CPD Resources – Full Listing

Writing, handouts & presentations by Morit Heitzler and Michael Soth

Resources – Full Listing2017-04-02T20:41:07+00:00

CPD Resources: Full listing of all writing, handouts and presentations

This is a full listing of all the writing, handouts and presentations by Morit Heitzler and Michael Soth available on this site.

You are welcome to distribute these materials and use them in your teaching, as long as you make sure that the copyright notices are maintained.

Articles & Papers

  • Relational complications in current trauma therapy (Morit Heitzler & Michael Soth 2018)

    Trauma therapy, aided by revolutionary neuroscientific understandings, has been very successful over the last 20 years or so, and has expanded enormously. New trauma therapies have proliferated, new tools, techniques and methodolgies have been developed, the reach and scope of treatable conditions has been extended…

  • Book Review: “Somatic Experience in Psychoanalysis and Psychotherapy” by William F. Cornell (2015)

    This book review was written for the journal Body, Movement and Dance in Psychotherapy, and you can find the 1500-word version there. But I got so engrossed with the book and the issues it raises, I wrote a whole discussion, plus I also included lengthy…

  • What Supports the Sustainability of our Practice as Therapists? – Part 2 (2015)

    After some years of not writing very much, I have written a substantial article on this crucial topic: mainly based on years of supervision experience and seeing supervisees' practices struggle or flourish, I explore the key factors that influence how we process the 'emotional load'…

  • What Supports the Sustainability of our Practice as Therapists? – Part 3 (2015)

    After some years of not writing very much, I have written a substantial article on this crucial topic: mainly based on years of supervision experience and seeing supervisees' practices struggle or flourish, I explore the key factors that influence how we process the 'emotional load'…

  • Working with Sadism – an embodied relational approach (Morit Heitzler 2014)

    Based on a presentation at CONFER in December 2014, this paper explores the complex identifications which occur in the therapist's countertransference when working with a horrifically traumatised client who had been on the receiving end of life-threatening sadism for a prolonged period in her teenage…

  • We Are All Relational, But Are Some More Relational Than Others? (2013)

    Discussant Paper in response to Ray Little: "The New Emerges out of the Old - An Integrated Relational Perspective on Psychological Development, Psychopathology and Therapeutic Action”. Building on Ray Little's integration of humanistic TA with both traditional and relational psychoanalysis, this paper explores both shared…

  • Broken Boundaries, Invaded Territories (Morit Heitzler 2013)

    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 physical and emotional survival and…

  • The Relational Turn in Body Psychotherapy (2012)

    Based on an interview with Nancy Eichhorn in preparation for the 2012 International Body Psychotherapy conference in Cambridge, UK - she wrote it up, included her own comments and perspective and I then helped with the editing to get it to this published version:
“The term…

  • Using EMDR with Various Types of Developmental Trauma (Morit Heitzler 2011)

    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…

  • Book Review: “Explorations in Transactional Analysis – The Meech Lake Papers” by William F. Cornell (2011)

    This book review was written for the International Journal of Transactional Analysis: “Since his original psychotherapeutic trainings many decades ago in Radix and Transactional Analysis, Bill Cornell (working in Pittsburgh, US) has been at the forefront of the creative endeavour to integrate these approaches, and…

  • The Return of the Repressed Body – Not a Smooth Affair (2010)

    These are a few thoughts, written fairly quickly, on my misgivings with the currently fashionable attempts to (re-)include the body into psychotherapy. These attempts, strongly supported by neuroscience, are welcome and long overdue. However, how can we seriously imagine that bringing the body back after…

  • A Response to the Claims of the ‘Human Givens’ Approach (2010)

    This letter, published in 'Therapy Today' under the title 'Boastful Claims', was a response to an earlier article by Julia Bueno, on 'The Rise of Human Givens'. I am suggesting that as a relatively recent approach, Human Givens is not sufficiently aware of its antecedents…

  • Crowded Intimacy – Engaging Multiple Enactments in Complex Trauma Work (Morit Heitzler 2010)

    My aim in this paper is to introduce relational Body Psychotherapy and its relevance to working with trauma. The term 'relational' is now widely used; it has recently become fashionable and most practitioners accept that “it is the relationship that matters” (title of BACP conference…

  • Therapy Today: Questionnaire – Michael Soth (2010)

    The BACP Journal 'Therapy Today&' has a regular column where established practitioners get interviewed and are asked both personal and professional questions. This is the longer, online version of an interview/questionnaire published in December 2010. “Michael Soth is passionate about the possibility of a new…

  • The processing body – integrating EMDR and Body Psychotherapy (Morit Heitzler 2008)

    The processing body - integrating EMDR and Body Psychotherapy: The paper presents a model for integrating EMDR with Body Psychotherapy principles and techniques. The model will be illustrated by clinical material from work with a patient who suffers from complex PTSD as a result of…

  • Group Body Psychotherapy (2008)

