Theory
Cognitive Behavioural approaches focus on the connection between thoughts, emotions, and behaviours, helping clients develop practical strategies for change. This section explores key theories, including CBT, REBT, and other cognitive-behavioural models, to support structured, solution-focused therapeutic work.
Existential therapy explores themes of meaning, freedom, responsibility, and authenticity, helping clients navigate life’s uncertainties and personal choices. This section covers key concepts and approaches to support clients in finding purpose and developing a deeper understanding of themselves.
Gestalt therapy focuses on awareness, experience, and the present moment to help clients understand their thoughts, feelings, and behaviours. This section explores key concepts such as figure-ground, unfinished business, and experiential techniques to support holistic and integrative client work.
Integrative counselling combines elements from different therapeutic approaches to create a flexible, tailored approach that meets the unique needs of each client. This section helps you understand how to blend theories, techniques, and perspectives to provide holistic and effective support.
Person-Centred therapy, developed by Carl Rogers, is a humanistic approach that emphasizes empathy, unconditional positive regard, and congruence. This section helps you understand how to create a non-directive, client-led environment that fosters self-exploration, growth, and personal development.
Psychoanalytic / Psychodynamic therapy explores how unconscious thoughts, past experiences, and early relationships shape emotions and behaviour. This section helps you understand key theories, such as Freud’s psychoanalysis and object relations, to support deeper therapeutic insight and client work.
Transactional Analysis (TA) is a psychological theory and therapeutic approach that explores communication, relationships, and behaviour through the lens of ego states (Parent, Adult, Child). This section helps you understand TA concepts and techniques to enhance self-awareness, client interactions, and personal growth.
Rogers’ seven stages of process describe a client’s journey from rigidity to openness. This fluid, non-linear model helps therapists track…
Dr Richard Bennett introduces you to acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT), exploring its roots, key principles and the ACT Matrix.…
Lisa Mathurin introduces how transactional analysis (TA) can deepen understanding of communication. You’ll learn the three main transaction types, Berne’s…
Explore how early relationships shape emotional development through Bowlby’s attachment theory. From secure to disorganised styles, attachment impacts how we…
Attachment theory, first developed by John Bowlby, explains how early emotional bonds shape our ability to trust, connect, and self-regulate.…
Behavioural Interventions and Coping Techniques Behavioural interventions target behaviours. Key behavioural interventions are: There are also behavioural experiments/tests, which –…
Offering an in-depth look at Carl Rogers’ groundbreaking work, this resource explores his core theories, including the six conditions for…
Rogers’ 19 propositions form the backbone of person-centred theory, describing how individuals perceive, grow, and change. Rooted in phenomenology, they…
Discover the untold story behind Gloria—the real client who featured in the iconic ‘Three Approaches to Psychotherapy’. From her powerful…
The 'core conditions'—empathy, congruence, and unconditional positive regard—are central to person-centred therapy. Though Rogers never used the term, these elements…
Carl Ransom Rogers and Person-Centred Theory Carl Ransom Rogers Carl Ransom Rogers (1902-1987) is best known for devising person-centred theory…
Case formulation in CBT helps therapists understand the client’s issues by exploring thoughts, emotions, behaviours, and contributing factors. Created collaboratively…
Discover how CBT evolved from ancient Stoicism through the work of Ellis and Beck into the structured ABCDE model used…
CBT shares many commonalities with other modalities, yet diverges in areas like directiveness, structure and its relationship with diagnosis. With…
Understanding safety, risk and legality in CBT helps us work within our competence, support clients in crisis, and take ethical…
Explore how CBT understands emotional disorders through core beliefs, psychopathology, and diagnostic tools like PHQ-9 and GAD-7. Learn how classification…
CBT uses a clear structure and collaborative agenda to make the most of limited sessions, while between-session tasks (or 'homework')…
The CBT working alliance is collaborative, active, and rooted in mutual goals, tasks, and trust. Learn how alliance, feedback, and…
CBT helps clients identify and challenge unhelpful thoughts and beliefs that influence emotions and behaviours. It's practical, evidence-based, and often…
Explore key cognitive interventions in CBT, including psycho-education, identifying and restructuring negative automatic thoughts, and schema therapy. Understand how core…
What do you believe you must do to be loved or accepted? Explore how these learned ‘conditions of worth’ shape…
We all have different parts of self—voices that show up in different situations. Mearns’ 'Configurations of Self' offers a way…
Learn how empathy, congruence and UPR unlock a client’s world from within. By truly entering their frame of reference, you…
Clint Adams explores how destructive thought patterns impact wellbeing, using his Blue Brain, Red Brain model. You’ll gain tools to…
Explore how CBT practitioners can adapt therapy to diverse client needs. Understand barriers to access, the role of the core…
Donald Winnicott explored how early caregiving shapes our sense of self. From the “good enough mother” to transitional objects, his…
Judy James introduces emotion-focused therapy (EFT), exploring the role of emotional awareness in change and how EFT techniques can support…
