Co-Counselling International (CCI) www.ccinetwork.org.uk exists in many countries, especially in Europe, North America and Australasia. It has been going for about 37 years.

After completing the Fundamentals of Co-Counselling course you will have access to the CCI network, and if you join a local CCI group you will receive contact details of other co-counsellors. You may, if you wish, attend workshops and residentials, where you can experience ways of working and playing together free from some of the restrictive interactions of the everyday world. The environment on these weeks or week-ends can be truly liberating. Workshops get offered on a wide variety of themes, and you can learn to run workshops yourself if you wish. The details of these events are put onto the CCI site mentioned above, but you can only access those details if you have the password.

Local Gatherings
Gatherings are usually non-residential and are organised on a local basis. For example, in West Yorkshire they tend to happen in Leeds. Currently we have a series of Gatherings every month or two.

What happens at a gathering? We have an opening cirlce, then see what everyone wants. Usually this will involve either a group activity or session, or else we pair up and have two-way sessions. Or we do both.

Residential Events
These are either a week-end (including the Monday if it's a Bank Holiday) or else a whole week. A small group (say 3-4 people) will book a venue and do the necessary publicity. The organising group will welcome people to the event, and host the initial opening circle which gets the event started. They will also devise a blank timetable structure, which usually has spaces for morning and afternoon workshops. (See the picture above) Evening activities are generally more social, relaxation or fun based (singing, games, cabaret, dancing, bonfires, music, massage etc, or just chatting). Cost varies from event to event, but most are low to medium cost. Many offer cheaper prices if you camp.

The blank workshop spaces are then filled, as the event progresses, by workshops that people either want or offer. These workshops are either peer-led or else facilitated by the person who offers. They are either strictly co-counselling based, or non-co-counselling, or else a mixture of the two. The person who suggested the workshop makes it clear what is on offer.

Everything is optional
You only participate in activites that you choose.

The workshops often have a theme e.g.

• My body (including your relationship with food and eating)
• My family (mother, father, sister, brother, etc)
• Sex and sexuality
• Voice-work
• Body-work
• Sound and voice
• Dramatherapy
• ''Five Rhythms''
• Money
• Career
• My relationship(s) (could be sexual or non-sexual relationships)
• Failure
• A significant event in my life 
• Infancy
• Parents
• Death and loss
• Ageing
• Work
• School days
• Teenage years
• Friends
• Authority figures
• Disappointments
• My journey here
• My future
• Who do I miss
• My physical self
• A childhood memory
• My home
• A problem I have now
• A secret
• Something trivial, something triumphant and something tragic

The list of possibilities is almost endless.
A CCI workshop on the beach