Professional Training – Past (Archives)

Past workshops and training events for practitioners

 

If you are interested in organising a similar workshop in the future to any of these listed below, please email me.

 

Click here for Resources & Hand-outs

 

Character Structures – A course of 6 Saturdays in 2008/2009

‘Character structure theory’ is a comprehensive method of diagnosing and working with habitual patterns, as manifested in the body.
For further details, download the leaflet.

 

Family Constellations Workshops

‘Family Constellations’ is a powerful approach, developed by Bert Hellinger, designed to bring awareness to and work with hidden dynamics and transgenerational family patterns in a group setting.
For further details, download the leaflet.

 

On ‘being’ and ‘doing’ in the therapeutic space

2-day workshop in Tel Aviv: 10 & 11 April  (2 – 8pm)

Many therapists view their role as inherently and necessarily active: the client comes to them in distress or in need, and it is the therapist’s task to be proactive and intervene. Like a doctor who is expected to diagnose and prescribe the right medicine, they, too, feel that it is their job to ‘do’ something.

Consequently they assume that – as soon as therapy is working less than perfectly – it may be because they are not ‘doing’ enough. The therapist is then under constant pressure to deliver the ‘right’ therapeutic approach, otherwise they are not worthy of calling themselves a therapist and being paid.

However, the therapist’s internal pressure to be active and helpful can be subliminally picked up by the client and translated unconsciously as the therapist’s expectations of them: to be a ‘good client’, i.e. to co-operate, to progress, to get better, to change.
Therefore, at certain moments in the process, the therapist’s capacity to simply ‘be’, to be outwardly passive, and inwardly calm and patient can be as important as the therapist’s activities, including all knowledge, skills and techniques.

 

In this workshop I invite practitioners of all approaches to explore their therapeutic stance between the equally important polarities of ‘doing’ and ‘being’.
Through shared experience and thinking we will explore some basic notions such as:
trust in the process, attunement to the inner rhythm, qualities of therapeutic presence and how they enable the therapeutic space, what can happen when ‘nothing is happening’ and most of all: the permission to ‘be’.

This workshop is anchored in principles of Body Psychotherapy and relational psychoanalysis and will offer participants insights and tools in facing some of the challenging dilemmas of the therapeutic endeavour.

 

Annual Conference EMDR UK & Ireland – Bristol, 25 & 26 March 2011

I will be offering a presentation at this year’s national EMDR conference, March 26th, entitled:

 

Using EMDR with various types of developmental trauma

Complex trauma is based on underlying developmental trauma. However, developmental trauma is a very broad, non-specific category. There are several typologies and classification systems of developmental trauma available, with various degrees of usefulness to EMDR practitioners.
Having researched and assessed these different theories, in this workshop I will offer an integrative synthesis relevant to EMDR practitioners.
An understanding of the different types of developmental trauma can enhance our work both in terms of faster and more accurate diagnosis of developmental issues and also in eliciting relevant material and designing interventions. To establish key features of the client’s developmental issues, we can use a holistic spectrum of physical, affective and cognitive factors, including the client’s posture and body language, habitual cognitions and attitudes and modes of relating and expression.

Most developmental theories share a common view of the key factors of developmental trauma: the child’s developmental stage, the intensity of the traumatising event, the available resources etc. But they vary greatly in terms of underlying meta-psychology and techniques and interventions.
For further details, see the EMDR Association website.

CONFER – Broken Boundaries, Invaded Territories – the challenges of containment in trauma work, 14 March 2011, London

One of the most excruciating aspects of trauma is the invasion or collapse of boundaries, not just in the moment of trauma, but as lasting damage. Traumatised clients usually bring to therapy an ongoing background feeling of threat, both to their physical and emotional survival and to their sense of identity. Not knowing where “I” ends and the “Other” begins is an expression of chaos and confusion in the client’s inner world that echoes strongly in the therapeutic relationship. Because of this most methods of trauma therapy are highly concerned with re-building and establishing safe, containing boundaries as the foundation for any therapeutic work. But is it really possible to by-pass the client’s embodied experience of shattered safety by introducing safe therapeutic boundaries? Can we, as therapists, contain the impact of trauma without engaging with chaos, confusion and vulnerability in the consulting room? This talk will explore the paradoxical nature of boundaries and containment and their role in trauma therapy.
For further details, see the CONFER website.

