Our capacity to be fully alive is related to our capacity to experience the whole of ourselves in the here and now, body heart mind sexuality soul spirit, and to bring this experience of ourselves, in all its complexity, into our relationships with others. Sometimes, because we are afraid of what we feel, we deaden ourselves. Many of us struggle to feel e.g. anger or sadness, but many of us too are equally afraid to feel our desires and the capacity our bodies hold to feel pleasure, joy, sensuality.
This group offers the opportunity to explore what happens to you and your aliveness when you come into relationship with others. What are the conflicts that arise for you?
Being with others can bring us into sharp awareness of our existential aloneness, our desire for love, acceptance and belonging. Rivalry and envy are some of the uncomfortable issues and feelings that may inevitably arise.
In a boundaried and held space, through feedback from group members and facilitation from the group leader, you will have the chance through increased self awareness to explore your discomforts and difficulties, try out new ways of relating and possibly move into fresh territory. You will have the opportunity to explore the way your early experience of groups, e.g. in your family of origin, influences your assumptions and behaviours with others in the group today, and reflect on how these patterns parallel your relationships outside. This can be a great source of learning as well as an opportunity to find greater freedom from the restriction of habitual patterns.
During the coming year 2006 - 2007 we are offering three opportunities to experience being part of a short term psychotherapy group. Each group will run for one term only according to the dates below. Please state clearly which group you would like to enrol for i.e. Autumn, Spring or Summer. You are free to enrol for more than one group but with the clear understanding that each term will be a new and distinct group experience.
8 Wednesday evenings 7pm - 9.30pm
and one Saturday 10am - 12.30pm; 2pm - 4.30pm
£335 per group
Autumn Group: 4, 11, 18 Oct. '06; 1, 4 (Sat.), 8, 15, 22, 29 November 2006
Spring Group: 17, 24, 31 Jan.; 3 (Sat.), 14, 28 Feb.; 7, 14, 21 March 2007
Summer Group: 25 April; 2, 9, 12 (Sat.), 16, 23 May; 6, 13, 20 June 2007
Facilitator: Liza Waller
Application: After we receive your completed application form (which can be obtained from the office) together with the application fee of £30 (please make cheque payable to Chiron and note that this fee is in addition to the group fee of £335), you will be invited for an assessment interview. Once you have been accepted, you will be asked to register and pay a deposit of £35 to secure a place. The remaining fee of £300 could be paid either in the beginning of each group, or in two instalments of £150 each - one in the beginning and one half way through the group.
Liza Waller is a UKCP registered body psychotherapist who trained at Chiron. For many years she has been involved professionally with people living the mystery of life and death. She is fascinated by groups and the opportunity they present to learn different ways of relating. Over the past fifteen years she has run a variety of groups and retreats on themes relating to aliveness, dying, death and loss, sexuality and spirituality. Last year she co-facilitated a workshop at the Chiron Association for Body Psychotherapists national conference "Desire and Envy among our peers".
| "Don't go outside your house to see the flowers, my friend. Don't bother with that excursion. Inside your body there are flowers. One flower has a thousand petals. That will do for a place to sit. Sitting there you will have a glimpse of beauty, inside the body and out of it before gardens and after gardens." Kabir |