A TWO-DAY EXPERIENTIAL WORKSHOP ON CHRONIC PAIN & ILLNESS IN THERAPY

Friday 13th March & Saturday 14th March, 2026 – 10 -4.30pm

Are you a therapist or mental health practitioner looking to deepen your work with clients experiencing chronic pain and illness? Or are you a practitioner navigating your own journey with chronic pain, fatigue, or illness? This immersive two-day workshop offers a relational, body-centered approach that embraces both professional and personal experiences of long-term suffering.

What is the workshop about?

Chronic pain and fatigue are not just physical conditions—they shape identity, relationships, and emotional landscapes. As therapists, how can we meet these challenges with curiosity and a presence that fosters transformation?

Over two days, we will explore chronic suffering as a doorway to profound therapeutic work, integrating phenomenological focusing, somatic attunement, and the art of listening to symptoms as meaningful expressions.

This space is designed to support both those working with clients experiencing chronic pain and those who personally navigate these experiences, recognizing the wisdom that can emerge from both perspectives.

What You’ll Gain:

• A deeper understanding of chronic pain as a lived, embodied experience rather than a symptom to be “fixed” Techniques for working with a client’s felt sense, allowing pain and fatigue to be fully expressed in a safe and therapeutic space.
•  Practical tools for maintaining presence and curiosity in the face of complex and often overwhelming narratives.
• Insight into your own embodied responses as a therapist, especially if you experience chronic pain or fatigue yourself, and how these shape the therapeutic process.
• A balance of experiential exercises, discussion, and reflective practice to ground theory in lived experience.
  

  Who Is This For?

• Therapists, counsellors, and mental health practitioners working with clients experiencing chronic pain and illness.
• Practitioners who personally navigate chronic pain, fatigue, or illness and want to explore how these experiences intersect with their work.
• Those interested in a relational, body-centered, and experiential approach to long-term suffering.

 

This workshop offers a supportive environment where professional insight and personal experience are equally valued, fostering deeper connection, understanding, and growth.

Venue: Jordans Quaker Meeting House, Welders Lane, Beaconsfield, Bucks. HP9 2SN.

Time: 10am -4.30pm each day
Cost: £250 (Early bird £225.00 before 31st January 2026)
Lunches and tea & coffee included both days

TO BOOK https://www.relationalchange.org/training-and-events/other-events/51/beyond-pain-as-invitation

What is Living Presence?

Living Presence is an experiential retreat designed for individuals to explore authenticity and deepen self awareness in a supportive group setting.

Living Presence is a co-created group space where we each give ourselves permission to explore being more authentic. Discover our own depths, and learn how we are experienced by others. It is based on a shared commitment to meet together and participate in a lightly structured, spontaneous process. In which, whatever emerges, allows each of us to experiment and grow in awareness.

What you can expect

• A safe space: Everyone is encouraged to express their thoughts and feelings openly
• Structured yet flexible: Activities may include check ins, open sharing, experiential exercises and mindfulness practices.
• Personal growth: Learn about yourself through your interactions and reflections.

What will the day look like?

• Initial check-in (sharing feelings and reflections)
• Open group sharing and responses
• Experiential exercises for new awareness
• Time alone, in pairs and small groups inside or outside in nature
• Self-created ceremonies/symbolic actions
• Mindfulness & guided imagery
• End of day check out

Practicalities

• Date & Time : Saturday, 1st February 10 am -4.30pm (with shared lunch)

• Cost: £75.00 (concessions available)
• Location: Jordans Quaker Meeting House, Welders Lane, Jordans, Beaconsfield, Bucks., HP9 2SN http://jordansquakercentre.org
• Participants: Limited to 16

Your commitment

• Share honestly – even when uncomfortable.
• Practice self awareness and learn from mistakes
• Explore and express conflict constructively
• Own your feelings and projections
• Engage fully in the group process.
• Give and receive feedback responsibly.
• Embrace differences and learn from disagreements.
• Reflect on your defences.

