SARSVL (Support After Rape And Sexual Violence Leeds) Counselling Service has a few spaces available for Volunteer Counsellors.

The role is suitable for Counsellors and Psychotherapist, who would like to develop and integrate into their main theoretical model, ways of working that includes holistic, empowerment and trauma informed approach.

This role is suitable for qualified Counsellors or for trainees who are close to completing Level 4 Diploma in Counselling or Psychotherapy and had completed 100 face to face supervised hours. Volunteering as a Counsellor for SARSVL will offer you a possibility of becoming a part of supportive therapeutic team, with possibility of developing trauma informed approach. You will receive free, monthly individual and group supervision and regular CPD activates.

​For more information please visit http://supportafterrapeleeds.org.uk or email [email protected]”

Facilitator:           Michael Guilding, BACP Senior Accredited Counsellor, Psychotherapist and     Clinical Supervisor with 24 years post-qualification experience.
        Venue:                    17 Wetherby Road, York, YO26 5BS
          Date:                      Saturday 15 February 2020
          Time:                     10.00 am to 4.30pm
          Cost:                       £70 including a light lunch

Very few clients come for therapy who do not have some history of trauma. Most of the people we work with have an autonomic nervous system highly attuned to threat and prone to fear responses such as alarm, anger, withdrawal or collapse. Working with our clients, our own fear system responses are activated. These are biological processes that can shut down our social engagement system and render us ineffectual as therapists.
When our fear system activates in the counselling room, we can experience tension, anxiety, fright, loss of our ability to think clearly, irritation, frustration, feelings of uselessness and hopelessness or extreme exhaustion. This is the opposite of the experience of energy, vitality and absorbed interest that we have when fear is regulated and we, and our clients, become exploratory rather than defensive.

The aim of this workshop is to increase our awareness of the physical, emotional and mental impact on us of our biological fear system responses, and to enhance our ability to regulate these responses, bringing ourselves and our clients to a place of safety - the “window of tolerance” within which therapeutic work becomes possible.

The workshop will combine an explanation of how the biological fear system works and the various states it throws us into, covering Polyvagal Theory and the concept of the Fear Cascade, with opportunities to explore our own experiences of fear system activation, both in our personal lives and in our work as therapists. We will also work with a number of practical methods for regulating our fear system responses. Each workshop will be limited to seven participants and will be facilitated in a manner which prioritises the creation of a safe space for exploration and learning.  
​
Contact:
[email protected]

(The McCluskey model)
 
Fran Guilding BACP accredited Psychotherapist and Trainer
Eliane Meyer BACP accredited Psychotherapist, Trainer and Supervisor
(colleagues of Dr Una McCluskey and trained in this model by her)
 
We are writing to let you know that we are intending to run a therapeutic group based on the McCluskey Attachment Model.  Each week we will explore one of the 7 systems.  There will be a brief theoretical input at the start of each 3 hour session based on the particular system for that week but most of the time will be spent exploring it in your own life. This way of working in a group can be profound but is also supportive and non-threatening.
 
These 7 sessions will be on a Saturday morning from 9.30am until 12.45 at roughly three weekly intervals. Venue York Friargate Meeting house.
 
The following are the proposed dates:
 

1. 23rd February
   
2. 16th March
   
3. 6th April
   
4. 27th April
   
5. 1st June
   
6. 22nd June
   
7. 13th July

 
The cost will be £560 in total, payable in two instalments of £280 each, the first instalment due before the start date, the second due by the end of April.
There is a Student rate of £350 in total with 2 instalments of £175 each.
 
The group would only be viable with at least 6 participants.  The maximum would be 12.
 
If you are interested or have any questions, please do get back to us:
 
[email protected]
[email protected]

This model seeks to address the fact that we work in jobs that require us to respond to the needs of others, too often we don’t create the conditions to support our own personal and psychological development.
 
Experiences of careseeking and caregiving have their roots in infancy and shape our expectations and responses to careseeking and caregiving in adult life.
 
As professionals offering a service in the field of mental health and social care we will be aware of the many different ways that people express their careseeking needs, and how difficult it is sometimes to interpret these accurately and respond.  People who have had contradictory experiences of caregiving will often tend to miscue professional caregivers so that any attempt at caregiving is frustrated and can end up as a frustrating experience for both parties.
 
The dynamics of attachment consist of several goal-corrected systems.  These are careseeking, caregiving, sexuality, exploratory interest sharing with peers, the personal system for self-defence, the internal supportive or unsupportive environments, and the personally created external supportive environment (home/lifestyle).  The theory suggests that these systems work together as a single process to contribute to and maintain wellbeing.

