Time-Limited Therapy:
the freedom of acknowledging the end
Thur 4 & Fri 5 JUNE 2026
Delivered via zoom over 2 mornings
Introduction
Many counsellors and psychotherapists feel constrained by time-limited therapy—especially when the number of sessions is set in advance or is mandated. Yet a clearly defined ending can become a powerful therapeutic asset. In this workshop with Dr Alison Strasser, you will explore the paradoxical freedoms that arise when the ending is brought into the room from the beginning of a therapeutic encounter.
Workshop Overview
There is probably no better approach than an existential one with which to explore time, beginnings and endings. And, drawing on Alison’s book Time-Limited Existential Therapy: The Wheel of Existence, this workshop explores how an awareness of finitude can enliven both therapist and client, opening up richer and more intentional ways of working. And how an agreed – or an acknowledged – ending often sharpens focus, deepens engagement and brings greater immediacy to both the relationship and to the work
Across the workshop, Alison will invite you to:
- Consider time and its personal significance in your world
- Explore a common-sense existential understanding of time and finitude
- Examine the possibilities and the limitations of time-limited work
- Develop practical strategies for working effectively in brief, short-term, and open-ended therapeutic practice
Over the two mornings, you’ll be encouraged to share your observations, experiences and reflections in small breakout rooms and, where appropriate, with the larger group
What you’ll walk away with
- A deeper appreciation of time as a central dimension of all therapeutic work
- Increased confidence in working within clearly defined timeframes
- Practical ways to use beginnings and endings to deepen therapeutic process
Who should attend?
Psychotherapists and counsellors across modalities who want to work more confidently and creatively with time—particularly those practising within time-limited settings
Facilitator: Dr Alison Strasser
Alison Strasser DProf (Psychotherapy & Counselling), MA, BA Hons
Alison is a practising psychotherapist, coach and supervisor. She is also an educator with a passion for imparting how existential themes can be integrated into every therapeutic approach. She was instrumental in creating the existential curriculum for many counselling and psychotherapy trainings in Australia and her doctorate focused on the process of supervision, work that led to a framework for supervisor training, now a major component of CEP’s annual program. Alison co-authored Time-Limited Existential Therapy with her father, Freddie Strasser and she has recently published a revised edition.
First developed in the 1990’s with her Father, Freddie Strasser, and updated for the 2020’s, Alison’s second edition of Time-Limited Existential Therapy introduces a revised ‘Wheel of Existence’ which locates Time as central to all therapies and demonstrates how it can be used in brief, short-term and open-ended work.
The Details
ONLINE via zoom
Dates: Thursday 4 & Friday 5 JUNE 2026
Time: 9.00am to 12.30 pm AEST each morning (3 hours with breaks accommodated)
Location: online via zoom (registrants will receive an invitation to participate and all the details and pre-reading links they require well in advance of the beginning of the training)
Cost: $320 (flat rate)
CPD Hours: 6
note to registrants:
if you have registered for other CEP online workshops in 2023, the registration form will show checked boxes for those. Just check the box for this registration – you do not need to uncheck the others.