A Short Course in Group Facilitation

led by
Nick Totton


Leeds and Derbyshire, March-June 2002
Cost: £400 

Grace and Chaos

These seem to me good names for qualities which I identify as both crucial to 
good groupwork, although at opposite poles to each other. Grace - the 
gracefulness of a well-functioning group or of good group facilitation, 
effortless and yielding to reality. And also 'Amazing Grace' - a 
transpersonal gift that sometimes emerges from deep quiet listening or from 
the storms of Chaos. 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'.

Groups often need to go down into Chaos, as part of their alchemical journey; 
and group leaders need the courage and grace to allow chaos to happen, and to 
model openness to chaos for the rest of the group. Grace and Chaos, Chaos and 
Grace: in a successful, living group process the two dance together, mirror 
each other, marry each other, become each other.

A Course in Group Facilitation

I hope in this course to combine theory and experiential learning in a 
helpful way. The two models we will be exploring are the process model, which 
looks at how each participant expresses an aspect of the 'group field', and 
how this can work in a stuck or a creative way; and the psychodynamic model, 
which focuses on the unconscious fantasies of individuals and of the whole 
group, and ways in which we project our own material onto the group and other 
group members. I believe these two models can usefully be combined.

However, without appropriate experience these are just abstract ideas; and 
our first priority will be to be a group, and only then to think about what a 
group is like. We will thus be combining two possible group functions - 
therapy and work (i.e. learning); and finding out how the two support or 
interfere with each other.

As well as being a training, the group will provide many opportunities to 
work on your own issues regarding self and relationship.

Nick Totton

I have been facilitating groups of many kinds for about twenty years, ranging 
from three year training courses to half-day experiential workshops and 
practical 'working groups'. I have also attended many groups as a 
participant, including two-week conflict resolution processes of several 
hundred people. I have often been asked whether I would share my 
understanding of group facilitation, and this course is the result.

I trained as a Reichian bodywork therapist, and have since done an MA in 
Psychoanalytic Studies; attended a number of workshops in Process Oriented 
Psychology and other approaches; and developed my own integrative approach to 
psychotherapy. I have co-led several therapist trainings, and written four 
books (as well as several volumes of poetry). I am in the Burley Group of the 
Independent Practitioners Network, and the European Association for Body 
Psychotherapy.  I have a website at http://www.erthworks.co.uk.

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. This applies to 
groups just as it does to individuals. The project of every group is to 
connect with its own wisdom and healing; and this involves a journey through 
risk and danger to safety and trust.

Practical Details

The course consists of four weekends: three non-residential in Leeds, and one 
residential at Unstone Grange, near Dronfield, in Derbyshire. The residential 
weekend will also be open for people to attend on its own, so that course 
participants will have the experience of being in a group together with other 
people, and the opportunity to process this on the final weekend of the 
course.

The dates are  as follows:

        March 9-10 Leeds
        April 20-21 Leeds
        May 10 (eve)-12 Unstone Grange
        June 8-9 Leeds

The course will cost £400 including the residential. After an initial deposit 
of £50, the remainder can be paid by instalments on each weekend, on the 
understanding that participants have to pay for the whole course even if for 
some reason they have to miss part of it.

Diploma

A diploma will be given to everyone who, in the view of all participants, 
successfully completes the course. Any disagreements about this will become 
part of the group process.

To apply

Contact Nick Totton, 86 Burley Wood Crescent, Leeds LS4 2QL, 0845 345 8597 
(local rate), [log in to unmask] If we have never met,  a mutual interview 
will be desirable. A deposit of £50 secures  a place.

Nick Totton
Erthworks
[log in to unmask]
http://www.erthworks.co.uk