North Rd
Brighton BN1 1YD
UK
A conference with presentations by Margaret Landale, Ewa Robertson & Michael Soth
The rise of body-oriented approaches to psychotherapy has seen the discipline shift from being the kooky poor relation of psychoanalysis in the 1970s and 80s, to a vital component in the therapeutic understanding of all therapists over the course of the last 20 years or so.
An increased understanding and appreciation of neuroscience alongside the development of effective approaches to treating trauma have shown that being able to work effectively with embodied presentations and communications will increase our effectiveness as therapists and offer greater and safer choices for our clients and patients, particularly for those who are struggling with traumatic experiences or somatic symptoms.
In this one-day conference with three leading experts in the field of body-mind psychotherapy - Margaret Landale, Ewa Robertson, and Michael Soth - we will explore ways in which to attune to the embodied presence of both ourselves and our clients and how to facilitate body-mind communication and dialogue. There will be particular attention paid in our final presentation of the day to the skills required by non-body psychotherapists who might wish to respond to embodied moments that occur in the process of talking therapy. A Q&A Panel Discussion will round off the day.
Michael's presentation: Techniques for expanding talking therapy into bodymind process
Even the best therapeutic intervention can only be as good as the client's receptivity to it, and that is not mainly a left-brain issue. Whether a therapist's words 'land' in the client is not only a question of their content and meaning. Whether or not a therapist's response is being received gets determined, largely pre-reflexively, by the client's whole bodymind system, and that depends interpersonally on the 'felt sense' of the working alliance. Readiness for change (i.e. neuroplasticity) occurs at the edge of the window of tolerance (which Michael will introduce as having both intra-psychic and intersubjective dimensions). Practically, this often boils down to charged moments of heightened affect when the working alliance is in crisis and enactments are manifesting.
As a therapist, how do you 'catch' and make use of these moments that are characterised by spontaneous bodymind processes, which occur between client and therapist before, alongside and in spite of left-brain reflections and words?
In this presentation Michael will focus on the principles of embodied- relational practice, not so much in terms of body-oriented techniques that can be used to deliberately pursue heightened affect, but mostly in terms of embodied ways of being and working in those critical moments that arise spontaneously as part of the normal talking interaction between client and therapist. Rather than grafting new 'body techniques' onto their existing style and practice, the aim of this presentation is to help therapists to become more deeply embodied in moments of crisis and to craft spontaneously and creatively embodying interventions from within enactments.