\n
\n“Beyond our ideas of right-doing and wrong-doing\,
\nthere is a field. I’ll meet you there.
\nWhen the soul lies down in that grass\,
\nthe wo rld is too full to talk about.”
\nRumi
In this session I will invite you to explore the therapeutic space beyond
notions of right or wrong\, beyond ideas of best theory\, correct technique\, practice by the book or manual.\n I will invite you to use all your faculties\, all
your knowledge\, all your woundedness and sensitivity to get a f
lavour of your own therapeutic style\, that is free to draw fluidly and in
tegratively from the wealth of therapeutic knowledge and expertise humans
have accumulated. As C.G. Jung said: “There should only be one Jun
gian therapist – me.” Everybody else - including you and me - we n
eed to find our own style\, rooted in our own relational complexi
ty and embodied in our own history\, wounds and limitations as well as gif
ts and potential. As we can only find this in the moment\, rather than thr
ough thinking or theory only\, this session will weave between experience
and reflection\, between skills practice and discussion\, engaging you wit
h your next step at your growing edge. We may draw from
the following themes what seems most relevant and urgent. ‘Nothing human is foreign
to me.’ What gets in the way of full engagement? What limi
ts the client’s experience of the therapeutic space? Phenomenologi
cal enquiry into the therapist’s internal process: how is the therapist be
having habitually in ways that are\, for example\, fixed\, limited\, restr
ained\, unresponsive or overly-giving? Focussing on the therapist’
s ‘construction’ of the therapeutic space. ‘Allowing the client’s unconscio
us to construct me as an object.’ What limits a full and deeply tr
ansformative process? Phenomenological enquiry into the therapist’
s external effects: how are the therapist’s responses/interventions counte
rtherapeutic? therapy as trea
tment (‘medical model’) versus therapy as collusive friendship obj
ectifying/pathologising versus colluding/avoidant therapy as relat
ionship objectifying – differentiating – identifying – colluding\n ‘so
mething desperately has to happen’ – ‘nothing has to happen/nothing to be
imposed’ the client’s character conflicts / the ego-Self axis The shattered an
d fragmented postmodern wholeness Drawing on the gifts and wisdom
of the whole field (fragmentation of the field reflects the fragm
ented modern psyche – the integration of the client’s psyche<
/em> into wholeness requires the integration of the whole field) T
he history of schisms and conflicts in the psychotherapeutic field and how
it affects us now integration and dis-integration cherry-
picking approaches versus full-spectrum integration therapeutic ap
proach cannot be grasped by theory and technique – underlying implicit rel
ational stance Moving beyond a one-dimensional therapeutic position Th
e wounded healer position The therapist’s habitual position – inhe
riting the wounds of our family ancestors\, our therapeutic ancestors\, or
cultural ancestors … The therapist’s shadow The dangers o
f integration Gomez\, Stark\, Clarkson\, Michael’s Diamond model: wh
at kind of therapeutic relatedness? Gomez: humanistic ‘alongside’
stance versus psychodynamic ‘opposite’ stance Stark: ‘one-person p
sychology’\, ‘one-and-a-half-person psychology’\, ‘two-person psychology’<
/p>\n Clarkson: working alliance – authentic – reparative – transference
/countertransference - transpersonal Michael’s Diamond model: incl
ude ‘medical model’ understanding identifications - projective ide
ntification – transference and countertransference as systemic bodymind pr
ocesses
the relational paradox: transcending treatment versus relationship dualism
= paradox of enactment I-it and I-I relating the bodymind
paradox: transcending mind-over-body versus body-over-mind dualism = embo
diment/disembodiment paradox the central paradox of therapy: the h
ealing of the client’s wounding is inseparable from the enactment of wound
ing in and through therapy. integrative/integral relation
al embodied systemic paradoxical Through including b
ody-oriented ways of working into the talking therapies\, we can learn to
