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.

Saturday 6 June 2026

Growing an eco-centric understanding of human development; Innocent; Explorer; Thespian; Wanderer; Soul Apprentice; Artisan; Master; and Sage with Dr Hilary Cremin

10am to 12.30pm

In Person in the Mary Allan Building Auditorium, Homerton College, Hills Road, Cambridge CB2 8PH

Hilary will use the work of Bill Plotkin (2008) to offer us an ecopsychological approach to engaging with human lifespan development. By looking at human stages of development, not as an internal conflict or some external skill to be achieved, but rather as a role, identity or process (as Innocent; Explorer; Thespian; Wanderer; Soul Apprentice; Artisan; Master; and Sage) she will help us see how Plotkin takes these experiences, drawn from Native America Medicine Wheel knowledges, to give us a method to move from an ego-centric, aggressive, competitive, consumer driven society to a sustainable, co-operative and more compassionate place.

Hilary’s presentation will give us the foundations to consider how we then take this different understanding of human development into our practices as therapists and educators to provide developmentally appropriate support, delivered at an appropriate pace and time, to those we care for and care about. Hilary’s presentation may also challenge us to consider where we, as professionals and people, are in our creative exploration of our maturation and fulfilment in life. She will also draw on her new book Rewilding Education to make a case for education that is grounded in nature-based, embodied and contextualised learning.

Plotkin, B. (2008). Nature and the human soul: Cultivating wholeness and community in a fragmented world. New World Library.

Cremin, H. (2025) Rewilding Education: Rethinking the place of schools now and in the future, Abingdon: Routledge

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.