Such clients rarely present with dramatic symptoms. They often function well, appear reasonable, and minimise their distress. But beneath the surface, many are chronically anxious, dysregulated, or flooded with shame. If therapists aren’t attuned to the clinical markers of emotional neglect—or if they respond with well-meaning neutrality—they may unwittingly replicate the original wound.

In this two-part workshop, Kathrin Stauffer draws on decades of experience as a body psychotherapist to guide clinicians through the emotional landscape of clients who were emotionally neglected—and offers practical strategies for helping them grow in ways they were never supported to.

This two-evening workshop, rich with illustrative case studies, group reflections and experiential exercises, will explore:

The Landscape of Emotional Neglect: Understanding and Relating

• How does a therapist build trust with someone who has no internal model of being understood?
• What does safety mean to a client whose lived experience is suffused with emotional dysregulation?

From Deficits to Healing: Interventions for Integration and Growth

• What happens after we’ve built safety—but nothing seems to move?
• What might be the deeper reasons for a client’s resistance to change?

This is a rare opportunity to learn from Kathrin Stauffer’s deeply thoughtful and clinically practical approach to one of the most under-recognised client presentations in adult therapy. Learn how to recognise what wasn’t said, repair what wasn’t offered, and support the clients who fell through the cracks.

Workshop Structure

Evening One

This evening focuses on recognising the subtle presentations of emotional neglect and building a therapeutic stance that avoids retraumatisation. Drawing on vivid case material, Kathrin will explore how neglected clients navigate the therapeutic relationship—with guardedness, compliance, or avoidance—and how therapists can adapt their relational stance accordingly.

We will explore:

• The clinical “feel” of emotional neglect: what therapists often miss or misread
• The deep ambivalence neglected clients feel toward receiving care
• How therapeutic neutrality can echo emotional absence
• Why rupture-and-repair may not be helpful—and what to do instead
• Developing a relational position that is directive, attuned, and non-intrusive
• Understanding the longing for benign authority figures—and how to step into that role ethically

Interactive components:

• Small-group reflection on clinical experiences where neglect was overlooked
• Therapeutic self-inquiry on how one’s default style may unintentionally echo early neglect

By the end of this evening, participants will have a clearer map of what neglect feels like in the therapy room—and a more grounded sense of how to create safety where it was never offered.

Evening Two

This evening focuses on the developmental consequences of emotional neglect and offers concrete, reparative interventions to support growth. Many neglected clients have missed key developmental steps—not because they are resistant, but because no one ever taught them how to feel, regulate, or relate. Kathrin presents a compassionate, accessible model for working with this kind of inner emptiness—focusing on small, digestible, non-overwhelming steps.

Key topics of focus:

• Working with developmental deficits rather than intrapsychic conflict
• Identifying and nurturing “micro-resources”: building on what is present
• Language scaffolding: helping clients name, sequence, and contextualise emotion
• Body-based interventions that support affect regulation and groundedness—even for therapists without somatic training
• Using guided imagery and imaginative techniques to fill in internal structures
• Accessing tools for working with states of collapse or low-energy states—common in clients who were neglected
• Designing interventions that factor in the principle of the correct dose

Interactive components:

• Somatic experiential exercise: grounding and presence skills
• Skill practice: role-play exercises to work with shame, affect language, and therapist stance

By the end of the second evening, participants will be equipped with practical tools and therapeutic principles for working with clients who didn’t just suffer trauma—they missed whole stages of development.

About the Trainer

Kathrin Stauffer, PhD, UKCP Registered Body Psychotherapist, is the author of Emotional Neglect and the Adult in Therapy and An Introduction to Body Psychotherapy. Known for her deep clinical insight and integrative approach, she offers a rare blend of rigour, compassion, and accessibility. Her work helps therapists understand and treat the quieter, more hidden forms of developmental harm—those rooted not in what happened, but in what never did.

Learning Objectives

By attending this workshop, participants will be able to:

✔ Identify overlooked clinical markers of early emotional neglect in adult clients
✔ Understand why neutrality, silence, or standard rupture-repair techniques may backfire
✔ Apply simple, somatically grounded interventions to support affect regulation
✔ Use narrative scaffolding to help clients build coherence, self-compassion, and integration
✔ Work with developmental deficits using directive, nurturing, yet ethically boundaried techniques
✔ Reflect on their own therapeutic stance and modify it to avoid re-enactment of neglect

Who Is This For?

This training is suitable for psychotherapists, psychologists, counsellors, and mental health professionals working with adult clients—across all modalities—who wish to better understand and respond to the often-missed clinical presentations rooted in early emotional neglect.

Regardless of your theoretical orientation, if you are working with adult clients, you are likely working with emotional neglect—whether or not it has been named. This training will help you see what’s been hidden, and respond with insight, skill, and care.

Reserve Your Place

Join us for this experiential, immersive and practice-focused workshop to discover how it can transform not just your clinical work, but your entire approach to helping others. Participation is limited to preserve the interactive learning experience and high-quality engagement essential for mastering these transformative techniques.

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