Howard Cooper joins us once again this year. His presentation is entitled “The Hidden Musts.”
The Presentation:
Discover a simple method for identifying and resolving the deep rules that keep clients stuck.
Why do clients who genuinely want change sometimes still stay stuck? Even after you “boshed’em into a trance”?
In this workshop, Howard Cooper introduces The Hidden Musts… the rigid, often unconscious internal rules that quietly drive behaviours, emotions, and identity.
These are the “I must…”, “I have to…”, “I must not…”, “I should Not” structures operating beneath the presenting problem.
They are not simply surface beliefs; they are psychological imperatives.
When these rules remain intact, symptoms make sense. Anxiety, avoidance, procrastination, perfectionism and people pleasing are often logical responses to a deeper mandate the client feels compelled to obey.
Rather than fighting resistance, the Hidden Musts helps you uncover the protective logic driving it. When you identify and loosen the rule, the symptom frequently loses its necessity.
This session will include a live demonstration, showing how Hidden Musts can be surfaced and shifted in real time.
You will leave with:
A practical lens for identifying rigid internal rules
Questioning structures to reveal them quickly in session
A clearer understanding of why relapse happens — and how to reduce it
When the rule changes, behaviour no longer needs to defend it.
Full details of the schedule and tickets can be found here at this website (see main toolbar for 2026 event).