We are excited to be hosting our annual event again at this incredible venue as we have for the last three years. If you have been to one of our events before then you will know that the whole experience is important to us and to make this event as unique and nurturing as possible, we like to include as many options for connection and reflections as possible with a heavy focus on nurturing our own self-care and sense of community!
The Rowton Hall Hotel and Spa has a quirky and colorful character and for those staying over in the hotel, you have access to a divine spa and some preferential room rates on a first come first served basis. (Contact them directly for availability on rooms and to book this directly with them).
After a full day of creative workshops, we can’t think of anything better than being able to kick off our shoes and hit the spa for some wind down time. The Creative Counsellors team will be staying on site on Friday and Saturday night and for any community members staying over, we would love to catch up in the pool, join you for a drink at the bar and get to know you a little better after the event. We are also organising a three course meal on Saturday night for anyone staying on site who would like to join us.
The Creative Counsellors Experience
Whether you are flying solo or in a group – we are on hand to make your Creative Counsellors experience an adventure. So please let us know on your booking form if we can do anything to help or make this experience more comfortable for you! We will also invite you to join a WhatsApp group if you would like to connect with other counsellors who will be with us on the day.
Evening Meal (additional option not included within the day ticket price)
The evening meal is a three course meal for £30. This gives us a smaller group opportunity to gather and get to know each other even more. The food is amazing and the staff are wonderful. Last year we ended up in the bar after our meal to catch up on life, laugh a lot and hug it out! We know that counselling can be isolating work and this is one of the ways that we like to bring the community together! All dietary requirements can be catered for and you don’t need to be staying in the hotel to book the evening meal. Numbers are limited for the evening meal and so we do urge you to book that with your main booking form.
Event Stall:
We offer a small number of event stalls and tables where you can offer your products to those who are attending. There is a small donation of £30 towards this to cover set up costs. This also includes a table cloth and table ready and waiting for your set up! You can set up from 8am with event doors opening from 9:30am.
To book a place, please:
STEP 1: Complete your registration form
STEP 2: I will send you a payment link based on your choices from the registration form.
This registration form will help us to gather all of the important information that we need to ensure we can give you the best event experience including knowing your dietary requirements! I will then send you an invoice / receipt for your records with remainder instalment payment details if you are paying in instalments.
Members ticket = £95
Non-members ticket = £115
Please note: Your payment secures your ticket and is non-refundable under any circumstances.
Shame is like a virus that infects the soul and yet remains largely hidden in the therapeutic space as clients and practitioners fear the exposure of their shame. This presentation will focus on how to release shame and build shame resilience through a range of therapeutic techniques and strategies as well as experiential exercises. Emphasis will be placed on creative, right brain based exercises such as the embodiment of shame, unpeeling the masks of shame, use of nesting dolls, and identifying and re-apportioning intergenerational shame, to promote healing, restore authentic pride and build shame resilience.
Christiane Sanderson is a former senior lecturer in Psychology at the University of Roehampton, of London with 38 years of experience working in the field of child sexual abuse, sexual violence, complex trauma, attachment trauma and shame. She has delivered training to therapists, counsellors, mental health professionals, nurses, child protection agencies, social workers, the police, faith communities, legal professionals, teachers as well as parents. She is the author of We Are Still Here: What Counsellors and Therapists Can learn from the Lived Experiences of Child Sexual Abuse Survivors; Working with Survivors of Sibling Sexual Abuse: A Guide to Therapeutic Support and Protection for Children and Adults; Counselling Skills for Working with Shame; Counselling Skills for Working with Trauma: Healing from Child Sexual Abuse, Sexual Violence and Domestic Abuse; Counselling Adult Survivors of Child Sexual Abuse, 3rd edition; Counselling Survivors of Domestic Abuse; The Seduction of Children: Empowering Parents and Teachers to Protect Children from Child Sexual Abuse, and Introduction to Counselling Survivors of Interpersonal Trauma, all published by Jessica Kingsley Publishers. She has also written The Warrior Within: A One in Four Handbook to Aid Recovery from Sexual Violence 4th Edition; The Spirit Within: A One in Four Handbook to Aid Recovery from Religious Sexual Abuse Across All Faiths; Responding to Survivors of Child Sexual Abuse: A pocket guide for professionals, partners, families and friends, and Numbing the Pain: A pocket guide for professionals supporting survivors of childhood sexual abuse and addiction for the charity One in Four for whom she is a trustee.
This workshop explores post traumatic growth through the life and work of Liesl Silverstone, a Holocaust survivor who came to England on the Kindertransport and lost nearly all her family in concentration camps. Art was not simply a professional path for her. It was a way of surviving, grieving and continuing to live.