From trust in infancy to integrity in later life, Erikson’s eight-stage theory highlights key psychosocial challenges across the lifespan. Counsellors…
Mick Cooper introduces the philosophical roots and practical applications of existential therapy, exploring key themes like freedom, meaning, and mortality.…
Existential therapy explores life’s big questions—meaning, freedom, identity, and mortality—through deep, relational dialogue. It helps clients confront anxiety, take responsibility,…
Field theory explores how people interact with their environment—seeing behaviour as shaped by the ever-changing “field” around them. It underpins…
Discover how ancient Stoic philosophy influenced one of today’s most widely used therapies. This resource traces the roots of CBT,…
Explore how humanistic counselling reshaped psychology by putting individual experience at the heart of healing. Discover why thinkers like Maslow…
Freud’s theory describes the mind as a balance between the id (instinct), ego (reason), and superego (morality). Together, they shape…
Lisa Mathurin introduces ego state theory from transactional analysis (TA), exploring structural and functional models, five ego states, and their…
Integrative counselling blends techniques and theories from multiple modalities to meet each client’s unique needs. Rooted in the therapeutic relationship,…
Introjected values are messages we absorb from others and mistake as our own truth. Often hidden and distorted, they create…
Life scripts in TA are unconscious life plans formed in childhood, reinforced through messages and behaviours. Based on early decisions…
Where do you place your sense of worth—in yourself, or in others’ approval? Explore the concept of locus of evaluation,…
Maslow’s hierarchy includes safety, love and belonging, esteem, and finally self-actualisation—where individuals reach their full potential through creativity, growth and…
Object relations theory explores how early relationships shape inner emotional life and adult attachments. It focuses on internalised experiences and…
What if the real you has always been there—just buried under years of “shoulds” and expectations? The organismic self is…
In Gestalt therapy, the paradoxical theory of change suggests we grow by fully accepting who we are—not by striving to…
Discover Clarkson’s five modes of the therapeutic relationship—from working alliance to the transpersonal. Her framework offers deep insight into how…
How we perceive shapes how we heal. Discover how Rogers embraced phenomenology—centering therapy around lived experience, not theory. Learn why…
Mick Cooper introduces the pluralistic approach to therapy—an inclusive, client-centred framework built on shared decision-making. You’ll explore its philosophical roots,…
Learn how CBT therapists use collaborative empiricism to build case formulations, problem lists and treatment plans. Explore the five Ps…
Explore how supervision, clinical audit and CPD help CBT practitioners maintain ethical, effective practice. Learn how to integrate audits into…
Freud laid the groundwork for talking therapies, proposing that our unconscious mind drives behaviour. His psychoanalytic ideas evolved, leading to…
Rooted in Freud’s theories, the psychodynamic approach explores how unconscious processes shape our behaviour. By working relationally and reflecting on…
REBT, developed by Albert Ellis, challenges irrational beliefs using the ABCD model: Activating event, Belief, Consequence, Dispute. It helps clients…
Curious how Carl Rogers’ legacy has evolved since his passing? Discover how new approaches like fragile process, relational depth, and…
Learn how CBT therapists can use formulation, self-reflection, and selective self-disclosure to develop personal insight and strengthen the therapeutic alliance.…
Want to go deeper with your counselling theory or self-work? Here's a helpful dive into self-concept, conditions of worth, and…
Emma Chapman explores the development of self-concept through a person-centred lens, highlighting its role in psychological maladjustment and how it…
Gestalt therapy is a dynamic, experiential approach rooted in the here and now. With foundations in phenomenology, dialogue, field theory,…
Carl Rogers proposed six necessary and sufficient conditions for therapeutic change—three of which became known as the "core conditions": empathy,…
Offering an in-depth look at Egan’s Skilled Helper model, this piece explores its three-stage structure, links to positive psychology, and…
Transactional Analysis (TA) explores how communication arises from Parent, Adult, and Child ego states. It helps clients recognise patterns, heal…
Transference brings echoes of past relationships into the therapy room—often unconsciously. If left unacknowledged, it can cloud the therapeutic bond.…
Explore how transference, countertransference and projection can shape the therapeutic space. Spot the subtle signs, avoid common pitfalls, and learn…
In this lecture, you will learn from counsellor and trainer Emma Chapman how to understand different attachment styles, how they…
Offering an insightful introduction to transactional analysis (TA), this session explores key TA principles, communication dynamics, and its use across…
Offering a clear and practical overview of contracting in transactional analysis, this session explores its purpose, types, and how to…
Dr Richard Bennett introduces the ACT Matrix – a practical, visual tool for mapping behaviour, values and psychological flexibility. You’ll…
Ego states are patterns of thinking, feeling and behaving that form our personality in the moment—Parent, Adult, and Child. In…
Gestalt therapy invites clients into deep present-moment awareness, exploring thoughts, feelings, and bodily sensations. With roots in phenomenology and field…
This overview introduces life scripts in transactional analysis, exploring how early messages shape adult behaviours. Lisa explains the script apparatus…