Course Brief

The enneagram is a very old, fourth century tool that started among the Christian desert fathers and moved to the Muslim sufis, then Jewish communities, and then found its way back to the Christian fold and secular society in the 1980s. An illustrious history!

This is not another personality trait system. It moves deeper and teaches us the energy flow from which traits emanate. It’s also not the popular DISC system which is about a behaviour response system or the Myers Briggs type indicator. It’s much more.

This is probably the first enneagram workshop that’s targeted at the counselling arena. It’s asking the question, “How will this self-understanding of myself and the ability to read my client accurately be useful to the counselling process and achieve desired goals?” Many a time, this is missing in the Counsellor-Counsellee encounter. We can’t seem to understand the client or where he is coming from. Enneagrams provide this missing piece.

Come learn the 9 interrelated faces of the soul and see how it relates to the problems encountered within the client-therapist relationship. This course is introductory in nature and does not assume prior knowledge, only a learning mind and heart.

Course Outline

SEGMENT 1
Contextualise individual one on one use, not for group use, but with clients and you as Counsellor

SEGMENT 2
Enneagram Personality Test
Nine Personality Overview
Types 1 to 4: Reformer- Perfectionist, Helper-Giver, Achiever-Performer, Individualist-Romantic

SEGMENT 3
Types 5-8: Investigator-Observer, Loyalist-Skeptic, Enthusiast-Epicure, Challenger-Protector

SEGMENT 4
Type 9: Peacemaker-Mediator
Identify True Self vs False Self
Wings & Video

Course Brief

We hear it so often nowadays. The much maligned griping about other people and events takes on the role of poison. We seem to destroy reputations, people and what they stand for, with a constant repetitive ammunition of toxicity. Why? Because we are disconnected - from others and principally from ourselves. Society has devolved into the individual rather than the family being the nucleus unit. The individual is king. The individual has grown up in divorced families and has not had the attachment to caring adults in formative years. He or she has grown within limited spaces without the warmth of community, without acceptance and love. Join us then for two hours of discussion, including a question and answer segment on Toxicity. Andrew, Ian and Charlie as counsellors, will bring their informed and heartfelt responses to this burning issue. How do we respond to toxic people? They are everywhere. Come and be enlightened in a brief 2 hour session. Topics covered include: What are societal tribes and why have they become toxic? How has the feeling of  ‘disconnect’  from family and groupings of friends left one with an affect of active alienation? Why do workplaces because of over-identification with efficiency, become heartless? Where do you stand in all of this? The ground we stand on is being changed. How do you not lose your voice and vitality?

Course Meeting Dates

This ZOOM course is comprised of two segments: Segment 1 (Day 1 meeting 25 June 2020) & Segment 2 (Days 2-3 meeting 15-16 October).

A Course Brief

The stories people tell themselves and others about traumatic events do affect how they live their present and future lives. While the actual events and their effects can be helpfully explored, a narrative approach also seeks to bring forth and richly describe people’s responses to traumas. Often these responses have been, and still may be, of value to the person. Typically, these response stories are undeveloped or completely invisible.

In bringing together therapeutic skills that focus on story, body, affect and power, this workshop will give participants many practical methods and conversational approaches to assist people in moving beyond trauma. Keeping this in mind, we will consider four therapeutic dimensions:

Storied:

• Identify and name resistance to trauma events: thoughts, feelings or actions taken that reduced the negative effects at the time and/or later

• Assist people in telling unsaid stories: noticing details, asking helpful questions, and bringing forth a valued sense of self in spite of the effects of trauma

Embodied:

• Befriending bodied distress and becoming familiar with beneficial bodied sensations

Affect:

• Using mindfulness for strong adverse emotions and attending to and increasing desirable emotions

Power:

• Identifying and unpacking the social contexts and relations of power in traumatic incidents

We will also think about how we might bring these constructive responses to trauma, the actual incident/s, and the effects of trauma, into a fuller storied life.

This practical and interactive workshop will explore the importance of asking different kinds of questions while creating a felt-sense of compassion. Participants will be introduced to a variety of ways of working with people including some mindfulness and somatic awareness skills as complementary to narrative question-asking. Brief and extended examples from participant’s clinical work will also help illustrate narrative approaches.