Join us

• For a transformative day at the beautiful Jordans venue, a historic place of personal and collective growth for over 300 years. Enjoy a shared meal and the potential for ongoing connections

Ready to explore your presence?

Reserve your spot today. Contact

 

A Therapeutic approach to working with Chronic Pain & illness

EVENING ONLINE WORKSHOP | THURSDAY 13th MARCH  2025 5pm-8pm

Are you a therapist or mental health practitioner seeking to deepen your
understanding of chronic pain and illness? Join us for an enriching workshop focusing on
that will transform how you approach long-term suffering in your clients!

About the Workshop:
Chronic pain and fatigue can feel overwhelming—for both clients and
practitioners. This workshop invites you to view these challenges as
opportunities for growth and understanding. Together, we’ll explore how to
maintain curiosity and presence while working with the complexities faced
by long-term sufferers.

Key Highlights:

•  Examine the intricate issues that chronic pain and fatigue present.
•  Learn to focus on pain as a central thread in therapy.
•  Engage in discussions that cater to attendee interests and energy levels.
•  Option to join a longer live supervision day for deeper exploration. What You’ll Learn:
•  The power of phenomenological focusing and relational felt sense in therapy.
•  How to attune to both the client’s embodiment and your own process.
•  Techniques to allow symptoms full expression, leading to transformative experiences.

Investment: £50.00

Facilitator: Rachael Kellett

Hosted by Relational Change https://www.relationalchange.org/training-and-events/other-events/42/pain-as-invitation

To book email Mandy mandy@relationalchange.orgth

Louisa says:

“Having been a founder member of this wonderful Creativity Workshop Group since it began in 2014, I’ve seen it develop and grow in strength and diversity throughout that time. 

I see it as being a means to look at and expand your Creativity in the broadest sense, in every aspect of life.  It’s fun, searching, companionable, insightful, thought-provoking.  Each workshop, whether getting together in a group, or on Zoom during Covid times, is immensely fulfilling and rewarding.  Rachael brings her wealth of Gestalt knowledge and experience, but it is by no means therapy-led, and Rachael often forms part of the group for exercises and tasks. 

We have become a close-knit group over the years – and despite our age range, from 20s to 60s, all feel that we have thoughts, feelings and experiences which are very in-tune with each other.  A joy to be with these people.

Most of all the Group is really great fun and gives a wonderfully close experience. A day of totally stepping out of your day to day life.

I would strongly recommend joining Rachael and any new Creativity Awareness Workshop or Group.”

Jenni says:

“I joined Rachael’s Paths to Growth group 6 years ago and have rarely missed one since!

Rachel’s warm, gentle and creative nature sets the tone for women to gather together and explore their own internal landscape and innate creativity. She creates a space where you feel comfortable to just be you – whatever that looks like on the day! 

The friendships that I have built within the group over the years are some of the most authentic and supportive I have ever had. 

The Paths To Growth retreats have really changed my view of myself and allowed me to explore new directions in all areas of my life. I couldn’t recommend joining one more!”

Quee says:

“Rachael’s workshops are always beneficial, helping us to focus on the present, on what is going on around us and how that might be affecting us. Allowing us to be thoughtful and experimental in looking at creative ideas and seeing how they might tie in with our own paths through our lives.  They also allow us to communicate with a very special small group of people in a safe, warm and supportive way.

The workshops are always inspirational, thought provoking and leave you feeling content and replenished.”  

Mandy says:

“I started the workshops after they’d been running for several years – I couldn’t have joined a more friendly and welcoming group. With a big age-range and diversity of lifestyles, each person contributes to making it an exciting and fun place.  It’s my treat to myself (my “me-time”).  Each workshop is unique and combines a mix of creativity, peace, spirituality, nurture, nature, support and much laughter.  Rachael runs these workshops with her usual professionalism, enthusiasm and warmth. Our face-to-face groups have the additional treat of sharing whatever we’ve all brought for lunch.  The lock-down digital groups have gone incredibly well and it always raises my spirits to spend time with these special people.”

Sheila says:

For me Rachael’s workshops are personal development, creativity, self-care, connecting with nature, a women’s circle all wrapped up in fairy dust!

