A (Hopefully) Wise Old Therapist on On Beginning Professional Practice

Our new MSc in Counselling began a couple of weeks ago, the culmination of a couple years of planning.  So far the course is going really well, with an enthusiastic group of students and energetic, talented new tutor team. However, I've only had bits and pieces of time with them because of travel and being ill last week.  This was their third week, and I'm away in California again, but they are on my mind.

A couple of days ago I got a draft of the input for the session on first sessions, which are first sessions both for their clients and also for them as counsellors.  Here is what I wrote back to my colleague:

Thanks for this. I'm just thinking about what we want to say to them about their psychological contact with the client in all of this and their own anxiety with all the details.  Can we help them balance the need to cover the details with the importance of establishing psychological contact with the client.  As Gendlin used to say: "No contract without contact".  But that's basically impossible for them at this stage, because they haven't mastered the details yet and they are understandably highly anxious. 

As a wise old therapist, I am wanting two things for them somewhere in this process of beginning:  First, that they take a moment right before the session to make some space for themselves to say hello to their anxious parts; second, that they somehow write into their schedule of all the first session things to cover a couple of moments for making genuine contact with their client: Maybe once near the beginning of the session: a short state check and a bit of empathy for the client (and themselves); then maybe later on in the session or at the end, another similar moment. It's like remembering to stop and appreciate the flowers alongside a busy road. Sometimes, it's important to add these little moments of meeting to the big long to-do list that is our only hope of not forgetting something important. 

Cancelled: Emotion-Focused Therapy: Masterclasses

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CANCELLED: Mondays, 9:30-17.00, 13 Nov 2017 – 14 May 2018

University of Strathclyde, Glasgow

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Facilitated by Professor Robert Elliott & Lorna Carrick

The Emotion-Focused Therapy Masterclass Series is open to counsellors and psychotherapists (Diploma level or above) who have completed Level Two or Level Three training in EFT.  If it’s been a while since you did EFT training, it can serve as a refresher course and enable you to catch up on more recent developments in EFT theory, practice and training.

Each day will feature a mix of EFT Practice Check-in (mini supervisions), brief presentations of specialist material on EFT; video or live demonstrations; in-depth supervision of client work; small group skill practice; and group processing. Emphasis will be on putting EFT into practice and examining blocks to effective practice.  Participants are expected to bring client case material to each session, in the form of either session recordings or process notes.  Robert and/or Lorna will facilitate each session.

Sessions can be signed up for either individually or as a four-day package.  All four masterclasses will be day-long Monday sessions, from November 2017 to May 2018, and held in the main city centre campus of the University of Strathclyde. This course allows participants the opportunity to work toward the expert-supervision-of-own-work criterion for EFT-Individual Certification Level A (Completion of Training, 5 hrs) or Level B (Completion of Supervision, 15 hrs) and can also be taken in place of EFT Level 3.

	Topics
13 Nov 2017	EFT Case formulation:  Case formulation is a rapidly developing topic within EFT. This session will focus on  formulation of key emotion processes and tasks for your clients featuring both Five-Dimensional and 14-Step models.  Participants are required to bring client material for case formulation work.
29 Jan 2018	EFT for Trauma:  Research indicates that EFT is a highly effective treatment for post-trauma difficulties, including both single episode traumas and complex trauma.  In this session, an overview of EFT trauma theory and the application of EFT to trauma is provided, emphasising Narrative Retelling, emotional regulation work and Meaning Protest.  The session will feature video or live demonstration, supervision of client work, and small group skill practice.  Bring in material from your trauma clients.
12 March 2018	EFT for Psychological Contact Difficulties:  A recent development for EFT is the incorporation of psychological contact work into EFT, opening up the possibility of using EFT for clients with psychotic, dissociative or autistic processes.  We will focus on the psychological contact task, including videos or live demonstration, supervision of client and small group skill practice.  Bring material from your clients who may dip in and out of psychological contact during sessions; if you don’t work with such clients, bring in material on clients who may be hard to reach in other ways, such as externalising process, silence or emotion dysregulation.
14 May 2018	EFT for Anxiety: There is now an integrated EFT for working with social anxiety and other forms of anxiety difficulty.  In this session I will provide an overview of anxiety difficulties, a review of different person-centred-experiential theories of anxiety difficulties, and the EFT approach to working with anxiety, featuring videos or live demonstration, supervision of client work, and small group skill practice, emphasising anxiety split work and self-soothing.  Bring in material from your anxious clients.

·      Enrolment is set for a minimum of 10 and a maximum of 15.  The balance between supervision and skill practice will depend of number of participants.

·      Course fee: Regular price: Three weeks before each session: Sign up for individual sessions at £95 each or get a discount by registering for the whole series at £350 by 15 Oct 2017.  Late registration (less than 3 weeks before each session): £120.

·      The course could be taken for continuing professional education credit.

Contact: claire.mcconnell@strath.ac.uk or 0141 444 8417 for further information on this training, the facilitators, ways of applying for this course or other APT events