Nick Totton's Page

It'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 Totton



I have been working as a therapist, 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; attended a number of seminars in Process Oriented Psychology; and developed my own integrative approach to psychotherapy. I have co-led several therapist trainings, first for Energy Stream and then for Selfheal; and now offer workshops, one year trainings and advanced courses in Embodied-Relational Therapy. I live and see clients in Mytholmroyd, Calderdale.

Email me


Books etc.


The Water in the Glass was published by Rebus in 1998.

Psychotherapy and Politics came out from Sage in 2000.

Character and Personality Types (with Michael Jacobs) from Open University Press in 2001.

Body Psychotherapy: An Introduction from Open University Press in 2003.

Press When Illuminated: New and Selected Poems, 1968-2003 came out in 2004 from Salt.

I have also edited Psychoanalysis and the Paranormal: Lands of Darkness (Karnac, 2003), New Dimensions in Body Psychotherapy (Open University Press), and  The Politics of Psychotherapy (OUP), and co-edited Implausible Professions (PCCS, second edition 2011).

I am consulting editor, until recently editor, of the journal Psychotherapy and Politics International.


New Books 

Reichian Growth Work
 2nd Edition












Wild Therapy:
Undomesticating Inner and Outer Worlds




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.





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.

Writings
A range of pieces on body psychotherapy, politics, philsosophy, spirituality, plus poems


IPN

I am a founder participant in the Independent Practitioners Network, a form of peer validation for psychotherapists, counsellors and others.


PCSR

I am also an active member of Psychotherapists and Counsellors for Social Responsibility, which aims to locate psychotherapy and counselling in its social context


Dancing Bear

My partner, Helene Fletcher, works as a psychotherapist under the title Dancing Bear, and also as a painter, photographer and printmaker. To find out about her work, click here