Overview

Therapy often begins with insight—but insight alone is not enough. Many therapists are discovering that real change comes when insight is integrated with attuned action—when therapists and clients are able to stay with uncertainty, respond to moods that matter, and allow new possibilities to emerge.

This two-session professional development series explores a practical shift in therapeutic work: from focusing on the inner world of the client to engaging with the lived world they inhabit—where moods, relationships, and meaning unfold in context.

Drawing on the everyday experiences of curiosity, care, uncertainty, and presence, this workshop offers a chance to reflect on how therapy can move from managing problems to enabling clients to emerge differently in their world.

Conceptual Background: From Inner Self to Self-in-Context

This shift from insight alone to insight and action reflects a deeper conceptual transformation in how we understand the self in therapy. Traditional therapeutic models often rely—sometimes implicitly—on a Cartesian view of the self as a detached subject, an inner observer who analyses thoughts and feelings in order to gain control or understanding. In contrast, this workshop invites participants to explore the Heideggerian view of the self as always already situated—formed in relation to the world, shaped by moods, and embedded in cultural conventions. Here, the self is not an isolated subject to be understood from within, but a being-in-the-world whose possibilities emerge through attuned presence and contextual action. Therapy, in this light, becomes less about interpreting the inner world and more about inhabiting new ways of being, in relationship to what the world discloses.

Key Themes

Working with moods such as anxiety, shame, and vulnerability—not as symptoms, but as signposts to what matters.
Moving from talking about experience to disclosing possibilities through presence and action.
Cultivating therapeutic presence not as technique, but as a mooded, attuned way of being-with.
Understanding care and curiosity as therapeutic moods that invite change.
Embracing uncertainty and ambiguity as the space where meaning and transformation emerge.

Learning Outcomes

Recognise how moods shape therapeutic space and disclose what matters to the client.
Reflect on their own use of presence, care, and curiosity as forms of therapeutic attunement.
Distinguish between insight-based interventions and those that integrate attuned action.
Explore moments of uncertainty as openings for new possibilities, not problems to solve.
Identify practical ways to support clients in inhabiting new ways of being-in-the-world.

Structure

Two 2-hour sessions, including:

Short, practical presentations
Reflective discussion
Practitioner case examples
Small group dialogue
Optional guided experiential exercises

Who Should Attend?

Psychologists, psychotherapists, and counsellors interested in deepening their therapeutic presence and exploring how mood and action can transform client work—regardless of modality.

Professional Development Workshop | Thursday 13, 20 November | 6.30pm-8.30pm

Choose your tickets

APS / NZPsS Members ticket

PACFA Members ticket

Non Members ticket