Workshops / Trainings / Courses

Transactional Analysis Training for Therapists on Strokes and Games.
A Workshop by 2 Counsellors (Andy Spencer & Maria Russo)

Sunday February 3rd 2019.

10-5pm The Wilbury Clinic.

Cost £70

To book e mail Andy Spencer at spencerandrew03@gmail.com or 07760351733

Our experiential course offers the following:

• Basic theory of Transactional Analysis;
• An explanation of Strokes and Games and a practical exercise giving and receiving them;
• Ego States (Parent, Adult and Child) and how to use them with ourselves and clients;
• How to use Strokes with clients;
• A role play showing how a game takes place;
• How we can play Games with our family, friends (&our clients); and
• How to interrupt and stop Games in the therapy room and our personal lives.

Eric Berne, the founder of Transactional Analysis defined a stroke as a "unit of recognition". We all need strokes from others to survive and to be emotionally healthy. There are positive and negative strokes. Increasing positive strokes from others and ourselves improves our self care and provides us with a simple way of encouraging our clients to do the same.

Our workshop provides an explanation of the different types and strokes, the stroke filter and the stroke economy. You will have experience of giving, receiving and accepting positive strokes in pairs. We will also provide a number of ways to use strokes with clients and for your own self-care.

From a Transactional Analysis perspective, when we play Games we engage in a series of behaviours and transactions with others that leave us feeling bad. This is repetitive and outside of our awareness. Understanding the Games we play with others and choosing other ways of behaving can improve our relationships and increase intimacy. We can of course help our clients to do the same.

Our workshop provides a demonstration of a game being played out. We explain what happened during the role play in terms of the Formula G and the Karpman Drama Triangle. We also demonstrate how the scenario would play out in a game-free way. We offer tools to stop Games being played in the therapy room and your personal life. Finally an exercise whereby you can explore how and when you play games with your family and friends and in the therapy room with your clients).

You will leave the workshop with a good understanding TA and the two important concepts of strokes and games. You will also have a toolbox of how to use strokes and Games for self care and for working with your clients.

Please Email Sudakini on therapies@thewilburyclinic.co.uk if you would like to book.

NEW in 2019! CPD - Learning Labs at The Wilbury Clinic

The cost is £280 if you book for the whole course or £40 to book for individual learning labs.

Each “LL” is 10am - 1pm at The Wilbury Clinic, all held on Sunday mornings.

This is a relaxed course for qualified therapists that can be done as a whole or as individual parts.

My motivation in offering this is firstly to share the fruits of many years of practice of experimenting with what works and what doesn’t. My second motivation is to offer a regular supply of inspiration in manageable chunks that hopefully will be easy to incorporate into your therapy practice immediately. 

Each 3 hr workshop will begin with a presentation by Vajralila usually followed by a demo and then an opportunity to make the learnings experiential by practicing in pairs or groups. The workshops will be informal in approach with a strong collegial approach in the spirit of sharing and supporting each other in the profound work we do. 

February 10th: Working with protector parts

Learning to see the clients defences, resistances and dysfunctions as ‘parts’ that are motivated to protect. Then, practicing working with these parts and validating their help and support and then bringing in the opportunity to upgrade the body/mind system to the present day (where these protectors are no longer needed in quite the same way)- drawing on the work of Tsultrim Allione, Richard Schwarz, Peggy Pace. Janina Fisher, Daniel Siegel.

March 10th: Chair work

This leads on nicely from the previous lab on protectors as it’s an extension of part work. Over the years I have experimented with the most effective ways to do chair work. I have found a pretty sound approach with much room for intuition and flow which I would like to share, it includes a combination of influences from gestalt, couple therapy, NVC (non violent communication) and feeding your demons. 

April 7th: Working creatively

Creativity is such a great way to access the right side of the brain and from this state insights can flow easily. I have 3 particular ideas for this session, one is working with the shamanic drum, I will guide you on a journey to find a part of yourself and offer healing and reclaiming. In shamanic language this is called soul retrieval. I will also introduce the ‘river cards’.

May 5th: Inner child work

I will introduce the reason we need to go back into the past in therapy, I will explore what the past and future even means and then present a structure to guide your client to take their grown up self back in time to help and heal younger parts. Drawing on Transactional Analysis, Lifespan Integration and modern understandings of neuroplasticity and active imagination theory.

July 7th: Listening to the body

I will introduce how simply listening to the client’s body sensations and gently tracking what is happening and listening with deep empathy, can facilitate access to the clients own inner wisdom and be profoundly healing.

September 1st: Therapy Goals: Setting the compass to north

Often I find that when the work gets stuck or we lose our way, it is because the goal is not clear about what the client wants from therapy. This can lead to the therapist guessing or assuming and making interventions from that place which are unlikely to be fruitful and possibly frustrating. This is a good indicator of the need to re set the compass to north. This then makes it clear what your joint work / contract is. It also gives permission for you, the therapist, to go there!

