The Third Space: Practitioner Consultation for Therapists

Real, confidential professional conversation.

Some experiences in professional life do not fit comfortably into either therapy or clinical supervision.

They may affect you deeply and personally, without being something you want reduced to an inner wound or individual difficulty.

They may concern your professional life without being primarily about client work or case management.

They may exist where the personal, professional, relational, ethical and systemic meet.

This is what I call The Third Space.

It is neither therapy nor clinical supervision.

It is somewhere else to think.

Somewhere to speak.

Somewhere to be met honestly.

There are experiences in professional life that can be difficult to speak about anywhere.

• Hierarchy.
• Systemic power.
• Organisational harm.
• Ethical conflict.
• Professional silencing.
• Depletion.
• Cultures of silence.
• Being taught to disappear.

These experiences are often carried privately, half-named and without anywhere honest to put them.

The Third Space offers somewhere to bring them into the open without having everything reduced either to personal pathology or a question of clinical practice.

What The Third Space is

A one-to-one professional conversation with me, grounded in nearly thirty years of therapeutic experience.

Somewhere to say the thing out loud, in your own words, without having to manage anyone else’s comfort.

Somewhere to think carefully about what happened, what is happening and what you understand about it.

Somewhere to notice the effect that the work, the hierarchy or the organisational culture has had upon you.

Somewhere the personal and professional can both be present without one being used to dismiss the other.

You do not come to be interpreted by me.

I will not position myself as the authority on your experience or tell you what you ought to think.

You remain the author of what happened to you, what it means and what you choose to do next.

We can slow things down enough for you to hear your own knowledge clearly.

Why I offer The Third Space

I know this territory personally.

I experienced being taught to disappear during my own therapeutic training and later within NHS services across three different locations in Scotland and England.

I know how professional environments can require therapists to become quieter, smaller and more compliant while describing that disappearance as professionalism.

My understanding comes from nearly thirty years of therapeutic practice, but also from having lived and worked inside the systems I am willing to speak about.

Who The Third Space is for

The Third Space is for qualified counsellors, psychotherapists and supervisors.

You may be carrying an experience involving hierarchy, systemic power, organisational harm, ethical conflict, professional silencing, depletion or a culture in which it felt dangerous to speak.

You may have been left questioning your own perception, judgement or professional integrity.

You may understand much of what happened and still need somewhere real to say it.

You do not need to have your experience organised before coming.

You do not need to make it sound reasonable, professional or easily understood.

You can begin where you are.

What The Third Space is not

This is not therapy.

It is not clinical supervision.

It is not legal advice.

It is not an investigation, evidence gathering or the preparation of a case against an organisation.

It is not somewhere I will diagnose the people or organisation involved, make decisions for you or instruct you about what you should do.

The Third Space does not replace personal therapy, clinical supervision, specialist legal advice or formal representation.

It exists because some professional experiences need somewhere different to be spoken about and thought through.

If what you need is personal therapeutic work, you can read about Therapy for Therapists.

If you need clinical supervision, specialist legal advice or formal representation, The Third Space is not a substitute for those services.

Confidentiality

What you bring will be held privately and confidentially within the ordinary professional, ethical and legal limits that apply to my work.

Beginning a conversation

You do not need to know whether one conversation or a series of conversations would be right for you.

You do not need to have found the perfect words.

You are welcome to tell me a little about what you are carrying and what you hope the conversation might offer.