Years later, she visited Terezín camp where members of her family had been held. She encountered the drawings made by children imprisoned there. These images were acts of endurance and quiet resistance. They revealed how creativity can hold what words cannot.
From this, Silverstone developed Person-Centred Art Therapy, an approach rooted in non directivity, non interpretation and deep trust in the individual’s capacity to discover the meaning contained in images. In this session we will hear Liesl’s story, briefly outline the theory behind the approach and explore how images can bring insights and meanings that are difficult to reach through words alone.
The second part of the session will be experiential. You will be invited to create a simple image in response to a short visualisation. This is not about artistic skill or producing something impressive. It is about exploring the depth of meaning within the image and experiencing for yourself how creative work can open space for reflection, processing and growth.
Charlotte Farish-Edwards
Charlotte is a person-centred and creative arts therapist. After an 18 year career in secondary English teaching, she retrained and now holds a Person-Centred counselling diploma and a diploma in Person-Centred Creative Arts. She works in private practice and within a community women’s centre, where she has facilitated creative journalling and peer support groups. Alongside her wife Fleur, she co runs Two Birds Therapy, offering creative therapeutic workshops. Charlotte is a Creative Counsellors Ambassador and is editor of Rooted, the Creative Counsellors Journal.
Fleur Farish-Edwards
Fleur is a person-centred and creative arts counsellor and supervisor with over a decade of experience working with diverse clients and supervisees. She runs a private practice, delivers creative therapeutic workshops with Charlotte through Two Birds Therapy and alongside her counselling qualifications, holds a diploma in Person-Centred Creative Arts. Fleur is a full time lecturer at Edge Hill University, teaching on undergraduate counselling and psychotherapy programmes, and serves as an external examiner at two universities. She is also chair of PCE Europe. Fleur is in the final stages of her Professional Doctorate in Psychotherapy Studies at the University of Lancashire, where her research explores the experiences of adopted adults.
As the final workshop of the day, Inky Worlds invites you into a spacious, sensory, and deeply creative exploration of connection and growth.
Rooted in the theme of Post-Traumatic Growth, this integrative arts experience offers a playful and immersive space to reflect, release, and re-imagine. Through the fluidity of inks, the grounding texture of charcoals, the softness of pastels, and layered mixed media, you’ll be invited to create your own symbolic “inky world” – a visual landscape of resilience, integration, and possibility.
Set to gentle, relaxing music, to encourage a gentle space of flow. It is about process. About presence. About allowing colour, texture, and intuition to guide what wants to emerge to symbolise our day together.
We have carefully planned the day to offer a balance between professional workshops and creative activities with plenty of breaks and lots of nurturing food and refreshments. After all we are people before counsellors.
9:30 – 10:00 Welcome Coffee & Pastries
10:00 – 11:00 Session 1: ‘The Web of Shame in the Therapeutic Space with Christiane Sanderson
11:00 – 11:20 Morning Coffee Break and browse the stalls
11:20 – 12:35 Session 1 Contd: Christiane Sanderson
12:40 – 13:30 Creativi-Tea Lunch! Enjoy a tasty lunch, take a walk in the gardens and browse the stalls
13:30 – 14:40 Session 2: Art as Survival: Person-Centred Art Therapy and Post Traumatic Growth with Charlotte & Fleur
14:40 – 15:00 Afternoon Coffee and Cake
15:00 – 16:30 Session 3: Integrative Arts – Inky Worlds with Tanja, Gaynor & Eve
16:30 Closing
Can I book a room on site?
Yes, rooms are on a first come first served basis and you can check availability, price and book to stay directly with Rowton Hall Hotel and Spa by calling 01244 335262. The earlier you book the better the deal!
Additional hotels in the area include: The Cheshire Cat, Rowton Poplars and the Mercure Chester Abbots Well Hotel.
Where is the hotel?
The hotel address is – Rowton Lane, Chester CH3 6AD
Where is the nearest train station?
The nearest train station is in Chester. You can book a taxi to take you to the venue from there.
How do I book a ticket?
Tickets will be available to book in January.
Can we book as a group?
We need an individual form to be completed for every person to capture dietary requirements etc and so you will need to book individually.
Are seats allocated?
No. seats are not allocated and so you can choose to sit anywhere that you like.
Are special diets catered for?
Dietary requirements are catered for and we will also have a selection of alternative milks and options on offer too – as long as we receive your completed form we can pass this onto the caterers.
What if I change my mind, can I cancel my booking?
All ticket sales are final and are non-refundable as we pay per booking with the hotel. If you cannot attend for some reason and we have a waitlist then we may be able to resell your ticket but we can’t guarantee this.
Will this event be recorded?
We are not recording this event to create a safe environment for attendees.
