Feeling and Body Oriented Depth Psychotherapy
 

Lecture and Intensive Training Group

 

This workshop has now been completed.
Please see below for comments by workshop participants

*********************************

See comments from participants of past workshops:
Irish Intensive 2005 & 2006
Toronto October 2005

Australian Workshop 2003 & 2004

 

Website home page - www.paulvereshack.com

What exactly are the underpinnings of a Feeling and Body Oriented Depth Psychotherapy practice? How do we create
"The Wide Open Field of Permission" that is so necessary for this work? What exactly do therapists do, why and how do they do it?


Dr. Paul Vereshack, B.A, M.D., D.Psych. is a Canadian Depth Therapy practitioner of forty years experience and the author of the book, "The Psychotherapy of The Deepest Self," which is fully available on his web site as, "Help Me - I'm Tired of Feeling Bad."

This kind of work, sometimes referred to as Primal Therapy, is often misunderstood. Paul suggests that before attending the free evening lecture it would be helpful to read his on line book at, www.paulvereshack.com and this is a prerequisite for attending the intensive teaching group mentioned below.

In the free evening lecture during the first hour he will describe his view of the mind/body processes which lie at the heart of this practice. In the second hour he will talk in detail about what exactly he does in helping clients to achieve very deep work on themselves. The third hour will be fully devoted to demonstrations, questions and discussions about what has been put forward.

Following the lecture there will be an eight day Intensive training course. This will be done in a small group, limited to 12 participants. We will work for six hours a day, using each other as subjects to experience first hand the issues connected with this, or any other very deep psychotherapy.

Complete information about Dr. Vereshack and his teaching methods is available on his web site, mentioned above, as is an entire book of instructions, a brief biography of his life and very much more. Please read the Training section of the website for an understanding of how these workshops are conducted.

This course, because we will use ourselves as subjects for demonstrating depth therapy principles, requires that if necessary, each person be prepared to handle in themselves very high levels of psychological tension. Participants must be able to contain, and where they wish, to process powerful feelings. We make every effort to create a safe environment using modern group and depth therapy principles. No one is ever pressured to take part in processing feelings on the mat although it may be suggested. None the less these groups can cause powerful feelings to arise, and anyone attending is expected to understand that this is a teaching program and not a treatment facility. Previous therapy experience as a client is expected, as is an understanding of very deep therapy methods and procedures as set out in Dr. Vereshack's on line book mentioned above.

 

Lecture
Date:

Tuesday April 3rd, 2007

Time: 8:00 PM
Venue:

Deutsch-Amerikanisches Institut Heidelberg
Sofienstrasse 12
69115 Heidelberg, Germany
Fon: +49.(0)6221.60730
Fax: +49.(0)6221.607373
www.dai-heidelberg.de

The Intensive Group
Dates:

Wednesday April 4th running up to and Including
Wednesday April 11th, 2007.
There will be a goodbye dinner on the last evening

Hours: 9:00 AM till Noon and 2:00 PM till 5:00 PM.
Venue To be announced
The lecture and intensive will be given in English.
Cost:

€680
Accommodation and meals are not included in this fee.
Deposit of € 340.00 (non-refundable) is due with your registration.

Final payment is due by Jan 15th 2007.

Payment should be made by bank transfer only.
email Alan Skotnicki alanskotnicki@yahoo.de or
Paul Vereshack emotionalsupport@paulvereshack.com
For details.

Contact:

Alan Skotnicki:
Email: alanskotnicki@yahoo.de

Reinhold W. Rausch:
Email: SQM-RWR@t-online.de
Heidelberg,

Dr. Vereshack may be contacted if you need further help.
Email: emotionalsupport@paulvereshack.com
Phone: Canada 416-606-3117 (office/mobile)

 

 

* * Comments from Participants * *

 

J. H. (Male, Psychiatrist, 25 years of Primal work, including work with one of
Janov’s certified therapists. )

Paul, I am still, some days later, deep within the feelings you ignited within me at your Heidelberg 2007 Group Training.

