Date: Friday 26th September 2025

Time:Doors open 9.30am. Meeting between 10am -12.30pm

Topic: Social Class in Counselling and Psychotherapy 鈥� Is counselling a middle-class profession and how important is class identity in the counselling room?

Given the growing economic insecurity in the UK, this workshop will explore how navigating the economic conditions of our profession may hold implications for our practice.

In 2013 the BBC in collaboration with a group of Universities in the UK, conducted a survey entitled 'The Great British Class Survey'. Seven classes were identified from the emergent data:

  1. Elite and established class
  2. Middle class
  3. Technical middle class
  4. New affluent worker class
  5. Traditional working class
  6. Emergent service sector class
  7. Precariat class

In February 2015, an event launched by the London School of Economics revisited the original survey's findings and questioned further the debate on the British Class system in terms of economic, social and cultural capital.

In this experiential workshop, we will use the model of the seven different social classes identified in the Great British Class Survey to question our own position with regard to class identity..

We will explore: -

  • Does being a counsellor or psychotherapist make me middle class?
  • What meaning does class have for me?
  • What does this mean for my clients?
  • How do I work with class issues within the therapeutic space?

Guest facilitators: Fatima Asadi and Victoria Childs are both committee members of the Working Class Psychotherapists Association.

Location: Weare336, 336 Brixton Road, Brixton, London SW9 7AA.

Facilitator: Simon Thomas and Gabriella Andronico