Nick Totton's PageIt's
the old rule, that drunks have to argue and get into fights. The lover
is just as bad. He falls into a hole, but down in that hole he finds
something worth far more than money or power. Last night the moon came
dropping her clothes in the street. I took it as a sign to start
singing, falling up into that bowl of sky. The bowl breaks. Everywhere
is falling everywhere. Nothing else to do. Here's the new rule. Break
the wineglass, and fall towards the glassblower's breath. - Rumi
Nick
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I have been working as
a therapist, supervisor, trainer and workshop leader since
1981, having trained originally as a Reichian
bodywork therapist. (You can find out something
about Reichian therapy and its founder Wilhelm
Reich by going here.)
Since then I have completed an MA in
Psychoanalytic Studies; trained (but don't practice) as a cranio-sacral therapist; attended a number of
seminars in Process
Oriented Psychology;
and developed my own integrative approach to psychotherapy. I offer
workshops and seminars on a range of themes, including embodiment,
ecopsychology, and the politics of psychotherapy; and am the founder
of, and a member of the training team for, the postgraduate training in
Embodied-Relational
Therapy, as well as being the founder of the Wild Therapy project, 'bringing therapy into the wild, and wildness into therapy'. I live and see clients in St Blazey, Cornwall.
Email
me
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My work as a therapist | I identify myself as a body psychotherapist,
but it's not really a very satisfactory term: it sounds as though I
only work with people's bodies, whereas of course I work with the whole
of them, united bodymindspirit. My goal is to follow the client
wherever their process takes them; but a central concern is the nature
of the embodied relationship which the two of us can grow together, and
how this reflects the themes and issues of the client's life. I
sometimes say thatI aim to help you remember who you are and what
you're doing here.
Following someone's spontaneous process can
end up in some unusual places; but often the session will be spent
sitting and talking together, in the way that most people expect. Other
possibilities include (by mutual agreement) working with breath; with
visualisation and fantasy; movement; and working out of doors.
I
am open to various practical arrangements, but prefer long term work to
short term. I charge on a sliding scale, normally between £45 and £60
an hour.
I
am not currently available for new clients. However my partner, Helene
Fletcher, who is also a body psychotherapist, is reopening her
practice, and you can see her web page here.
You can contact me on nick@erthworks.co.uk, or by phone on 01726 817620.
| | Workshops and Courses | For workshops and courses with Nick Totton, go here. For the training in Embodied-Relational Therapy, go here; for ERT workshops led by myself and by others, go here; and for the Wild Therapy one year training go here. |
Books etc.
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Recent Books
| Embodied relating is embedded in our everyday life: we can all ‘do’
embodied relating, though some do it better than others. Like many other
important aspects of life, it generally happens of its own accord, but
sometimes benefits from the sort of close examination which tends to
happen in therapy. However, psychotherapy has a history of keeping
embodiment out of its field of awareness, and of preferring
language-based relating to all other kinds - indeed, until quite
recently, of downplaying here-and-now relationship altogether. All these
things are now changing; and this book is intended to be part of the
change. Embodiment and relationship are inseparable, both
in human existence and in psychotherapy. If we explore embodiment, we
encounter relationship; if we explore relationship, we encounter
embodiment. Therapy is more powerful when the practitioner is able to
recognise the constant interplay between these two aspects of being
human, and to follow and support the shifts of change from one to the
other. |
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The first edition of Reichian Growth Work: Melting the Blocks to Love and Life
came out twenty years ago, and it has long been out of print; for
some while we made it available on the Internet. Now there is a heavily
improved and updated new edition from PCCS Books.Reichian Growth Work
sets out to convey the essential features of Reichian therapy in
concrete and easily understandable language. The style of body therapy
which it describes is democratic, growth-oriented and undogmatic, while
still committed to Reich’s radical description of human beings and their
difficulties.
This
volume brings together 24 of Nick Totton’s articles and book chapters
from the last thirteen years, all exploring in different ways the
relationship between therapy, the world and society. A central argument
is that therapy, if it is to be effective, cannot and should not be
risk-free or risk-averse. Among the themes addressed are
professionalisation and regulation; the fetishisation of boundaries;
democracy and therapy; intimacy; embodiment; overwhelm; and
ecopsychology.