Your insistence upon our simply staying deeply within the feeling, and or body sensation, and thus allowing them to draw deeper connections forward, in and of themselves, has allowed me to go deeper than I ever have before. You showed us that it is indeed enough to go inside, and stay inside our body and or feeling, without a lot of screaming and other dramatic techniques that I had previously used in my practice. I saw that instead of just feeling and sensing and staying with each process, I had been screaming etc. to actually avoid connecting deeply with each issue. I now understand that techniques are to be avoided because they can be used by both therapist and client as a defense.

It was also important for me to see how you allowed yourself to be used as a surrogate target for people to aim their feelings at. As an initial trigger or starter for people’s rage, and other feelings, being able to scream at you directly was very helpful.

Thank you Paul for your new original and simple approach to feeling therapy, that Janov had made so complicated, and so hidden, it was unavailable to us. I also believe that if Janov’s method is in actively searching for connections that this itself can act as a defense. (By blocking the natural flow from the feeling.)

Previously for instance, I simply raged at my mother, and thought this was the deepest feeling. In fact I learned with your technique that I had taken my mother inside myself, and thus identified with her, and from that inner space directed her rage, not mine, at the little boy within me. This is the mechanism that underlies my hurtful attitude toward myself, and was the deeper issue for me.

The way you broke through defenses using simple words and phrases, is something I have never encountered before, and using it, I have gone deeper within myself than ever.

And, by the way, the use of a separate room to do extra work on our feelings, if we needed to was very helpful. I would otherwise have repressed things that I could bring forward in my own work on myself in those extra times

My work with my own clients has changed, and one of them said recently that they had never gone so deeply inside, and felt so relaxed after sessions as they do now; after my return from your training.

I am very grateful and happy to have been a part of your workshop.



A.S. (Male, second time at one of my workshops)

"It was an interesting workshop, with very
honest people, and powerful feelings.
On the other hand I personally found it somehow tiring,
and for me, not as intense as my first one."


M.B. (Male)


This workshop was a deep experience for me, and I am thankful for having participated.

I felt the people in the group were open, and all did important feeling work.

Paul was a competent and warm therapist.

Nevertheless, I had a serious problem which caused me to leave earlier on the last day: I felt triggered most of the time, and there was of course not enough room and time for me to work through all of these feelings on the mat. So I did most of this work by myself, by writing into my copy-book.

This was greatly frustrating, and I felt less and less part of the group, acting out old feelings in the present context.

In the end I felt there was no solution for me, but to leave, feeling abandoned, full of sadness, resentment and anger.

It seems I was almost the only one who had this problem, so I wonder if this kind of "teaching group" was right for me at my present stage of development, and more generally, if it is right for people who are easily triggered. They might end up like myself.

(Note from Paul: The cautions set out in my announcement for the group, on my website, speak very specifically to this problem. Thank you M. for emphasising those cautions.)


J. Z. (Female, first time participating in a deep feeling oriented group.)

Indeed Paul, your training group in Heidelberg was a very intensive, enlightening experience of deep learning, and for me at last, the end of constantly going around in circles of feeling. Working with you and the group, has given me fresh insight towards my fellow human beings.

I celebrate my good fortune to have had an honest, wise, loving, and caring teacher, and I celebrate myself for having the courage to take part in your seminar.

Daily, I profit from the presence within me of this work that we did, and from your words, both of which help me to deal with any uncomfortable things which arise. I have definitely made jumps forward in my life. I am so happy about this, as you can imagine.

Please sign me up for next year’s group.

Take care Paul, and thank you once again for your support, and for this work.


R. W. R (Male, second time attending my teaching groups.)

Thank you Paul, for modelling in your teaching what inwardness really is. To me, it feels much like coming home to myself.

Your example of being there for me, and for the group, emphatically, and yet undefended as a professional, allowed me to find, and to share my truth.

To do this in the face of others, who walk the same path of taking the risk to be in their weak and vulnerable parts, to do this inversion of the normal defensive thrust to protect ourselves, has enormous impact.

Witnessing each other’s vulnerability, and pain has deeply transformed my relationship with a long-time friend, who was also at this workshop, and this has given us far more understanding, more trust, and more loving presence for each other. Thank you for that!


G.L. (Female, German Primal Therapy Teacher, and Practitioner of 25 years experience.)

For me, the days with Paul were tremendous, because he is a good teacher, a competent and a sensible therapist. Because of this I could work with deep feelings myself, in his presence, and thus I could learn from him.

