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Studies Programme Overview: January - July 2005A series of evening, day and weekend workshops and seminars based on experiential, contemplative and theoretical studies in Transpersonal Psychology and Psychotherapy. Events are listed chronologically below, click the links for more information on each. *For psychotherapists and students in professional preparation only. ** Provides supportive academic hours within subject areas now formally required by UKCP for accreditation (trainees) and CPD for accredited therapists.
Studies Programme: January - July 2005
Who is the Studies Programme for? Broadly, for anyone who feels drawn to exploring contemporary ideas and issues in transpersonal psychology and theory and who wishes to deepen their understanding and experience in this rapidly developing field. The Studies Programme is offered with several groups of people in mind:
Continuing professional development An important dimension of the current programme is the inclusion of varied themed workshops that provide continuing professional development for: our UKCP registered members; those in professional preparation; allied professionals engaged in the practice of psychotherapy, psychology, and other related fields who are generally interested in areas that offer a grounded transpersonal context.
Two Day Workshops Bringing the Heart into Transpersonal Psychotherapy* Our hearts are our greatest weapon for mass construction. As such, their well-being is most important if we are to enjoy psychological and spiritual health. For a great many of us, the heart is the gateway leading to our soul life. Therefore, the more our heart life can be claimed, the greater our capacity to see life freshly, live it more abundantly, metabolize difficult emotions and integrate new insights. If properly utilized, our hearts can greatly enhance and speed up the whole process of our growth and transformation. As a result, I believe that the heart needs to play a more significant and conscious role in transpersonal psychology than it often does. During the course of the weekend, therefore, we will explore how, as psychotherapists, we can activate more of our heart’s potential and help our clients to do the same. Expect to emerge with useful new insights, tools, exercises and processes which will enhance your understanding of what I call “Heart work”, and deepen the quality of your own transformational journey as well as that of your clients.
Gifts of Dreams* The dream is one of the greatest gifts a client brings into the therapeutic container. In bypassing the ego the dream allows us to enter into meaningful connection at a soul level, giving unique insight into the dreamer's psyche and life journey. This workshop will help you to find new skills and develop your understanding of dream processes. Please bring a dream of your own to focus on as the work will move between the experiential, theory and discussion.
The Therapist’s Use of Self* This workshop is an introduction to the ideas of the book co-written by John Rowan and Michael Jacobs. This book argues that there are three basic ways of doing therapy, each of which represents a different use of self. Firstly there is the Instrumental way, whose watchword is Treating; here one attempts to solve the problems of the client, and to restore the client to health. Secondly there is the Authentic way, whose watchword is Meeting; here one admits that one is much like the client (a wounded healer), and offers a personal relationship with the client. In the psychodynamic field, this means an emphasis on the positive use of counter-transference. Thirdly there is the Transpersonal way, whose watchword is Linking; here one opens up to the spiritual concerns of the client (including heart, soul and essence), and admits that therapist and client have access to a numinous realm in which the separation between therapist and client is radically questioned. In this workshop we shall meet all three of these, respecting each one for what it has to offer, and exploring the idea that the more of them to which the therapist has access, the more flexible and creative the therapist can be. There will also be some exploration of a second level of the transpersonal, which goes beyond Linking.
Sex, Gender, Soul and Spirit In this workshop contemporary developmental maps of the masculine and The orienting maps we will be using will be David Deida's conception
of 1st,
Inward Bound The Inward Bound Programme is designed to help you make sense of your inner and outer life in the friendly and supportive company of your peers from a range of professional backgrounds. It will provide you with a firm grounding from which you can address the challenges of a fast changing world and help others around you do the same. It is designed to help you reflect on your work/life balance, personal aims and values, and enable you to integrate more effectively your professional and personal lives to the benefit of both. The Inward Bound approach draws together a number of critical insights
and we work on these with thoughts and feelings. These include among many
others the observation that the art of living needs to be more integrated
in the art of working; current developments within the field of consciousness
studies, especially those relating to the inner and outer aspects of life;the
implications of the current pace of technological development for ethics,
society and the environment; and the processes of individual and organisational
change and transformation. Integral Psychotherapy and Big Mind Integral Psychotherapy is not an eclectic mix of other therapy types. It is a total re-framing of the client. We are used to concentrating our psychotherapy on just one aspect, the personal interior; how the person feels about themselves. Integral Psychotherapy is about an approach that looks at four quadrants following Ken Wilber’s AQAL, All Quadrant All Level, model. We learn to consider the Interior Personal or “I “ element; this is normally the sole area of traditional psychotherapy. We also look at how the individual relates to the immediate outside world, to the group and culture within which they live. Consideration is also given to the Masculine aspects of life and the Feminine or the aspects which are self serving and those which relate to being of service to others. It is an integral approach which looks at all aspects of the person and the surroundings and culture that form the habitat.-The workshop will give an introduction to these concepts and to the tools used to both evaluate and work with clients in an Integral manner. Part of the weekend will be used to connect individuals with that part of themselves which we may understand as our consciousness or Spirit. This will be done through an experiential session based on the Big Mind process taught by Genpo Roshi in the USA. During this people will progressively be made aware of the different aspects of the human mind until connection is made the un-seeking mind or Big Mind. It is an opportunity to enter a state of consciousness normally only glimpsed after years of Zen meditation. For some it becomes a pivotal experience, opening the mind to a unified state only previously found in rare peak experiences. This aspect should leave participants with a feeling of connectedness and unity.
