The Sixth Psychosynthesis Coaching Symposium: Coaching at Depth
Friday, April 10
8:00 AM - 4:30 PM
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About
_ What does it mean to work at depth as a coach? Why is this important now? And how does psychosynthesis provide a context and container for this work? _
The world we're living in demands more of us than ever before. The crises we face - ecological, social, psychological - are too complex and interconnected for surface-level responses. As coaches and practitioners, we're being called to develop new capacities: to stay present to overwhelm without fragmenting, to hold complexity without retreating into over-simplification and to meet collapse with something more than despair or denial.
Psychosynthesis offers frameworks and practices for this work: from the essential core of Self, through emotional and psychological integration, to our fundamental interconnection with each other and the world.
Join us for a day of collective exploration into what it means to work at depth - and why this matters now.
**Keynote: **
Kenneth Sørensen - Facilitating Depth through Psychosynthesis
Working with Psychosynthesis as a coaching or counselling paradigm gives access to multiple levels of depth, which can be engaged according to the client’s needs, capacity, and life situation. Psychosynthesis both includes and transcends mainstream psychological modalities, while adding perspectives that are distinctive—most notably in its understanding of essential identity.
In this opening keynote, Kenneth will outline how the process and practise of synthesis enables us to work at multiple levels with our clients, and help them to strengthen their centre – so they can meet future challenges with clarity, responsibility, and creative freedom.
Workshop Breakout Sessions:
Theo Djkman - No Man is an Island: An Entangled Experience of Eelf
Exploring Phenomenological Depth
From Indra’s Net of ancient Buddhist philosophy to the poem of John Donne in the 15th century, and the spider’s web of relationships of 21st century post-feminist thinkers, all have considered life to be an interconnected experience of the human and material world. Assagioli suggested that “neither biologically nor psychologically are we a “closed system”. Our physical body is not isolated from the surrounding life.”
The egg diagram shows this permeability of our psyche and the exchange of information between the unconscious and conscious, between the internal and external world in all its manifestations. From this perspective our sense of self is a continually changing experience of entangled relationships with others and the material world around us. Through sensory interaction with the world and each other, we'll explore how being together shapes individual and collective experience. This is depth as felt relationship, as the lived reality of interbeing - discovering that our sense of self is a continually changing experience of entangled relationships.
Anne Welsh - The Story of Your Life: Stages of Crisis and Awakening
Exploring Existential Depth
This workshop will invite participants to reflect on the trajectory of their becoming, listening to how crisis and awakening have shaped their identity. Using Assagioli's stages of awakening as a framework, you will explore the existential terrain of your life, and how you have established a sense of meaning, purpose and identity through change and challenge.
Keith Silvester - It's a Wild World: Making Sense in Confusing Times
Exploring Intellectual Depth
In our current zeitgeist there seems to be a consensus that we live in a complex, polarised world: wars that do not get resolved, seemingly irreversible climate change, the impact of technology and social media and, with 'fake news' and not knowing who or what to believe. This may be surprising given how much 'consciousness' there is. Certainly in western societies we have had decades of therapy and personal development approaches to draw on. So how come "the world is getting worse" (to quote James Hillman and Michael Ventura from 30 years ago)? In this workshop we will explore how our contemporary world can be understood through an interpretation of Assagioli's egg-shaped model of the psyche and its application to organisational and collective social change.
Aubyn Howard - A Depth Perspective on Leadership Development
Exploring Integrative Depth
The gap between the crises we face and the leadership capabilities available to meet them continues to grow. Aubyn brings together three approaches that have been "strangers to each other" - horizontal, vertical and inner development - through a psychosynthesis lens. How do we work with leaders to develop the depth capacities this moment demands? This workshop explores depth through integration and synthesis - bringing inner healing into relationship with systemic awareness, personal growth with collective transformation, whilst staying embodied and grounded in the natural world. Participants will experience new ways of working with leadership development and take away practical models and tools, continuing an inquiry that began with dialogues between Roberto Assagioli, Abraham Maslow and Clare Graves in the 1960s.
**Lightning Talks: **
Altered States, Psychological Flexibility & Transformation at Depth, Sonal Kadchha
In an era that often equates intensity with transformation, this talk examines what altered states of consciousness, induced by psychedelics, reveal about the psychological structure required for real and enduring change. Drawing on Psychosynthesis, we explore how psychological flexibility, discernment, and the development of the observing self determine whether depth stabilises into growth or dissolves into fragmentation. This talk invites a rethinking of transformation itself, not as breakthrough, but as integration sustained over time.
Depth in the Age of Algorithms: Staying in Right Relationship with AI, Nyla Khan
AI is already in our clients’ hands, and many are turning to it for reflection, meaning-making and guidance, often without an ethical container.Rather than rejecting or romanticising this shift, Nyla Khan explores what happens when a psychosynthesis practitioner steps into experimentation with care. Drawing on psychosynthesis, contemporary AI ethics and lived testing, Nyla asks: how do we engage technology without outsourcing Will or discernment?