    This was written as a contribution to the English version of the Handbook of Body Psychotherapy (originally published in German by Marlock and Weiss). The chapter sets out some basic principles for a bodymind approach to groups and group therapy, and gives some indications for…

  • Embracing the paradigm clash between the ‘medical model’ and counselling (2007)

    A Response to James T. Hansen's article “Should counselling be considered a healthcare profession?”
This article, published in 'Therapy Today' under the title 'Polarising or embracing?', was a response to an earlier article by James T. Hansen who - from a postmodern perspective - was challenging…

  • Book Review of the German version of ‘Handbook of Body Psychotherapy’ by Gustl Marlock & Halko Weiss (2007)

    This is a review of the ground-breaking, monumental and comprehensive first global textbook of Body Psychotherapy, giving a brief overview of its content and some important chapters as well as evaluating its strengths and also outlining some critiques.  [s2If !current_user_can(access_s2member_level0)]To gain access to the full…

  • The Integrative Project within the Development from Holistic-Humanistic to Integral-Relational Body Psychotherapy (2007)

    This article follows on from my chapter "From Humanistic Holism via the 'Integrative Project' towards Integral-Relational Body Psychotherapy" (2007) and focusses on a specific phase in the development of Chiron Body Psychotherapy (i.e. the years between 1992 and 1998) which can suitably be called the…

  • The Therapist’s Implicit Relational Stance & Habitual Positions (2007)

    This was written quickly (it shows ...!) as a preparation for the 2007 CABP conference 'The Client and I', attempting in anticipation to clarify some important concepts within the relational debate. I suggest that there always IS an implicit relational stance and that the therapist's…

  • From Humanistic Holism via the ‘Integrative Project’ towards Integral-Relational Body Psychotherapy (2007)

    Written as a chapter for "Contemporary Body Psychotherapy - The Chiron Approach" (a book edited by Linda Hartley, published 2008), this paper gives an overview over the phases and quantum leaps in the development of Body Psychotherapy at Chiron, with particular focus on the 'relational…

  • How ‘the Wound’ Enters the Consulting Room … (2007)

    #N/A

  • How ‘the Wound’ Enters the Consulting Room (2006)

    This article charts the deconstruction of the 'medical model' (which was taken for granted as a basic paradigm for the work of psychoanalysis by Freud at the conception of our profession) over the 100 years since then. It starts from the premise that the 'medical…

  • On BodyMind Process (2006)

    Some preparatory thoughts on an embodied whole-person approach: if we want to work with the whole spectrum of processes from unconscious to conscious, from spontaneous to reflective, from somatic to emotional, mental and psychological, we recognise that in its traditional manifestation, the field of psychotherapy…

  • Current Body Psychotherapy – a Relational Approach for the 21st Century? (2005)

    This article was written for the BACP Journal 'Therapy Today' to up-date the image of Body Psychotherapy across the professions of counselling and psychotherapy. By spelling out the - partly justified - prejudices against Body Psychotherapy deriving from 1970's practice, I try to show how…

  • How can Body Psychotherapy Help Apply the Insights of Neuroscience (2005)

    This was written as part of the Introduction to the Advanced Training programme of the Chiron Centre in 2004, following the enthusiastic reception of modern neuroscience by psychological practitioners. It spells out a list of the therapeutic micro-skills involved in bringing awareness to right-brain-to-right-brain attunement…

  • An up-to-date Synopsis of how Body Psychotherapy has Developed over the last Decade (2005)

    This was written as a new Introduction to the Advanced Training programme of the Chiron Centre and later got turned into an article for 'Therapy Today'.   [s2If !current_user_can(access_s2member_level1)]To gain access to the full resource, please log-in if you are a member already, or to…

  • Psychotherapy: the ‘Relating Cure’ – Relating to the Psychosomatic Symptom (2005)

    This article was written as a response to some interview questions by Penny Gray, the editor of the Healthcare Counselling & Psychotherapy Journal. It is primarily addressed to counsellors working in the NHS, but it also covers wider questions regarding the bodymind and psychosomatic aspects…

  • Embodied Countertransference – some extracts (2004)

    This chapter, published in Nick Totton's 2005 book "New Dimensions in Body Psychotherapy" is my first and quite condensed formulation of some of the original concepts arising from an integration of bodymind and relational perspectives (3 kinds of contact; the 5 parallel relationships including the…

  • What Therapeutic Hope for a Subjective Mind in an Objectified Body? (2004, long version)

    This is the edited and elaborated text of my presentation at the UKCP Conference 'About A Body' which was eventually published in three versions: one published by UKCP in 2006 (9000 words) and one published in two parts in the Journal for Body, Movement and…

  • Is it Possible to Integrate Humanistic Techniques into a Transference-Countertransference Perspective? (2004)

    This was written as a response to a brilliant and helpfully clarifying article by Lavinia Gomez 'Humanistic or psychodynamic - what is the difference and do we have to make a choice ?', which tackles this difficult theme in a non-dogmatic and fairly comprehensive fashion.…

