Counselling & Psychotherapy
The practice of existential counselling and psychotherapy is grounded in three thousand years of Western philosophy, involving itself with the everyday concerns of human existence. The focus is on the client's experience of their world rather than a reliance on external theories or specific techniques.
The relationship between practitioner and client is paramount. It is where two humans encounter each other and enter into a dialogue that allows exploration and challenge of the client's worldview with regard to their values, beliefs and emotional attitude about life. Simultaneously, this exploration allows for the physical, social, private and spiritual dimensions to be brought into focus.
All courses and workshops will integrate the philosophy of existentialism into a practical context.
* You can receive an Early Bird discount by paying 3 weeks prior to course commencement
Sydney Workshops 2010 (Location Map)
- Depression or Meaninglessness - Part 1
- Quest for Hope & Happiness
- Addiction – is it a label or a choice?
- The existential certainty – living with death and dying
- Group Leadership
- Existential Sex - Part 1
- Existential Sex - Part 2
- Foundations of Existential Theory & Practice
- Supervision Training - Part 1
- Supervision Training - Part 2
- How to be a group supervisor
- Advanced Existential Theory & Practice
- An Existential Approach to Trauma
- An Introduction to Logotherapy
- Time-Limited (Brief) Existential Therapy
- Understanding the Worldview - the impact of personal ideas, beliefs & interpretations
Melbourne Workshops 2010 (Location Map)
Brisbane Workshops 2010 (Location Map)
2009 PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT WORKSHOPS
Sydney Workshops 2010
Depression or Meaninglessness - an existential perspective on working with Depression
1-day workshop (Syd)
Friday 12 Feb 2010
PD Points: 6
Depression or despair is an emotional state embracing an intense loss of meaning. For some people it may feel like a life-long state while for others it may follow a specific event or series of events. It can follow failure, but may also follow success.
Most people will experience a 'crisis of meaning' at some point in their lives; hence understanding and working with this group of clients is intrinsic to our work as counsellors and psychotherapists. This workshop will examine the existential perspective on working with clients who are experiencing depression.
See also: Part 2
Workshop Description (PDF)
Course Facilitator: Dr Alison Strasser
Cost: $245 - * $220 Early Bird
Addiction – Is it a label or a choice?
2-day workshop (Syd)
Friday 5 and Saturday 6 March 2010
PD Points: 12
Can existential therapy as a philosophical enterprise contribute to the treatment of addictions? As a modality that strives to avoid seeing clients in terms of treatment labels, it instead offers a way of helping clients understand the choices they have made - and are still making - as it intersects with their values and beliefs. This workshop will explore the use of the term addiction both as a social construct and as a personal meaning structure.
Workshop Description (PDF)
Course Facilitators: Dr Alison Strasser Carlos Webster & Adam McLean
Cost: $450 - *$420 Early Bird
The Existential Certainty – living with death and dying
1-day workshop (Syd)
Friday 26 March 2010
PD Points: 6
One of the key existential themes is that to live life more fully or authentically the anxiety around death or non-being must be confronted. For some, this might be around death itself, for others it might be the process of dying while, paradoxically, some might welcome death and find life terrifying. But the one certainty is that we are all going to die.
This workshop will provide a space for practitioners to explore their experiences of working with death and dying within the parameters of existential thought and practice.
Workshop Description (PDF)
Course Facilitators: Adam McLean & Carlos Webster
Cost: $245 - * $220 Early Bird
Group Leadership
5-day workshop (Syd)
Friday 23 April 2010
Saturday 1 May
Sunday 2 May
Fri 7 May
Sat 8 May
PD Points: 30
Irvin Yalom’s Interpersonal Model of group psychotherapy focuses on the interpersonal realm between group members and the group leader. The use of the here and now process allows members to engage in meaningful relationships. Leading such a group with a focus on the immediacy between the membership and the leader, requires the leader to be attentive to the needs of the individual members, the group as a whole, and to self-reflection.
This 5-day course will provide participants with the opportunity to assess and develop their skills as a group leader and make application of those skills to their respective workplace environment. Yalom’s Interpersonal Model will be utilised as a basis for exploration and offers the perfect platform for adaptation to various group environments. During the course an existential perspective will underpin the construct of the group leader, while existential themes will be explored within the group context.