work with many of these symptoms more directly\, more deeply and more effe
ctively (and recognise other situations where the hope of curing illness t
hrough psychology is an unreasonable idealisation). With some il
lnesses - like hypertension\, chest and heart problems\, digestive illness
es\, symptoms of the immune system - it is scientifically established that
emotional stress contributes to their origin. With many other psychosomat
ic problems\, like all kinds of pain\, tinnitus\, insomnia\, chronic fatig
ue and many other unexplained symptoms\, it is known that the intensity of
the suffering can be ameliorated through psychological therapy that addre
sses the regulation and expression of emotion and de-stresses the mind. Stress is the catchall phrase that supposedly explains the influence
of our psychological body-emotion-mind state on illness. However\, what i
s less well understood\, is how our bodymind does not just respond to stre
sses in our current situation and lifestyle\, but carries accumulated stre
ss from the past\, reaching all the way back to childhood. A holistic and
bio-social-psychological understanding of stress needs to include lifelong
patterns of the bodymind including developmental injury and trauma (what
Wilhelm Reich originally called character structures). Sometimes c
lients bring psychosomatic illness as a presenting issue to the therapy\,
sometimes these symptoms actually evolve in direct response to the unfoldi
ng therapeutic process\, and the therapist gets implicated in them\, e.g.
“After last session I had a headache for three days!” Direct links
to body sensations and symptoms as well as body image come up as part of
our work in sessions every day\, in so many ways: tangible pains\, tension
s\, trembling and shaking\, breathing difficulties (hyperventilation\, ast
hma)\, the physical side of unbearable feelings like panic\, rage\, dread
or terror. There are obvious somatic aspects to presenting issues such as
eating disorders or addictions. And then there are the psychological impli
cations of actual\, sometimes terminal\, illnesses and psychosomatic sympt
oms and dis-ease. How do we work with these issu
es and symptoms in psychotherapy? What ways are available to us for includ
ing the client’s ‘felt sense’\, their embodied self states\, their body aw
areness and sensations\, their physiological experience in the interaction
? This workshop will give you a framework for thinking a
bout the role of the body as it is relevant in your own style of therapeut
ic work\, based upon the different ways in which clients as well as therap
ists relate to ‘the symptom’. Throughout the workshop\, we will use rolepl
ay of actual issues and dilemmas brought up by your clients. We will also
identify and practice ways in which you can explore the emotional function
and 'meaning' of your client's physical symptom or illness. Drawi
ng on a wide range of humanistic and psychoanalytic approaches (including
Body Psychotherapy\, Process-oriented Psychology\, various schools of psyc
hoanalysis and Jungian perspectives) as well as the holistic paradigm unde
rpinning most complementary therapies\, we will weave together an interdis
ciplinary bodymind approach which is applicable within the therapeutic rel
ationship as we know it in counselling and psychotherapy. Creatin
g an open\, inviting therapeutic space
\nCreating an effective
transformative therapeutic space
\nThe doctor-friend polarity
\nThe client’s conflict: habitual mode versus emergency
\nA broad-spectrum integration of approaches
\nThe therapist’s habitual\, wounded\, fixed positio
n
\nShifting from therapeutic approaches to relational
modalities
\nTranscending dualisms and binaries into paradox
\nThe fractal self: a chain of nested m
atrices of parallel process
\nThe bodymind connection in working with psychosomat
ic and physical symptoms
\nA weekend workshop in
Athens with Michael Soth
\n
\n
Even though counsellors and psychotherapists are traditi
onally expected to focus on emotional\, mental and verbal communications\,
many clients invariably do bring their physical and psychosomati
c symptoms into the session.
