The Anatomy of Emotion: Affect and Affect Regulation Speaker: Tony Buckley

Workshop: The Anatomy of Emotion: Working with Affect and Affect Regulation

Facilitator: Tony Buckley

Date: Saturday 12th October 2024

Time: 9.30am - 3.00pm

Training Type: In Person (face to face)

Venue: Willows Counselling & Training, 11 Prospect Place, Swindon SN1 3LQ

Hosted by: Willows Counselling & Training, Swindon

CPD: 5 Hours

About the Workshop:

This workshop will help therapists to sharpen their understanding, insight and intervention skills when working with a wide range of affect and affect regulation as these present within the therapeutic relationship. We will explore both the theory and practice around meeting client’s emotional distress, including looking at social emotional relating, emotion in memory and skills for regulation of affect. There will also be a focus on practitioners’ emotional self-awareness and distinguishing primary versus secondary emotions and childhood emotions impacting present day experience in their clients.

Other concepts explored will include attachment emotions and the social brain, negative brain bias, stress, implicit beliefs versus explicit feeling narrative and reading emotions through voice, facial expression, and body language. From Darwin through diagnostic disorders to Damasio, we will gain an historic overview contrasting older concepts such as ‘melancholia’ and ‘emotionometry’ to more current paradigms in neuroscience for better understanding and treating mood, emotion or affect conditions ranging from anxiety, bi-polar through to major depressive disorders.

Emotional affect systems such as Jak Panksepp’s will be studied at the mind-body interface linking emotions and action systems for either defence and daily living. Experiential learning will include distinguishing emotion from feeling as different aspects of our biological motivational system for reading and responding to internal/external environments. This stimulates propensity towards activation of approach or withdrawal behaviours supporting homeostasis.

There will be particular focus on more current constructive/predictive emotion theories, (Lisa Feldman Barratt) as well as somatic embodied patterns of emotion. Distinctions will be made between the vehement emotions of trauma and the array of attachment and developmentally adaptive emotions, which can become fixed and looping characterological templates.

This workshop is suitable for counsellors or therapist practitioners, of any modality who are interested in delving deeper into the embodied mechanisms of affect whilst learning some practical interventions for working constructively with their clients. Along with slides and teaching input there will be group discussion, and experiential exercises to take away making use for themselves or within their clinical practice.

About the Speaker:

Tony Buckley, BA is a BACP registered therapist who holds a BA Hons degree in Counselling, a Diploma in Supervision and Certificate of Education and Further Education. Tony has studied Cranio-Sacral Focused Anatomy and is currently studying towards a Masters in Neruoscience at Kings College London.

Tony has accrued over 30 years’ experience in the therapeutic field including activities such as teaching, supervision, private practice, and managing teams of counsellor’s in both a university setting and an adolescent counselling service within the voluntary sector. Former professional roles included seven years spent as manager of the Counselling and Trauma Service for Transport for London (London Underground), which offers a time-limited trauma treatment service, pyscheducation, stress reduction groups and response support following critical incidents.

Tony has been teaching Sensorimotor Psychotherapy internationally for over 12 years, delivering all 3 levels of the method in Ireland, Norway, UK, Netherlands, Finland and Austrailia. In addition to teaching therapists Tony likes to find some time to write and has contributed several articles in the somatic pyschology field and co-written a chapter titled "Healing the Traumatized Organization" in the 2012 Wiley-Blackwell book called International Handbook of Workplace Trauma Support.

Practicalities:

Breaks - There will be one short refreshments break and a lunch break. Free tea & coffee will be available on site, and there are a number of shops and cafes locally that delegates may wish to use during lunch.

Parking - Limited free parking is available on site on a first come first served basis. There are a number of pay as you go car parks locally. The closest is on Prospect Place, 1 minute walk away.

Train/Bus - Willows Training is accessible by local bus routes. The main Swindon bus and rail stations are approx 20 minutes walk away.

Who is this workshop suitable for?

This workshop has been designed as a source of Continued Professional Development (CPD) for Counsellors, Psychotherapists, other mental health professionals, and students undertaking counsellor/psychotherapy training. It may also be helpful for anyone working in a caring, helping or pastoral profession, including Teachers, Teaching Assistants, Youth Workers and Social Workers.

About Willows Counselling and Training Service

Willows is a charitable organisation offering Counselling and Counsellor Training in Swindon, Wiltshire. The service has been running for 30 years and is well established in both knowledge and reputation in the local area and beyond.

Willows offers the full suite of qualifying courses for Counsellors; Levels 2, 3 and Level 4 Diploma. For qualified therapists, they run a postgraduate Level 6 Diploma in Trauma Counselling, as well as an annual CPD programme of one-day Saturday workshops days and an annual training conference.

Host or Publisher Willows Counselling