About the Course
Our bodies are shaped by our experience, and it is how we come to know ourselves, and the world. The practice of Body Psychotherapy offers a route to support us in opening by addressing our embodiment directly. The therapeutic relationship is an embodied relational communication and the more we learn to make more use of our felt experience, the deeper our therapeutic contact can be.
This post-qualification certificate course offers you the chance to gain knowledge of the body’s place in psychotherapy and to deepen your embodiment experience in a supportive and nourishing environment. This year-long course will offer an opportunity to integrate some of what Body Psychotherapy has to offer with practices that can inform and extend our work with clients.
This will be an in-person experiential space where we will focus on practising skills and personal embodied development work.
Course Content
This certificate course will cover:
1. Working with breathing and grounding.
The breath is both voluntary and involuntary. Building an awareness of our own and others’ breathing patterns provides us with another way of supporting and working with emotions. Developing reliable grounding capacities for ourselves that are rooted in an understanding of the Social Engagement System deepens therapeutic contact.
2. Focusing on embodied resonance and the transference matrix
Through learning to trust what our bodies are telling us by paying attention to its subtle messages, we will develop an understanding of sensation and feelings. From this awareness, a language of embodiment starts to emerge.
3. Looking at energetic patterns in the body and how to work with them
Here we will use traditional Body in Psychotherapy theories on character and segments to develop our energetic understanding. We will include getting to understanding our relationship to charge and aliveness.
4. Embodied power relations and vulnerabilities as we work
Here we will be focusing on embodied difference and building our capacity to be with the challenging dynamics that emerge when looking at embodiment and how we other.
5. The nature of touch in Body Psychotherapy
Here we will explore our relationship to touch, how to work with embodiment and the contact boundary.
6. Clinical issues and supervision from an embodied perspective
Including working clinically with our inner critic and supporting the “self-care system” of both client and therapist.
Assessment
There will be an ongoing learning reflection, submitted a week after each teaching day.
There will be an embodied reflective piece submitted towards the end of the course.
There will be readings and resources available online via Moodle for each day.
Course Leader(s)
Anne Marie Keary: A Relational Body Psychotherapist (Chiron Centre for Body Psychotherapy), she has worked at The Minster Centre since 2010. Anne Marie is currently a tutor on the Body and Intersectionality in Psychotherapy module and Joint course lead of the second year of training. She is also a certified Diamond Approach teacher. Anne Marie has a special interest in working with issues around disability and childhood sexual abuse and facilitates workshops in these areas. She comes from a teaching background and also works in private practice in Old Street.
Kimcha Rajkumar: An Embodied Relational Psychotherapist (MA from The Minster Centre & Advanced Diploma in Embodied Relational Therapy), she is a tutor on the Body and Intersectionality in Psychotherapy module at The Minster Centre. Kimcha has a special interest in working with issues around identity and belonging, creativity, disability and illness. Previously a sculptor and jeweller she works in private practice with individuals and relationships in St Albans and London.
Hear more from Anne Marie about her approach to the Body in Psychotherapy:
Course Dates and Times
- Friday 8 November 2024;
- Friday 6 December 2024;
- Friday 10 January 2025;
- Friday 7 and Saturday 8 February 2025;
- Friday 7 March 2025;
- Friday 4 April 2025;
- Friday 9 May 2025;
- Friday 27 and Saturday 28 June 2025.
10am-5pm 10 days x 6 hours training. Total 60 hours.
Course Length
Total 60 hours over one year
Who Is It For
This certificate course is suitable for counsellors who want to gain understanding of how to incorporate working with the body in their therapy practise. It is also suitable to Minster graduates who want to consolidate and expand their learning after completing the 2nd year Body and Psychotherapy module. It is open to practicing psychotherapists, counsellors and finalist students from the Minster Centre, and other institutions.
There will be an application form and an introductory meeting with the course facilitators before the course starts.
Entry Requirements
This course is open to practicing psychotherapists, counsellors and finalist students from the Minster Centre, and other institutions.
Accredited Prior Experience and Learning (APEL)
We do not offer an APEL option for this programme.
Qualifications
Students who successfully complete the course will be awarded a Certificate in Body Psychotherapy: Developing Embodied Relational Resonance
Career Prospects
Alumni of The Minster Centre can be found working successfully all over the UK and abroad. As well as private practice, they often work with a variety of client groups in the NHS; in schools, colleges and universities; organisations such as MIND and other charitable foundations; and as tutors in other training organisations.
Fees
£1850 (Minster members £1750)
Venue
The Minster Centre is 5 minutes’ walk from Queens Park Tube (Bakerloo line) and Rail Overground Station and 10-15 minutes’ walk from Brondesbury Park Station.
How to Apply
You apply directly to The Minster Centre via the online application form below. Please note: we operate a rolling admission process. EARLY APPLICATION IS RECOMMENDED.
Please ensure each section is fully completed in order for your application to be considered for this course. If you have any further questions please see our FAQs page or email us on [email protected].
Applicants are offered an individual interview with a senior staff member in order to assess suitability for training. The interview fee is £50.
We particularly welcome applications from people from ethnic minority backgrounds and people with disabilities, as they are currently under-represented at the Minster Centre and in the psychotherapy profession.
