ManseCore Group

Manse Core Group

Built from experience.
Developed through practice.

Manse Core Group is home to The Manse Method® and Emotion Pathway®, two connected approaches that grew from years of working directly with people and decades of experience in people, care and organisational environments.

Two different worlds

Different backgrounds.
A shared focus on what actually helps.

Carl and Kim arrived at this work from very different professional backgrounds. One understands the work from decades spent directly alongside people. The other understands people within the organisations, cultures and systems around them.

Carl Dourish

More than 30 years working directly with people.

Carl brings more than 30 years' experience working directly with people affected by trauma, PTSD, grief and difficult life experiences. His work has taken him internationally, working with both individuals and groups from a wide range of backgrounds and cultures.

A trainer, author and speaker, Carl has worked with veterans, emergency-services personnel and people affected by some of the most complex and traumatic experiences. His international work has included environments ranging from conflict-affected settings to corporate organisations, giving him a broad, practical understanding of the different ways emotional trauma can show up in people's lives.

That experience became central to the work he and Kim developed together at The Manse Retreat and, ultimately, to the creation of The Manse Method® and Emotion Pathway®.

Kim Dourish

Understanding people and the organisations around them.

Kim brings extensive senior HR and People & Culture experience across major global organisations. Her career has included global HR policy, organisational transformation and senior Diversity & Inclusion leadership, working closely with C-suite and director-level leaders on complex people, culture and organisational challenges.

A trainer, facilitator and speaker, Kim has worked across all levels of organisations, from employees and managers through to executive leadership teams. Her experience gives her a practical understanding of what organisations already have in place, where the gaps can sit, and why giving people practical skills they can use for themselves matters alongside existing wellbeing and support pathways.

That organisational experience, combined with the work she and Carl developed together at The Manse Retreat, became central to the creation of The Manse Method® and Emotion Pathway®.

The Manse Retreat

Then the two worlds came together.

The Manse Retreat came first. For more than four years, Carl and Kim worked directly with people affected by emotional trauma, PTSD, grief and difficult life experiences.

Their work included people from different walks of life, including veterans and emergency-services personnel.

The Retreat brought together Carl's decades of direct, person-facing experience and Kim's understanding of people, wellbeing and organisational environments.

A personal note

James

Then life changed profoundly
for both of them.

James was Carl's son and Kim's stepson. In February 2024, James died at the age of 28.

By then, Carl and Kim had already spent years working directly with people affected by trauma, PTSD, grief and difficult life experiences at The Manse Retreat.

James's death brought profound loss into both of their lives.

In the years that followed

Purpose from pain.

In the period that followed, both Carl and Kim needed to find purpose from pain.

Their professional experience, their years of work at The Manse Retreat, and what they had learned through working directly with people all became part of what came next.

Together, they began to develop what would become The Manse Method®.

Carl and Kim
co-created The Manse Method®.

The Manse Method® is a psycho-sensory, content-free method designed to help change or reduce the emotional response attached to past experiences, without requiring people to talk through or relive what happened.

Their first practitioner training took place in May 2025.

The experience remains.
The response can change.

Explore The Manse Method® →

From practice to a bigger question

The question became bigger.

The work at The Manse Retreat and the development of The Manse Method® had demonstrated the importance of giving people something practical they could use when a past experience continued to affect them.

But practitioner-led work raised another question: how could practical skills be put into people's own hands, before they necessarily reached the point of needing professional support?

Kim's organisational background added another dimension. Organisations already invest in awareness, wellbeing, conversation, support and signposting. Those things remain important.

"Something has affected me."Emotion Pathway®"I need additional support."

The question became how to give people something practical they could do within that space. This thinking led to Emotion Pathway®.

Emotion Pathway®

From practitioner approach
to self-applied framework.

Emotion Pathway® is practical, trauma-informed organisational training built around Recognise · Reassure · Release · Return · Reflect. It gives people a structured framework they can use when an experience continues to trigger an emotional response.

Techniques from The Manse Method® are incorporated within the Release stage.

The two approaches are connected but distinct. The Manse Method® is the professional practitioner approach. Emotion Pathway® is the organisational framework providing practical, self-applied skills.

Explore Emotion Pathway® →

Manse Core Group

The work evolved.
So did the organisation.

Manse Core Group represents the next stage of work that began at The Manse Retreat. It brings together The Manse Method® and Emotion Pathway® under one organisation.

When something from the past is still affecting someone now, what can they actually do about it? That question has run through the work from the beginning, and still does.

Where the work is today

  • UK Learning Provider registration
  • CPD certification and recognition, where applicable
  • Signatory to the Armed Forces Covenant
  • Emotion Pathway® is currently being piloted in a school
  • The Manse Method® has been used with veterans and emergency-services personnel

Start with a conversation.

If you'd like to explore Emotion Pathway® for your organisation, we'd be happy to talk about where it could fit.

Book a discovery call (opens the booking calendar in a new tab)

Or make an enquiry.