CLINICAL SUPERVISION
The Relationally Responsive Therapist: Core Skills
Core Skills for Complex Relational Trauma
A four-session training and supervision group for therapists who want to feel more grounded, confident, and relationally attuned in complex trauma work
New dates for Fall 2026:
Sept 10th, Oct 8th, Nov 5th, Dec 3rd
Many therapists come into this work with strong clinical training, a growing collection of modalities, and a genuine desire to help. And yet, when we begin sitting with clients who carry complex relational trauma, it can still be difficult to know what to do.
You may find yourself wondering: Am I moving too quickly or too slowly? Is this client activated, shut down, or trying to please me? Should I stay with the emotion, offer more structure, or help the client regulate? What is happening between us right now?
Am I doing enough?
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Complex trauma work can be deeply rewarding, but it can also ask a great deal of us as therapists. Clients may bring shame, dysregulation, mistrust, protective withdrawal, attachment fear, relational testing, or a long history of feeling misunderstood. The work is rarely linear, and there is not always a clear next step.
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The Core Skills for Complex Relational Trauma supervision group offers a place to slow the work down, strengthen your clinical foundation, and develop greater confidence in how you meet these moments.
CLINICAL SUPERVISION SERVICES
About the Group
Core Skills for Complex Relational Trauma is a four-session learning and consultation group for therapists who want to feel more grounded, confident, and relationally responsive in their work with complex trauma.
Each two-hour session combines focused teaching on core relational skills with guided reflection, experiential learning, and clinical consultation. We will explore foundational skills for working with clients who carry complex relational wounds, and then use the remainder of the session to look more closely at clinical cases and apply what we are learning to the real complexity of the work.
The group meets on Thursday mornings from 10:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. PT, online through Zoom for Healthcare.
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Dates for Fall 2026: Sept 10th, Oct 8th, Nov 5th, Dec 3rd
It is designed as a supportive place to build community with other thoughtful therapists, receive guidance with challenging cases, deepen your clinical confidence, and accumulate eligible group supervision hours.
CLINICAL SUPERVISION SERVICES
The relationship is not separate from the treatment
Many therapy trainings teach us valuable interventions, protocols, and steps. These tools matter. But the way they are offered — the therapist’s presence, pacing, attunement, curiosity, and responsiveness — profoundly shapes how they are received.
For clients whose wounds were formed in relationship, the therapeutic relationship can become one of the central places where healing begins. A relationally responsive therapist is able to stay close to the client’s unfolding experience while also offering enough clinical structure and leadership to support meaningful change. Rather than fitting the client into a one-size-fits-all method, the therapist listens carefully to the client’s narrative, emotional experience, body, nervous system, protective strategies, and relational cues.
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This allows the therapist to ask:
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What is happening for this client now?
What is their system communicating?
What feels possible in this moment?
What would support greater contact, choice, safety, and agency?
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This relational foundation can deepen and strengthen whatever modalities you already use.
What this group can help you develop
This group is designed to help you:
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feel more comfortable and confident in complex trauma work
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slow down and stay closer to the client’s moment-to-moment experience
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recognize activation, collapse, disconnection, and appeasement
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understand how regulation can happen through relationship and co-regulation
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improve pacing and avoid becoming many steps ahead of the client
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become more aware of transference, countertransference, and therapist pulls
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use the therapeutic relationship with greater intention
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bring your existing modalities into a more relationally grounded way of working
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feel less alone with challenging clinical moments
Why relational skill matters now
In a time when information, advice, and even therapeutic language can increasingly be generated through technology, the human relationship remains essential.
Your capacity to sit with another person, notice what is happening beneath the words, respond with care, tolerate complexity, and stay present through uncertainty cannot be reduced to a script or automated process. The therapeutic container you offer is part of your clinical power.
Developing relational responsiveness helps you become more able to use yourself thoughtfully in the work — not by trying harder or becoming endlessly available, but by becoming more grounded, discerning, and connected to what is actually happening in the room.
