Accompanying the Inner Child Trauma-Informed Experiential Invitations for Therapeutic Practice

An Experiential Training Workshop for Multi-Disciplinary Practitioners
Facilitated by Dr Elaine Grech (Ph.D.)
Warranted Gestalt, Systemic, and Expressive Arts Psychotherapist · Accredited Supervisor · Warranted Teacher
Event Details
📅 Date: Friday, 16th October 2026
🕣 Time: 8:30 AM – 1:45 PM (5 CPD hours)
📍 Location: Amethyst Pembroke Clinic (Limited Spaces)
💶 Price: €120 (includes free-flowing teas and coffees)
🐦 Early Bird: €100 if paid by 30th July 2026
“Our inner child patiently waits for us. Every moment offers a new invitation to reach out, bring our inner child home, and walk alongside them with compassion in the here and now. There are several ways we can meet our inner child. Through trauma-informed therapeutic invitations, we cultivate new possibilities for more comfortable awareness, deeper connection and healing.”
Dr Elaine Grech (2026)
• How do we recognise when an explorer may be ready to meet their inner child?
• Would you like to explore trauma-informed ways of meeting the inner child within a comfortable enough therapeutic space?
• Would you like to experience a range of trauma-informed, embodied, relational and creative therapeutic invitations that can be thoughtfully adapted to your own professional practice?
• Would you like to deepen your understanding of when, why and how inner child work may be introduced in ways that honour each explorer's readiness, choice and unique pathway?
This workshop offers opportunities for personal and professional growth within a trauma-informed, experiential and collaborative learning environment.
Aimed For
Multi-disciplinary practitioners include: Psychotherapists · Family Therapists · Psychologists · Psychiatrists · Counsellors · Guidance Teachers · Social Workers · Child & Youth Care Workers · teachers · Support Workers · Trainee Wellbeing Practitioners · and other helping professionals.
Workshop Description
This experiential training workshop invites multidisciplinary practitioners to deepen their understanding of trauma-informed ways of meeting the inner child through embodied, relational and creative therapeutic practice.
Throughout the day, participants will be invited—not required—to engage in a range of carefully facilitated trauma-informed experiential invitations that support both personal and professional development. These experiential invitations are designed to be thoughtfully adapted across therapeutic, supervisory, educational and multidisciplinary settings.
Participants may choose to explore these experiential invitations through:
• their own personal and professional experience;
• explorers they have worked with, including individuals, couples, families, children, groups, supervision or organisational contexts; or
• a combination of both, according to what feels most comfortable.
There is no expectation that participants share personal experiences. Everyone is invited to participate at a level that feels appropriate for them. In this way, the workshop seeks to embody the same trauma-informed principles of choice, collaboration, pacing and respect that it aims to teach.
Throughout the workshop, participants will engage with a range of experiential invitations that illustrate different trauma-informed pathways for meeting the inner child. We recognise that each explorer's journey is unique and that not everyone is ready for emotionally vulnerable work in the same way or at the same pace. Together, we will explore how practitioners can collaboratively identify and offer trauma-informed experiential invitations attuned to each explorer's needs, helping them feel comfortable enough to engage with curiosity, choice, and compassion.
Participants will consider how to remain within their current zone of comfort while gently introducing new possibilities for therapeutic exploration and growth. Together we will explore how a “comfortable enough” therapeutic space can support curiosity, creativity and exploration while respecting protective adaptations and helping to avoid unnecessary overwhelm of the nervous system.
Drawing on trauma-informed practice, Gestalt psychotherapy, systemic thinking, attachment theory, expressive arts, embodied awareness and other experiential approaches, the workshop aims to strengthen both personal and professional development. Participants will leave with practical trauma-informed therapeutic skills and experiential invitations that can be thoughtfully adapted to therapeutic, supervisory, educational and multidisciplinary settings.
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Trauma-Informed Experiential Invitations
Throughout the day participants will be invited to experience and reflect upon trauma-informed experiential invitations such as:
• creating conditions that foster relational safety, trust and therapeutic presence
• recognising readiness, pacing and protective adaptations
• working within an explorer's zone of comfort while gently introducing new possibilities
• meeting younger aspects of self through embodied, creative and multi-sensory experiences
• exploring symbolic, creative and relational processes that support meeting the inner child
• engaging the practitioner's own inner child as a compassionate consultant in therapeutic practice
• translating experiential learning into work with individuals, couples, families, groups, supervision and organisational contexts.
