Deepening Empathy with Embodied Engagement in Therapy

Trainer
Fiona Peacock, is a BACP Senior Accredited Counsellor/Psychotherapist, Certified Theraplay® Therapist, Supervisor and Trainer. Theraplay® Trainer, Practitioner and Supervisor.

She runs a private practice as well as being co-lead of the Child and Adolescent Psychotherapeutic Counselling programme at the Faculty of Education, University of Cambridge. She was a co-director Theraplay UK and delivers Theraplay training in the UK.

She continues to make her doctoral research freely available through a monthly blog post with the intention of supporting practitioners, Theraplay or otherwise, in working with children and families who are managing the ongoing impact where children are working through the relational and developmental trauma that is their survival mechanism in the face of that which has been done to them https://youdoknow.substack.com. Fiona remains in awe of the resilience and humanity of these children and families. Her post-doctoral research is ongoing and seeking to operationalise our m/other tongue, or work out how we can be therapists, researchers, managers and therapist educators using our Tacit Maternal Knowing as our primary reference point.

Description of course
This day of exploration takes seriously the knowledge that mothers bring to understanding the needs of their infants. Such knowledge is non-verbal, embodied and pre-cognitive. Even when we apply attachment theory to our work, this inside experience of attachment formation and the knowledge that grows from it is often left out of our professional repertoire because it is neither measurable nor cognitive.

This day grows from the doctoral and post-doctoral research undertaken by Fiona in which she used the term Tacit Maternal Knowing to capture this body based knowledge and make it available to all clinicians, whatever gender or parental status, who want to understand the relational aspects of their work in as much depth and nuance as understanding the neuroscientific.

Just as the body keeps the score, the body also tells us the story. As social beings, Fiona makes the argument that for lasting and meaningful change, people need their narrative, storytelling and personal truths to be heard (certainly alongside, maybe more so, than science based truths). This day will help you tune into those personal story truths that come into your therapy room via the bodies of the people you are working with.

Bring your curiosity. Wear clothes that are comfortable to move in. If possible, bring video of your work. Where we have permission to share video in the whole group we will use this to explore relational embodied empathy in clinical practice. Where participants do not have permission to share video, they will be invited to use the material personally but share the experiences of engaging with the material with others on the course.

Objectives and Outcomes from the course

• Be able to reflect on how and where embodied knowledge forms a relationship with your usual clinical theory and method, as well as understanding why working at embodied relational empathy is essential when we are working with people who experience the impact of relational and developmental trauma
• Explore, in a safe space, with likeminded colleagues, the method of ‘inhabiting the body space’ of the people you are working with as a vehicle for deepening empathy
• Start of process of enabling your body to tell the story brought by the people you are working with, and deepening your capacity to use your body as a co-regulatory device to hold the people you work with at the edge of their window of tolerance, this supporting growth in challenge

Who should attend
This training is closely linked the Theraplay® practice but is suitable for any clinician who works in a relational manner with adults, children or families.

Pre-requisite
There are no pre-requisites for this course.

Additional Info
With full attendance you will be issued a certificate of attendance.

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