Craig Whisker

Group work is increasingly the most cost-effective means of providing public mental health services by government agencies, non-governmental organisations, and private practices. Popular evidence based modalities have been manualised and modularised to enable a wide variety of practitioners to deliver Cognitive-Behavioural Group Therapy (CBGT), Dialectical Behavioural Therapy (DBT),
Mentalisation-Based Group Therapy (MBT-G), Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT), and Substance Use Disorder Group Therapy, among many others. These developments offer hope that the escalating demand for services will be able to be met, now and in the future.

Yet the breadth and depth of roles and skills required for a group work leader to be effective in the variety of possible situations they might meet in a group goes beyond those generally acquired when learning manualised group work programmes. Group leaders must be able to assess and respond appropriately to group dynamics as they arise in the ‘here and now’. This is where the human factor is required, and while this seemingly comes naturally to some group work leaders, the vast majority will need further personal and professional development to fully grasp the subtleties of working with the “basic assumptions” (Bion, 1964) of dependency, flight, fight, and pairing that affect all groups or teams, having been refined in human societies over millennia and which are still evolving today.
This online experiential workshop offers everyone who leads or aspires to lead a group or team the opportunity to engage in intensive personal and professional development over a 7-week period.

Participants meet as a group led by Craig Whisker once per week for two 1.5-hour sessions, 14 sessions in total, to explore the particular purposes and goals that they identify and come to the workshop to achieve. This process involves self-presentation, interaction, teaching, coaching, supervised practice,
making assessments of group dynamics, creating effective interventions, reviewing transcriptions of previous sessions, and involvement in each other’s learning. No previous group work leadership experience is necessary.

The online sessions run from 7.00am to 10.30am UTC +1 (UK Daylight Saving Time) for seven consecutive Mondays on 7, 14, 21, 28 September, and 5, 12, 19 October 2026, with 26 October as the reserve day, if needed.

The Intensive is held during daylight saving in the UK, Europe and Israel, which ends on 25/10/2026; in New Zealand where it begins on 27/09/2026; and in the Australian states of NSW, VIC, SA, and TAS where it begins on 03/10/2026. Participants are not limited to the countries listed below — these are simply indicative times to give you a quick reference as to when the online sessions are being held.

The times listed in the table may not be accurate or may be subject to change over the 7-week period when the Intensive takes place. Participants are requested to clarify the situation with their local time zone relative to the primary time zone in the UK (UtC+1). Accurate local knowledge will be vital to our successful coordination. If you notice errors in the time zone table, please let Craig know.

Each group session is audio recorded to gain a record of what occurs in case we want to refer back to particular moments in the group’s work. At the end of each day the group leader transcribes a few minutes of group work from that day and we discuss the resulting transcription on the next scheduled date. The transcription provides a useful medium for reviewing previous work, teaching, and
deepening reflection.

The group leader is also a practitioner-researcher who writes and publishes on his practice of group work, and the audio recordings may also be used for these purposes on the provision that participants’ anonymity is maintained and participants have the right to review, edit, or veto any relevant content prior to publication. Audio recordings are securely stored and are not used for other purposes. Participants are asked to sign an informed consent form when registering.

£350 / €410 / SGD590 / AUD670 / NZD790 / ZAR6500