CONFER – Trauma Skills School – March 7-11 2011, Edinburgh

I will be offering an afternoon session at this Trauma School organised by CONFER, on Tuesday ,March 8th, entitled:

 

Relational Body Psychotherapy – An Integrative Approach to Trauma Work

Offering interactive regulation to engage with and complement the patient’s disturbed auto-regulation, the therapist becomes a container for the trauma. As most of the psycho-biological stress of the trauma is communicated non-verbally, via right-brain to right-brain atonement, this process relies on the therapist’s own sense of embodiment and internal body-mind regulation. In this presentation, based on case material, we will explore how body psychotherapy offers treatment options and techniques that are capable of reaching down into the roots of trauma in somatic experience. We will look at how therapists can develop the internal resources and capacities needed to regulate the body-mind impact of traumatic relational dynamics.‘Character structure theory’ is a comprehensive method of diagnosing and working with habitual patterns, as manifested in the body.
For further details, see the CONFER website.

Working with Trauma

November 23rd 2010: One-day workshop at Oxford Cooperative Training Scheme

This one day workshop focuses on trauma in the body and it will address the following topics :

 

· What is trauma and PTSD?
· Brain function during and after trauma
· Different types of trauma
· Disturbances to self regulation in trauma
· How re-traumatision occurs and what we can do about it
· Trauma in practice: basic principles of a body-based approach
This workshop is designed as a combination of teaching and experiential work.

Venue: Cherwell Conference Centre

Date: Tuesday, November 23rd 2010

For further details, see the OCT

CONFER – Trauma Skills Summer School July 5th – 9th, London

I will be offering an afternoon session at this Trauma School organised by CONFER, on Tuesday, July 6th, entitled:

 

Relational Body Psychotherapy – An Integrative Approach to Trauma Work

Offering interactive regulation to engage with and complement the patient’s disturbed auto-regulation, the therapist becomes a container for the trauma. As most of the psycho-biological stress of the trauma is communicated non-verbally, via right-brain to right-brain atonement, this process relies on the therapist’s own sense of embodiment and internal body-mind regulation. In this presentation, based on case material, we will explore how body psychotherapy offers treatment options and techniques that are capable of reaching down into the roots of trauma in somatic experience. We will look at how therapists can develop the internal resources and capacities needed to regulate the body-mind impact of traumatic relational dynamics.‘Character structure theory’ is a comprehensive method of diagnosing and working with habitual patterns, as manifested in the body.
For further details, see the CONFER website.

“NAOS Institute” – London
8-Months Diploma in Clinical Supervision and Consultancy

July 14th 2012 – with Morit Heitzler

 

Embodied Countertransference in Supervision

Over the last decade, the field of psychotherapy has increasingly paid attention to the body and non-verbal as well as subliminal communication. Neuroscience’s contributions (mirror neurons, right-brain-to-right-brain attunement, etc) have emphasised the importance of the mind-body connection in the ‘talking therapies’. This has great implications for the practice both of therapy and of supervision.

Using your own embodied countertransference in relation to the supervisee, as well as helping the therapist become more aware of theirs in relation to the client, can deepen our appreciation of significant moments in therapy and strengthen our understanding of the working alliance, both in terms of ruptures as well as repairs.

This training day will be an opportunity to enhance your perceptiveness and your capacity to interpret and make use of somatic messages as part of the overall non-verbal communication between client and therapist, as well as between the therapist and yourself as the supervisor. By attending to the therapist’s body as well as your own and by monitoring the relationship between mind and body, the overall attunement of supervision to unconscious processes can be significantly enhanced.

download leaflet to view or print

“Character Styles”

A comprehensive, modular course

over 8 Saturdays Sep. 2012 – July 2013

at Fulcrum House, Clifton, Bristol

with Morit Heitzler & Michael Soth

An integrative bodymind theory & approach to developmental theory

This comprehensive, modular course for counsellors and psychotherapists is designed to familiarise you with the theory and application of ‘character styles’ to your everyday practice. ‘Character Styles’ – or character structure theory, as it was traditionally called – is the most comprehensive developmental model we have available to us as counsellors and therapists. In its current form (Stephen Johnson (1994) “Character Styles”), it is the most integrative, embodied and holistic system describing types of clients, according to their basic, existential life issues.