“We haven’t the time to take our time” by Eugene Ionesco

With our busy lives and our never-ending “to-do lists” we never seem to find time to do the things we enjoy. We struggle to make time for ourselves and what matters to us. We are all familiar with the phrase “time flies when you are having fun.” When we become absorbed in something pleasurable we can lose track of time completely. Activities that we find fun and relaxing are known as past-times, and therefore tend to be considered unimportant. But are they? What if your relationship with time is a major factor in the promotion of health and illness? In this workshop we will explore our experience of time and its effect on the following:

• • Stress
  • Illness
  • Ageing and fear of dying
  • Pain
  • Energy levels

We will spend the day with a joyful mix of gestalt based experiential work , self reflection, mindfulness and guided imagery. To register your interest or book a place please contact me

Paths to Growth 2020 workshops – Making time for Happiness, Health & Healing – Wednesday March 11th- 9.30 am -4.00pm

Dates: Next date Wednesday 11th March then bi-monthly

Times: 9.30 am -4.00pm

Since I started these Retreat Days in 2014, my hope has been to create a container of emergence, where people can join together with others to share their stories and feelings, gain insight and learning from listening to others, share food together, have fun and laugh together and support each others struggles.  I create a space for people to step away from their daily pressures and routines and take time to be with themselves and others. I offer Gestalt based experiential exercises which tap into our inner wisdom and creative thinking I offer an opportunity to reflect on what is important in your life and encourage you to let go of that which is no longer useful. There is no pressure on anyone to prove anything, it is a place where you are encouraged to be yourself , in fact  I offer exercises which help bring you closer to your true self. A place where you learn from listening closely to others and being properly listened to. I also include guided imagery, mindfulness, meditation, time in nature  and simple art and craft experiences.  This combination of the opportunity to build intimate connections, to focus on your needs and who you really are, experiential exercises which encourage reflection can all help you to creatively redefine yourself , your choices and who you want to become. Participants describe leaving these days feeling rejuvenated and inspired.

There is a vitality, a life force, a quickening that is translated through you into action, and because there is only one you in all time, this expression is unique….You have to keep open and aware directly to the urges that motivate you. Keep the channel open.

(Martha Graham in a letter to Agnes de Mille)

Make this year the year your Creativity shines through.  Whether it is making things, paintings, writing, baking, interior, design, photography or simply developing more creative ways of thinking and living.

“Every child is an artist. The problem is how to remain an artist once he grows up.”

Pablo Picasso

Are you the type of person who would love to be creative but doesn’t believe they can. Are you suffering from artist’s or creative block? We all have the potential for creativity when we learn to connect with ourselves and remove the false belief that we are not creative or not talented enough.

It is never too late to move beyond your feelings of low self worth. Join with us to challenge yourself to uncover your creative possibilities and allow us to help you to nurture your dreams in an atmosphere of trust.

This day of discovering your creative self is based on the work of Julia Cameron and can be useful as either a stand alone experience or as a taster day and precursor to the The Artists Way 12 week course.

The day will be spent working to uncover the thoughts and beliefs that are preventing your creative flow. Together we will explore common pitfalls and negative patterns and then offer step by step strategies to help you move forward.

Who can benefit from this workshop?

This can benefit anyone who wants more creativity in their life. Ranging from existing artists who feel they are holding themselves back or experiencing artists/ writers block; to those who long to express some creativity but believe that this is something other people do, and that they just don’t have what it takes. It can help you to be more creative in your decision making. Basically anyone who feels they are not expressing their full potential.

Inside you there’s an artist you don’t know about….Say yes quickly, if you know, if you’ve known it from before the beginning of the universe.” Jalai-Din Rumi

COMING SOON  – 1 DAY WORKSHOP

Discover your Creative Talent

Lane End Conference Centre, Church Road Lane End, High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire, HP14 3HH

 

Organised by The Sollus Consultancy

Facilitated by Rachael Kellett (UKCP accredited Gestalt Psychotherapist)

Please contact me if you are interested or would like further information

07787 242442