy about love and healing? Or is it about business and money?
In practice, the answer for most of us could be that we operate comfortably in some middle zone of ambiguity, but many counsellors and therapists struggle to do that. We all know that - unless we charge silly rates - we will not get rich in this profession, but we might achieve a comfortable degree of income and security, without selling our soul in the marketplace.
Most workshops for therapists on the topic of finance focus on the actual business skills needed, or your own ambivalence about charging money which is seen as connected to your self-worth.
This workshop will focus instead on the vastly underestimated inherent contradictions of therapy as the ‘impossible profession’, the emotional stress of dealing with these contradictions as they manifest in the intricacy of each client-therapist relationship and how this hooks into the therapist’s ‘habitual position’. Especially for recently qualified therapists who are slowly building up their practice, many find certain thresholds of client numbers which they seem to get stuck at. This is to do with you own self-regulation within the – inherently conflicted - therapeutic position.
Most training does not sufficiently prepare therapists for the day-to-day reality of the vicissitudes, paradoxes and complexities, the psychological ‘load’ that derives from this, and how to process the emotional aftermath of a day’s work.
Over the years, Michael has helped many supervisees increase the client load they are able to sustain, and thus make a proper living from being a therapist. In this workshop he will help you explore what he has concluded are the factors and obstacles which hold the key to making the business of therapy viable and comfortable.