Groups: Leading, Facilitating, and Non-Directivity

Join us for a compelling dialogue between Beverley Costa from the Pásalo Project and John Wilson of Onlinevents as they delve into the art and practice of working with groups in counselling and psychotherapy and related practices.

This event will explore the critical tensions between leading, facilitating, and adopting a non-directive approach. Beverley and John will engage in a thought-provoking discussion about the core dilemma: is non-directivity an absolute principle that can and should be upheld at all times? They will question whether true non-directivity is even possible in practice and examine the implications of this for group facilitation.

In addition to exploring these theoretical questions, the conversation will also examine how our beliefs and assumptions about non-directivity manifest in our practical work as group facilitators. Beverley and John will reflect on their own practices and their experiences as group participants and share insights into the challenges and opportunities they’ve encountered.

Key topics will include:

• The challenges of balancing structure and freedom in group settings.
• The role of the facilitator as both a guide and a participant in the group’s process.
• What happens when non-directivity intersects with the need for leadership or intervention?
• Can non-directivity ever be oppressive?

This dialogue will invite attendees to reflect deeply on their approach to leading and participating in groups and consider how their own ideas and values about non-directivity influence their practice. Whether you are new to group facilitation or an experienced practitioner, this event promises inspiration, practical strategies, and rich insights.

This workshop will be recorded and you can use the ticket function to pre-purchase the recording before the event. This will be useful for colleagues who are not able to attend the event live and also for those who attend the event live and want to watch it again.

This workshop will be hosted on the Zoom meeting platform where we will use our cameras and microphones to interact with each other as a group.

The self-select fee is a radical inclusion policy to open learning for all colleagues. The guide price for this event is £20.00, however, we appreciate that income varies greatly in different locations and circumstances. Please contribute what you can to help us maintain inclusive professional training.

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All the colleagues at ONLINEVENTS and the presenters we collaborate with are committed to working in a manner consistent with the BACP Ethical Framework, which can be accessed on the link below. When registering for this event you are agreeing to be present and interact in a manner that is consistent with this Framework.

https://www.bacp.co.uk/events-and-resources/ethics-and-standards/ethical-framework-for-the-counselling-professions/

After qualifying as a psychotherapist, Beverley Costa set up Mothertongue multi-ethnic counselling service (2000-2018) for multilingual clients. In 2009 she created a pool of mental health interpreters, in 2010 she established the national Bilingual Therapist and Mental Health Interpreter Forum and founded The Pásalo Project in 2017 www.pasaloproject.org to disseminate learning from Mothertongue.

She has trained over 5,000 therapists for NHS services and NGOs, in working therapeutically across languages and with interpreters since 2013. She is a Senior Practitioner Fellow at Birkbeck, University of London and in 2023 she was granted the title Senior Visiting Research Fellow in the School of Arts and Communication Design at the University of Reading.

She has run Reflective Practice Support groups for interpreters, psychological therapists and counsellors, nurses, teachers, lawyers, and psychosocial workers. She has developed an introductory course in facilitator skills for running Reflective Practice Groups which has been delivered online to organisations in England, Scotland and Wales. She is the author of Other Tongues -psychological therapies in a multilingual world https://tinyurl.com/Other-Tongues

I have been facilitating in Counselling & Psychotherapy programmes in the UK for more than 10 years.

I am currently the director at Temenos Education and have a private practice where I offer online Psychotherapy and Supervision using video and chat communication platforms along with virtual environments. I am also the co-founder of onlinevents which has grown to be the world’s largest library of online video and audio content with instant certification and a learning log.

I am also a past chair of the Association for Counselling & Therapy Online (ACTO) and have served for 6 years on the board of the World Association for Person Centered & Experiential Psychotherapy & Counselling. My passion to bring online learning into the field of Counselling & Psychotherapy has also led to the development of online experiential learning within the Temenos programme, facilitating the exposure of Temenos students to external tutors who are located in different parts of the world. Along with the inclusion of experiential learning of online Counselling & Psychotherapy for Temenos students so that they qualify with knowledge and practice in online communication and relationship.

You can read an article I co-authored about online group facilitation here:

https://www.tandfonline.com/eprint/UB2QJDKNCGUMUNUURU8W/full?target=10.1080/14779757.2019.1650807

Event Venue

Online