Helping Relationships – with Piero Ferrucci and Diana Whitmore

Join students of Roberto Assagioli, Piero Ferrucci and Diana Whitmore, for a practical two-day workshop on the helping relationship.

Please note that this workshop is open to all who have an interest in Psychosynthesis, who are currently in training (including Foundation year study), OR qualified counsellors/psychotherapists.

Years ago, Piero and Diana ran a psychosynthesis training that was open to the entire Trust community – from graduates through to Foundation Year. It was an incredible gathering of passion, inspiration and mutual learning… Now this continues, with more ‘experienced’ members of the psychosynthesis community learning from the new trainees, and vice versa. The wisdom of experience was magical. It was an intensely democratic and rich gathering with everyone included and no one left out. They now pass on their experience of these helping relationships.

The helping relationship:

Our far-reaching evolution has equipped us to support and help other people in our life and in our work. We know how to listen, how to support another human being, how to hearten and reassure one another. We already have all it takes.

But what is an innate capacity can become an art. And an art can be patiently learned, with all its know-how and its subtleties. We can learn how to be more present, when to talk and when to listen; when to comfort and when to confront; when to be close and when to gain some helpful distance. We can learn how to create a space where insight happens.

We can also spot the mistakes which, with the best of intentions, we inevitably make in this complex set of capacities. Perhaps we become too involved in the suffering of others; we let our own unconscious material interfere; diagnosis may become an impediment instead of a tool; we give in to the irresistible temptation of giving advice. Our ego may take us off guard and barge in. Faced with another human being’s suffering and predicament, we may feel impotent or at a loss.

There is no limit to our potential for improvement in this art. We can become more able to recognise our own strengths. Understand another human being in more profound ways. Transform our mistakes into steps forward. And remind ourselves of our client’s inner Self.

This will be a how-to workshop, filled with practical work. Our purpose is to have you walk out at the end with a deeper knowledge and greater confidence.

Learning outcomes:

• The healing space
• Preparing a session, and subjective work
• Dealing with fear and resentment
• The art of confrontation
• The counsellor/therapist’s body during a session
• Renewing one’s original motivation for the work
• The moments of choice in a session (which attitude, tool, subject?)
• The six directions
• Reality testing
• Collective trauma and the influence of the collective upon the individual’s mental health and wellbeing – both the client and the ‘helper’.

Ticket prices:

At the Trust we appreciate that each person has their own unique situation, so we invite you to select the price point that feels like it represents a fair contribution for attending this event.

There are three options to choose from when purchasing tickets: £195, £230, £250.

If you are a current Psychosynthesis Trust student and finances are a barrier to attending this workshop, please contact Kajal at events@ptrust.org.uk.

Refunds up to 7 days before event. Eventbrite’s fee is nonrefundable.

About Piero Ferrucci:

Piero Ferrucci is a psychotherapist and philosopher, and a trainer at the Società di Psicosintesi Terapeutica in Florence. He has written several books, translated in various languages, among which Inevitable Grace, Beauty and the Soul, and Your Inner Will, and has edited The Human Situation, lectures by Aldous Huxley. He lives and works in Florence, Italy.

About Diana Whitmore:

Diana Whitmore is the founder and a Trainer and Trustee of the Psychosynthesis Trust. she is also a founding member of the Association for Accredited Psychospiritual Psychotherapists and has authored two books, including Psychosynthesis in Education: A Guide to the Joy of Learning and Psychosynthesis Counselling in Action. Her lifelong work with psychosynthesis began when she was a student of founder, Roberto Assagioli.