Heart, the Shadow, and Transpersonal
Psychotherapy* Just as the diver who intends to go deep must ensure that he carries enough air with him, so the person daring to venture deeply into their psyche also must ensure that they take with them enough heart energy if they wish to feel safe and protected. In this workshop, we will explore, on the one hand, how to marshal more heart energy, and on the other, how to use it to voyage deeper into our own humanity. We will look at how searching for what is best in ourselves inevitably will lead us to touch into what is worst, in exactly the same way that journeying to the depths of our dark side may also conspire to open up much about what is most soulful and wholesome about us. The weekend will be a delectable interweave of the mystery of dark and light and where participants will come to evolve profounder insights into the transformational process in general. You will also be helped to take these insights into your work as transpersonal psychotherapists.
Meeting the Lastrygonians This will be an experiential workshop in which we shall approach an encounter with the archetypal parents through myth, story and art. We shall try to glimpse how the archetypes work in us and through us and how they govern our daily life.
Introduction to Authentic Movement Authentic Movement is a contemplative movement practice which has evolved within the field of dance movement therapy, and been influenced by Jungian psychology and meditative practice. As in the discipline of mindfulness meditation, we seek to pay attention to our direct experience, moment by moment, witnessing the sensations, feelings, thoughts and movement impulses which arise into consciousness. The ground form of the practice involves the relationship between one who moves and one who witnesses; through her mindful presence and compassionate attention the witness creates a safe space which the mover enters, eyes closed, to attend to his inner world. The mover is invited to surrender to the flow of impulses which arise from the unconscious, and to bring these into expression through movement. In this way unconscious material is embodied, felt and seen by another, and can be integrated into consciousness through verbal sharing, writing and artwork. The witness also attends to her direct experience, owning her judgments, projections and interpretations, and thus learns to see herself and the mover more clearly. Through being witnessed with non-judgmental acceptance, clarity and compassion, the mover is enabled to develop a clear and compassionate inner witness. In this introductory workshop each participant will be guided into entering their own movement process, and the basic skills of witnessing another will be introduced. The art of witnessing is an embracing attitude which can be used in any therapeutic or educational situation, whether movement is the medium of expression or not. Authentic Movement also offers an embodied and relational approach to spiritual practice which some meditators find a rich support for more traditional practices. It has been described as a feminine form of Zen; the witnesses create a circle which is repeatedly filled then emptied by the movers, and the arising and dissolving of forms can be experienced and witnessed with immediacy.
Spiritual Pathology Freud said "Neurosis is a kind of personal religion." We may equally say that our spiritual and religious beliefs are often shaped by our individual neurosis. Our spiritual institutions become a collective, collusive validation of our pathology. How are we so adept at shaping our spirituality by our personal neurosis? How are we to recognise this when it is so connected to our shadow, our blind spot? During this week end we will look at the roots of some of this pathology in both ourselves and in relation to working as a therapist.
*For psychotherapists and students in professional preparation only.
The fee for one day workshops is £75. Research Methods** Many people are wary of research, because it seems to be more about numbers than about people. But in this workshop we shall learn about forms of research which may not involve numbers at all. Carl Rogers made the point that it was only research which could protect him from the dangers of kidding himself. Research can be illuminating, and can tell us things we did not know before. And in recent years there has been a growth of transpersonal approaches to research, which are genuinely transformational.
Once upon a Mid Life; stories and tales
to illuminate middle life journeying Give people a fact or an idea and you enlighten their minds; tell them a story and you touch their souls. Hasidic proverb This workshop focuses on middle tales. They come from all over the globe; Japan, Egypt India, America, Russia and Europe. They are stories of subtle shifts, awakenings, grasps of truth, inner happenings. We are familiar with the tale of the young hero, meeting and falling in love with the heroine. Most stories end with "…and they lived happily ever after." These stories are about what happens once the hero and heroine have ridden off into the distance. Middle Tales, of which there are hundreds and hundreds guide us, delight us and waken insights for men and women on their journeys. Middle Tales do not reflect conventional social values and many are astonishingly feminist showing strong independent women exercising their talents. They are iconoclastic in that they can represent something of a counter culture. Middle Tales are often disconcerting and, being such, they cause us to reflect and so they are healing tales offering us maps, pictures, oases, delights and dangers, but also reconciliation, renewal and understanding about the larger Self and about being fully human. This one day workshop will include story telling and story making and
a chance to explore some of the major themes and challenges in relation
to our inner life today.
