ERThworks
Autumn 2001-Spring 2002
Embodied-Relational Therapy workshops
with
Nick Totton

Inner Critics, Inner Allies
A weekend workshop in Leeds
November 3/4    £80

Whenever we move into new areas of experience, and start to stretch the 
boundaries of our usual self, we become aware of the negative messages inside 
us that keep us in line and limit our  self-expression. We can usefully think 
in terms of 'sub-personalities', virus-like entities whose job is to attack 
and undermine our sense of self-worth by any means possible. Originally, 
though, these sub-personalities usually had a protective and constructive 
role. This workshop will explore ways of  communicating with our internal 
critics so as to restore their positive function and enable our free 
development; and also ways of contacting loving and creative internal 
energies.

Introduction to Body Psychotherapy
A weekend workshop in Leeds   
November  24/5    £80

Body psychotherapy rounds out and balances the verbal emphasis of 
conventional therapy and counselling work; it reminds us that the head is 
part of a body, and that the embodied nature of our existence is crucial to 
both our difficulties and our possibilities. It also enriches bodywork 
practices such as massage, shiatsu, or acupuncture, by stressing the role of 
the therapeutic relationship and the feelings it brings up.
On this weekend we will be exploring several ways of thinking and feeling 
through the body, both with and without the use of touch.
 
Introduction to Embodied-Relational Therapy
A weekend workshop in Leeds
Feb 16/17           £80    

A chance to explore the ideas and techniques of ERT (see the description 
which follows). The workshop offers both valuable personal work, and skills 
and viewpoints which you can take back into your own practice and your own 
life. It will also be an excellent 'taster' for anyone interested in the one 
year course described below.

Grace and Chaos
A residential weekend at Unstone Grange, near Sheffield        £120
May 8 (eve) to May 10 (late afternoon)
A group process workshop, where we have an opportunity to explore our own 
issues around self and relationship in the context of a 'group field'. Joanna 
Macy describes what she calls group synergy: 'It  is like grace, because it 
brings an increase of power beyond one's own  capacity as a separate  
entity'. To reach synergy, a group very often has to pass through chaos and 
back again.
For some participants on this workshop, it will be part of a four weekend 
group facilitation course with the same name; contact me if you want details 
of this.

The Third One Year Training in Embodied-Relational Therapy
Eight weekends in Leeds and a five day residential
Starting April 2002       £1100 (payable in instalments)
This course offers a solid grounding in the principles and practice of 
Embodied-Relational Therapy, and will enable people with sufficient basic 
therapeutic skills to use ERT confidently with clients. Probably most 
participants will have completed a previous training in psychotherapy, 
counselling, or some relationship-based form of healing work; the course will 
offer a second training which you should be able to integrate into your 
practice. I will also welcome people without a previous qualification, but 
with a good deal of experience of therapy and/or growth work. If you complete 
the course successfully you will receive a diploma.
Contact me for the full information leaflet. Unless we have already worked 
together you will need to come for an interview. Combining this with 
attending one of the weekend workshops would be an excellent way to get to 
know me and my style of work.

Bookings and information
To book, or for more information (a separate leaflet is available about each 
course), contact me at 86 Burley Wood Crescent, Leeds LS4 2QL, 0113 278  
0230. My email address is [log in to unmask] A deposit of £40 secures a 
place. Some reductions are possible.

What is Embodied-Relational Therapy?
As human beings, we are integrated bodymindspirit; 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 often 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 supportive and non-invasive, it is 
possible to disentangle our doubleness and allow our process to unfold - 
which is what has been trying to happen  all along.
The fundamental assumption of Embodied-Relational Therapy is that we all do 
the best we possibly can - the best that we know so far. Each individual has 
come up with a brilliant solution to the conditions in which they have found 
themselves - the optimum style of relating, the optimum balance between body 
and spirit. Equally, each person is seeking, consciously or unconsciously, to 
change their behavioural style in accordance with current conditions - which 
may be very different from the conditions in which we grew up. Whatever 
appears in a person's life as a problem, a symptom, a conflict, can also be 
understood as an incomplete attempt to change and grow. So the goal is to use 
the therapeutic relationship as a space in which these issues can unfold, 
unwind and reach their natural fullness.

Nick Totton
I have been working as a therapist, trainer and workshop leader for about 
twenty years now, having trained originally as a Reichian bodywork therapist. 
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. With Em Edmondson I 
co-wrote Reichian Growth Work, which has been translated into Spanish and 
Dutch. More recently, I have published The Water in the Glass: Body and Mind 
in Psychoanalysis (Rebus Press), Psychotherapy and Politics (Sage), and 
Character and Personality Types (Open University Press). I am part of the 
Burley Group of the Independent Practitioners Network, and a member of the 
European Association for Body Psychotherapy.  I have a website at 
http://www.erthworks.co.uk.

Nick Totton
Erthworks
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http://www.erthworks.co.uk