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CPD Credits
4
Event Type
Recorded Event
Location
Your TR Together account
Standard
£60.00
Trainee/NHS
£51.00
The Extraordinary Intelligence of the Unconscious
Working with mind, body and subtle energy systems
With Phil Mollon & Ruthie Smith
The evolution of psychotherapy has been a remarkable journey, Freud's discovery of the unconscious paved the way for a deeper understanding of human behaviour and motivation. Over time, attachment theory expanded our understanding of interpersonal dynamics, illuminating the crucial role of early relationships in shaping mental well-being. Advancements in neurobiology unveiled the intricate interplay between brain structures and psychological processes. Insights into the body-mind connection underscored the significance of trauma and its somatic manifestations, emphasising the need for holistic approaches. Today, psychotherapy embraces a new frontier by incorporating subtle energy systems. This integration acknowledges the energetic dimensions of human experience, bridging ancient wisdom with modern science.
The journey from Freud's initial revelations to the present marks a testament to the field's resilience and adaptability. By integrating psychoanalysis, attachment theory, neurobiology, understanding the body's role in trauma, and now embracing subtle energy systems, psychotherapy continues to evolve, offering a more comprehensive and inclusive approach to working with the complexities of the human experience.
In this engaging workshop, Phil Mollon and Ruthie Smith share their journey of integrating subtle energy fields work within the framework of their traditional psychoanalytic and attachment trainings. They offer ways of incorporating this new approach, affirming its compatibility with established therapeutic methodologies. Notably, Ruthie provides a personal narrative of her transformative experience with energy psychotherapy to work through early infantile trauma inaccessible through other approaches. Ruthie's first hand account serves as a powerful testament to the potential of this approach in catalysing growth and healing.
Join this enlightening workshop to discover how the coupling of subtle energy fields with traditional psychotherapy can create a profound shift for clients, fostering a deeper level of understanding and freedom from repetitions and traumas for clients.
Programme
Introductions
Phil Mollon and Ruthie Smith
The Evolution of the Field of Psychotherapy
Freud stated, our ego is “first and foremost a bodily ego” (Freud, 1923b), and contemporary neurobiology supports the view that to work effectively with trauma we need to include the body in treatment. The ‘body knows’ at the deepest cellular level, and energy psychotherapy gently and efficiently facilitates the free association of the bodymindenergy, revealing its extraordinary wisdom and somatic intelligence. In addition to identifying and exploring psychodynamics in the conventional way, clinicians use energy testing (muscle testing/kinesiology,) which links with the patient’s subtle energy field, to guide the work. Energy methods are self-applied by the patient, which calm the nervous system, regulate affect, and reduce symptoms, hence integrating the fragmentation resulting from trauma, leading to a greater autonomy and freedom from trauma-based patterns of the past. This work can address the deepest patterns of repetition compulsion, including attachment, in-utero, preverbal, developmental, complex, transgenerational and transpersonal trauma.
Phil Mollon and Ruthie Smith
Mapping and Integrating Energy Psychotherapy on to Talk Therapy
Energy psychotherapy techniques facilitate free-association and allow profound insights to occur. Through the bodymindenergy system the wisdom of the unconscious intelligently leads therapist and client to the issues which need our attention. Therapists guide the client to work with energy centres, (neuropeptide-enriched nodal points along the spine which are key nerve centres, like energy junction boxes of the nervous system), and with acupoint meridians, combined with careful use of words to release blocked energy and emotion related to bodily held experiences. The work supports clients not only to allow traumata to pass through the system but also to enter relaxed states of mind, where natural recuperation and recovery can occur. Although transference does inevitably arise, the internal focus of the work means that these elements are less prominent than in traditional psychoanalytic work. The ‘energetic countertransferece’ is, however, a most interesting area to consider and can play an important role in the work. Energy therapy techniques can clear energetically a range of issues including complex trauma and integrating shadow material, PTSD, overcoming developmental blocks, integrating splits and fragments of the psyche leading to a healthier more resilient ego and sense of self.