Here goes,

Been a while since I’ve been awake thinking of stuff! The Christmas Tree Lights did it this time. Not a Trigger but more of an analogy I guess. 

Getting them out in Dec all tangled up, hell to untangle. The different sequences pulsing of lights like your heart and thoughts constant pulsing. 

Then the racing, chasing, unable to keep up, raving, raging, tangled. No way out. Round and round you go, trapped in a sequence with no control.

Then boom, full on, bright, too bright, glaring like a rabbit in the head lights, frozen. Exposed to everyone, bright for all to see, but they don’t see the fire inside raging to make them glow so bright. 

Then the come down that slow fading, draining of light, draining of love, draining of hope. Still tangled but now lifeless... not calm but emotionless and numb... the batteries are running low.  Slowly they die, slowly they fade into the distance. No one sees them.

2 years of untangling, going through the sequences. Seeing, feeling, living each and every one. The wire striped to it’s very core. No more sticky tape. Now Held, nurtured and soldered. 

Finally I can put them away in the box untangled, neatly, neatly sorted, still there but now neat and amongst the rest of the decorations. Away for a while. They can come out next year, they are an intricate part of the process, they have to stay, but this time untangled and alas!!!! I’ve found the control box. I’m driving this time.  I decide which sequence of light I want and when.

This time I see the lights for what they are not feel them. They shine bright, they twinkle gracefully.  Embraced. Calm, reflecting and hopeful. 

Merry Christmas. 
​

Fran Guilding BACP accredited Psychotherapist and Trainer
Eliane Meyer BACP accredited Psychotherapist, Trainer and Supervisor

We are offering a 3 hour workshop for professionals exploring the model of adult attachment including an introduction to the theory and an opportunity for experiential groupwork. (Numbers limited to 12 maximum)
 
The model seeks to address the fact that we work in jobs that require us to respond to the needs of others, too often we don’t create the conditions to support our own personal and psychological development.
 
Experiences of careseeking and caregiving have their roots in infancy and shape our expectations and responses to careseeking and caregiving in adult life.
 
As professionals offering a service in the field of mental health and social care we will be aware of the many different ways that people express their careseeking needs, and how difficult it is sometimes to interpret these accurately and respond. People who have had contradictory experiences of caregiving will often tend to miscue professional caregivers so that any attempt at caregiving is frustrated and can end up as a frustrating experience for both parties.
 
The dynamics of attachment consist of several goal-corrected systems.  These are careseeking, caregiving, sexuality, exploratory interest sharing with peers, the personal system for self-defence, the internal supportive or unsupportive environments and the personally created external supportive environment (home/lifestyle).  The theory suggests that that these systems work together as a single process to contribute to and maintain maximum wellbeing.
 
Saturday 24th November 2018
9.30-12.30
At Quaker Meeting House
Friargate
YORK  YO1 9RL
 
Cost £40
 
This workshop will be run by
Fran Guilding BACP accredited Psychotherapist and Trainer
Eliane Meyer BACP accredited Psychotherapist, Trainer and Supervisor
We are colleagues of Dr Una McCluskey and have been trained by her in this model.
 
It is suitable for anyone working in the caring professions such as counsellors, psychotherapists, trainers, nurses, doctors, social workers etc and is designed as an introduction to those new to the model.
 
Following this taster we plan to run therapy groups based on this model, one session a month for 8 months. Dates to be confirmed.
All interest/enquiries email either Eliane or Fran:

[email protected]
[email protected]
 
It will form 3 hours of your CPD and certificates will be provided.

Celia Dawson, Psychotherapist & Trainer, The International Focusing Institute (USA)
Dzmitry Karpuk, Trainer & Family and Systemic Psychotherapist, (UKCP & AFT reg)
 
We have run several courses this year for Working with Dreams and Nightmares (Leeds, Manchester & London). There are many different exposure-based treatments; however we believe that Somatically-Oriented therapies have advantages as we use indirect exposure processing. e.g. specifically avoiding triggering clients so that they are more likely to stay within the therapeutic window of tolerance (Briere and Scott, 2006). Our participants were introduced to a clear protocol for working with nightmare sufferers without triggering flashbacks or extreme emotions. We are very excited to be collaborating with Professor Tom Stoneham of York University, who is researching dreams, so that the effectiveness of our protocol can be tested by those who use it.  
 