The course is designed for practitioners who already are running groups and who wish to explore the existential themes in being a group leader, those who are about to embark on running a group and those who wish to understand the role of the group leader from an existential perspective.
Course Facilitator: Adam McLean & Dr Alison Strasser
Cost: $995 - * $950 Early Bird
Existential Sex
1-day workshop (Syd)
Friday 16 April 2010
PD Points: 6
How do we understand our own sexuality? How do we work with our client's sexuality? Sex and sexuality are often the taboo topic in the counselling room. This workshop will explore how working within the existential paradigm can bring alive our understanding of ourselves as a sexual human being.
See also: Part 2
Workshop Description (PDF)
Course Facilitator: Carlos Webster & Dr Alison Strasser
Cost: $245 - * $220 Early Bird
Foundations of Existential Theory & Practice
5-day workshop (Syd)
Monday 10 to Friday 14 May 2010
PD Points: 30
This 5-day workshop introduces participants to the fundamental philosophical concepts that inform the practice of existential counselling and psychotherapy. It will include an overview of the major existential/phenomenological philosophers and also incorporate the thinking of current practitioners working within this modality. Time will be allocated to allow participants to practice the elements of existential work.
The workshop is suitable for practitioners who wish to incorporate existential notions of theory and practice into their work.
This Professional Development workshop can be used to apply for Advanced Standing into the MA Existential Psychotherapy & Counselling at the New School of Psychotherapy & Counselling (NSPC) in London.
Workshop Description (PDF)
Course Facilitators: Dr Alison Strasser & Adam McLean
Cost $995 - * $950 Early Bird
The Wheel of Supervision
Supervision Training - Part 1
5-day workshop over 5 weeks (Syd)
Friday 21st May 2010
Friday 4th June
Friday 11th June
Friday 25th June
Saturday 26th June
PD Points: 30
Supervision is a profession in its own right. To work as a supervisor requires learning specific skills that are additional to those used when working as a counsellor, coach or psychotherapist.
This course has evolved from in-depth research conducted by Dr Alison Strasser that has now become known as the Wheel of Supervision. Within this Wheel are found the universal themes that are present in all modes of supervision and which form the basis of this program.
This Supervision Training Course is designed for practitioners who are now ready to work as a supervisor or who wish to understand supervision from an existential perspective. Participants are encouraged to develop their personal model of supervision and thereby maximise best practice for themselves and their supervisees.
Part 1 can be taken as a course in its own right, however, it is recommended that participants follow through with the second part of the supervision training to gain a more in-depth understanding of their own practice. (See Part 2 )
Additionally, five 2-hour group supervision practice sessions will be offered following the program.
It is expected that all participants will have a minimum of 3 years experience as a practitioner in counselling, psychotherapy or coaching.
Workshop Description (PDF):
Course Facilitators: Dr Alison Strasser & Adam McLean,
Cost $995 - * $950 Early Bird
Quest for Hope & Happiness
1-day workshop (Syd)
Friday 18 June 2010
PD Points: 6
"Life is not easy - living a fulfilling life is a challenge."
Indeed the confrontation of life anxiety takes enormous courage. It is in harnessing this resolution for life in the face of uncertainty that is the paradox we face with our clients. One of the key aims of existential therapy is to facilitate clients to live to their full potential - to live passionately, with courage and to recognise both their strengths and weaknesses.
This workshop will return to the theme of depression or meaninglessness through the stance of happiness. In the course of the day, we will reveal our own potential to work with client's around purpose and meaning and to discover whether this is what amounts to happiness or is it something else that we are seeking?
The Quest for Hope & Happiness is a follow-up to the Depression or Meaninglessness workshop. However, It is not necessary to have previously attended since this 1-day stands on its own.
Workshop Description (PDF):
Course Facilitators: Adam McLean & Dr Alison Strasser
Cost: $245 - * $220 Early Bird
Advanced Existential Theory & Practice
5-day workshop (Syd)
Wednesday, Thursday, Friday 4, 5 & 6 August
Monday, Tuesday 9 & 10 August 2010
PD Points: 30
This 5-day workshop builds on the Foundations of Existential Practice by exploring the philosophical foundations in more detail and expanding on the application of this philosophy into the sphere of counselling and psychotherapy.