  • Humanistic or psychodynamic – what is the difference and do we have to make a choice? (Lavinia Gomez 2003)

    This brilliant and helpfully clarifying article by Lavinia Gomez tackles the difficult theme 'humanistic or psychodynamic' in a non-dogmatic and fairly comprehensive fashion. Lavinia poses some challenging questions, especially for integrative therapists: how free and fluid can we allow ourselves to be in terms of…

  • Psychotherapy: Paradoxes, Pitfalls & Potential (2003)

    This article was written for the magazine 'Self & Society' following the workshop series I ran in 2003 on the paradoxes inherent in psychotherapy. In the workshops I addressed specifically six paradoxes which do not even get a mention in this article, as it was…

  • What is ‘Working with the Body’ ? (2002)

    This was an invited response to a case presentation by Maggie Turp, a psychodynamic therapist who has initiated a consideration of the body and of the importance of wellbeing in psychoanalytic circles. Whilst this must be a worthwhile project and her case study shows dedicated…

  • Re-formulating the Notion of the ‘Body/Mind Split’ (2000)

    This is an extract from "The Integrated BodyMind's View on 'Body/Mind Integration' (2000)", as it is often requested on its own. It basically critiques the notion of 'body/mind split', but then uses it to focus more precisely on what experiential reality that tricky concept may…

  • The Integrated BodyMind’s View on ‘Body/Mind Integration’ (2000)

    This was written as an article following a presentation to the Chiron Association's (AChP) AGM in 1999. During the presentation itself I more or less did the opposite of what I was talking about and modelled a fairly dis-integrated stance. The learning from that experience…

  • Relating to and with the Objectified Body (1999)

    This was my first public attempt at spelling out the difficulties and pitfalls of Body Psychotherapy as I knew it in the late 1980's and the early 1990's. It took years to become aware of and formulate the hidden 'medical model' assumptions, the implicit idealisation…

  • The Body in Counselling (1999)

    This was written for a psychodynamically oriented audience from an integrative perspective, outlining - with no attempt at a comprehensive formulation - some of the ways in which the body enters the counselling room and the counselling relationship.  [s2If !current_user_can(access_s2member_level0)]To gain access to the full…

  • Collective Mothering and the Medical Model (1997)

    This is a longer article on the same theme as my letter with the same title to the European Psychotherapy Journal, written later and more detailed. It was cobbled together from two articles in consecutive issues of the AChP Newsletter (as it was then called),…

  • Collective Mothering and the Medical Model – EJP Letter (1996)

    A Letter in response to Emmy van Deurzen-Smith's 1996 paper 'The Future of Psychotherapy', taking issue with her suggestion that some of what used to be the intuitive art and craft of mothering could and should now be provided by a scientifically validated counselling profession.…

  • An Integrative Triangle: Freud, Reich and Jung (1994)

    Incomplete notes for a paper given at the UKAPI Conference 2001, suggesting that Freud, Jung and Reich can be seen as championing in some respects three mutually exclusive, but actually complementary perspectives, each with its own blessings and shadow aspects. By understanding these forefathers of…

  • An Integrative Perspective on Two-Chair Work (1993)

    This is a paper written initially as a summary hand-out for my workshops on 'Working with Dialogue / Two-Chair Work', I have been working on a much longer version over the years, leading towards a manual for this therapeutic tool that covers both theory and…

  • Parental Identification (1992)

    This is an early paper written for a staff training workshop, based on the recognition that object relations are both internalised and embodied. This affects our view of our clients, but also of our own habitual positions as therapists.  [s2If !current_user_can(access_s2member_level0)]To gain access to the…

  • Parental Identification

    #N/A

  • The Gulf in ‘me’ (1992)

    Subtitled "A psychotherapist's view of the Gulf War", this was an attempt at formulating some principles of personal-political engagement and to contribute a psychological dimension to the political debate, by finding the global leaders within our own dreams and 'inner world', as well as seeing…

Hand-outs

  • Towards embodied-relational therapy by (re-)integrating psychoanalysis & humanistic Body Psychotherapy

    By bringing together the bodymind expertise of the body-oriented tradition and the relational expertise of both humanistic and psychoanalytic traditions, we can develop a 21st century embodied-relational way of working that views the whole client-therapist relationship as a complex bodymind intersubjective system. Rather than a…

  • The Client’s Conflict across the Window of Tolerance (2015)

    This handout is a more comprehensive and complicated version of the client's internal conflict, relating this conflict to the window of tolerance. There is a simpler version which only describes the client's internal conflict as occurring between their 'habitual mode' and their 'emergency'.  [s2If !current_user_can(access_s2member_level0)]To…

  • The Client’s Conflict between ‘Habitual Mode’ and ‘Emergency’ (2015)

