EMBODIED-RELATIONAL THERAPY
A one year course
with
Nick Totton
and
Allison Priestman

four residential blocks in Derbyshire starting April 2011
Cost: 2500 pounds

WHAT IS EMBODIED-RELATIONAL THERAPY?

Embodied-Relational Therapy has its roots in Reichian body work, process approaches, psychodynamic therapies and earth-centred spirituality. Initiated by Nick Totton and Em Edmondson in the late 80s, ERT continues to grow and develop, especially through Allison’s contribution. 

ERT is an holistic integrative approach focusing on two facts about human beings: we are embodied and in relationship. To be alive we need to be  a body, to be alive we need to relate to others; our greatest challenges and our greatest joys follow from this. 

As human beings, we are integrated body-mindspirit; on the whole, we find this condition  hard to manage. Our nature seeks to express itself freely, while at the same time protecting itself in conditions sometimes of great difficulty. This double task of expression and protection makes us often subject to contradictory pulls, and offering double messages about what we feel, want and need. Through a relationship which is challenging but supportive and non-invasive, it is possible to disentangle our doubleness and allow our process to unfold.

ERT draws a great deal from other therapies, but brings these ideas and techniques into a new synthesis with its own unique flavour and values, described in terms of seven ‘metaskills’: Awareness, Trust, Contactfulness, Spontaneity, Spaciousness, Relaxation and Wild Mind. 

Encouraging a deep letting go into what is, ERT takes a position of profound trust that what ever is trying to happen in someone's life needs to happen, and whatever needs to happen is trying to happen.

THE ONE YEAR COURSE

This eighth one year course offers a solid grounding in the principles and practice of Embodied-Relational Therapy, and should enable people with sufficient basic therapeutic skills to use ERT confidently with clients. There is no requirement to do written work. If in the view of both the facilitators and your fellow trainees you complete the course successfully, you will receive a  diploma.

The following themes will be covered:

Embodiment
Exploring the different ways in which we try to deal with the tricky but rewarding situation of having a body, and their implications for our life as human beings.

Relationship
How our individual style of embodiment expresses itself through our relating to the world and to people - our needs, our projections, our desires, our defences - sometimes creatively, sometimes problematically.

Character
Understanding the range of possible bodily/emotional/energetic organisation available to people, and how each person's individual style is formed through their response to key developmental thresholds.

The following skills will be taught:

Contact
For creative change to happen in therapy, it is vital to be in touch with self and others on several levels. You will learn sensitivity to contact and its absence and to the needs different characters have around contact.

Information gathering
Attending to the flow of information that a client is continually producing, through the whole range of available channels including seeing, listening, feeling, intuiting, thinking, touching, and relating

Amplifying
Using all the multitude of ways in which  we can help an identified process to develop and grow. As well as specific skills for amplification, you will be supported in an improvisational and playful approach.

Integrating
Making sense of the work done, connecting it up with the shape and meaning of the client's life, moving on into the future.

WHO THE COURSE IS FOR

This is primarily a post-qualification course: most participants will have completed a previous training in psychotherapy, counselling, or perhaps some relationship-based form of healing work (e.g. massage, cranio-sacral therapy, homeopathy, etc.) The course will offer a second training in ERT which you should be able to integrate into your practice.

We also welcome people without a previous qualification but with a good deal of experience of therapy and growth work, who might use the course as part of an independent practitioner training, or might simply value it for personal development. We require participants intending to practice ERT to be in therapy for the duration of the course if they have not already had an extended period of therapy.

Successful graduates will be able to take a one year Advanced Course, which gives membership of the ERT Practitioners Group.

FACILITATORS

See information about Nick here and Allison here.

PRACTICALITIES

The course will be made up of four five-night residential workshops at Unstone Grange, near Chesterfield. The fee includes all residential costs. The dates are all Thursday evening to Tuesday lunchtime.

Once the three of us decide that you should do the training, a deposit of 400 pounds will be due. The balance of 2100 pounds is payable by agreed installments over the period of the course. There may be some possibility of reductions.

If we have not already worked together, then you will need to come for an interview with Allison, Nick, or both of us; you may prefer to do this in any case. This can happen during a weekend workshop. The interview will be mutual - a chance for each of us to assess the other. As already mentioned, if you have not already been in personal therapy you will be expected to do so for the duration of the course except by special negotiation.

Successful graduates will be able to take a one year Advanced Course, which gives membership of the ERT Practitioners Group.

This cannot possibly cover every aspect of the course; please feel free to contact us with any questions you may have.

Nick Totton, 01422 886 525
nick@erthworks.co.uk
http://www.erthworks.co.uk

Allison Priestman, 01453 768524
info@ allisonpriestman.co.uk
http://www.allisonpriestman.co.uk