A Visual Meditation: The Higher Consciousness

One of the core tools in my practice is a visualisation exercise I learnt in the nineteen seventies from Jungian analyst Phyllis Krystal (Krystal 1995). It is a visual prayer that can communicate a profound sense of safety flowing from a spiritual core that remains undefined or as you like to imagine it. I apply the exercise consistently as a visual aide to picture the client-therapist relationship and how both relate to what she called the ‘Higher Consciousness’. I introduce it to almost all groups I facilitate, and frequently meditate like this on my own.

Somatic Experiencing: Emotional First Aid for Traumatic Times

When traumatic events happen, they challenge our sense of safety and predictability and this may trigger strong physical and emotional reactions. These reactions are normal. Emotional First Aid gives you information on how to help yourself, your family and friends in response to witnessing, hearing or living through the traumatic events.

Sensorimotor Art Therapies

This professional development Art Therapy training is designed for mental health professional who wish to integrate a trauma-informed, healing-centred, bottom-up approach into their practice. Including Guided Drawing, Clay Field Therapy, Collage and Totem Making. Facilitated by Cornelia Elbrecht and The Institute for Sensorimotor Art Therapy and School for Initiatic Art.

The Primary Shapes in Guided Drawing: The Lemniscate

Lemniscate is the term for a horizontal figure eight. Of all the primary shapes this is the least threatening. It is without exception experienced as positive rhythmic flow without any threat of overwhelm.

Stabilizing Clients at the Clay Field

Pierre Janet, a pioneering French psychologist who lived over 100 years ago, developed a simple structure for trauma therapy that is still valid today. He defined three treatment phases: stabilization, trauma exploration and integration. If we look at Work at the Clay Field, stabilization is crucial at the beginning of every session in order to create a safe environment for the client.

The Sacred Circle: Mandala

Mandala from Sanskrit translates as “circle”. Wherever we look in nature, we find mandalas, I even dare to state that all nature is a dance of interconnecting mandalas.

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