CPD Resources – Handouts (with excerpts)

Teaching Materials & Handouts by Michael Soth (1992 - )

Resources – Handouts (with excerpts)2017-04-07T03:48:53+00:00

Listing Hand-outs (with excerpts)

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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…