This Core programme is part of the multi-level training pathway for experienced Group Relations practitioners. The pathway offers the opportunity to acquire the skills and expertise needed to become advanced Group Relations consultants, directors and field stewards at Group Relations Conferences.

You can choose to apply for the Core Programme on this page or the Full Programme.

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The Core Programme 

This is an advanced certification programme designed for experienced Group Relations Conferences (GRC) consultants ready to deepen their consultancy capacity and take up more complex roles within their local and the international GRC community.

The programme addresses urgent contemporary challenges: digital acceleration, geopolitical unrest, intergenerational shifts, ecological anxiety and crises of trust in leadership. 

Our goal is to cultivate practitioners who can work with authority, role, boundary and task in real-time institutional settings, applying the landmark methodology of Group Relations.

Programme Philosophy

The programme emphasises experiential learning grounded in Tavistock tradition theory: psychoanalytic insights into unconscious life of groups and institutions, Gestalt attention to embodied presence, systemic thinking about boundary/authority/role/task, and complexity theory’s appreciation of emergence, uncertainty, unpredictability and creative tensions.

Participants develop their capacity to use themselves - body, mind, and the unconscious - as instruments of learning, working with projections, enactments, transference, countertransference, social defences and the social unconscious as they manifest in real-time institutional settings.

Training Structure

The Core Programme consists of 2 in-person modules lasting four full days each plus 10 online sessions to extend learning.

Core Module 1: The Consultant in the System – Authority, Role & Boundary

Thu 4 June - Sat 6 June 2026, in-person in London

Participants enter a temporary learning institution to explore consulting in real-time. Practitioners rotate through multiple roles - member, consultant, convenor, administrator - while working directly with projections, enactments, and resistances.

The module cultivates “negative capability”: the ability to remain present under pressure without rushing to premature certainty.

Core Online Components

2026: 24 June, 15 July, 2 Sept, 23 Sept, 14 Oct, 4 Nov, 2 Dec.

2027: 6 Jan

The programme continues as a living online institution with ten three-hour sessions, with themes including:

• Faculty-led theory seminars on socioanalytic, psychoanalytic and systemic concepts and other methodologies
• Co-designed seminars shaped by participants’ emerging questions and contexts
• Supervised Review & Application Groups examining national and regional GRC landscapes, with experienced international faculty
• Self-organised study groups for peer-led reflection and peer-supervision
• Required staff role at a recognised GRC (with pre/post-conference supervision).

The sessions will be three hours long and take place on Wednesdays 13.00 – 16.00 GMT/BST

Core Module 2: The Consultant as Container – Critical Incidents & Beyond

Thu 28 - Sat 30 Jan 2027, in-person in London

Participants work closer to the system’s edge, encountering institutional crises, container ruptures, and ethical dilemmas. A Critical Incidents Event examines moments of breakdown and unexpected learning. 

Participants present case material, consult to peers, and collectively design and direct an online experiential event, which is then critically studied for its design, evolution, and learning outcomes.

Certification

Professional Portfolio

Due 3 May 2027

A 3,000 - 5,000 word reflective inquiry into a significant GRC consultation, examining embodied / emotional / unconscious responses, institutional dynamics, theoretical frameworks, and development of negative capability. Must include reflection on the training programme as a whole system.

Certification requirements

• Full participation in both in-person modules
• Active engagement in all online components
• At least one staff role during the programme
• Successful portfolio submission.

Award

Certificate in Advanced GRC Consulting (TIHR accredited)

Build your GRC skills pathway

We offer a series of specialist modules that can be added to the Core Programme. You can review the specialist modules here.