ONLINE WORKSHOP OVER 2 DAYS
CLICK HERE TO BOOK
Date: Friday 16th & Saturday 17th October 2026
Times: 9.30am to 5.00pm (BST) (including 50 minutes of breaks; 40 minutes lunch – total 1 hour 30 mins)
Location: Online
Trainer: Nicola Jones Scroll down to see more about the trainer
Cost: £215 if booked by 16th August 2026
£235 if booked by 16th September 2026
£260 Full price
We now offer insurance against cancellation. This must be purchased within 48 hours of booking the workshop. Click here for more info
CLICK HERE TO BOOK
If your booking is accepted that means there was space for you. If it is full, email sambaker.pa@gmail.com to join the ‘reserve list’. Then, if anyone drops out we will notify you, if there is a ‘last minute’ place for you. We will also let you know when we plan a new date.
NB: This course is a pre-requisite to Modules 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 and 7. If you have already done the ‘Attachment Informed Couples Therapy’ training with Nicola (between 2019 and 2025), then we recommend that you attend this course as a refresher and will give you a discounted rate of 50% of the current price.
If you have attended ‘Attachment Informed Couples Therapy’ please email jonstow.cyh@gmail.com to be given the 50% off payment link for this course.
However, having attended the attachment informed couples training (between 2019 and 2025) you are eligible to attend all the other attachment modules in this certificate training. Note that for the Parents (Module 5) and the Trauma (Module 4) courses it is a requirement to have attended Clinical Application of the Adult Attachment Interview and Mentalisation course (Module 3).
John Bowlby found that our first and most fundamental need is to connect to our parents (primary caregivers) and that this need, also known as the attachment or careseeking system, exists from cradle to grave. The corollary of this is that attachment theory is as applicable to adults generally and particularly in intimate relationships, as it is to children and it is this link which gives the insights into the origins of clients’ personalities enabling more attuned interventions. Overall, this will enhance therapists’ capacity for empathy and the quality of the therapeutic alliance
What you can expect from this workshop is to:
- Learn how personality develops (and one’s attachment style) securely or insecurely, from the quality of the parental caregiving relationship.
- Identify avoidant and preoccupied attachment styles from 3 interlinking perspectives and hypothesise about individuals’ inner worlds corresponding to each style i.e their beliefs about and expectations of self, others and relationships.
- Explore the essential characteristics of each of the basic human needs (motivational systems) of careseeking, caregiving, self defence (fear) and interest sharing. Learn to identify when these systems are underdeveloped or used defensively enabling clearer assessments and more targeted therapeutic interventions.
- Identify various, fearful, ways in which clients come to therapy (seek care) and recognise, and prepare to meet these differing presentations.
- Expand understanding of clients’ resistance to change and associated self- defeating patterns of behaviour.
- Explore the process of change with emphasis on the implicit, non-verbal aspects of the therapeutic relationship.
- Learn various ways to access clients’ attachment histories and identify events which significantly shape family systems and the individual’s place within the system.
- Explore the impact of one’s own attachment style on the therapeutic relationship.
Learning will be through presentation, video clips of relevant research, large and small group discussions using a case study and skills practices. Some pre-course preparation will be given along with handouts and a list of additional resources.
This is part of the Advanced Certificate in the Clinical Application of Attachment Theory.
Who is this workshop for?
Any counsellor or psychotherapist is welcome to join this workshop. Couples therapists will benefit. But since so many therapy clients have relationship issues, we also welcome one-to-one counsellors, psychotherapist and health workers. This workshop is also open to people who are training as a therapist / counsellor.
About the trainer:
Nicola Jones is an experienced relationship therapist and an accomplished trainer and facilitator. She trained with and worked for Relate, trained with The Bowlby Centre for 2 years and is accredited by the National Counselling Society. She has an MA in Gender Studies, SOAS, University of London (2008). Nicola has supervision with those who worked with or were supervised by John Bowlby. She is Vice Chair of the International Attachment Network and works privately in Bristol with individuals, couples and families. Her first career was as a lawyer and family business adviser. Nicola has presented internationally on a range of matters related to social justice.
Maximum numbers: 18
Approved for CPD : This course will give you 14 hours of CPD.
Our expectation: Is that you will attend this workshop for the full length of the course, have your video on, your mobile off, and fully participate.
- There are some online talks on zoom that allow you to come and go, or to choose not to participate in the exercise and breakout rooms. This culture has started to creep into our workshops. We have even had people say they want to leave to go and pick up children from school or walk their dog! People dropping in and out is very disruptive – especially when there may be group exercises that are planned for the same group to participate in a number of times.
- Because of this, we want to be clear about our expectations. This workshop has been planned with the assumption that you, and everyone else, will attend for the full time.
- So please be clear, that if you book on this workshop, we expect you to attend for the whole time, to participate in the breakout rooms and exercises and have your video switched on.
- Please also put your mobile to one side and on silent – checking your phone or texting will mean that you miss material. So we request that you only check your phone during breaks.
Therapists Insurance: By booking on this workshop you confirm that you have sufficient insurance to offer therapy to the public. (We are required by the NCIP, who accredit this workshop, to ask you to confirm this). If there is any discrepancy please let us know by contacting jonstow.cyh@gmail.com
Cancellations: Any request to change (eg defer to alternative dates) or cancel your place at a workshop, that is made at less than 21 days before the course start date will be charged in full. Any cancellation / amendments / requests to defer before 21 days, will be subject to a 12.5% handling charge.
Organised through Sleeping Mountain Ltd