Participants will be encouraged to critically examine the work of the major existential/phenomenological philosophers and to analyse how these views are meaningful in the practise of existentialism in today’s world. Concurrently, participants will be asked to examine their practise with regard to client's issues, beliefs, emotions and world-views in a manner that respects the client's autonomy within an existential-phenomenological perspective of the therapeutic relationship and process.
This Professional Development workshop can be used to apply for Advanced Standing into the MA Existential Psychotherapy & Counselling at the New School of Psychotherapy & Counselling (NSPC) in London.
Workshop Description (PDF):
Course Facilitators:Dr Alison Strasser Carlos Webster & Adam McLean
Cost $995 - * $950 Early Bird
An Existential Approach to Trauma
2-day workshop (Syd)
Saturday 14 and Sunday 15 August
2010
PD Points: 12
An unresolved traumatic event can break the connections between individuals and their sense of belonging in the world. Alienated from themselves, life takes on an unreal quality. Despite that, trauma is a natural part of the human condition. It may involve profound suffering, but it is also an opportunity to discover compassion for others and for ourselves. The role of a counsellor in trauma is to help the trauma sufferer find meaning from their experiences, to enable them to pick up the threads of their life once again, to re-establish relationships and re-invent their worldview.
This 2-day workshop introduces participants to the concept of trauma viewed from an existential perspective. We will look at how existential philosophy and concepts influence our work with trauma clients.
Course Description PDF
Workshop Facilitators: Trudy Adelstein & Adam McLean
Cost: $450 - *$420 Early Bird
An Introduction to Logotherapy
2-day workshop (Syd)
Saturday and Sunday 3 & 4 September 2010
PD Points: 12
Logotherapy emerged from Viktor Frankl's life-long reflections on the significance of meaning as a mode of survival. Even in a concentration camp he found that inmates who were focussed on meaning and purpose functioned better, while a lack of meaning could lead to suicide.
Literally, logotherapy means 'therapy through meaning'. It's an active-directive therapy aimed at helping people specifically with meaning crises, which manifest themselves either in a feeling of emptiness or indirectly through addiction, aggression or depression.
This workshop is an introduction to the key concepts of logotherapy and its links to existential therapy with its emphasis of freedom, responsibility, choice and meaning.
Course Description PDF
Course Facilitator: Dr Christopher Wurm
Cost: $450 - *$420 Early Bird
Time-Limited (Brief) Existential
Therapy
1-day workshop (Syd)
Friday 24 September 2010
PD Points: 6
This workshop explores an alternative approach to practice within a time-limited frame, using time itself as the cornerstone of working with clients. This approach is not task-oriented but allows for the free play of existential concerns within a respectful and integrative manner.
Grounded in the book Existential Time-Limited Therapy: the Wheels of Existence, this workshop will build on the existential philosophy to show how working within a time-limitation can further facilitate and enhance the process of engagement with clients.
Workshop Description PDF
Course Facilitator:Dr Alison Strasser & Carlos Webster
Cost: $245 - * $220 Early Bird
The Wheel of Supervision
Supervision Training Part 2
4-day workshop (Syd)
Friday 1 October 2010
Friday 8 October
Friday 15 October
Friday 22 October
PD Points: 24
This 4-day workshop extends the themes explored in Part 1 and participants will benefit from the discussions and strengthening practice of being a supervisor.
Additionally, a further five 2-hour group supervision practice sessions will be offered following the program.
Workshop Description (PDF):
Course Facilitators: Dr Alison Strasser & Adam McLean,
Cost $790 - * $760 Early Bird
How to be a Group Supervisor
1-day workshop (Syd)
Friday 29 October 2010
PD Points: 6
With the trend in organisations and training institutes to provide on-going support for staff, group supervision is seen as an alternative to individual. Supervising a group as opposed to the individual requires the supervisor to have knowledge and awareness of the underpinning principles of working with a group while maintaining ethical and professional boundaries. This workshop will provide supervisors with skills in working within a small supervisory group experience. The Wheel of Supervision will provide the underpinning theoretical model for this workshop, while group work skills will be explored. Participants are encouraged to develop their personal model of supervision and thereby maximise best practice for themselves and their supervisees.