    The notion of the client's conflict is foundational in all depth psychotherapy. This hand-out here is a more evolved and updated version of the 1998 hand-out on the client's internal conflict. There is also a slightly more comprehensive and complicated version which relates this conflict…

  • The Main 5 Conflicting Aspects of the Supervisor Role (2015)

    This handout was put together after supervision teaching session in June 2015, trying to clarify the various tasks and aspects of the supervisor role, which supervisee's expect or project. They are all in various degrees of tension and conflict with each other, and whilst only…

  • Different Paradigms of Embodiment Work in Relation to Character (2014)

    This handout is a summary of a flip chart for Integration Training (summarising the transcript of my talk on the history and theory of embodiment work). Different types of embodiment of work can be differentiated by how they position themselves in relation to the client's…

  • How can we Distinguish between Psychotherapy and Counselling? (2014)

    This handout in response to an interview by Psychotherapy Excellence is an attempt to clarify the question 'What is psychotherapy?' by distinguishing it from other, similar disciplines, like counselling, coaching and psycho-education. In practice, this is impossible, as these disciplines are hopelessly mixed up, after…

  • The 4 Main Countertransference Objects in the Enactment (2014)

    This handout is a more detailed description of Contact 3 in the '3 Kinds of Contact' - it describes the 4 objects which are all constellated in the countertransference experience during an enactment - the therapist can experience all of them in different degrees and…

  • Psychotherapy Integration – an Integrative Triangle Freud – Reich – Jung (2014)

    This handout is a graphical summary of an old idea from 1994 and based on a 2002 presentation: An Integrative Triangle: Freud, Reich and Jung (1994).  [s2If !current_user_can(access_s2member_level0)]To gain access to the full resource, please log-in if you are a member already (and then re-fresh…

  • Edge of Chaos (2014)

    This handout is a summary of a flip chart which I put together on a CPD weekend I was running with Nick Totton. You can find some traces of some earlier handouts, but this is a more comprehensive formulation for the purposes of this topic.…

  • Edge of Chaos – Client’s Conflict becomes Therapist’s Conflict (2014)

    This handout is a summary of a flip chart which I put together on a CPD weekend I was running with Nick Totton. You can find some traces of some earlier handouts, but this is a more comprehensive formulation for the purposes of this topic.…

  • Edge of Chaos Therapist’s Internal Process – Steps (2014)

    This handout is a summary of a flip chart which I put together on a CPD weekend I was running with Nick Totton. You can find some traces of some earlier handouts, but this is a more comprehensive formulation for the purposes of this topic.…

  • The Essential Relational Conflict Inherent in the Therapeutic Position: Object- versus Subject-Relating (2014)

    This handout crystallises the essential tension inherent in the therapeutic position, between: 'I-it' object-relating (which can be both deeply healing and deeply wounding) on the one hand, and dialogical 'I-I' subject-relating (which can be both deeply healing and deeply wounding) on the other. The implication…

  • Steps towards Apprehending the Intersubjective Systemic Bodymind Phenomenology of Enactment (2011)

    This handout is an evolving draft, presenting a sequence of reflective questions and alerts as to where to put my focus of attention when as a therapist I feel caught in an enactment. The starting point is my awareness that the client and I are…

  • The Relationship between Ego and Sub-Personalities (2009)

    This handout was produced on the occasion of a CPD weekend for the Psychosynthesis and Education Trust in 2009. It is based on the idea that an authentic witness position in relation to a sub-personality requires the ego to have previously explored and allowed both…

  • Character Formation (Complex Model) (2008)

    This handout is the non-dualistic, complex version of character formation, using simple terms from Transactional Analysis, but including the conflicted ego. Rather than seeing the ego exclusively as a repressive, rationalising fortress, homogenous in its defensive functioning, the ego is conceptualised as conflicted, split and…

  • The Three Relational Revolutions (2007)

    This handout summarises what I conceive of as the three relational revolutions that have occurred over the last 100 years in psychotherapy. The first was Freud's reframing of the transference from an obstacle to the treatment into the 'royal road' into the depths of the…

  • An Integral Perspective on ‘Development’ (2005)

    This handout is extracted from my chapter 'From humanistic holism via the ‘integrative project’ towards integral-relational Body Psychotherapy'. Written in 2005, it summarises some basic assumptions regarding development, blending Body Psychotherapy and Wilber's evolutionary theories.  [s2If !current_user_can(access_s2member_level0)]To gain access to the full resource, please log-in…

  • Soth – Extended Model of Parallel Process (2005)

    This handout summarises the way I have extended the model of 'parallel process', so to speak: backwards: into the client's inner world, into the client's bodymind process, and into the client's past relationship scenarios. This extends the well-established version of the 'parallel process' model (as…

  • The Hawkins/Shohet Model of Parallel Process (2005)

    This page is a summary of the key features and principles of the seminal Hawkins/Shohet model of 'parallel process'. Published first in the mid-80s under the title ""Supervision in the Helping Professions"", 'parallel process' became one of the key features of my thinking, both in…