This experience has renewed my love of my own deep feeling work with others.

I experienced Paul doing and teaching primal work as I myself know it to be.

In a Primal setting it does not matter what role we play, we are all just human beings who have feelings, and when we bring them out on the mat, nothing remains to set us apart from one another.

What I have missed in my world was how you told the beginners in this work that they will need to keep on working with their feelings in their lives.

I would like to work together with you so that people who attend your groups here in Germany can go on working with those of us in Germany who do Primal Therapy.

It is a great idea to build a primal bridge between Canada and Germany.

Thank you Paul for standing up so enthusiastically for this work


C.R. (Female, German Primal Therapist)

This group was a high speed, high impact, wide open field of permission!

Paul, you showed us how to work with stuff between therapist and client that usually destroys the calm of the therapeutic relationship. Your ability to take process in, and to its conclusion, what ever it is, and no matter where it goes, or how hard it is on the therapist, is a very demanding and loving “technique”.

So I learned a lot I can use in my own work on the one hand, and on the other hand I could grope my own way down to hidden aspects of my own history. My decision in this workshop was to go as deeply as the limits would allow, but there were no limits! Fortunately! Thank you!

And thanks to everybody who was around. A group makes a difference. Your being there, your sharing , and your taking part in the group the way you did, made it much more real, and helped me to reach my own depths faster!

This time was so precious to me, not only because of the work we did, but also because of REALLY meeting human beings in their very truth, and for being esteemed in my very truth. This kind of meeting means getting through to each other from the heart.

This is what primal therapy – deep feeling therapy – contributes to the world: a kind of peace and being together, where feelings may be expressed very harshly, but without damaging anything or anybody. Paradoxical? You can’t understand this process if you haven’t lived it!

And in my mind, I still see a little old man (you Paul), standing firm, in a horrible storm of rage, and hate, and "poison".

Love lasts.


V.H. (Male, attending second workshop.)

What a workshop again. For me it was not quite the great, opening up experience that I had last year, when I was triggered by almost anybody else in the group immediately, and went onto the mat at least once every day. Nevertheless, it was very, very intense.

There were more participants this time (ten instead of the six last year), and there were several "elephants in the room”, (unresolved conflicts brought to the group by participants), and sometimes a certain aggressive mood. I grew up in a family where aggression (my aggression at least) was an absolute "no no", not even when expressed with words. I felt the sometimes aggressive atmosphere in the group was a big strain on me. (I suppose it was not accidental that I developed a sore throat during the workshop, and had a headache for some time.)

I sometimes longed to go back to the more peaceful atmosphere of last year's workshop, and yet – I wouldn't want to miss this one either. The intensity, although sometimes breathtaking, was also energizing. I found it a very enriching experience to see how conflicts could be dealt with in a constructive way, by letting everybody involved work with their feelings on the mat, instead of hurling their anger against somebody else.

Direct verbal attacks against each other could not always be prevented instantly, but Paul, in his firm, gentle, empathic manner, was always able to bring everybody back to their own feelings, so that they could express their anger and their pain without again hurting each other. It was great to see how this often made people realize the pain, and the wounds in the person they had attacked. What a huge difference handling things in this way was, compared to most of the everyday conflicts I have experienced in my life, and in particular during my childhood.

My own work was mainly about my fear of conflict that often makes me feel like a coward, and I felt the two or three year old boy in me who had been absolutely helpless in the face of the power, the anger, and the violence of the grown-ups around me. I have learned to shut down very quickly, and become as unobtrusive and invisible as possible. This reflex of course also got triggered in the workshop. It became difficult for me to open up even though during the first days I did get into intense feelings of pain, and cried a couple of times on the mat.

I have already signed up for next year's workshop, although I could do with fewer conflicts. Alas, I have got to take it as it comes. As long as I feel that I need primal therapy for my personal growth, I wouldn't want to miss the intensity of these workshops which – thanks to Paul - always felt safe, in spite of all my childhood fears. The experiencing of other people's work on the mat, aggressive or otherwise is a real gift to me.

P.S. What also helped me a great deal during the workshop was the comfort of physical contact; the touch, the hugs, the tender strokes that I received, and was allowed to give now and then. This was very important to me, and I am grateful for it

 



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