Beyond Touch: The Psychodynamics Of Somatic Therapy
A workshop with Clyde Ford, D.C.

Workshop Details

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The Challenge Beyond Touch Seminar

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Beyond Touch I

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Beyond Touch II

This package will cover Beyond Touch I and Beyond Touch II for $580.

 

Dear Bodywork Colleagues,
It is indeed an honor to bring Dr Clyde Ford back to Seattle. The first class he taught last Fall was an incredible opening for those bodywork practitioners who attended. It is rare to meet and work with such a wise and open person as Clyde and someone who can take us all into the mystery realm of body mind connections. Everyone came away with newfound confidence in bringing somatic awareness to our clients. Dr Ford, chiropractor and psychotherapist, was a true pioneer in the growth of Somatics during the 1980s. He participated as editor of the Brain/Mind Bulletin and Leading Edge. He invented his own bodywork approach: Somatosynthesis and is past president of the Foundation for Chiropractic Research.   ~ Jack Blackburn

As participants in this workshop you can expect to build your professional skills, experience new areas of self-discovery, deepen your understanding and develop new abilities to use the psychodynamics of your sessions to better serve your clients.

Hands-on therapists realize after years of training in the physical skills that they are undertrained in the psychodynamics that underlie their client relations. Bodyworkers are not working as psychotherapists, but they should be grounded in the psychodynamics of their interaction with clients. This is not to engage clients around their emotional and psychological issues, but to ensure that the care they give best facilitates their client's healing, recovery, and well-being.

Participants will explore the deeper and often hidden layers of their therapeutic interaction with clients. Through lecture, supervised hands-on work, guided self-exploration, and group and didactic discussions, Dr. Ford will introduce participants to the knowledge and skills they need to manage the psychodynamic aspects of their work.

"Gaining access to the psyche through the body is an astonishing process. It ranges from simply placing a [client] in touch with mental images behind physical symptoms to a profound exploration of the intricate nature of a human being... I have tried to avoid burying actual techniques under heavy psychological theory... [so as not] to mimic a psychotherapist. There is a substantial difference between approaching the psyche through touch and approaching the psyche through talk. Much of what may take several sessions of therapeutic dialogue to achieve often can be done in a few moments using touch."   ~ Clyde Ford Where Healing Waters Meet

This is a very important training for those of us who are aware that the focus of our work must grow beyond symptomatic relief. Dr. Ford has been a visionary who saw this role for body therapists many years ago. He can now affirm for a new generation of bodyworkers that the spiritual insights we have when working with our clients can take us much further than our current "scope of practice" definitions. His approach includes positional release, mechanical compression, energy work, and verbal support for the client's process.

The workshop will address subjects which include:
 ~ The body’s role in emotional healing
 ~ The relationship between touch and emotions
 ~ Therapeutic communication skills
 ~ The grammar and language of touch
 ~ Touch and awareness
 ~ Transference and countertransference through touch

Beyond Touch II

Touch itself is independent of technique. The body-mind response to touch depends more on who is doing the touching, and that practitioner's state of mind, than on what kind of technique is being applied. After learning and practicing many different manual therapies, Clyde concluded that the body-mind of the client does not distinguish between the mapping or theory behind the touch - only whether the touch is communicative. Thus every modality we learn can be enhanced markedly by the tools of communication, verbal and non-verbal.

You took Clyde's level 1 class, were astounded to experience the changes in the body-mind of the client even when techniques were excluded from the mix. You may still be wondering how it could be that just holding a body part and engaging in minimal conversation with its owner could produce such remarkable results. In this class you will gain much further understanding of this process and its results. And you will have the support and guidance of Clyde, who uncovered this approach, in spite of all of the manipulative techniques he had learned as a chiropractor or the counseling tools he had developed as a psychotherapist.

Clyde Ford, D.C., is a pioneer in the field of psychodynamics and therapeutic touch. He is the author of several books, including: Compassionate Touch and Where Healing Waters Meet. He was the 2006 recipient of the Hurston/Wright Legacy Award. Clyde is a much sought-after public speaker and has appeared on the Oprah Winfrey Show and New Dimensions Radio.

To learn more about Clyde, visit his website: www.clydeford.com