  • How the Wound Enters the Therapeutic Relationship (2005)

    This table is a summary of the 6-and-a-half steps by which we can conceive of the late 19th century medical model frame of therapy having been deconstructed and broken down over the last 100 years. It is a summary of an article published in 'Therapy…

  • The 8 Kinds of Relationship to the Symptom (2005, simple)

    This is the simplified version of a handout prepared for a presentation at a conference for therapists working in primary care, who were interested in bringing an embodied perspective to their patients. Later this became the basis for a regular CPD workshop I was running…

  • The 8 Kinds of Relationship to the Symptom (2005)

    This handout was prepared for a presentation at a conference for therapists working in primary care, who were interested in bringing an embodied perspective to their patients. Later this became the basis for a regular CPD workshop I was running on 'working with illness and…

  • The Development of the Chiron Approach – Phases, Steps & Revisions (2005, very detailed)

    This handout summarises all the graphics (plus a few more) which I put together for my chapter of the same title for the book "Contemporary Body Psychotherapy - the Chiron Approach" (edited by Linda Hartley), in which I charted my development over 25 years of…

  • The Development of the Chiron Approach – Phases, Steps & Revisions (2005, simple)

    This hand-out summarises all the graphics (plus a few more) which I put together for my chapter of the same title for the book ""Contemporary Body Psychotherapy - the Chiron Approach"" (edited by Linda Hartley), in which I charted my development over 25 years of…

  • The Development of the Chiron Approach – Phases and Quantum Leaps (2005)

    This handout illustrates and summarises the four main phases of Chiron's development between the early 1980s and 2005, offering some keywords for each.  [s2If !current_user_can(access_s2member_level0)]To gain access to the full resource, please log-in if you are a member already (and then re-fresh this page after…

  • Influences on my Work within Chiron during its Development (2005, detailed)

    This handout presents a detailed overview of the many influences I was both challenged and inspired by during the 25 years of Chiron's development.  [s2If !current_user_can(access_s2member_level0)]To gain access to the full resource, please log-in if you are a member already (and then re-fresh this page…

  • Influences on Chiron at its Foundation (2005)

    This handout summarises the main influences on the Chiron approach at its inception in the early 1980s, when it started off under the title Holistic Psychotherapy. Chiron involved out of Biodynamic Psychology, and integrated all the main schools of Neo-Reichian psychotherapy, as they were known…

  • The Diamond Model of Modalities – The force field between medical model, working alliance, enactment (2004)

    This handout presents the underlying force field and fundamental tension which the therapeutic endeavour operates within. Historically, and in the public (mis-)perception, therapy is seen as equivalent with 'medical model' treatment, i.e. symptom reduction through the therapist operating as a 'doctor for the feelings' (or…

  • The ‘Birth Trauma’ of Psychotherapy and the Deconstruction and Transcendence of 19th-century Dualisms (2004)

    This dense and abstract handout, consisting of several pages, summarises the evolution of the field of psychotherapy since its origins in Freud's zeitgeist of the late 19th century. I am picking out two main dualisms: the doctor-patient relationship and the mind-over-body relationship. The history of…

  • The Deconstruction and Transcendence of the BodyMind Dualism (2014)

    This handout, adapted from and similar to The 'Birth Trauma' of Psychotherapy and the Deconstruction and Transcendence of 19th-century Dualisms (2004), spells out a little bit more the split between the 'talking therapy' approaches and the embodiment approaches, and their respective historical developments and one-sidednes.…

  • The Diamond Model of Modalities – Oscillations (2004)

    My 'Diamond Model of the Modalities', based on Clarkson's modalities of the therapeutic relationship, uses my extended version of the modalities by including 'medical model'-relating. This model is designed to transform what are usually understood as sequential treatment options into it dynamic system in which…

  • The Diamond Model of Modalities – Overlaps & Tensions (2004)

    This handout summarises the dynamic system of the modalities of the therapeutic relationship, the hexagon representing the therapeutic frame, and all modalities having potentially therapeutic as well as countertherapeutic effects. to some extent the modalities overlap, but traditionally therapists have emphasised the tensions, and absolutised…

  • The Diamond Model of Modalities – Tensions (2004)

    This handout summarises the dynamic system of the modalities of the therapeutic relationship, the hexagon representing the therapeutic frame, and all modalities having potentially therapeutic as well as countertherapeutic effects. to some extent the modalities overlap, but traditionally therapists have emphasised the tensions, and absolutised…

  • The Diamond Model of Modalities – Overlaps (2004)

    This handout summarises the dynamic system of the modalities of the therapeutic relationship, the hexagon representing the therapeutic frame, and all modalities having potentially therapeutic as well as countertherapeutic effects. To some extent the modalities overlap, but traditionally therapists have emphasised the tensions, and absolutised…

  • The Relational Turn – Moebius (2004)

