13 Hours
CPD
More Info
Come As You Are: Lived Experience as Our Resource for Training, Practice & Research
Join us in Glasgow for the AFSP Conference 2026
After celebrating AFSP’s 50th anniversary last year, AFSP Conference 2026 looks ahead to how we continue to grow a field that is clinically grounded, socially responsive, and attentive to what people have lived through. Come As You Are invites us to treat lived experience as a resource we can develop with skill and care — shaping how we train, practice, supervise, and research as systemic psychotherapists.
In Glasgow, the conference brings systemic ideas into conversation with the contexts that press on our work: inequality, migration, class, neurodiversity, and polarisation - alongside the different forms of resistance, growth and resilience (both collective and personal) that show up in relationships and services.
Conference Spotlight
This year's conference will feature a two-day programme of keynote speeches, panel discussions and workshops with a diverse range of inspirational speakers from the UK and across the globe. These will include sessions focusing on research and practice from both well-known and up-and-coming experts in our profession, as well as interactive sessions where you can get moving and co-create with your peers.
More speakers will be confirmed in the weeks ahead so check back regularly and follow our social media channels for updates!
Check out a few of the highlights below...
We will explore lived experience as something we can lean into with skill and care: a source of knowledge, an ethical stance, and a way of staying relationally responsible in changing social worlds. We will also attend to recursiveness - how experience shapes practice, how practice reshapes us as learners, and how ongoing systemic work informs what we notice, what we ask, and what we build as knowledge through research.
Across participatory keynotes, panels, co-created workshops, and creative encounters, the conference is designed for participation rather than performance, with space for emerging and quieter voices alongside established contributors, and learning that travels back into therapy rooms, training spaces, supervision, and communities.
Quick Facts
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Date: Thursday 15 & Friday 16 October 2026
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Venue: Doubletree by Hilton Glasgow Central Hotel
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Format: A hybrid conference combining a full face-to-face programme with selected online sessions.
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Replays: All keynote presentations and selected workshops will be recorded and made available to ticket holders as a replay.
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Programme: Click here.
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Ticket Prices: Click here.
Location
Glasgow
The conference will be held in the vibrant city of Glasgow; a city of contrasts and contradictions. Once the second city of the Empire and the industrial powerhouse of Scotland. A past built on colonialism and shipbuilding to a present where poverty, deprivation and poor health outcomes exist as realities alongside a thriving restaurant and arts scene and Glaswegian warmth, humour and relational resilience.
The venue will be the Doubletree by Hilton Glasgow Central Hotel. The hotel is located in the city centre, close to many of Glasgow's amenities and attractions.
Exhibition
Art Exhibition
The conference will feature an exhibition space featuring various forms of creative expression from AFSP Members. Click here to register your interest in the AFSP Systemic Arts Community of Practice.
Culture
Celebrating Glaswegian Culture
We are very pleased to announce that Pàdraig MacAoidh (Peter Mackay), the current Makar (National Poet for Scotland) will be joining us for the conference. More details to come, but in addition to participating in the conference, Peter will also join for the conference dinner.
Conference Dinner
Dinner Tickets on Sale
Come and join us for an evening of good food amoungst friends and colleagues. The conference dinner takes place on the evening of Thursday 15 October and will celebrate Glaswegian culture with various artists contributing poetry and comedy. More details coming soon.
Shopping
Visit the Bookstall
The conference will once again feature a bookshop, stocking a range of relevant books, including suggestions from our speakers. More information coming soon.
Funding
AFT Bursary Scheme
The AFSP Bursary Scheme aims to support AFSP members to attend conferences or training where the cost would otherwise be prohibitive, and to support programmes aimed at groups currently under-represented in our activities and the profession. Apply by 30 June 2026 to be considered for a free place.
More info coming soon...
Pre-Conference
Pre-Conference Welcome
For those arriving on Wednesday evening, AFSP will be hosting a pre-conference welcome at the Doubletree Hotel Glasgow (the conference venue). More details to follow, but it will start at 19:00 and will be a great opportunity for a relaxed evening of conversation with your colleagues and friends.