Workshops

In this workshop we create an intensive community that encourages personal and professional breakthroughs. Using Stephen Gilligan's Self-Relations Psychotherapy model, hypnotherapy, movement, poetry, and other modes of connecting to ourselves and each other, this workshop is designed to nurture and awaken your soul into action. For those experienced with Self-Relations work as well as those exploring it for the first time, this is an inspiring way to do personal work while expanding skills in working with others.

Together we generate safe ritual space in which to explore the technical and personal aspects of Self- Relations and hypnotic work. Through lecture, demonstration, individual and small group exercises, and work in the center of the group, Selene and Dvorah will introduce techniques for self-connection and connection to the field beyond our individual selves. Participants have the opportunity to do personal work as well as assisting others. We enter the "living" relational field that allows therapists and clients to work together in a parallel process linked by experiential/somatic- cognitive conversations for change. You will leave with a sense of how to bring this back to your life and work.

Guiding the Journey:

Facilitating Transformative Experiences

Awakening self-awareness and opening to new perspectives creates profound potential for transformation. Unblocking the unconscious conditioning that has limited us, we can move creatively into our full potential. For therapists and teachers, the art of creating a context in which this can occur is essential. Using the tools of trance, movement, and ritual, and a structured framework for creating sacred space, you will learn to work deeply with students and clients in a contained and safe way. A balance between inner work and interactive experience provide opportunities to deepen your own process while you practice using these tools for yourself and others.

Selene Vega, Ph.D.
(part of the Sacred Centers Immersion program, Sept. 17-26, 2010)

Awakening the Body: Moving into Deep Connection

The process of healing and transformation begins with centering in the body, dropping down beneath our conditioned ways of being, and paying attention to our bodies messages. Developing a deeper awareness of the body is a foundation for our connection with others and with the world around us. Through our exploration of the somatic realm, we can open to new ways of moving in our relationships and in the world.
In this one-day workshop, we will create a safe space for connecting with ourselves and for moving bodies and souls from that deep connection. We will move back and forth from words and images to somatic expression and movement, opening up a more conscious and intuitive presence in our lives and in our work with others.

Through inner work and interactive experience you will:

 Journey into inner terrain, bringing compassion and warmth to parts of yourself that have been pushed aside, hidden, or neglected and provide a safe place for those presences through movement and somatic expression;
 Explore the balance of connection with self and connection with other, finding your center within dyad and group experience;
 Develop and deepen your individual practice for self-connection and preparation for connection with others.

Psychology of the Chakras

Are you ready for an initiatory journey into the sacred centers of yourself? Are you prepared to cross the archetypal rainbow bridge that connects body and spirit, earth and heaven, inner and outer worlds into one indivisible whole?

This program welcomes you to a transformational intensive exploring the psychology of your chakras. By immersing yourself for one whole day in the theme of each center, you will touch the essence of your own shakti energy climbing up the spine.

In this 7-day retreat, you will

Encounter yourself through deep trance journeys
Learn yoga postures, breath, and partner poses for each chakra
Explore the imbalances of your excesses and deficiencies
Engage in ceremonies to reclaim power and acknowledge divinity
Have a wonderful time with your fellow journeyers celebrating with song, dance, laughter, art, and sacred community.

This workshop is like a pilgrimage, something everyone should do at least once in their life. Participants over the past 25 years have described it as life-changing. No experience is necessary, but the willingness to open and change is a must.

Anodea Judith, Ph.D. & Selene Vega, Ph.D.
Stockbridge, MA
July 23-30, 2010 (*CE)
Reg. & Info: Kripalu Center for Yoga & Health, 800-741-7353

Self-Relations Supervision with Stephen Gilligan

For the 8th year, Skyote Mountain hosts a supervision group with Stephen Gilligan. This 3 1/2 day intensive community encourages breakthroughs at both personal and professional levels. Steve will teach Self-relations psychotherapy through lecture, demonstration, small-group exercises and therapy work in the center of the group. Participants may do personal work; or invite clients for a consultation session; or set up a role-playing experience. Therapists and client work with Steve Gilligan supervising, assisting, and/or consulting. Some will work in the center of the circle, others will have the opportunity to work within a trio separately.

After receiving his doctorate in Psychology from Stanford, Stephen became known as one of the premier teachers and practitioners of Ericksonian hypnotherapy. He developed his own approach, self-relations psychotherapy, incorporating ideas from his mentors, Milton Erickson & Gregory Bateson and from aikido, Buddhism, mindbody healing, meditation, and performance arts.

Dr. Gilligan’s many publications include Therapeutic Trances: The Cooperation Principle in Ericksonian Psychotherapy, a classic in the field; Brief therapy (Ed. with J. Zeig), Therapeutic Conversations (Ed. with R. Price); The Courage to Love: Principles and Practices of Self-Relations Psychotherapy, The Legacy of Erickson; and Walking in Two Worlds: The Theory, Practice, and Community of Self-Relations (Ed. with D. Simon). His work is known for its emphasis on reconnecting mindbody processes, embodied relationality, and encouraging and supporting transformational change.
www.StephenGilligan.com

Stephen Gilligan, Ph.D.

Skyote Mountain, Santa Cruz, CA

August 19-22, 2010 (*CE)

Reg. & Info: selene@spiritmoving.com

Inner Ethics:

Examining Counter-transference with Compassion

Ethical issues pertain to longings, feelings, and motivations which resonate at our very core. Our drives toward (and away from) money, sexuality, power, love, truth, inspiration, and oneness are the most powerful forces in our lives.

How can we expect that these drives will not intrude in one way or another into our relationships with clients? This workshop helps participants explore personal countertransference and transference issues that arise in all counseling and healing work.

Explore how self-compassion and self-reflection can help you navigate the deep and often confusing relationship between client and caregiver and help you prevent the harmful consequences of misconduct.

Learn how to enter more fully into truly healing relationships with your clients by avoiding unconscious patterns that can lead to ethical pitfalls.

Designed for teachers, students, or practicing therapists and healers who want to become more conscious in their relationships with clients and to teach a model for practitioners to use in peer and self-supervision.

You will receive information on the differences in ethical issues when working with clients in profound states of consciousness so that you can provide greater safety and guidance to your clients.

This program is based on the book The Ethics of Caring by Kylea Taylor, which provides a unique model for transforming the understanding and practice of ethics in healing relationships.

Creating Sacred Space

Trance and ritual touch our deepest core to awaken self-awareness and open us to the realm of the sacred. Moving our bodies and souls within sacred space brings depth to our connection with ourselves and each other and empowers us to move more fully into the world.

How can we open up to the sacred in our own practice and inner work as well as in our work with others? This workshop provides a basic framework for creating sacred space, a structure to return to again and again, building pathways within ourselves to rely on in times of stress. Working with this recipe for ritual, we will explore the many, varied ingredients that you can use for guiding yourself and others into a deeper experience of soul and spirit. Develop and deepen your individual spiritual practice as you learn how to structure rituals for healing, growth, and celebration.

Opening to our Depths: Self Relations Supervision