DTSTART;TZID=Europe/London:20260214T100000 DTEND;TZID=Europe/London:20260215T180000 GEO:+37.98381;+23.727539 SEQUENCE:0 SUMMARY:Proposed CPD workshop: Working with Illness in Psychotherapy URL:https://integra-cpd.co.uk/event/proposed-cpd-workshop-working-with-illn ess-in-psychotherapy/ X-COST-TYPE:external X-WP-IMAGES-URL:thumbnail\;https://integra-cpd.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/201 6/12/working-with-illness-bear-in-pain.jpg\;176\;176\,medium\;https://inte gra-cpd.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/working-with-illness-bear-in-pain .jpg\;176\;176\,large\;https://integra-cpd.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2016/1 2/working-with-illness-bear-in-pain.jpg\;176\;176\,full\;https://integra-c pd.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/working-with-illness-bear-in-pain.jpg\ ;176\;176 X-TAGS;LANGUAGE=en-GB:Body-oriented Psychotherapy CPD\,proposed\,Workshop X-COST:tbc END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT UID:ai1ec-926@www.integra-cpd.co.uk/integra-cpd.co.uk DTSTAMP:20251111T142136Z CATEGORIES;LANGUAGE=en-GB:All Counsellors &\; Psychotherapists\,Training Courses\,Workshop Groups (10 +) CONTACT:Michael Soth\; +44 1865 725 205\; info@integra-cpd.co.uk DESCRIPTION:
\nNow he worships at an altar of a stagnant pool
\n
\nAnd when he sees his reflection\, he’s fulfilled
\nOh\, man is opposed to fair play
\nHe wants it all and he wants it his way. Bob Dylan: License To Kill
\n
Narcissism has a reputation for be ing notoriously difficult to engage with in therapy\, for a variety of goo d reasons\, not least because the very idea of ‘needing’ therapy is a humi liating insult to the grandiose self. As one of the key modern ‘disturbanc es of the self’\, narcissism has replaced Victorian repression as the psyc hological disease of the age\, which means that the original theories of o ur discipline from 100 years ago no longer quite apply. As a dominant coll ective issue\, as exhibited by the celebrity culture all over the world an d all over the media\, the term ‘narcissism’ has entered pop psychology an d lost all precision and meaning. In order to be clinically useful\, we ne ed to have a clear\, circumscribed definition of narcissism\, and its orig ins and manifestations.
\nBeyond commonplace over-simplifications\, the various therapeutic traditions have widely divergent ideas and theorie s about narcissism\, leading to quite contradictory recommendations for th erapists. More than many other issues\, therefore\, narcissism req uires an integrative stance\, that can draw insights and understa nding from the various approaches and combine them\, to provide a comprehe nsive understanding and therapeutic response.
\nBecause the narcissi st tries to approximate an image of perfection (attempting to man ifest a grandiose self)\, this leads to a chameleon-like disconnection fro m the body\, and an objectifying\, ‘perfecting’ treatment of it. For many celebrities\, the body becomes an advertisement of the False Self\, treate d like one more fashion accessory. More than many other issues\, therefore \, narcissism calls for an embodied therapy\, reconnectin g the person to pleasurable\, ordinary human reality\, rather than pursuin g the delusions of a disembodied virtual self.
\nBecause the narciss ist was emotionally ‘used’ by their parent(s)\, their individuality was ne ver fully seen and mirrored. Therefore\, in the moment where we apply a ge neric diagnostic label and put the narcissist into the same category with many others\, we are re-inflicting a lack of individual mirroring. More th an any other issue\, narcissism reveals some of the shadow aspects and weaknesses of our discipline. In order to make therapy possi ble\, we cannot afford to rely on a reasonable and supposedly realistic eg o-ego alliance: we need a working alliance both with the wounded\, insigni ficant self as well as the inflated grandiose self.
\nThis course wi ll provide condensed understanding extracted from the various therapeutic approaches\, specifically drawing from and integrating the various psychoa nalytic\, the humanistic-embodied and the Jungian traditions. We will comb ine the theoretical input with practical\, experiential work\, based upon vignettes and case illustrations volunteered by participants\, to explore how these ideas may be applied in practice.
\nWe will be drawing on the following literature:
\n