We have run specially tailored versions of this course for individual agencies, as well as our usual weekend courses in Leeds. Our last one was held in London at the premises of “Freedom from Torture”. As usual, we worked with a group of dedicated therapists with a wide range of experience and the course was very successful. We are hoping to run further courses from this venue in the future for people who cannot make it to Leeds.
 
To find more information about tour workshops please follow this link below:
 
http://www.complextrauma.uk/our-cpd-workshops

Celia Dawson,
Psychotherapist & Trainer, Certifying Co-ordinator, The International Focusing Institute (USA),​ BA, Dip in Person-Centred Psychotherapy, PCAI (GB)

Our aim over the past few years has been to convince people of the importance of Phase 1 of trauma recovery work.  This is the essential work that goes into helping trauma sufferers to achieve a certain stability so that they can address their trauma without being triggered and re-traumatised while undertaking their therapy.
 
Last month (September 2017) we were delighted to find that this message is getting through and we had so many applicants for our Stage One workshop that we were obliged to run a second workshop the following weekend.
 
It was interesting for us to run the two workshops on consecutive weekends.  We had two very different groups but what we found was that both groups were made up of very dedicated people who are determined to make a difference to their clients. Some participants were very experienced in the field but were happy to refresh their skills and at the same time to learn a new somatic therapy skills. Some participants were trainees or were interested in becoming therapists and this workshop helped them with the basics for therapists; mainly looking after themselves and preventing secondary trauma impact. This was a good reminder for everyone in the two groups.  We all benefited from the sharing of wisdom and experience in the groups.  Dzmitry and I are grateful to all who came for making both groups safe and caring.

Madeleine Kay, a Focusing Practitioner & Trainer

People who have been traumatised by repeated abuse, especially during or throughout childhood, store up fear and pain in their bodies. This includes the neurology of the brain, and via that, all their systems may be affected. It is acknowledged that mental health and learning difficulties, personal relationship difficulties, physical illness and disabilities of many kinds are more common in people who have survived complex trauma. My contention here is that survivors of complex trauma are also disadvantaged in the spiritual dimension of their life.

A frequently reported feature of strong spiritual experience is having a deep, embodied sense of the connection with 'something' much larger than the self. There is a sense of wonder. It is difficult to describe in words. There is a sense of having a profound understanding, grasping something previously inaccessible, that too often slips away to become a memory of an experience and of an understanding that cannot be retained.
​
Sometimes people describe an experience as 'almost spiritual' - and again describe a sense of connection with something much larger than the self, perhaps participating in a group of people who are united in an uplifting event - maybe a concert, group singing - or a sense of combined humbleness and privilege at having witnessed a wonder of the natural world.

I suggest that to have experiences such as these, we need to be able to feel connected with our own bodies, and with both other people and aspects of the world that cognition alone cannot grasp and therefore cannot connect with. When we feel we are surrounded by a world that is incomprehensible to us, we feel disconnected and isolated, as if we don’t belong. We feel both rejected by and rejecting of people who seem incomprehensible to us - they seem threatening, and we feel unsafe. This experience of relative isolation and alienation is the very opposite of a spiritual experience.

In order to feel connected to the world this sense of isolation, of threat and incomprehension needs to change. Only when we can be compassionate and accepting with other people and the wider world, however briefly, are be able to experience a kind of union with that which we can’t cognitively comprehend.

This needs to start with those incomprehensible, unacceptable parts of ourselves. How can we learn to accept in others those things that we cannot accept in ourselves? How can we reach out to others, of whom we know so little, thus making ourselves even more vulnerable, when we are afraid of aspects of our own selves? We cannot achieve this by reason alone, not even when aided by imagination, longing, and willpower.

But fortunately we have access to other inner resources. Psychological theories and practises have long been used, particularly in the context of a therapeutic relationship, and now body-focused therapies are becoming more common. These can be very effective. It isn't necessary to believe in a spiritual dimension to human existence to be healed in relating to other people and the world. However, I would like to use this blog to explore together with other interested people how the spiritual aspect of being human is affected by trauma and how it can be harnessed to aid healing in those who want to use it.  

Celia Dawson,
Psychotherapist & Trainer, Certifying Co-ordinator, The International Focusing Institute (USA),​ BA, Dip in Person-Centred Psychotherapy, PCAI (GB)

Dzmitry and I are taking a break from running workshops for the summer.  We will be starting again in September with COMPLEX TRAUMA WORK (STAGE 1) - THE 1ST PHASE OF TRAUMA RECOVERY on 16/17th September 2017.
 
