Therapy sometimes calls for a sword — not to wound, but to cut through illusion. As therapists, we are often faced with the delicate task of naming what we see with clarity and courage, without shaming or diminishing the person in front of us.
In this workshop, Malcolm Stern explores the art of ruthless compassion — the capacity to speak difficult truths with precision and care. We will examine how to bring forward the story behind the story — the one that hides beneath defence, deflection, and adaptation — while remaining grounded in empathy and relational safety.
Together, we’ll reflect on the therapist’s role in offering truth as a mirror rather than a weapon, and how to challenge without cruelty, to confront without collapse. This session invites us to explore when, why, and how to bring challenge into the therapeutic space in ways that foster dignity, courage, and genuine transformation.
Course Content
Presenter
Malcolm Stern has worked as a group and individual psychotherapist for more than 30 years. He was a co-founder of Alternatives at St James’s Church in London and runs groups internationally.
He is the author of Falling in Love / Staying in Love (Piatkus 2004) and Slay Your Dragons with Compassion ( Watkins 2020). He co-presented Channel 4’s relationship series, ‘Made for Each Other’ in 2003 and 2004 and sailed on the ‘Rainbow Warrior’ with Greenpeace in the 1980s. The book he is currently writing is an exploration of the shadow and its necessity in our evolutionary development.
