Therapeutic Love and Heartfullness
A conversation with Gerry McNeilly
Key Info
DATE
Fri 20 JUN 2025
17.00 – 19.00 GMT
FORMAT
Live Webinar
Recorded
LOCATION
On-Line
Zoom
FEE
Standard £45
Trainee £35
Overview
Explore the Role of the Heart in Psychotherapy
The heart has often been conceptualised as symbolic of sexuality and eroticism, with little meaning beyond the romantic, and therefore removed from psychotherapeutic perspectives. In this thought-provoking webinar, Gerry McNeilly—a psychodynamic therapist, art therapist, and group analyst with over 40 years of clinical experience—challenges this notion by introducing the concept of Heartfullness.
What is Heartfullness?
Heartfullness places the heart at the core of therapeutic practice—not as a romantic metaphor, but as a real and vital presence in the therapeutic relationship. Gerry will define this concept through the lens of therapeutic love that is non-erotic, deeply compassionate, and grounded in clinical experience.
Engage in Live Q&A
There will be space for questions and interactive discussion, offering an opportunity to engage directly with Gerry and fellow practitioners.
Seminar Content
- The qualities of therapeutic love: empathy, tenderness, gentleness, and care
- Learning to receive from the patient with openness and humility
- Moving beyond interpretation to fully experience emotional depth in the session
- The role of humour and play in creating a warm therapeutic environment
- Responsible personal disclosure by the therapist
- How therapists can learn from their patients
- A clinical vignette illustrating Heartfullness in practice
Who is this training for?
This webinar is ideal for psychotherapists, counsellors, art therapists, and mental health professionals who are looking to deepen their relational skills and develop a more heart-centred approach to therapy.
Learning Objectives
- To reflect on and challenge narrow psychotherapeutic conceptualisations of love as eroticised love in conventional transference constellations
- To expand the view of non-erotic psychotherapeutic love and explore the ingredients of ‘heartfullness’
- To draw on and synthesise perspectives from different models of psychotherapy including art therapy psychodynamic therapy and group analysis
- To think about working with heartfullness in therapeutic practice
Speaker
Gerry McNeilly
Gerry McNeilly is a trained specialist in art therapy, psychotherapy and group analysis. Following art therapy training in 1976, he was the principal art therapist at the Ingrebourne Centre and ‘Full Member’ of the Institute of Group Analysis from 1987.
He established and directed a psychotherapy and counselling service in Bromsgrove, England, and was the principal adult psychotherapist in Warwickshire from 1995 to 2011. He is an active member of the teaching body of the Portuguese Society of Art Therapy and also the originator of Group Analytic Art Therapy. Although now retired, he still undertakes lecturing and academic involvement.
This webinar is inspired by Gerry McNeilly’s book, Therapeutic Love and HeartFULLness: Meanderings Through Group Analysis, Group Analytic Art Therapy and Individual Therapy, Routledge (2025).