Looking back, we have come a long way since we first started running workshops together in 2013. First of all we ran a successful five level course on Focusing, leading to a Certificate in Advanced Focusing Skills. Dzmitry is an expert in working with trauma and in 2014 we began to combine teaching Focusing-Oriented therapy with teaching people how to work with trauma. Focusing is an excellent way to deal with trauma because it is a body-oriented approach and it enables us to reach the trapped trauma energy in the body, unlock it and re-integrate it into the adult whole. This can be done without the necessity to go into the story of a trauma which always brings the danger of re-traumatising the client.  Focusing can also bring into awareness traumatic events which have been forgotten or dissociated or have taken place at a very young age before the child has learned to speak.
 
Under the organisational title, Health Minds, we began our Trauma workshops. Although we have always welcomed people to join our courses for their own healing, we soon found that we were attracting more and more trained and experienced therapists. Complex trauma is one area which is often not satisfactorily covered in conventional therapy training and our approach is simple, easy to learn and very effective.
 
It is a delight to work with such dedicated people who are anxious to find new ways to help their clients. This did, however, bring its difficulties. Our emphasis with trauma work is to make people aware that there are three stages. By far the most important stage is the first: establishing safety and stability [Judith L Herman, M.D., Psychiatry and Clinical Neurosciences (1998)]. This is the most difficult to achieve.  How many times have we, as therapists, had clients who never returned after the first session, or who even ran out of the room during the first session, never to be seen again? I know I did before I learned about this stage. When I was running my counselling agency we would despair of clients who could not keep appointments and who seemed to live chaotic lifestyles. Now I know that that very chaos is a symptom of trauma. Sometimes it will take months or even years to help a person to become stable, to have a safe place to live, to have their debts put in order, to get their benefits sorted out, and, most important of all, to realise that they have resources within themselves to deal with emotional upheaval.
 
All of our subsequent workshops are built upon STAGE 1 - THE 1ST PHASE OF TRAUMA RECOVERY. Originally, we made it obligatory to attend this STAGE-1 but it was changed later on. At the moment we only make it obligatory for those wishing to attend “STAGE- 2” - Working with Adult Survivors of Trauma. Thus, we have made our other workshops open to everybody:
Working with Adult Survivors of Childhood Trauma, (25/26th November)
Working with Nightmares and Dreams - (14/15th October)
and Working with Children: Helping Children Cope with Trauma (2/3rd December).

This means that in each of our workshops we have to go over some of the preparatory work on safety and stabilisation, and often new people are surprised about the importance of STAGE- 1. Afterwards, many of our participants decide to join STAGE-1.
 
I am very pleased to say that recruitment to our courses is going from strength to strength. We are gaining a good reputation for running experiential sessions where attendees feel safe and secure enough to be able to share their difficulties and their discoveries. This, of course, is mostly down to the participants themselves and their willingness to “dive in” to new experiences.

Now that we are working under the title of “Complex Trauma Network” we have attracted more attention and we plan to develop many more new courses for working in this field. We aim to make our website the source of a true network where people can exchange ideas and advertise themselves. We now have two extra trainers, Rod Aungier and Madeleine Kay to help with the work and we are encouraging several of our students to continue with our training so that they can themselves become trainers and help to expand our work.
 
I retired from running my agency some years ago but I have found this training work to be great fun and very stimulating. Of course, all this is mainly down to Dzmitry’s leadership and his endless energy and enthusiasm.

We are delighted to announce an exciting development as we established collaboration with the University of York, where myself Dzmitry Karpuk and Professor Tom Stoneham aim to develop a practical model that practicing mental health professionals might apply when working with dreams, nightmares and other sleep disturbances.

Some of you already received an email from us asking if you could complete our survey on understanding therapeutic practices with dreams, nightmares and sleep disturbances. Our intention is simply to gather information about how mental health professionals approach clients’ sleep-related problems as these actually occur in the field. We have prepared a questionnaire which is accessible only via the link below:

https://goo.gl/w6Kh8V
 
By way of a thank-you, we are offering 30 free places at a CPD Workshop to those who complete the questionnaire. We shall present our research on working with dreams and sleep disturbances. At the same time, the participants will have an opportunity to explore successful therapeutic methods in work with dreams and sleep disturbances. This workshop will be held on 22nd April 2017 at the University of York. 
 
The questionnaire should take about 10 minutes to complete. All responses are held securely and in confidence by the University of York in accordance with its research data management policy. You may respond anonymously, though you will need to give us an email address if you are interested in the Workshop on the 22nd April.
  
Your answers will help us to shape the future therapeutic work with dreams and nightmares.

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