    I formulated the key insight which for me constitutes the 'relational turn' in two languages: one as relevant in ALL psychotherapeutic approaches, and one formulated in the language of Body Psychotherapy. Because it is such a crucial insight, I turned it into a fridge sticker,…

  • The Relational Turn (2003)

    My formulation of what I call the 'relational turn' in two versions: 1. in the language of Body Psychotherapy (i.e. where I first discovered it); 2. in a generic formulation applicable to all kinds of therapeutic approaches. To my mind this formulation constitutes a watershed…

  • The Paradox of Enactment (2003)

    The 'relational turn' is a paradigm shift into the paradoxical foundation of psychotherapy: having recognised that ""it's the relationship that matters"" in therapy, we then see that the working alliance - which holds this professional and apparently artificial and contrived relationship together - is inherently…

  • The Therapist’s Relational Stance (2003,2010,2015)

    This handout is a summary of three useful and mutually complementary formulations/models, which help us understand the therapist's relational stance. A good starting point for naming and describing relational stances is Lavinia Gomez’s (2003) distinction between being ‘alongside’ the client (typically championed by humanistic approaches)…

  • The Conflicted Ego (2002)

    Building on the formulation of 'the conflicted ego in conflict with a spontaneous conflict', as implied in the 5 parallel relationships (see 1998 handout), I started trying to put the various components that students were struggling with into one handout, and this was the result.…

  • 5 Parallel Relationships (2001)

    This handout is a more complex elaboration of the previous one, based upon further distinguishing the internal object relations (i.e. the ways in which the client is relating to themselves, and the multiple self states involved) into three further parallels: 1. conflicting dynamics within the…

  • Character Styles and Structures – Overview Chart (2000)

    Some years after I had formulated my critique and misgivings about the application of character structure theory in traditional Body Psychotherapy, I was asked to give my own updated summary of the different character styles, in this chart is the result. This is now more…

  • Clarkson’s 5 Modalities of the Therapeutic Relationship – extended to 7 (1998)

    This is my own version of the extension of 5 modalities to 7, to include 'medical model' relating and archetypal relating (based upon Hillman's 'The Myth of Analysis'). Other therapists have suggested the intercultural level of relating as a 6th modality. This makes some sense…

  • The Therapeutic Position in the Conflict between Colluding and Objectifying (1997)

    This handout is the original formulation how the client's internal conflict necessarily puts the therapist in conflict. The client's chronic conflict is formulated here in generic terms as a polarised split between 'habitual mode' and 'emergency' (usefully alluding to both the client's denied sense of…

  • The Client’s Conflict becomes the Therapist’s Conflict (1998)

    This handout is a later version of the original formulation how the client's internal conflict necessarily puts the therapist in conflict. The client's chronic conflict is formulated here in generic terms as a polarised split between 'habitual mode' and 'emergency' (usefully alluding to both the…

  • Types of Countertransference (after John Rowan – Critique) (1996)

    The following list of types of countertransference was first published more than 30 years ago, by one of the elders of the humanistic tradition in the UK, John Rowan. He was then already modelling an interest and learning from the psychoanalytic tradition, trying to bring…

  • 5 Parallel Relationships (early version) (1996)

    This handout is a more complex elaboration of the previous one, based upon further distinguishing the internal object relations (i.e. the ways in which the client is relating to themselves, and the multiple self states involved) into three further parallels: 1. conflicting dynamics within the…

  • 3 Parallel Relationships (1996)

    This handout is fundamental to a relational conception of therapy, recognising the parallels between past, internal and external relationship dynamics. It is similar to Michael Jacob's seminal psychodynamic textbook ""The Presenting Past"", but based on an understanding of character formation, internalisation of the past wounding…

  • Petruska Clarkson’s ‘Five Modalities of the Therapeutic Relationship’ (1995)

    This handout is a simple summary in table form of the modalities of the therapeutic relationship, as initially formulated by Petruska Clarkson in her seminal 1991 paper: ""Clarkson, P (1991) A Multiplicity of Psychotherapeutic Relationships, in British Journal of Psychotherapy, 7: 2"". This was later…

  • The Implicit Relational Stance Underlying Theory and Technique (1995)

    This is a more detailed updated version of this handout (earliest version 1995). I had been working with the notion of the therapist's 'habitual position' since the mid-1990s, after we had recognised for some years that students were attracted to our training both for very…

  • Levels of BodyMind – BODY – EMOTION – IMAGINATION – MIND – INTUITION (1995)

    This handout is an attempt to appreciate the many subtleties and layers we can distinguish in terms of bodymind process, reaching from the most basic physiological via the emotional, imaginal and mental toward intuition. We can think of these levels as multiple intelligences, or different…

  • Character Formation (1995)

    This is a summary of the previous two handouts on one page - both a description of the 5 steps of character formation and Reich's diagram of an impulse 'turning back against itself', using terms from Transactional Analysis. This early version is in line with…

  • Character Formation: Reich’s diagram of ‘turning against self’ (1995)

