TRAINING
Beyond individual therapy, I offer training for professionals as well as experiential work for those drawn to older ways of learning.
For guides, facilitators, educators and organisations working with groups
I've spent 25 years working in remote wilderness contexts - as a guide, a trainer and now as a psychotherapist specialising in trauma. The training I offer comes from that intersection: practical, relational skills for people who hold groups through challenging territory, whether that's literal wilderness or the wild complexity of human dynamics.
These trainings are grounded skills for the situations you actually encounter in group work no matter the environmental - and the competence to use them without second-guessing yourself.
Each training can stand alone or be woven together.
MENTAL HEALTH FIRST AID
You do not need to be a therapist to help someone who's struggling. You don't need special training to be there for someone in distress. What you need is to show up as a human being. That alone can change everything.
What's covered:
-
Recognize early signs of emotional overwhelm and mental health distress
-
Be present with someone in crisis without getting pulled under yourself
-
Stabilise distress using practical, non-clinical approaches
-
Maintain clear boundaries between support and clinical intervention
-
Know when and how to refer to professional help
-
Work with your own responses when witnessing someone's pain
This training teaches you how to be present with someone in emotional distress - what to look for, how to help them feel less alone, how to keep them safe, how to keep yourself safe and how to connect them to the right support. You won't learn to diagnose or fix but rather you'll learn practical ways to support the person and stabilise them, the way you would with physical first aid.
When someone is panicking, grieving or overwhelmed what they need most is to not be alone with it.
They don't need you to have answers or make it better.
They need you to be with them in it.
That's what this training gives you the skills and confidence to do.
Who is this for:
Guides, outdoor educators, youth workers, team leaders, community organisers - anyone who works with people in contexts where distress might arise and professional support isn't immediately available.
Format:
Full-day workshop.
Organisational / Group bookings limited to 12 per group.
FACILITATION SKILLS
Most people think facilitation means staying neutral and keeping things moving. It doesn't. It means being present enough to notice what's actually happening in a group - the energy shifts, the voices going quiet, the tension that everyone can feel, that's trying to say something - and having enough skill to work with it rather than around it.
Every group has a reason it came together - to learn something, decide something, build something. But groups are made of people and people bring history, habit and competing needs into every room they enter. Without someone who knows how to hold that, energy gets lost, the loudest voices dominate and the group walks away having gone through the motions rather than actually get somewhere.
This training is built around one core idea: conflict isn't the problem. It's the absence of repair that causes difficulties. Groups cycle naturally through orientation, action, tension and repair. When a facilitator knows how to hold that cycle - not control it, hold it - people stop performing and start actually participating. What the group decides together actually sticks, because everyone was genuinely part of it.
The group comes out of difficulty stronger.
Whether you're training new guides, teaching a class, or coaching a team, these are the skills that help a group do what it came together to do.
What's covered:
-
Notice shifts in group energy and participation patterns
-
Structures that support different voices being heard
-
Archetypal group roles and not getting reactive
-
Focus on purpose while staying flexible with process
-
Navigate moments when the group wants you to solve something they need to work through themselves
-
Support repair when tension arises, instead of seeing conflict as failure
-
Maintain own groundedness when facilitating charged conversations
Who is this for:
Anyone who leads groups - facilitators, educators, team leaders, workshop coordinators, community organisers. Especially useful for people facilitating outdoor or threshold experiences where group dynamics intensify.
Format:
Half-day workshop.
Organisational / Group bookings limited to 12 per group.