This workshop is designed for practitioners who are now ready to work as a supervisor or who wish to understand supervision from an existential perspective.
Workshop Content: TBA
Course Facilitators: Dr Alison Strasser & Adam McLean,
Cost: $245 - * $220 Early Bird
Existential Sex - Part 2
1-day workshop (Syd)
Saturday 6 November
PD Points: 6
This is a follow-on workshop for those who have participated in Part 1 and it will review and extend the existential philosophy as it relates to sexuality as a 'given' of existence. Topics to be explored include gender sexual dispositions, sexual practices and the relation to self and other .
Workshop Description (PDF)
Course Facilitator: Carlos Webster & Dr Alison Strasser
Cost: $245 - * $220 Early Bird
Understanding the Worldview - the impact of personal ideas, beliefs & interpretations
1-day workshop (Syd)
Friday 19 November
PD Points: 6
Choices that we often make early in our lives can subsequently impact every aspect of our lives, affecting the relationships we choose, our future aspirations, our behavioural and emotional responses, and so on. In short, we all create our own worldview as an expression of our particular way of being with or engaging in the world, usually in a state and place of unawareness.
The exploration and discovery of how we construct our worldview and how it interconnects with all aspects of our lives is the starting point of this workshop. Working with our client's worldview opens up and expands their sense of self, revealing a plethora of choices previously unacknowledged. Phenomenology and existential philosophy in practice give us the process and means to work with clients in a deeply satisfying manner.
Workshop Content: TBA
Course Facilitators: Dr Alison Strasser & Pamela Ray
Cost: $245 - * $220 Early Bird
MELBOURNE WORKSHOPS 2010
Introduction to Existential Theory & Practice
3-day workshop (Melb)
Friday, Saturday & Sunday 29, 30 & 31 January 2010
PD Points: 12
Participants will need to have completed the 2-day Introduction workshop.
This three-day workshop is in addition to the 2-day introduction and completes the Foundations of Existential Theory & Practice.
Workshop Description (PDF)
Course Facilitators: Dr Alison Strasser
Cost $620
The Anxious Client
2-day workshop (Melb)
Friday 9 & Saturday 10 April 2010
PD Points: 12
To be human is to experience anxiety. As practitioners we encounter anxiety in many forms, including overt panic attacks and phobias as well as less distinct yet still pervasive everyday anxieties.
Existential anxiety is a universal phenomenon arising from our deep-seated responses to living in an uncertain world. Philosophers from Kierkegaard to Sartre wrote copiously about anxiety, dread, bad faith and angst, while practitioners such as Yalom, May and Van Deurzen have written about how acknowledging anxiety is related to meaning and is an essential part of assuming responsibility. This two-day workshop will explore the existential approach to working with anxiety and how this knowledge helps us work with our clients.
Workshop Description (PDF)
Workshop Facilitators: Dr Alison Strasser & Pamela Ray
Cost: $450 - *$420 Early Bird
Existential Sex
1-day workshop (Melb)
Friday 27 August 2010
PD Points: 6
How do we understand our own sexuality? How do we work with our client's sexuality? Sex and sexuality are often the taboo topic in the counselling room. This workshop will explore how working within the existential paradigm can bring alive our understanding of ourselves as a sexual human being.
Workshop Description (PDF)
Course Facilitator: Carlos Webster & Dr Alison Strasser
Cost: $245 - * $220 Early Bird
BRISBANE WORKSHOPS 2010
Understanding the Worldview - the impact of personal ideas, beliefs & interpretations
1-day workshop (Syd)
Friday 10 September
PD Points: 6
Choices that we often make early in our lives can subsequently impact every aspect of our lives, affecting the relationships we choose, our future aspirations, our behavioural and emotional responses, and so on. In short, we all create our own worldview as an expression of our particular way of being with or engaging in the world, usually in a state and place of unawareness.
The exploration and discovery of how we construct our worldview and how it interconnects with all aspects of our lives is the starting point of this workshop. Working with our client's worldview opens up and expands their sense of self, revealing a plethora of choices previously unacknowledged. Phenomenology and existential philosophy in practice give us the process and means to work with clients in a deeply satisfying manner.
Workshop Content: TBA
Course Facilitators: Dr Alison Strasser & Pamela Ray
Cost: $245 - * $220 Early Bird