Q&A
Break
Phil Mollon
Energy Psychotherapy Session Description
Ruthie Smith
A Personal Account of Healing Early Relational Trauma
In this session Ruthie will describe her personal experience of working energetically with infant trauma related to her experience with her mother. Energy processes facilitated her in bringing forth the material that needed to be worked through and processed, and through this in- depth work, the patterns of frozen terror of pre-verbal experience were simultaneously contained and released. Ruthie will explain how the impact of this unconscious embodied trauma had adversely affected her throughout her life, and the significant difference this work has made through identifying it, experiencing it and releasing it.
Reflections and Q&A
Phil Mollon
Group Experiential
In this experiential Phil will guide you through a simple and gentle energy practice which will soothe your nervous system allowing for clear thinking and calm.
Feedback with Ruthie and Phil
Breakout in small groups
Group Discussion
Meditation to End
Phil Mollon
Phil Mollon is a psychoanalyst, energy psychotherapist, and clinical psychologist. He worked full time in NHS mental health services for 37 years, until retiring to private practice in 2014. He is the author of 13 books on psychotherapy, including The Fragile Self: The Structure of Narcissistic Disturbance (1993); Releasing the Self: The Healing Legacy of Heinz Kohut (2002); and Psychoanalytic Energy Psychotherapy (2008). For the last 25 years, he has been immersed in developing the field of energy psychotherapy, exploring the higher dimensional physics at the interface of the mind, body, and subtle energy system. He is a past president of the international Association for Comprehensive Energy Psychology (ACEP).
Ruthie Smith
Ruthie Smith is an attachment-based psychoanalytic psychotherapist (The Bowlby Centre) and energy psychotherapist with 35 years’ clinical experience in private practice and 10 years as a principal psychotherapist and supervisor in the NHS. She has taught extensively on psychotherapy trainings and speaks at CPD conferences on a variety of subjects. After training in energy psychology and subtle energy, Ruthie founded The Flame Centre in London in 2009, specializing in trauma work and teaching and supervising energy psychotherapy. Along with Phil Mollon she is director of a one-year clinical course starting in January 2024, “Energy Psychotherapy – a Post Qualification Clinical Training”, hosted by Essential Therapy Training (formerly Confer). Her book “Energy, Soul-Connecting and Awakening Consciousness: Psychotherapy in a New Paradigm” outlines various energy methods providing clinical examples and is contextualised within the multi-disciplinary worlds of analytic psychotherapy, working with trauma, aspects of contemporary science and energy, against a backdrop of evolving consciousness (Karnac /Phoenix January 2024).
- Psychotherapists
- Couple and Family Psychotherapists
- Psychoanalysts
- Psychologists
- Clinical Psychologists
- Psychiatrists
- GPs
- Counsellors
- Social workers
- Teachers/Educators
The Evolution of the Field of Psychotherapy
- Recognize how energy psychotherapy facilitates the free association of the body-mind-energy and its role in revealing somatic intelligence and wisdom.
- Understand how patients can self-apply energy methods to calm the nervous system, regulate emotions, and reduce trauma-related symptoms.
- Recognize the potential of energy psychotherapy in integrating fragmented aspects resulting from trauma, leading to greater autonomy and freedom from trauma-based patterns.
Mapping and Integrating Energy Psychotherapy on to Talk Therapy
- Gain a comprehensive understanding of how the bodymindenergy system can facilitate free association and lead to profound insights in therapy.
- Explore the use of energy centers and acupoint meridians as key components of this approach and how they contribute to the release of blocked energy and emotions related to bodily-held experiences.
- Compare and contrast the role of transference and counter transference in energy psychotherapy with that in traditional psychoanalytic approaches, highlighting the unique aspects of this method.
Standard Registration: £60.00
Trainee, NHS staff and Third Sector: £51.00
Group Rates (for 4 or more): Contact marketing@trtogether.com for customised pricing.
Trainee discount: To qualify for this offer you need to be taking a course which provides core practitioner training in counselling or psychotherapy that is at least 1 year full time or two years part time and recognised by the BACP or UKCP. TR Together reserve the right to ask to see evidence of training being undertaken.
Alumni: If you are a TR Alumni (TRAPC member) please email anitabruz@tavistockrelationships.org for a discount code to add at checkout
Your CPD certificate will be available to download from your TR Together account within 48 hours of purchase.