A weekend workshop (held over two mornings) to help therapists understand and regulate the many manifestations of our biological fear system.
Facilitator: Michael Guilding
Venue: 17 Wetherby Road, York, YO26 5BS
Dates:
Saturday 16 & Sunday 17 November 2024
Saturday 1 & Sunday 2 February 2025
Saturday 14 & Sunday 15 June 2025
Time: 10.00am to 13.00pm each day
Cost: £80
When we work with trauma, we are working with fear. Most of the people we work with have some history of trauma. Their autonomic nervous systems are highly attuned to threat and prone to fear responses such as alarm, anger, withdrawal or collapse.
Fear is not just “feeling afraid”. It has many faces. When we work with our clients, our own fear system responses are activated. These are powerful biological processes that can shut down our thinking capacity and our ability to engage socially and render us ineffectual as therapists.
When our own fear system activates in the counselling room, we can experience tension, anxiety, fright, loss of our ability to think clearly, irritation, frustration, feelings of uselessness and hopelessness or extreme exhaustion. This is the opposite of the experience of energy, vitality and absorbed interest that we have when fear is regulated and we, and our clients, become exploratory rather than defensive.
The aim of this workshop is to clearly explain the biological processes of the fear system that underpin so many of the emotions we are dealing with in our work as therapists and give us an understanding at an experiential level of the physical, emotional and mental impact these processes have on us.
The workshop also aims to enhance our ability to regulate these responses in order to bring ourselves and our clients to a place of safety – the “window of tolerance” within which therapeutic work becomes possible.
Each weekend workshop will be limited to a maximum of 7 participants and will be facilitated in a manner which prioritises the creation of a safe space for exploration and learning. For many previous participants this workshop has transformed their understanding of trauma and the vital need for self-care.
To book, or to enquire about future dates for this workshop, please contact michael.guilding@gmail.com
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