As the brilliant comedian and thinker Tim Minchin once said, “Empathy is intuitive, but it is also something you can work on intellectually.”

We live in a world marked by fear, disconnection, and the lasting trauma of global conflict. In such an environment, our capacity for empathy is challenged. Fear can make us retreat. To preserve ourselves, we start to see others not as fellow humans, but as threats. The overwhelming suffering we witness — often from a distance — can leave us dissociated, emotionally numb, as a way to survive and carry on with our daily lives.

Our bodies, in response, desensitise. This is not weakness; it’s a strategy. But it comes at a cost.

As therapists, we depend on our ability to tune into the subtle, often unspoken dynamics between ourselves and our clients. It is through this attunement that we become the “needed other” — the one who sees, hears, and holds space for the client in a way they may never have experienced before.

But how can we do that — how can we show up with that depth of presence — when the world around us is constantly disturbing our senses?

How do we hold suffering, longing, and ground-shattering grief without becoming overwhelmed ourselves?

This is where our workshop steps in. It offers a space to explore exactly that: how to reconnect with our senses, and to use them as powerful clinical tools. Through experiential exercises grounded in theoretical frameworks and assessment tools such as the ARK model, we learn how to tune back in — to our clients, to each other, and to ourselves.

Because ultimately, our work is not just about understanding others. It’s also about understanding who we are in relation to them — and how we can meet their pain without losing touch with our own humanity.”