The fee for each study evening is £50. Integrating
Psychotherapy and Spirituality* In recent years, a new psychotherapy has been emerging, one where the integrating of the personality is becoming increasingly interwoven with the growth of that mysterious part of ourselves we call the soul, and where “deeper healings” are not able to take place, unless the spiritual part of a human being is also helped to flower. In this talk, Serge will explore the relationship between psychotherapy and spirituality as he applies it in his own work as a Spiritual Educator and Transpersonal Psychotherapist.
Contemporary Approaches and
Principles in Psychiatry** A series of four interlinked workshops on mental illness, its assessment, management and treatment. Using a mixture of theory, clinical examples and discussion, these workshops are intended as an introduction for the trainee psychotherapist, to major mental illness and its management by the psychiatric services. Topics covered will include mental illness, legislation and organisational framework of psychiatric care provision, physical treatments and the place of psychotherapy, in the National Health Service.
The Virtual Self: a Meeting
of Neuroscience and Mysticism? The challenge to understand the nature of self lies at the heart of
the encounter between psychology and mysticism. Recent work in cognitive
neuroscience leads to the view that the sense of ‘I’ arises
as a constructed hypothesis to bring order to perceptual and memory events
– a hypothesis of a unified receiver of impressions and instigator
of action. Whilst all mystical traditions concur with the view of ‘I’
as lacking substantial reality, theistic traditions propose that the illusory
‘I’ reflects a deeper ordering principle – the soul
and, ultimately, the divine. In this presentation I shall explore this
meeting of neuroscience and mysticism, focusing especially on the role
of language and interpretation as understood in Kabbalah.
Blake's Job: Nobility of Soul at odds
with Circumstance Theodore Rothke exclaims "what is madness but nobility of soul at odds with circumstance". In this companion piece to Les Lancaster's exploration of neuroscience and mysticism we shall explore through Blake’s illustrations of the book of Job narratives toward self and how we might use these meanings to bear experiences. The "Virtual Self" and "Blake’s Job" have been designed to run in sequence as two complementary evenings, and hence interested participants are encouraged to attend both evenings.
A Transpersonal Approach
to Addiction Addiction is a problem both in our practice as psychotherapists and socially. In many ways it could be seen to form a focus for many of the culture’s ills: it is interesting to note that recent figures regard, at a minimal estimate, that 55% of acquisitive crime is drug related yet the national average, as percentage of the population, for 'problem drug users' is only 2%. These raw figures would seem to outweigh the power of the fantasies that are held about addiction. This talk will explore some of these issues and the implications that it has for our practice and how we work with our clients taking a transpersonal view point.
Workshop Leader Biographies Dr Shakir Shyam Ansari Serge Beddington-Behrens M.A. (Oxon), K.S.M.L.,
Ph. D. Professor John Drew, MA (Oxon) A.M., M.B.A. David De Vall BSc., MSc., Dip. Law, Barrister Karyn Fletcher Stephen Friedrich Linda Hartley Dr. B. Les Lancaster Lancaster is unique in having trained in physiology and neuroscience and yet having an intricate understanding of Buddhist, Christian, Hindu, Islamic and Jewish mysticisms and how they operate within their respective traditions. His interests range over these topics as well as the cultural and corporate changes that are currently shaping our world. Lancaster has delivered numerous public lectures in the UK and overseas, and is a frequent contributor to both academic and general publications. His first book Mind Brain and Human Potential won the Science and Medical Network Best Book Award and his second book, The Elements of Judaism, has been translated into 10 languages. He has recently published Approaches to Consciousness: the Marriage of Science and Mysticism (Palgrave-Macmillan, 2004). David Lorimer, M.A., P.G.C.E. Ian Macdonald Ian also works as a facilitator and consultant with companies and organizations
who are interested in moving the focus of their management to staff, suppliers
and clients. The Findhorn Foundation is amongst his clients. He runs workshops
on “Holwork”, which promotes bringing the whole person to
work and is a member of the Spiral Dynamics core team. Ian has a master’s
degree in Transpersonal Psychology and has trained with both Don Beck
and with Ken Wilber at the Integral Institute. Ian is a practicing Buddhist
and runs a weekly meditation group. Maggie Peters Rob Preece BSc. Adv. Dip. Transpersonal Psychology
UKCP reg. John Rowan Jason Wright is an experienced psychotherapist, manager and consultant. He is currently Chair of CTP and Chief executive for the CORE trust. He has served on the Governing Board and various committees for the UKCP and as Chair of the Psychoanalytic and Psychodynamic section. His consultancy clients include BP, OMA, REL Arts & Business, The Corporate Theatre and Lamda Business Performance. He has lectured at various institutions in his particular specialities
of Addiction, Transpersonal Psychotherapy and Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy
including the Tavistock, St Georges Medical school, John Moores university,
AIP, & CTP.
17 West View Road, St. Albans, Herts AL3 5JX Tel: 01727 751420 |
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