The Cambridge Forum for Children's Emotional Well-being is based at the University of Cambridge Faculty of Education. Find out more about our counselling courses.

Purpose

• To promote and extend the practice and development of psychotherapeutic counsellors in the region
• To offer a vibrant programme of courses and conferences which provide for the continuing professional development of psychotherapeutic counsellors
• To maintain the professional standards of psychotherapeutic counselling

Aims

• To promote and extend the practice and development of psychotherapeutic counselling and to enhance children's emotional well-being
• To promote high standards of training in psychotherapeutic counselling
• To promote high standards of practice in therapeutic work with children and young people
• To promote research and knowledge in the theory and practice of children's emotional well-being

Upcoming events

In 2025/26 we have two in person Forums and one online. We will not be running hybrid sessions. The theme of the Forums this year is providing the right service at the right time for the developmental age and stage of the people we are working with.

Please save the date for the following:

Saturday 11 October 2025 - 10.00 to 12.30 with Liz Fordham

Tuesday 24 February 2026 - 18.30 with Eliana Gil (online)

Saturday 6 June 2026 – Dr Hilary Cremin – further details to follow

Our first in person event in academic year 2025/26 will be on:

Saturday 11 October 2025 - 10.00 to 12.30

Supporting Adolescent Development with Liz Fordham

Liz is an alumna of our Child and Adolescent Psychotherapeutic Counselling Programme and is currently an EdD student nearing the end of her studies. Her current research is focused on the role that educators can play in supporting students as they navigate the developmental challenges brought about by puberty.

The focus of this presentation will be to discuss an alternative perspective on adolescent development, in which puberty is considered not just a stage, but in fact a point of rupture of the adolescent’s sense of being a child and a 're-birth' into a ’new me’. The physical, neurobiological, behavioural, emotional and cognitive changes that take place to evidence this will be explained.

The implications in terms of the potential identity void that this ‘re-birth' creates and what this looks like in children’s behaviour will also be discussed. Also at issue will be the vulnerability that this lack of identity affords the emerging adolescent, and the corresponding risks posed by social media/influencers/online chatrooms etc., as evidenced by the recent Netflix drama ‘Adolescence’. Aspects of the early child development work of English psychoanalyst Donald Winnicott will be used to evidence ways in which we can work both in the counselling room and the classroom to better support our clients/pupils as they navigate this potentially difficult transition period.

This session will be of interest to counsellors, educators, service providers and researchers who are interested in working with and around adolescents as well as those with adolescent presentations.

TEA AND COFFEE WILL BE PROVIDED

Details of how to book this session will be added shortly. 

Online session

Tuesday February 24 2026 at 18.30 with Eliana Gil – further details to follow

Dr. Eliana Gil is a Founding Partner of Gil Institute for Trauma Recovery & Education, LLC, a group private practice in Fairfax, Va, where she currently works as a Senior Clinical and Research Consultant. She is an Approved MFT Supervisor as well as a Registered Play Therapist/Supervisor, a Registered Art Therapist, a Registered Sand Therapist, and a Registered Expressive Arts Therapist. She is also a Circle of Security Certified Parent Educator, a Level II Theraplay provider, and participated and completed a two-year Individual Certification process with Dr. Bruce Perry. Dr. Gil provides specialized trainings on an array of topics involving trauma, attachment, and treatment options, with an integration of expressive therapies (art, sand, play). Eliana has directed three child sexual abuse treatment programs in Northern Virginia and continues her work in the field of child abuse prevention and treatment. She is also a former President of the Association for Play Therapy and received APT’s Lifetime Achievement Award in 2011.
Dr. Gil has written numerous chapters, journal articles, and books on child abuse and related topics and has participated in educational videotapes that feature her work through Guilford Press, as well as a self-published DVD on Family Play Therapy. Her most recent books include Post-Traumatic Play: What Clinicians Should Know and the second edition of Play in Family Therapy.

In-person session

Saturday 6 June 2026 – Dr Hilary Cremin – further details to follow

Dr Hilary Cremin researches, writes and teaches about peace education and conflict transformation in schools and communities. She is concerned with big questions about the future of education and peace building, and works with her graduate students to consider new directions for the field. Hilary has an interest in arts-based methodologies including photo-voice, poetry and autoethnography.

Hilary has worked in the public, private and voluntary sector as a school teacher, educational consultant, project coordinator and academic. She has worked with various adult and community groups and in hundreds of primary and secondary schools throughout the UK and internationally. She has also worked as a community mediator, mediating both neighbour and family disputes. She continues to be involved in the promotion and delivery of conflict transformation and peace-building work in schools and communities.

Please follow this link for information on past Forum events. 

Please contact Kat at ppd@educ.cam.ac.uk if you have any questions, or if you would like to be added to the email list to receive information about upcoming Forum events.