    This is Reich's diagram of an impulse 'turning back against itself'. This diagram is easier to understand if we illustrate it with terms drawn from Transactional Analysis. Turning against the self in character formation implies chronic internal conflict, based on internalisation of an external conflict…

  • Character Formation – 5 Steps (1995)

    This is a slightly reformulated version of Stephen Johnson's 5 steps of character formation. These five steps are the basic process by which developmental, relational injury occurs and leads to 'turning against the self' and chronic character formation. While rooted in Reich's character analysis, Johnson…

  • Three Kinds of Contact (1995, simple)

    This handout is one of the most basic and fundamental to a relational perspective on therapy. If it is indeed 'the relationship that matters', what kinds of contacts can exist between client and therapist? Alongside the different modalities of therapeutic relatedness, we can recognise the…

  • Three Kinds of Contact (1995)

    This handout is one of the most basic and fundamental to a relational perspective on therapy. If it is indeed 'the relationship that matters', what kinds of contacts can exist between client and therapist? Alongside the different modalities of therapeutic relatedness, we can recognise the…

  • Perception Understanding Intervention (1994)

    Perception, understanding and therapeutic response/intervention are shaped by the therapist's implicit relational stance (in the paradigm clash between the polarities of 'medical model' versus 'anti-medical model', and integrated by a third paradoxical position: holistic-systemic-relational). After using earlier and more confused versions of this handout during…

  • The Gestalt Cycle (including typical contact disturbances) (1992)

    This handout is a modern version of the cycle of Gestalt formation and destruction - the way new experiences move into the foreground, become figural, are engaged with and then eventually lose interest. In this modern diagram (based upon Clarkson/Sills/Lapworth), the stages of the cycle…

  • Maps of Wholeness – E.F. Schumacher’s ‘Four Fields of Knowledge’ (1992)

    I have included some handouts based upon E.F. Schumacher's brilliant little book ""A Guide for the Perplexed"" (1977) - written towards the end of his life in presenting a distillation of basic his beliefs and principles. His distinction of the 4 fields of human knowledge…

  • Character Formation – 5 Steps (early version 1992)

    This handout combines a more detailed version of 5 steps of character formation as formulated by Stephen Johnson (see ""Character Styles"" 1994), but based on Wilhelm Reich and Alexander Lowen, with Reich's diagram of an impulse turning back against itself. This diagram is easier to…

  • Character Formation – Primary, Secondary, Facade (early version 1992)

    This handout combines Reich's diagram of a blocked and repressed impulse (the 'turning-against-the-self') with the three layers of character armour. In this handout the three layers are explained in some detail (top half of page). This diagram is easier to understand if we illustrate it…

  • The Vasomotoric Cycle – Amoeba (1991)

    This old handout relates Gerda Boyesen's 'Vasomotoric Cycle' more explicitly to Wilhelm Reich's much earlier ideas (charge-discharge sequence) and actual microscopic research into the pulsation cycle of unicellular organisms (amoeba). Reich is known to have formulated some radical ideas about life energy and the spontaneous,…

  • The Vasomotoric Cycle 2 (1990, 2005)

    This handout extends in more detail Gerda Boyesen's (Biodynamic Psychology) concept of the 'Vasomotoric Cycle', and how an impulse evolves and goes through a cycle. Although slightly oversimplifying, it is based on the idea that emotions and feelings emerge from the unconscious depths of the…

  • The Vasomotoric Cycle 1 (1990, 2005)

    This handout illustrates the basic principle of Gerda Boyesen's (Biodynamic Psychology) concept of the 'Vasomotoric Cycle'. The assumption is (similar to the Gestalt cycle - see other handout), that human experience goes through continuous cycles, which can be complete or incomplete. The idea of the…

  • The Vasomotoric Cycle (1990, old version)

    This is the oldest version of this handout, basically copied across from how the notion of the Vasomotoric Cycle was developed, understood and taught already at the Boyesen Centre since the 1970s. It was taken for granted that this was a detailed elaboration of Reich's…

Presentations

  • Enactments: are these to be welcomed or avoided? (CONFER 2016)

    This is the presentation given CONFER at the conference entitled "Enactments: are these to be welcomed or avoided?" The main aim of the presentation is the following question: If I want the enactment to become transformative of deeply ingrained, unconscious characterological patterns (which, according to…

  • The Diamond Model of Clarkson’s 5 Modalities of the Therapeutic Relationship (2014)

    Whilst psychotherapy integration has been one of the most necessary, creative and productive developments in our field over the last 20 years, 'integrative' is in danger of becoming another meaningless sound-bite. What does our integration include, and what doesn't it? What holds it together? How…

  • The Wounding and the Wounded Healer (CONFER 2013)

    Whatever therapeutic or philosophical language we use to become aware of, reflect on and articulate our own wounds - developmental, characterological, systemic or archetypal, for example - each tradition we train in and subscribe to has its own wounds. These reach back to our therapeutic…

