Symposium 2024

Finding Agency in the Face of Crisis

This year’s symposium will focus on how we can support each other and our clients to respond effectively to the multiple crises of our time. 

Psychosynthesis has been called a psychology of hope, a psychology of love & will, and a psychology of the soul… What is the relationship between these things? And how does a psycho-spiritual perspective help us to find hope and will in times of crisis? What is the relationship between our inner personal work and our outer capacity to respond rather than react to the world around us?

These are some of the questions that will be guiding our shared enquiry, and we are delighted to announce that this year’s programme will include a keynote from Hetty Einzig.

At the heart of our endeavour is the question of how psychosynthesis can serve a world in transition that feels increasingly fraught with dangers of social polarisation and dehumanisation alongside environmental degradation and climate emergency? How can we find the courage to engage with the systemic forces which give rise to a sense of powerlessness? How do we kindle our belief in the human capacity to create and transform? How do we stay close to what matters most, and use it to light a torch of hope?

Perhaps coming together in community is part of the answer. As Hetty wrote in her inspiring contribution to the recently published Holding the Hope (2023):

“We need more spaces where we can dream together in radical hope, governed by an alliance of the heart and mind and fuelled by courage. Could this also be the work of the psychological and coaching professions: to create many more secular-sacred spaces in which to dream together?” 

Joining us to explore this rich terrain is transpersonal coach, thought leader & author Hetty Einzig, who will open the day with an interactive session exploring how we can apply transpersonal psychology as a practical tool in cultivating hopeful practice, and a container for eco-systemic thinking and emergence.

We also have a wide range of compelling breakout sessions such as:

• Heather Mullin on AI – its challenges, threats and opportunities, and how we might use it as a wise companion in coaching.
• Keith Silvester on the Political Impetus – an exploration of how and why we form ideologies and how they translate into personal, organisational & societal work
• Seraphina Maguire – Coming into Right Relations with life
• Saiyyidah Zaidi on identity, culture & belonging
• Peter Stewart on Labyrinths as a creative tool for navigating complexity
• Stewart Taylor on embodied Systemic Constellations

The final plenary session will be led by Bonny Tydeman and Tom Mansfied who will use Cards for Life – an integrative tool – to help us think ecologically, systemically and multidimensionally about life’s dynamics, and how to work with them in order to navigate complexity.

Join us to be part of the discussion!
Bonny Tydeman (Symposium Curator)

About the session leaders and contributors

Aubyn Howard
Aubyn Howard is the co-founder (with Paul Elliott) of Psychosynthesis Coaching Limited. Aubyn holds an MA in Psychosynthesis Psychology with the London Institute of Psychosynthesis and an MSc in Change Agent Skills and Strategies with the HPRG at Surrey University. He draws upon more than 30 years’ experience as an organisational consultant, facilitator, educator and coach, supporting transformational change and leadership development with leaders of all sizes of organisation, across many different sectors and national cultures. Certified Spiral Dynamics and NLP practitioner, APECS Accredited Executive Coach and a Psychosynthesis Coaching Supervisor. Author of two chapters in: The Call of Self, Psychosynthesis Life Coaching, Edited by Didi Firman (2018). Author of Psychosynthesis Leadership Coaching (2020).
www.psychosynthesiscoaching.co.uk

Bonny Tydeman
Bonny Tydeman is a psychosynthesis coach & facilitator. In her coaching work with individuals and groups, she focuses on connection to and expression of soul essence, drawing on a range of wisdom and techniques to help people answer the questions, ‘Who am I? Why am I here? & Where am I going?’ in a way that is dynamic and creative. Her background is in the creative industries, where she has worked as an art director, event producer and cultural curator and she is still committed to her own creative expression which currently takes the form of performance poetry.

Hetty Einzig
Hetty Einzig is a thought-leader and leadership coach, who has been designing and delivering leadership and cultural change programmes for thirty years. Her roots lie in transpersonal psychology, a holisticand values-based ontology that works with the cognitive, emotional,physical, spiritual and contextual as an ecosystemic whole. She has a Masters from the Tavistock Centre in Consulting to Organisations, psychoanalytic and systemic approaches. She is also on the associate faculty of the Irish Management Institute,  teaching on the Diploma in Executive Coaching.

Heather Mullin
Heather Mullin set up Connect Coaching in 2013 following her retirement from the NHS where she worked both as an occupational therapist and later as a CEO. She attained a post-graduate diploma in Leadership Coaching at the London Institute of Psychosynthesis. She provides organisational development and coaches a number of senior leaders in the NHS, local authority, fire service, charity sector and universities and also sees people who are interested in their own development.

Seraphina Maguire
Seraphina Maguire is a coach, consultant and ceremonialist. Alongside her training in psychosynthesis, she is a qualified facilitator in mindfulness, constellations and grief tending in community, and has worked extensively with plant medicine and shamanism. She is a passionate advocate of reinstating the place of culturally relevant ritual and ceremony in the workplace as an important prerequisite for presence and wellbeing in a time of volatility and change.

Saiyyidah Zaidi
Saiyyidah Zaidi works with CEOs, senior leaders and their teams, as an advisor, mirror and sounding board; she trains senior leaders to become coaches; and she is an independent researcher in practical theology and business ethics. She was the first Muslim in Britain to complete a Doctorate in Practical Theology and has a particular interest in helping individuals and organisations to develop impact and influence through exploring identity, culture, and belonging. 

Keith Silvester 
Keith Silvester is a psychosynthesis therapist, trainer and supervisor, qualified at the London Institute.  From 2003-2010 he was training director of the Psychosynthesis Trust, where he still works.  He has completed the 5DL coaching training at the Institute, and has been president of the European Federation for Psychosynthesis Psychotherapy since 2018.  He is also a practitioner of the Alexander Technique.  He has a particular interest in existential and postmodern perspectives on human change. 

Peter Stewart
Peter Stewart trained as a psychosynthesis coach on the PGCPLC program run by Middlesex University and the Institute of Psychosynthesis. He worked for more than 30 years as a journalist, consultant and analyst, mainly in the field of energy, before making the transition to becoming a creativity coach. He runs several websites dedicated to his interests in poetry, pottery, travel, wine and the energy transition. Peter is accredited  by the EMCC and is a committed European. He was born in Austria, and has worked in Europe, Asia and the Middle East.

Stuart Taylor 
Stuart Taylor is a coach, facilitator and Systemic Constellations Practitioner whose work draws upon his experience as an Aikido sensei, professional athlete, and zen meditator. He is a published writer, senior associate consultant at EA Consultancy and Black South West Network; A Trustee for St Ethelburga’s Centre for Reconciliation & PeaceBlack South West Network; and founder of Dances with Wisdom.

Tom Mansfield
Tom Mansfield is the founder of Pale Blue where he offers Coaching, Consulting and Communications all in service to Planetary Health. His focus is on the relationship between personal development and systems change and his tool cards for life is his latest offering to support this work.