October 6th: Trust emergence

In my therapy room is the sign ‘trust emergence’ to remind me to ‘let go and let god’, as the saying goes… I find the less ‘ego’ or me is identified with DOING the work the better. This could be called a spiritual or transpersonal approach. Whatever the label, opening into space, presence, other power… it’s well worth exploring! I will draw on the work of Gregory Kramer, Brian Thorne and Douglas Harding’s work in this session with live experiments and lots of fun!

November: 3rd: Understanding privilege

A controversial subject but one that we as therapists need to be informed about so we don't use our clients to educate us. I want to offer a space we can freely discuss this subject without fear of being shamed, where we can take risks and be willing to expose unconscious prejudices in the service of being able to deeply empathise with a client’s locus of evaluation rather that through our own frame of reference. 

Subjects on the table are white. straight, cis, male, class - privilege.

Debby Irving, https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/jul/14/middle-class-parents-meritocracy-school-children / http://www.d.umn.edu/~hrallis/professional/presentations/ally_training/het_privilege.htm  / https://attitude.co.uk/article/gay-or-straight-male-privilege-is-something-all-men-must-recognise-they-possess/17282/

Cost: £80

To Book please Email: catherine@creativeconversations.co.uk

Using the sand tray as a therapeutic tool within an integrative approach

Workshop description:

This introductory workshop is aimed at counsellors and psychotherapists interested in using the sand tray within their therapeutic practice.

 Sand tray work :

Clients choose from a range of miniature figures and objects, and arrange them in the sand. The ‘theatre of the sandbox’ provides a controlled space to express and explore emotions and life issues. Once feelings are organised and externalised in sandplay, they can be contemplated from a distance, and then assimilated.– integrating inner and outer worlds. Talking or playing with the therapist, the client can explore relationships, make connections and explore new possibilities.

‘ Sandplay is hands on psychological work. It is a powerful therapeutic technique that facilitates the psyche’s natural capacity for healing. In a “free and protected” space provided by the therapist, a client creates a concrete manifestation of his / her imaginal world using sand, water, and miniature objects’. (C.G.Jung).

Like other forms of image-making, sand tray work provides a means of accessing the client’s inner world, through the imagination; by-passing the rational-logical mind. Different to painting or drawing – it involves using concrete objects which can be moved. It is an expressive and dynamic approach. Symbols are not interpreted by the therapist, the meaning belongs to the client. The therapist’s role is to facilitate the client’s deeper understanding and expression.

The workshop will combine theory, practical demonstration of techniques and experiential work. Participants will have the opportunity to practise in pairs, share, reflect and ask questions, in order to integrate their learning.

Course content will include:

• An introduction to working with the sand tray and theoretical underpinning

• Opportunities to experience working with the sand tray in practice – as ‘client’ and ‘therapist’

• Strategies for working with and exploring the sand tray image

• A guide to questioning techniques to support the work

• Opportunity to reflect on, share and discuss learning and insights

Max group size: 10

The course is open to qualified counsellors / psychotherapists. Trainees will be considered, dependent on experience and if they are in personal therapy.

Trainer biography:

Catherine Bishop works in private practice as an integrative and transpersonal psychotherapeutic counsellor with individuals, couples and children. She offers the use of a variety of arts to explore emotions, dilemmas and creative solutions to problems. Catherine is an experienced teacher, trainer and group facilitator, having worked for many years in the world of education. Her approach to training is interactive and flexible. She aims to combine delivering a core objective with space to be responsive to participants needs.

She completed her core training at the Institute of Psychosynthesis, London, and further training in using the arts with Children and Couples at the Institute for Arts in Therapy and Education and Time2relate. She also provides emotional literacy training in schools and runs therapeutic arts groups for children.

Trainer: Catherine Bishop

Trauma Training for Therapists
Sunday November 4th 2018
10am - 5pm
£70

To Book: therapies@thewilburyclinic.co.uk

• Understand what Trauma, PTSD, Complex PTSD is
• Psychoeducation - Understanding the neurobiology of Trauma and how to incorporate it into the therapy
• Safe Trauma Assessment including Trauma line
• Using and teaching Safety and Stabilisation
• Self care contracting
• Processing trauma
• Preventing Vicarious Trauma

This day will clarify what “Trauma” actually is and how to recognise the signs of PTSD and complex PTSD (and what the difference is).

There will be a thorough explanation of what happens in the brain in trauma responses and the importance of working safely with such clients by keeping them in their ‘window of tolerance’. You will learn how to offer psycho education to clients to help them normalise and validate that responses to trauma are normal reactions to abnormal events AND it is important to acknowledge their destructive potential when the traumatic event is no longer occurring.

We will cover assessment and information gathering and offer a ‘tool box’ of ways to regulate your clients distress levels. You will come away with a clear self care plan to work effectively with clients.

The ‘Trauma line’, will be introduced and experienced. This is a creative way of developing a time line of life events using the symbolism of string, rocks, flowers and night lights.

Vajralila
Traumatolgist PG Dip