  • Effective Ways of Relating to the Patient (2015)

    This is the presentation given at public workshops in Lahore and Islamabad in August 2015, to a mixed group of the general public, psychology students, and helping professionals including psychiatrists. The overall idea is to understand the different kinds of psychological help that clients need,…

  • Bodymind and Parallel Processes in Supervision (CONFER 2013)

    This presentation was prepared as an introduction to a supervision masterclass organised by CONFER in January 2013. Here I spell out how bodymind principles might be applied to supervision, bringing attention to the actual non-verbal messages by which parallel process is communicated and carried from…

  • The Therapist’s Embodied Presence in the Transformative Repair of Relational Breakdowns (CONFER 2012)

    Enactments seem to occur suddenly, when we are caught unawares and plunged into them. But from outside the intersubjective entanglement it is apparent that they build up slowly, increasingly, over time. Before we become implicated in an obvious, explicit rupture, there have been implicit, unspoken,…

  • ‘Using’ the Body or Engaging with Bodymind? (CAPPP 2012)

    Embodiment as a paradoxical relational process Since its origins in Freud and the zeitgeist of the late 19th century, psychotherapy has struggled with and against the limitations arising from a mind-over-body paradigm and its traditional bias towards the verbal-reflective mind. The recent fashion in neuroscience…

  • The Bodymind Reality of Internal Objects in the Transference (CONFER 2011)

    In the psychodynamic tradition we take it for granted that early relational dynamics are being replicated in the transference, often creating binds and dilemmas that in turn have a regressive effect on the therapist. This is such a powerful principle that we often do not…

  • The Therapeutic Potential of Broken Boundaries (CONFER 2011)

    If the therapist's job is the steady provision of a safe, contained therapeutic framework, then breaks and transgressions of those clear and firm boundaries indicate a failure on the therapist's part - a mistake. However, every broken boundary is accompanied by the emergence of precious…

  • Enactment as a Central Principle of Relational Therapy (BACP 2008)

    Relational' is in danger of becoming another buzz-word, and this presentation is an attempt to formulate the substance, the essential principles of the relational paradigm shift. Theory is meant to support and enrich our practice rather than directing and legislating for it, by drawing our…

  • Embracing the Paradigm Clash between the ‘Medical Model’ and Counselling (BACP 2008)

    With the government's policy of 'Improving Access to Psychological Therapies' programme being heavily biased towards CBT, counselling is under severe pressure to fit in with 'medical model' thinking. Over the last few months there has been intense discussion in 'therapy today' both for and against…

  • The Future of Counselling Training (CPCAB 2008)

    Counselling as a profession has come a long way in a few decades, but it is also facing serious threats and limitations, both from within and without. Over the next few years, cognitive-behavioural therapy (CBT) as the government's treatment of choice will be funded and…

  • The Relational Paradigm Shift in Psychotherapy – is it ‘Complete’? (CABP 2007)

    In a joint session with Joe Schwartz, the relational psychoanalyst, we tried to chart the history of relationality in psychotherapy, to set out the basic issues and controversies around it as an introduction to the CABP Conference "The Client and I", intended as a meeting…

  • Bodily Functions (Terrence Higgins Trust, 2007)

    In this presentation - based upon and similar to "No 'Relating Cure' without Embodiment" - I offered a way of catching up with the still pervasive mind-over-body dualism in counselling and psychotherapy. This becomes especially limiting when the client group brings pain and symptoms into…

  • The Fractal Self – Parallel Process as an Organising Principle for 21st-century Psychotherapy (UKCP 2007)

    For this inaugural UKCP Supervision Conference I prepared this presentation, extending the established notion of parallel process (how the dynamic between client and therapist is reflected and replicated between therapist and supervisor) by three significant steps: how the dynamic between client and therapist parallels an…

  • The Internal Supervisor – the Therapist’s Internal Process from an Embodied, Integral-Relational Perspective (EABP 2006)

    Bringing the full spectrum of bodymind processes to Patrick Casement's notion of the 'internal supervisor', we can formulate a more comprehensive understanding of the vicissitudes of the therapeutic position.  [s2If !current_user_can(access_s2member_level0)]To gain access to the full resource, please log-in if you are a member already…

  • No ‘Relating Cure’ without Embodiment (2007)

    This is some of the content of my presentation at the 2006 BACP conference "It's the relationship that matters" turned into an article, bringing some of the relevant modern neuroscience and bodymind principles to counselling.  [s2If !current_user_can(access_s2member_level0)]To gain access to the full resource, please log-in…

  • Potentials and Pathologies of Character Structure Theory (EABP 2006)

    Character Structure theory is a central aspect of Reichian and neo-Reichian Body Psychotherapy, and its underlying holistic 'functionalism' has stood the test of time. In its expanded and integrated form, as presented by Stephen Johnson ("Character Styles", 1994), it provides a solid diagnostic and clinically…