Who this group is for
This group may be a good fit if you:
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work with (or are curious about working with) complex PTSD, developmental trauma, relational trauma, attachment injury, or chronic shame
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have training in one or more modalities but want a stronger relational foundation beneath them
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sometimes feel lost, uncertain, or overly responsible in complex client work
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want to become more confident tracking regulation and nervous-system capacity
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are curious about transference, countertransference, and relational dynamics
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want to strengthen your therapeutic presence, pacing, and attunement
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value experiential learning, thoughtful discussion, and supportive clinical consultation
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want to build community with therapists who care deeply about relational trauma work
You do not need to arrive knowing everything. This group is a place to practise, reflect, ask questions, and grow.
SESSION 1
September 10th
The Relationally Responsive Therapist
Presence, Attunement, and Contacting the Client’s Unfolding Experience
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We begin with the foundations of relationally responsive therapy: therapeutic presence, attunement, pacing, and collaboration.
You will explore how to stay close to the client’s moment-to-moment experience, make contact with their narrative, emotions, body, and protective responses, and offer clinical guidance without moving too far ahead or imposing a rigid agenda.
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SESSION 2
October 8th
Tracking Regulation, Dysregulation, and Capacity
Reading the Nervous System and Supporting Regulation in Relationship
This session focuses on recognizing activation, collapse, shutdown, disconnection, shame, and appeasement.
You will strengthen your ability to track the client’s body, nervous-system state, and available capacity, while exploring how therapist presence, pacing, and attunement can support regulation and co-regulation.
SESSION 3
November 5th
Transference, Countertransference, and the Relational Field
Understanding Client Expectations and What the Therapist Feels
Clients bring earlier relational expectations into therapy, and therapists are affected by what unfolds between them. Understanding this can help you recognize why you may feel unusually careful, responsible, frustrated, inadequate, or pulled to rescue with certain clients.
This session will help you use your own responses with greater curiosity and awareness, so you can avoid becoming unconsciously caught in the pattern.​
SESSION 4
December 3rd
Bringing It Together
Relational Case Formulation and Applied Practice
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The final session integrates the core skills through case examples, brief clinical vignettes, discussion, and consultation.
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Together, we will explore the client’s nervous-system state, relational patterns, protective responses, therapist countertransference, and possible next steps.
This session can help you build a clearer and more dynamic relational case formulations.
SESSION TAKE-HOME RESOURCES
Practical Resources to Bring Into Your Work
All participants will receive a growing collection of practical resources designed to help the learning continue beyond each session and make it easier to apply directly in your clinical work.
Resources may include concise one-page tip sheets, nervous-system tracking guides, collaborative language prompts, countertransference reflection tools, relational case formulation worksheets, sample questions, and brief practices for therapist and client use.
The intention is for you to leave each session not only with new ideas and greater clinical clarity, but also with useful tools you can return to during the week as you work with clients.
Welcome to our community
Complex relational trauma work can be deeply meaningful, but it can also be demanding, uncertain, and emotionally challenging. I do not believe supervision should be a place where therapists feel they have to arrive with everything figured out or prove that they are good at what they do. I see supervision as a place to grow: somewhere you can bring the difficult moments, talk honestly about where you feel stuck or unsure, and explore what is happening with curiosity rather than judgment.
Some of the most valuable supervision I have received has been warm, encouraging, and spacious enough for me to say, “This is hard,” or, “I’m not sure what to do here,” and have that welcomed as part of the work. That is the kind of space I aim to offer in my own groups.
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My Vision for the Core Skills Group
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My vision for this group is to create a warm, supportive place where therapists can strengthen their core skills for complex relational trauma work without feeling they need to arrive with everything figured out.
I see supervision as a place for growth, not performance. You are welcome to bring the moments where you feel uncertain, stuck, activated, or unsure what to do next. With curiosity, reflection, and support from the group, these moments can become opportunities to deepen clinical understanding, build confidence, and feel more grounded in your work.
