TRANSPERSONAL PSYCHOTHERAPY AND COUNSELLING
Open Learning Course
Your Course Leaders:
Zelda Hall MA MSc. is a psychotherapist in private practice. She was born in Northern Ireland and has lived in the Netherlands since the 1980s. Zelda has been working with groups and individuals for over thirty years. A main influence in her approach is the work of Arnold Mindell (Process Oriented Psychology) and she was chair of the Association for Process Oriented Psychology in the Netherlands for seven years. She also has a background in Body Oriented Therapy.
Zelda gained her MSc. in Consciousness, Spirituality and Transpersonal Psychology with the Alef Trust. Her dissertation was on the significance of childhood dreams for psychospiritual development. Her work on dreams and body symptoms has been published in both Dutch and in English. Zelda has lectured and led workshops in the UK, the Netherlands, Ireland, the US and New Zealand. She is a tutor in therapist training programmes in the Netherlands. Her interests lie in the exploration of the role of the body and of physical symptoms in spirituality. She is passionate about the emergence and integration of the Deep Feminine and the implications that this has for our planet.
Paul Maiteny is a psychotherapist (in private practice), an ecologist and anthropologist. He is a steering committee member of the transpersonal faculty of the UKCP. With 30 years’ experience in ecological education and research, he has been publishing on what is now known as ecopsychology since the 1990s, focusing on its psychospiritual and cultural dimensions.
Paul has held research and teaching posts at Oxford and Open Universities, and UCL. Research interests include psycho-spiritual and socio-cultural causes and consequences of ecological problems, the possible evolution of sustainability, human evolution in transpersonal (andeco-systemic) context, and clues to the latter within spiritual-religious texts, scriptures and myths. He has always been inspired by the invisible web of relationships between beings that constitute the eco-system.
Course Overview:
In this course we explore transpersonal approaches in therapy, including what distinguishes them from non-transpersonal approaches. The module therefore engages with the extent to which both experience and outlook are necessary to defining the aim of psychotherapy as transpersonally orientated or otherwise.
Approaches to all psychotherapy involve both experience and frameworks for interpreting and making meaningful sense of that experience. As such, it is not solely the type of experience that defines an approach as spiritually/transpersonally orientated. Hence, depending on perspective, the transpersonal, ‘bigger than personal’, dimension can be seen as a ‘resource’ for serving individualistic and egocentric purposes. This is, however, akin to the purposes of non-transpersonal psychotherapies. The transpersonal application of psychotherapy, on the other hand, focuses on discerning one’s place and purpose in the ‘bigger than personal’, in service to it. It can be seen as a way of exploring or discovering one’s ‘Calling’, of discerning the sense we have of our place and purpose, in our personal bodies, and in a bigger trans-personal context. As such, it offers the possibility of discovering our wholeness and interconnectedness in a way that contributes to the conscious evolution of the human species and planet Earth.
It can be seen as a contemporary equivalent of opportunities that have (and still are) offered in all spiritual-religious traditions. Flavours and influences of diverse traditions can be found within it whilst it remains neutral with respect to any of them in particular.
Early pioneers of transpersonal counselling and psychotherapy include Carl Jung (although he did not use the term) and Roberto Assagioli. More recent developments include the Process Oriented Psychology approach of Arnold and Amy Mindell. Yet other approaches are based on techniques such as Holotropic Breathing and binaural beats. There has also been a revival into the research of the use of psychedelics such as psilocybin in a therapeutic setting; and there is an expansion in the use of what is called ‘plant medicine’ (such as ayahuasca) to explore different dimensions of consciousness. As with other types of experience, experience stimulated by such techniques and substances can be understood and applied to egocentric as well as transpersonal purposes, depending on outlook and priorities of the experiencer.
This option course will also look at how therapeutic approaches to transpersonal self-exploration incorporate the need for grounding in psycho-emotional understanding of the person as a foundation for further spiritual deepening in a way that helps guard against ‘spiritual bypassing’. This is a term used to describe ways in which spiritual ideas and practices can be, often unconsciously, used as a way of avoiding looking at and processing emotional issues, often generated early in life. Approaches to contemporary spirituality can have a tendency to neglect this dimension of spiritual work, and how important it was considered in many of the older traditions. However, it is clearly important to the process of truly grounding ourselves in our body (physical and emotional), and in our connection with and dependence on the planetary body.
In this course you’ll get an opportunity to:
Entry requirements
There are no formal entry requirements to join this course. Come and study purely for personal interest and enrichment … and get the same level access as our postgraduate students who will be studying alongside you!
Enrolment information
Length of study: 10 weeks.
Before each course begins you will be provided with a Course Outline which will list the reading materials, time-lines, and any activities required as part of the course. This course features 2 discussion forums, experiential activities and several live webinars.
Fee: £400.00
In addition to extensive course materials you’ll receive 1-to-1 tuition in our unique collaborative learning environment.
Start date: February 2020
This course runs for 10 weeks and starts in February of each year. You can study at your own pace and partake in the webinars and forums as much as you like.
Enrolment/Information Request
If you would like to enrol, or request more information on our ‘Transpersonal Psychotherapy & Counselling’ course then simply complete the form below and a member of our team will contact you. We offer a unique transformational learning experience and will be here to guide you through every step of your journey with Alef Trust.
