BACP Supervisor's Event 2025
Programme

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Supervisors event 2026

The supervisor's event aims to provide counselling and psychotherapy supervisors with essential CPD to develop and enhance their supervisory practice.

This year's event will enable participants to reflect on some of the challenges and complexities arising in supervision practice today and enhance their awareness, understanding and the skills needed to cultivate safety in supervision.

Participants will be encouraged to critically engage with contemporary issues in supervision and consider how these can inform and strengthen their own professional practice.

Join us in-person on Wednesday 2 September 2026  from 9:00am until 5:00pm in Birmingham.

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Programme

Time	Strand 1	Strand 2	Strand 3
9.00am to 9.45am	Registration and welcome drinks
9.45am to 10.00am	Event welcome
10.00am to 11.00am	Keynote presentation: Shame
11.00am to 11.20am	Break & networking
11.20am to 12.35pm	Supporting newly qualified practitioners moving into Private Practice	Different Ways of Processing: Reimagining Supervision through a Neurodiversity Lens, presented by Nicola Blunden	Working with the new Ethical Framework in Supervision
12.35pm to 1.35pm	Lunch
1.35pm to 2.50pm	War 'in and out' of Supervision, presented by Faisal Mahmood	Working with competitiveness in group and 1:1 supervision	Safeguarding
2.50pm to 3.10pm	Refreshment break and networking
3.10pm to 4.10pm	Keynote presentation: Erotic Transference
4.10pm to 5pm	Panel discussion and Reflections
5pm	Event close

This programme is subject to change

This experiential workshop invites you to explore the ways that neurodivergent people think, process, and relate in supervision. Using reflective activities, we will explore different ways of processing as strengths that shape how neurodivergent people listen, respond, and make meaning together, and we will also explore some of the challenges that neurodivergent people might face in processing emotion, sensory information, and attention.

The session will surface and critique the hidden neurotypical norms that often sit underneath supervision practice. You’ll have space to notice your own processing styles, and to think about how these show up in your work with supervisees and, in turn, their clients.

This session will also look at how differences in processing can enrich supervision, bringing new perspectives, depth, and flexibility to the relationship, while also considering some simple, practical ways to adapt your approach to better meet individual needs.

Nicola Blunden is a psychotherapist and supervisor with a strong interest in reflective practice and relational ethics. Her work focuses on creating thoughtful, inclusive spaces where practitioners can explore complexity, difference, and uncertainty in their work.

She brings a reflective and warm approach to her teaching, combining conceptual clarity with experiential learning. She is especially interested in neurodiversity, and in supporting practitioners to recognise and work with different ways of thinking, processing, and relating. Her workshops invite curiosity, self-awareness, and practical experimentation, helping participants to develop approaches that are both responsive and ethically attuned.

Nicola is the author of Next Steps in Counselling and Psychotherapy: A Student’s Companion (2025), Person-Centred Pluralism (2024) and A grounded theory of improvisation in therapy: lessons from decoloniality (2023). She is also Deputy Head of Professional Standards at BACP.

Dr Faisal Mahmood is a BACP-accredited counsellor, a UKCP-registered individual and group psychotherapist, and a UKCP-approved clinical supervisor. He is also a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy. Currently, he works as Head of Subject – Counselling, Psychotherapy & Talking Therapies at Birmingham Newman University, where he leads a portfolio of undergraduate and postgraduate programmes, including professionally accredited courses (accredited by BACP, UPCA, and BPS). In addition to his university role, Faisal is Vice Chair and Head of Training Standards at UTC (University Training College, UKCP college). With over 25 years of clinical, supervisory, and management experience, Faisal has worked with clients and staff in diverse settings, including GP surgeries, hospitals, the voluntary sector, and private practice. He also runs a private practice in Solihull, where he offers therapy, clinical supervision, and a range of CPD training events.

Supervisors event 2026

Book your place

Programme

Time

Strand 1

Strand 2

Strand 3