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My Reflection
My Reflection
The theme of the inner child has remained close to my heart throughout my personal and professional journey. Since first facilitating a workshop on this theme in 2018, my understanding has continued to evolve through clinical practice, supervision, research, teaching and, perhaps most importantly, through the many meaningful conversations I have shared with the explorers I have had the privilege of accompanying—clients, supervisees and workshop participants alike.
Accompanied by my own inner child, I had the honour of accompanying others as they encountered theirs. These shared moments of curiosity, courage, vulnerability and joyful discovery have continually reminded me that healing is rarely about returning to the past. Rather, it is about cultivating a compassionate relationship with our inner child in the here and now.
Over the years, I have become increasingly interested not only in how we work with the inner child, but also when, why and under which conditions such work can be experienced as attuned, meaningful and trauma-informed. This growing curiosity has gradually woven together ideas from trauma-informed practice, Gestalt psychotherapy, systemic thinking, attachment theory, expressive arts, embodied awareness and other experiential approaches into a more integrated way of practising.
I have also come to appreciate that there is no single pathway to meeting the inner child. Some people connect through creativity, movement, imagery, symbolic exploration or embodied awareness, while others may find it more meaningful to explore these ideas through a current therapeutic, supervisory or relational context. Honouring these different pathways reflects the trauma-informed principles of choice, collaboration, pacing and respect that underpin this workshop.
This workshop reflects my continuing journey of learning. It is an invitation to explore together trauma-informed ways of meeting the inner child with greater awareness, attunement, creativity and compassion, while developing practical therapeutic skills that can be thoughtfully adapted to our own professional contexts.
My vision is to offer a comfortable enough, attuned, reflective and experiential learning space where we can learn alongside one another—and perhaps even alongside our own inner child—while developing practical therapeutic skills and continuing to cultivate compassionate, thoughtful and trauma-informed ways of accompanying the people who entrust us with their stories.
Join Us
I look forward to welcoming you and your inner child to this nurturing space in Pembroke.
May you both feel at home. 💛
Register: www.drelainegrechpsychotherapist.com/upcoming-events
🌳 Booking and Payment Procedure
(Please read all the information before you book.)
🍃 1. Booking through the Website
Visit www.drelainegrechpsychotherapist.com/upcoming-events and click “Register Now” on the event of your choice.
• If the website allows you to book, it means there are available places.
• If the workshop is full, a notification will appear offering the option to join the waiting list.
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🍃 2. How to Secure Your Payment
• Payment must be made within 24 hours of registration; otherwise, your booking will not be secured.
• When making your payment, please write your full name and the workshop title for identification.
• Once payment is made, please email confirmation to [email protected] with the following details:
o Name and surname
o Workshop title and date
o Method of payment chosen
o Email address for workshop correspondence
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🍃 3. Receipts and Certificates
• Participants will receive a receipt of payment via email within the following week.
• After completing the workshop, a certificate of attendance (reflecting the actual CPD hours completed) will be sent within one week.
• Please note that the certificate will reflect the completed hours, so full attendance is required.
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🍃 4. Booking Confirmation
Bookings are on a first-come, first-served basis.
Your place is confirmed only after both registration and payment are received.
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🍃 5. Cancellation and Transfer Policy
• The payment is non-refundable, unless in the rare event the workshop is cancelled by the facilitator.
• The fee is not transferable to another person or to another workshop.
• If you are unable to attend after booking, your place cannot be transferred to someone else.
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🍃 6. Organisational Sponsorship
If an organisation sponsors your attendance, please still book and pay individually.
You will receive a receipt in your own name, which you can present to your organisation for reimbursement.
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🍃 7. Pre-Workshop Information
Approximately one week before the workshop, participants will receive an email with the exact location and guidelines to help you prepare for the training.
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🌳 Payment Options
Full Fee: €120
Early Bird: €100 (if paid by the 30th of July 2026)
You may choose one of the following payment methods:
🌱 Revolut / Mobile Banking: 00356 99447307
🌱 PayPal: [email protected]
(Please add €5 to cover PayPal fees.)
🌱 Online Bank Transfer:
SWIFT Code: VALLMTMT
IBAN: MT60VALL22013000000040013125068
Many Blessings
Dr Elaine Grech