Forging inclusive cultures in training and supervision

Mamood Ahmad (he/him) is a UKCP-accredited psychotherapist, tutor, speaker and author of the book A new introduction to counselling and psychotherapy (Routledge).

With nearly two decades of experience in private practice and specialisms in trauma, cultural competence and social change, his current primary focus is on driving professional standards change.

He can be contacted on ma@tadf.co.uk or tadf.co.uk. 

A solution for forging inclusive cultures by design in training, supervision, and beyond (with Caspari Foundation)

Mamood Ahmad walks through a tried-and-tested, low-cost, step-by-step transtheoretical solution for building more inclusive cultures in therapeutic training, called the 'wholeness solution'. The approach truly integrates social context, diversity and EDI ‘horizontally’ throughout training, rather than treating them as ‘vertical’ add-ons. It considers how inclusivity can be embedded across the self, organisational culture, tutoring, curriculum, trainee experience, supervision, ethics and beyond.

Mamood will draw on five years of practical work, teaching best practices and his book, A new introduction to counselling and psychotherapy, to deliver an engaging session. He will be joined by the Caspari Foundation, who are a UKCP OM (organisational member). Together they will explore how the wholeness solution can support meaningful and sustainable change across therapy, education and the wider system.  

Whether you’re a training provider, trainer, therapist, supervisor or trainee, you’ll gain practical tools, resources and a step-by-step plan to support a transition towards a more whole and conscious way of being, teaching and practising. The answer to complexity may be much simpler than we imagine.

The Caspari Foundation is a UKCP OM and a leading organisation in educational psychotherapy, working with children and young people to help them overcome social and emotional barriers to learning. 

Jasmine Clarke-Skillicorn is a counsellor and mental health practitioner. Her research focuses on LGBTQIA+ inclusion in counselling and was recognised with the BACP New Researcher Award 2026.

Recently qualified counsellors’ preparedness to work with LGBTQIA+ clients

Jasmine Clarke-Skillicorn, counsellor and mental health practitioner, will share findings from her qualitative research exploring how recently qualified practitioners experience preparedness to work with LGBTQIA+ clients. Drawing on interviews with recently qualified counsellors, she will discuss the key themes identified within the research and explore what these mean for practice, training and supervision.

The session will consider preparedness as an ongoing process, moving beyond notions of competence towards cultural humility, supported through reflective practice, supervision and organisational commitment. Findings highlighting gaps in LGBTQIA+ training, reliance on external learning and the limitations of assuming that core conditions alone are sufficient will be explored. Particular attention will be given to the implications for trainers and supervisors, including opportunities to examine bias and discomfort, move beyond tokenistic approaches to inclusion, recognise and respond to harmful or discriminatory behaviour, and ensure responsibility for LGBTQIA+ awareness does not fall disproportionately on marginalised individuals. The session will consider how more embedded, reflexive approaches can support practitioners to develop inclusive and affirming practice.

Cristina Odigie-Bulnes is an integrative child psychotherapist, EMDR therapist and clinical supervisor who identifies as Black with Mixed heritage. She has worked in private practice in Lincoln since early 2016. 

Marginalised supervision trainees’ lived experiences of securing clinical placements

UKCP-registered child and adolescent psychotherapist and recently qualified clinical supervisor Cristina Odigie-Bulnes will share some of her experiences as a Black female trainee supervisor and the challenges she faced when seeking clinical placements to accrue the 25 supervision hours required to prepare her written assignments and, ultimately, complete her diploma. Cristina will reflect on the range of expected and unexpected costs that many practitioners from Black, Brown and other racialised backgrounds seeking further clinical training and experiencing severe delays securing placements incur. These costs that range from personal, intellectual and academic to familial, professional, financial and emotional/psychological.

Having sought permission from peers of racialised or marginalised backgrounds to share their lived experiences of struggle whilst seeking placements, Cristina hopes to share the message that paramount changes are needed in terms of deeply exploring notions of knowledge and power in our history and society and reflecting on subsequent epistemic injustices present in the collective, the profession and many training and clinical placement spaces.

She will put forward ideas that can be put into action by training and clinical settings to create significantly inclusive and supportive environments for trainees of racialised and other marginalised backgrounds. 

Bena Armitage is a UKCP accredited transactional analysis psychotherapist (CTA P), BACP registered counsellor and psychotherapist and clinical supervisor (Dip.) who is currently working towards PTSTA (P). For enquiries, contact bena@armitages.org.

Deconstructing power imbalance in clinical supervision

This presentation examines how power, difference and identity quietly influence the supervisory relationship. Bena Armitage uses transactional analysis (TA) and other integrative ideas to support supervisors and supervisees in recognising these dynamics and understanding how they affect safety, trust and professional growth.

Power imbalance exists in every supervisory relationship, and fully accounting for its effects involves exploring differences in factors such as culture, race, gender, class, ability, age and neurodiversity. These differences can create unspoken barriers that shape how openly people share their processes and experiences. By slowing down and naming these dynamics, supervisors and supervisees can build a more transparent, supportive and ethically grounded environment.

Using TA frameworks such as ego states, together with concepts of parallel process, power and privilege, the presentation illustrates how unconscious patterns can emerge in supervision. These patterns may mirror the supervisee’s client work or reflect wider systemic pressures. Recognising these processes encourages supervisors to respond with clarity, compassion and ethical awareness.

The presentation also emphasises psychological safety. When supervisees feel safe, they can bring uncertainty, mistakes, cultural discomfort and ethical dilemmas without fear of judgement. Working relationally helps supervisees feel seen, heard and valued, strengthening the supervisory relationship and supporting deeper clinical thinking.

By the end, attendees will have greater awareness of how power may operate in supervision, how identity and intersectionality influence the supervisory relationship, and how TA and other frameworks can foster a more balanced, culturally attuned and effective supervisory practice.

Jess is an autistic family and systemic psychotherapist with a background in teaching A level psychology. She has a deep interest in people and is passionate about creating change for greater inclusivity and neuro-affirming approaches.

Helen is a neurodivergent child therapist, systemic practitioner and trainee systemic psychotherapist. They deliver parent/carer support groups and training, with the privilege of working alongside families therapeutically. 

Exploring the experience of systemic training as an autistic individual

This presentation will focus on research conducted for a master’s dissertation. The research presented addresses a gap in the literature and systemic profession by using participatory research to explore experiences of autistic individuals training as family and systemic psychotherapists. It aims to be constructively awkward, proposing changes to how psychotherapeutic training is considered and delivered that could make a difference for autistic people and trainees more widely. The presentation also aims to resource family and systemic training institutions, with relevant application to other psychotherapeutic training, providing tangible ways in which training and systemic practice might be developed to become more neuro-affirming and inclusive, whilst also forging a path for other such research to follow. It will include an invitation for listeners to reflect on their own experience of education and training, while considering the suggestions made from the research and other ideas to make psychotherapy training more inclusive and neuro-affirming.