Sam Starr - Ground & Rise Tarot: A Bridge for Coaching at Depth, Sam Starr
A brief introduction to Ground & Rise® Tarot as a method that connects symbolic enquiry with psychological awareness of our complex inner landscape. We’ll also work with the cards in small groups to discover insights around coaching at depth.
**Schedule: **
| Time | Activity | Person | | 09:00 | Arrivals | | | 09:15 | Welcome: Opening & Context setting | Aubyn Howard & Bonny Tydeman | | 09:30 | Keynote : Facilitating Depth through Psychosynthesis | Kenneth Sørensen | | 10:30 | Break | | | 11:00 |
Breakout 1 - No Man is an Island: An Entangled Experience of Self
| Theo Dijkman | | | Breakout 1 - The Story of Your Life: Stages of Crisis and Awakening | Anne Welsh | | 12:30 | Lunch | | | 13:30 | Breakout 2 - It's a Wild World: Making Sense in Confusing Times | Keith Silvester | | | Breakout 2 - A Depth Perspective on Leadership Development | Aubyn Howard | | 15:00 | Break | | | 15:30 | Lightning Talk: What Psychedelic Experience Reveals About Developmental Capacity |
Sonal Kadchha
| | 16:00 | Lightning Talk: Depth in the Age of Algorithms: Staying in Right Relationship with AI |
Nyla Khan
| | 16:30 | Lightning Talk: Ground & Rise Tarot: A Bridge for Coaching at Depth |
Sam Starr
| | 17:00 | Closing Plenary | Aubyn Howard & Bonny Tydeman | | 17:30 | End | |
**BIOS: **
**Hosts: **
Aubyn Howard is the co-founder (with Paul Elliott) of Psychosynthesis Coaching Limited. He draws upon more than 30 years’ experience as an organisational consultant, facilitator, educator and coach, supporting transformational change and leadership development with leaders across many different sectors and national cultures.
Bonny Tydeman is a soulful leadership coach & facilitator and spoken word artist. Her background in the creative industries - where she was a creative producer, art director and cultural curator - informs her rich and imaginative approach to self-enquiry and initiation. Bonny is part of the faculty at Psychosynthesis Coaching Limited where she acts as coach, supervisor and trainer, and leads on the curation and production of the international psychosynthesis coaching symposium.
**Session Leaders: **
Kenneth Sørensen is an author, psychosynthesis psychotherapist and a previous head of the Norwegian Institute of Psychosynthesis in Oslo. In 2000 he co-created Soul Flow, which he refers to as a type of ‘Energy Psychology’ and which is partly informed by psychosynthesis. Kenneth’s writings are widely read by the school’s community, especially his translated works by Roberto Assagioli that are difficult to find in English elsewhere.
Anne Walsh has worked in the field of personal and professional development for over 30 years. Initially she trained in psychology and practiced as a psychotherapist. Alongside this practice she was operations director of a psychological training and development institute, training people in coaching, psychotherapy and counselling. In the last 10 years, she has specialised in executive coaching and worked with clients across the globe.
Theo Djkman has worked as a psychotherapist and clinical supervisor working in private practice for over 30 years. He has been UKCP registered since 2002, has completed a Foundation in Group Analysis and for 10 years was a senior faculty member of the Institute of Psychosynthesis in London where he delivered seminars on their MA programme. Since 2019 he has focused on his clinical practice as well as his writing. His articles for the professional psychotherapy and counselling community have appeared in international psychosynthesis publications.
Keith Silvester is a psychosynthesis therapist, trainer and supervisor, qualified at the London Institute. From 2003-2010 he was training director of the Psychosynthesis Trust, where he still works. He has completed the 5DL coaching training at the Institute, and has been president of the European Federation for Psychosynthesis Psychotherapy since 2018. He is also a practitioner of the Alexander Technique. He has a particular interest in existential and postmodern perspectives on human change.
**Lightning Talks: **
Sonal Kadchha is a London-based Psychosynthesis therapist. and researcher specialising in integration after intensity and depth-oriented transformation. Her work focuses on psychological flexibility, discernment, and the developmental capacities that allow profound experiences to stabilise into lasting growth. She teaches internationally on Psychosynthesis, psychedelic integration, and the distinction between transient states and enduring structural change.
Nyla Khan is a Psychosynthesis Coach and facilitator working across relational depth and values-led leadership. With nearly two decades of experience in entrepreneurial and leadership environments, Nyla integrates psychosynthesis, systems thinking and embodied practice into her work. Her recent exploration into ethical AI integration reflects her commitment to ensuring technology serves depth rather than dilutes it.
Sam Starr is a psychosynthesis psychologist, EMCC-accredited leadership coach and advanced Tarot practitioner. She is the founder of Ground & Rise® Tarot, a practice that bridges spirituality and psychology through symbol, parts work and intentionally framed closed questions that keep agency with the querent. Her work invites a lived, embodied experience of psychosynthesis in real time.
Continue the Exploration
This year’s symposium embraces the context for our new five-weekend course Going to Depth with Psychosynthesis, which starts in September. This personal and professional journey aims to enable practitioners to Assagioli's core models and bring the depth that they offer into their work as practitioners, coaches and leaders.
