Courses, Masterclasses & Workshops
At Thoughtspool Therapy, learning is not separate from living. Every course, masterclass, and workshop offered here has been designed from the inside out — drawing on years of clinical practice as a GP, Mental Health Specialist, and working parent, and shaped by the real questions that people bring into the consulting room every day.
Whether you are raising children, caring for others, working alongside families in a professional capacity, or navigating the complexity of your own relationships — this learning is for you. It is grounded in current neuroscience and attachment theory, informed by evidence-based therapeutic frameworks, and written in language that makes clinical knowledge genuinely usable in everyday life.
You do not need a clinical background to benefit from any of these programs. You only need a willingness to understand yourself and the people around you a little more deeply.
Workshops for Parents
Parenting is one of the most meaningful things we do — and one of the least formally prepared for. The gap between knowing what we want for our children and knowing how to get there in the middle of a difficult moment is where most parents quietly struggle.
These workshops are built to close that gap. Drawing on attachment science and current understanding of how the brain develops from birth through adolescence, they offer parents a way to understand what is happening for their child neurologically and emotionally — and to respond in ways that build connection, confidence, and resilience rather than simply managing behaviour. Concepts such as the Window of Tolerance, the Hand Model of the Brain, and the simple but powerful understanding that all behaviour is communication form the backbone of this learning.
Central to this program is the Bringing Up Great Kids (BUGK) framework — a structured, evidence-informed approach developed by the Australian Childhood Foundation that uses clear, accessible language to help parents make sense of their child’s needs and responses. Dr Khan is a trained facilitator of the BUGK program. Alongside BUGK, this learning draws on Dr Khan’s broader clinical training — including Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT), trauma-informed care, Emotion-Focused Therapy, mindfulness, and clinical hypnosis — woven in wherever it helps make an idea more practical or more human.
These workshops are warm, practical, and deeply respectful of the reality of family life. There is no judgement here — only tools, understanding, and the reassurance that the effort you make as a parent genuinely matters.
Our flagship parent workshop, Connect Before You Correct, is delivered as a single, focused four-hour in-person session. Attendees complete a short set of pre-reading before the day, so the workshop itself can stay hands-on, discussion-based, and practical.
What these workshops cover:
- How the brain develops from newborn to adolescence — and what that means for behaviour, big emotions, and what children need from us
- How the brain develops from newborn to adolescence — and what that means for behaviour, big emotions, and what children need from us
- How the brain develops from newborn to adolescence — and what that means for behaviour, big emotions, and what children need from us
- Communication that connects rather than corrects — including the PACE approach (Playfulness, Acceptance, Curiosity and Empathy) and the art of listening with your whole self
- The iceberg model — reading the need beneath the behaviour and responding to what is underneath rather than what is on the surface
Workshops for Carers
Caring for a child who has experienced difficulty — whether through trauma, loss, developmental difference, or the disruption of early relationships — asks something particular of the adults around them. It asks for patience that goes beyond the ordinary, for understanding that goes beneath the behaviour, and for a way of being present that can hold a child’s distress without being overwhelmed by it.
These workshops are designed for anyone in a sustained caring role with a child — whatever the nature of that relationship and however it came to be. They draw on attachment theory and the neuroscience of trauma and connection to give carers a clear framework for understanding — not just what a child does, but why, and what they are communicating through their behaviour. The Hand Model of the Brain and the Window of Tolerance are used throughout to make neuroscience concrete, accessible, and immediately useful in the everyday reality of caring.
The Bringing Up Great Kids (BUGK) framework is used throughout to offer language that is practical rather than clinical — accessible to anyone, regardless of prior knowledge or experience. Dr Khan is a trained BUGK facilitator through the Australian Childhood Foundation. This sits alongside her training in Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT), trauma-informed care, Emotion-Focused Therapy, mindfulness, and clinical hypnosis, all drawn on to support carers as whole people, not just in their caring role.
These workshops also recognise that caring for a child with complex needs has a cost — to your energy, your relationships, and your own wellbeing. Time is made in each workshop to acknowledge that honestly and to offer carers tools to sustain themselves as well as the children in their care.
What these workshops cover:
- Understanding trauma and its impact on the developing brain — using the Hand Model and brain development framework from the BUGK program to make the science visible and accessible
- What children who have experienced disrupted attachment need most — trauma-informed and attachment-informed principles, and what safety, connection and co-regulation look like in practice
- The PACE approach (Playfulness, Acceptance, Curiosity and Empathy) as a way of being with a child that builds trust over time
- The iceberg model — reading the unmet need beneath the behaviour and responding with curiosity rather than correction
- Sustaining yourself as a carer — understanding your own Window of Tolerance and the tools that help you stay regulated when caring feels overwhelming
All Thoughtspool Therapy programs are developed and facilitated by Dr Faiza Khan. They are designed to be accessible, evidence-informed, and genuinely useful — not as a substitute for individual clinical care, but as a meaningful complement to it, and as a resource in their own right for anyone ready to do the work.