Another first time UKHC speaker this year is Marie Liddiard. She will present “The Therapist’s Inner Critic: Not on the Client List but Always in the Room”
The Presentation:
Most therapists are very good at helping clients challenge self-doubt, yet many of us walk into sessions carrying quiet but powerful expectations about ourselves, about getting it right, not letting people down and feeling responsible for how sessions go. These expectations can shape how safe, calm and confident we feel in the room, often without us realising it.
This talk will explore how many of these professional rules were learned earlier in life as sensible ways to try hard and do well, and how our nervous system can continue to apply those habits to our work long after they are needed. When the inner critic becomes active, the nervous system listens to that message and responds, not always in the most helpful way.
The presentation will examine how this internal state does not always remain contained within the therapist. Nervous systems are highly responsive to one another, and subtle shifts in tone, pace, and presence can communicate safety or urgency to clients, sometimes before any technique is used. In this way, therapy becomes not only a conversation between minds but a meeting between two nervous systems that influence each other.
The presentation will demonstrate how small internal shifts can update old habits and support calmer, more connected and more effective therapeutic work.
Full details of the schedule and tickets can be found here at this website (see main toolbar for 2026 event).