My hope is that Core Skills offers both practical learning and a place to land: a community of thoughtful therapists developing the relational presence, clinical competence, and compassion needed to support clients healing from complex relational trauma.
Questions You May Have
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How are the two-hour sessions structured?
Each session begins with a focused learning piece connected to that month’s theme, followed by group discussion. Some sessions may also include a guided reflection or experiential practice. The second part of the session is devoted to clinical consultation, where participants can bring questions, challenging moments, or client cases related to the topic. This offers space to receive feedback, learn from the group, and leave with practical ideas to bring into your work with clients.
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What resources will I receive as part of the group?
Each session includes a focused learning piece, group discussion, experiential reflection, and time for clinical consultation. You will also receive practical session resources, which may include one-page tip sheets, nervous-system tracking guides, collaborative language prompts, countertransference reflection tools, case formulation worksheets, sample questions, and brief practices to support your work with clients.
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Can these sessions count toward supervision hours?
These sessions may be eligible to count as group clinical supervision or consultation hours, depending on the requirements of your professional association, regulatory body, workplace, or training program. Participants are responsible for confirming the specific requirements that apply to them. Attendance confirmation can be provided upon request.
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Can I register for both Core Skills and Advanced Group?
Yes. Taking both groups can be a valuable way to deepen and extend your learning. Core Skills focuses on the foundational relational capacities underneath complex trauma work. Advanced Consultation builds on those foundations through more experiential reflection and consultation around clinical discernment, countertransference, rupture and repair, and complex or challenging cases. You are welcome to take them in sequence or register for both if that feels appropriate for your experience and learning goals.
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How do I know whether Core Skills is the right level for me?
Core Skills is open to therapists at different stages of their careers. You may be newer to complex trauma work, or you may already have clinical experience and want to strengthen the relational foundation beneath the modalities you use. There is no requirement to reach a particular career level before joining. The most important consideration is whether you want to deepen your therapeutic presence, nervous-system tracking, pacing, relational awareness, and confidence in complex trauma work. If you are unsure whether this group is the right fit, you are welcome to book a complimentary 15-minute clinical supervision meet-and-greet with me.
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Do I need to attend all four sessions?
This is a four-session series, and participants are encouraged to attend all four whenever possible. You are still very welcome to join if you can attend at least three of the four sessions. To help maintain continuity within the group, your three or four session dates must be selected and booked when you register. What is the cancellation policy? Because this is a closed group and your place is reserved for the dates you select, registrations are considered confirmed once booked and session fees are non-refundable. If you need to miss a booked session because of illness or another last-minute circumstance, the session fee will still apply. You will receive the session resources, along with a written summary of the teaching and discussion that does not include any identifying client or participant information.
Ready to Register? Questions?
If this group speaks to you and feels like the kind of support you’re looking for, you’re warmly invited to join us.
If you’re still thinking it through, have questions, or would like to get a sense of whether the group is the right fit for you, you’re very welcome to send me a message through the contact form or book a complimentary 15-minute clinical supervision meet-and-greet.
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If you are ready to join us, you can register in two ways:
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Send me a message through my contact form to express interest or reach out with any questions.
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Or follow the link to the online booking page and scroll down to Supervision, where you’ll find Core Skills for Complex PTSD. Please add yourself to all of the session dates you’re able to attend. You’re welcome to join the group as long as you can attend at least three of the four sessions.
Structure & Details
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Fall 2026 dates: Sept 10th, Oct 8th, Nov 5th, Dec 3rd
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Sessions are two hours long and take place on Thursday mornings from 10:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. PT
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Online through Zoom for Healthcare.
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The fee is $120 per two-hour session. Registration is for the full four-session group, for a total cost of $480​​
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​To support continuity, trust, and a cohesive group experience, these are closed four-session groups. Participants are asked to commit to attending at least three of the four sessions and to identify any dates they are unable to attend when registering.