Throughout, there is a two-way dialogue between therapy and politics,
with each enriching the other. Nick Totton argues that therapy is
intrinsically without goals, and therefore cannot usefully be harnessed
to the task of relieving symptoms and getting people back to work. This
also means that therapy offers a model for a different kind of politics
based not on policies and demands, but on process.
Although regulation in the UK is temporarily halted, the long term
battle over who controls psychotherapy and counselling is not over. So
this collection of direct or implicit arguments about the wild nature of
therapy, and its intrinsic unsuitability for domestication, is both
relevant and urgent.
 - See more at: http://www.pccs-books.co.uk/products/not-a-tame-lion/#sthash.ZJZj0Bf7.dpu This
volume brings together 24 of Nick Totton’s articles and book chapters
from the last thirteen years, all exploring in different ways the
relationship between therapy, the world and society. A central argument
is that therapy, if it is to be effective, cannot and should not be
risk-free or risk-averse. Among the themes addressed are
professionalisation and regulation; the fetishisation of boundaries;
democracy and therapy; intimacy; embodiment; overwhelm; and
ecopsychology.
Throughout, there is a two-way dialogue between therapy and politics,
with each enriching the other. Nick Totton argues that therapy is
intrinsically without goals, and therefore cannot usefully be harnessed
to the task of relieving symptoms and getting people back to work. This
also means that therapy offers a model for a different kind of politics
based not on policies and demands, but on process.
Although regulation in the UK is temporarily halted, the long term
battle over who controls psychotherapy and counselling is not over. So
this collection of direct or implicit arguments about the wild nature of
therapy, and its intrinsic unsuitability for domestication, is both
relevant and urgent.
- See more at: http://www.pccs-books.co.uk/products/not-a-tame-lion/#sthash.ZJZj0Bf7.dpuf |
Wild Therapy:
Undomesticating Inner and Outer Worlds
| Therapy
is by nature wild; but a lot of it at the moment is rather tame. This
book tries to shift the balance back towards wildness, by connecting
therapy with ecological thinking, seeing each species, each being,
and each person inherently and profoundly linked to each other.
Therapists have always tried to help people tolerate the anxiety of
not being in control of our feelings, our thoughts, our body, our
future. Human efforts to control the world are well on the way to
wrecking it through environmental collapse: the more we try to
control things, the further out of balance we push them. | Vital Signs: Psychological Responses to Ecological Crisis
 | Edited with Mary-Jayne Rust. "Vital signs" are, of course, the basic physiological measures of
functioning which health practitioners use to assess the gravity of a
patient’s predicament. This anthology focuses not so much on our
physical predicament, with so many of the Earth’s systems severely
stressed and beginning to fail – there are plenty of other places to
read about this Instead we focus on our psychological predicament, as
news of the situation slowly penetrates our defences and we struggle as
individuals and as a society to find an adequate response. By “vital
signs” we also mean signs that such a response is beginning to take
shape: signs of hope, signs of healing.
| Not A Tame Lion:
Writings on Therapy in its Social and Political Context
 |
This volume brings together 24
articles and book chapters from the last thirteen years, all
exploring in different ways the relationship between therapy, the
world and society. A central argument is that therapy, if it is to be
effective, cannot and should not be risk-free or risk-averse. Among
the themes addressed are professionalisation and regulation; the
fetishisation of boundaries; democracy and therapy; intimacy;
embodiment; overwhelm; and ecopsychology.
Throughout, there is a two-way dialogue between
therapy and politics, with each enriching the other. I argue that therapy is intrinsically without goals, and
therefore cannot usefully be harnessed to the task of relieving
symptoms and getting people back to work. This also means that
therapy offers a model for a different kind of politics based not on
policies and demands, but on process. | | Writings |
A range of pieces on body psychotherapy, politics, philosophy, spirituality, plus poems
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PCU
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I am a founder member and ex-chair of the Psychotherapy and Counselling Union, which exists to support therapists and therapy. |
PCSR
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Dancing Bear | My partner, Helene
Fletcher, works as a painter, photographer and printmaker. To find out about her work, click
here |
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