A unique CPD course for all kinds of complementary practitioners, body workers, massage therapists and other helping professionals
An exploration and understanding of the dynamics within the patient-practitioner relationship
| “Learning with Morit has had an enormous influence on my practice. Her insight reaches directly into the fundamental issues which underpin my relationship with my patients. I leave each session feeling challenged, yet wiser and more capable.”
H. Bacchus (Massage/bodyworker) |
with Morit Heitzler
Integrative Body Psychotherapist MSc.
This series of courses is designed specifically for complementary practitioners. It will introduce some of the basic principles of psychology and look into the complexity of the patient and practitioner relationship. By exploring the unspoken dynamic evoked in the therapeutic relationship, it will help to increase your understanding of the emotional and psychological aspect of holistic work.
In your practice, have you been confronted with patients who ….
- burst into tears during treatment
- are angry with you
- take a long time to leave at the end of sessions
- phone you between sessions
- terminate treatment resentfully
- ask you out on a date
- are difficult around money issues and payment
- fall in love with you
Have you ever felt? …
- drained and invaded after sessions with particular patient
- irritated, fed up, resentful or angry with a patient
- unable to refuse patients requests or demands
- compromised by meeting patients in social situations
- unclear about setting and maintaining boundaries
- out of your depth in terms of the patients reactions, emotions and behaviour
| “As a Rolf Practitioner and body worker, workng with Morit has brought deeper awareness into the client-practitioner relationships, giving space to recognise the reoccuring patterns that manifest in the physical and their connections across into the psychological. The support and widened perspective given by Morit’s work has enhanced my journey as a practitioner and deepened my practice immensely.”
V. Wright |
These situations, questions and conflicts are common amongst complementary practitioners. Most complementary therapy approaches are based on a holistic view of the person that recognises the interrelationship between body, emotions, mind and spirit, and how the body reflects the emotional state and vice versa.
This implies that touching the patient’s body inevitably involves touching their feelings and soul, too. This can generate feelings of attachment between the patient and practitioner, which go beyond simple treatment. In order to understand and contain this layer of the therapeutic process, practitioners need to be aware of the patient’s inner world and have some insight into the unspoken dynamics evoked in the therapeutic relationship.
“It is impossible to work with the body without evoking the feelings. I designed this course to help you understand and contain the emotions arising in your patients and in yourself during and after treatments, so you are confident and capable of meeting your patients on many levels.”
M. Heitzler
If you have want to develop your understanding of these dynamics, but do not want to pursue a whole other training in counselling or psychotherapy, this course is for you.
It is designed to make the basic psychological principles of the therapeutic relationship accessible and available. This can be helpful to your practice without changing the focus or style of your actual work or approach.
Some of the issues that will be explored and discussed include:
- boundaries: their function and how to establish and maintain them
- the therapeutic frame and contract: commitments, fees, times, lateness etc
- the therapeutic touch: difficulties around regressive and sexual dynamics
- how to end a process: separation, loss and completion
- unconscious processes like projection, transference, countertransference
The focus of this course will be to support the practitioners’ established style and practice whilst expanding their capacity to be present with their patients.
| “Working with Morit have been some of the best CPD times I have ever spent. I feel I have become a more grounded practitioner, able to deal confidently and professionally with the various dynamics of the patient-practitioner relationship.”
Jess Buck (acupuncturist) |
To provide a therapeutic presence, practitioners need to be in touch with their own emotions and feelings. The experiential aspect of the course will provide participants with the opportunity to explore their own internal process and to deepen their relationship with their role as a practitioner.
This experiential process, combined with theoretical understanding, will enhance the practitioner’s development and deepen their capacity to meet their patients’ needs emotionally as well as energetically and physically.
About the Course:
Module 1: (14 CPD hours)
Saturday 5th November 2011 & Sunday 6th November 2011
10.00am – 5.00pm £150.00 (£75 per day)
In this foundation weekend we will establish the basic principles of the course. We will look at perceiving and understanding the emotional dimension of treatment and explore how we establish and maintain the therapeutic boundaries: money, time, place, and role. We will experiment with using words as an additional tool and learn some principles of therapeutic listening and responding.
Module 2: (26 CPD hours)
December 4th 2011, January 15th, February 26th, March 25th 2012
10.00 – 4.30pm £300 (£75 per day)
Building on module 1, module 2 will further deepen your understanding of the dynamics that take place between practitioner and patient. The psychological principles of transference & counter- transference will be explained and you will learn how to apply them to your practice. Regression, in response to touch and working with the younger part of the client, will be explored as well as working with trauma and traumatised clients.
Module 3: (26 CPD hours)
May 27th, June 24th, July 22nd 2012
10.00am – 4.30pm £300 (£75 per day)
Building on module 1 and 2, module 3 will teach you how to work with some of the challenging dynamics that manifest in your treatment room: defenses and resistances to treatments will be thoroughly explored and explained. Sexuality and the tension between therapeutic touch and sexual feelings are often experienced as a challenge to the practitioner and you will learn how to work with those sensitive dynamics. Ending treatments and separation will be the final issue we will focus on.
As the modules build on each other, they need to be taken in sequence.
A willingness to explore your own process preferred.
For more information regarding the course, contact:
Morit Heitzler:
morit.heitzler@gmail.com