In therapeutic work, the pressure to do is relentless. There are clients to see, notes to write, competencies to evidence. And yet the inner life of the practitioner — the doubt, the satisfaction, the moments that stay with you long after the session ends — can get quietly crowded out.
I’ve been an advocate for good mental health for decades. I started out as a support worker, moved into nursing, spent 15 years in NHS mental health services, and eventually trained as a CBT therapist. Along the way I’ve also been an actor, a youth theatre teacher, a forum theatre facilitator, and someone who has long believed that creativity and therapy belong in the same room.
What ties all of that together, I think, is a fascination with human behaviour — and a deep conviction that understanding ourselves is part of how we help other people.
This is why I’m creating a reflective practice group. And why I want to do it differently.
What this space is
This isn’t supervision. There’s no agenda handed down, no cases to present in a particular format, no competency framework to satisfy.
The group will be run on the principles of Open Space Technology — an approach I’ve facilitated before, through my work with the Applied Improvisation Network. Open Space is designed for complex conversations where the outcome is genuinely unknown, and where the best ideas come from the room itself, not from whoever is standing at the front of it.
In Open Space, participants set the agenda. Whoever turns up are the right people. Conversation closes when it’s ready, not when the clock says so. And if you find yourself somewhere that’s no longer feeding you — you’re invited to move. The law is simple: use your feet.
What this creates, in my experience, is something rare — conversation that is alive, owned by everyone in it, and not pre-shaped by what a facilitator thinks ought to be discussed.
Who it's for
I supervise primarily in CBT, and I expect many of the people drawn to this group will come from that world. But my roots are in nursing — and I know that mental health nurses carry their own rich, complicated relationship to therapeutic work, often without the language or the dedicated space to explore it.
Both are welcome here. I think the mix will be the point.
What matters isn’t your professional title. It’s that you’re someone who thinks carefully about the work you do with people, and who might benefit from thinking about it alongside others who do the same.
Why this, why now
In my work — and in the therapy room — I try to look at the full picture. Often what is a problem for a person is deeply rooted in where their values lie. The same is true for practitioners. What sustains us in this work isn’t just clinical skill. It’s self-awareness. The capacity to stay curious about our own reactions, our assumptions, what we carry in and what we carry home.
Structured space for that kind of reflection is still rarer than it should be. We often only seek it when we’re already struggling.
This group is an attempt to offer it before the struggling sets in. A regular rhythm of pausing, thinking together, and being reminded that we’re not doing this alone.