See special page dedicated to this course

 

‘CHARACTER STRUCTURES’

An integrative bodymind approach to developmental theory

Five-day Intensive – August 12th – 16th – Tel Aviv, Israel

A practical & experiential CPD course for counsellors, psychotherapists, helping professionals & complementary therapists

 

About the Course:

Our clients bring to us limiting, self –defeating and destructive patterns which keep repeating themselves. They ask for our help in overcoming these patterns. In order to help them we rely on theories of childhood development. The central assumption of this approach is: adult patterns of being and relating to oneself and others are rooted in childhood development. A child’s experience of its early environment becomes a blueprint for relating and managing himself and the world. These patterns manifest in the way we think, feel and behave; they also manifest in our body, its shape and structure, from our physiology through our muscular system to brain anatomy. The body is a frozen map of our emotional histories, reflecting our major wounds as well as our creative adaptations to environmental disappointments and challenges. ‘Character structure theory’ – as developed by Wilhelm Reich and others – is a comprehensive method of diagnosing and working with those habitual patterns. It offers insight into clients’ issues that arise from different stages of psychic development. It outlines the therapeutic tasks and challenges that can be anticipated in working with each type and structure, as well as providing the therapeutic tools and techniques for productively addressing the client’s specific wounds.

 

In this course you will learn about:

Learning style and methods:

The learning on the course will build on participants’ previous experience. It will be both practical-experiential as well as theoretical, and supported by references.

 

CONFER – Trauma Skills Jan. 18 – Mar. 28 2012, London

I will be offering a Wednesday evening session at this Trauma School organised by CONFER, on Wed. Jan. 25th, entitled:

 

Relational Body Psychotherapy – An Integrative Approach to Trauma Work

Offering interactive regulation to engage with and complement the patient’s disturbed auto-regulation, the therapist becomes a container for the trauma. As most of the psycho-biological stress of the trauma is communicated non-verbally, via right-brain to right-brain atonement, this process relies on the therapist’s own sense of embodiment and internal body-mind regulation. In this presentation, based on case material, we will explore how body psychotherapy offers treatment options and techniques that are capable of reaching down into the roots of trauma in somatic experience. We will look at how therapists can develop the internal resources and capacities needed to regulate the body-mind impact of traumatic relational dynamics.‘Character structure theory’ is a comprehensive method of diagnosing and working with habitual patterns, as manifested in the body.
For further details, see the CONFER website.

 

 

Trauma Symposium Stroud

18 & 19 November 2011

Who is it for?
This event is designed for therapists and professionals working with trauma, and for people interested in research and shared learning in this field. It will address these four basic questions:
• How do we recognise trauma?
• How do we think about it: neurologically, emotionally, physically, socially?
• How do we work with trauma, in different modalities and areas of application?
• How can we usefully engage together in learning, collaborating and sharing best practice?

Presenters: There is a wide range of presenters with experience and expertise in different modalities and applications.
Modalities represented include CBT, Dialectical Behaviour Therapy, Mindfulness, EMDR, Integrative Body Psychotherapy, Somatic Experiencing, Advanced IntegrativeTherapy, Process Work, Embodied-Relational Therapy, Equine Facilitated Psychotherapy, Narrative Therapy.
Areas of application and experience include chronic and acute trauma, PTSD, abuse, combat stress, vicarious trauma in the therapeutic relationship, trauma and vulnerable adults in care, asylum and refugee experiences, traumatic experiences of surgery, diverse cultural perspectives on trauma, effects of medicalised birth procedures, trauma and environmental awareness, spiritual crises, bereavement by suicide, and post-war reconciliation.
Format:
There will be large and small groups, speakers and presentations, discussions and facilitated group process. Some small group options will involve experiential and multi-media learning and feedback. These include film + discussion, and artspace.

 

Website: http://www.ionara.org.uk/

Contact: iona@ionara.org.uk/

Center for Science and Art, Lansdown, Stroud, Gloucestershire GL5 1BB

 

Working with trauma in the body

I offer occasional one-day workshops for counselling and psychotherapy practitioners on ‘Working with trauma in the body’, in which I cover the following topics :

– What is trauma and PTSD ?
– Brain function during and after trauma
– Different types of trauma
– Disturbances to self regulation in trauma
– How re-traumatision occurs and what we can do about it
– Trauma in the therapy room: basic principles of a body-based approach

 

The first one-day module can later on be followed up by a second module, which focuses on ‘Working with complex trauma’.

These days are designed as a combination of teaching and experiential work.

 

Family Constellations Workshops

‘Family Constellations’ is a powerful approach, developed by Bert Hellinger, designed to bring awareness to and work with hidden dynamics and transgenerational family patterns in a group setting.
For further details regarding upcoming workshops, view or download the leaflet (pdf).