Therapy Master Class Series
ONLINE, once in 2024Being a therapist is both personally and professionally demanding.
It frequently challenges our identity and values, and regularly provokes our own personal complexes.
Our efficacy comes from our own inner development and what we do with these challenges (not what brand of interventions we use with clients).
From the outside psychotherapy looks easy – just sitting listening and talking, but anyone who has tried to help another person knows the road is filled with potholes and pitfalls.
Not only is it tiring to purposely listen to someone for very long without unnecessary interruptions (let alone with many people over weeks and years), it’s even more difficult to come up with anything truly useful to say.
Much of our thinking is reactive or programmed and even if we follow a model or recognised modality, it’s all too easy to feel impotent, off track or worse, become pressuring and prescriptive.
Staying in the profession long-term and being genuinely useful to clients takes intention and effort.
With over 30 years practicing and almost as many supervising other practitioners, Silvia has identified the top four challenges therapists face and designed four corresponding master classes to fine-tune your practice and enliven your experience of this fascinating vocation.
Who is this for?
This course is for therapists, and therapists in training, from all modalities and all therapeutic professions: counsellors, psychologists, psychotherapists, social workers, and mental health specialist occupational therapists.
All therapeutic contexts are also welcome – individual work, relationship and family work, in private practice, organisations and hospitals – and all levels of experience.
The course is eligible for professional development points in PACFA and ACA and probably in all other relevant professional associations – check yours to make sure it meets the relevant criteria.
No previous knowledge or experience of Process Work is required.
The Four Classes
Online on ZoomBurnout and Boundaries
Boundaries are one of the biggest challenges for therapists. We get pulled so strongly into the caring role which is supposed to just give and give and give…it can make setting and maintaining practice boundaries difficult, like cancellation policies, fees, taking time off, out-of-session contact etc.
In this module we explore our tendencies to overwork, underwork, and the specific challenges of maintaining practice boundaries and engaging in sufficient self care, both crucial to long term sustainability as a therapist and safe therapeutic relationships.
Confidence vs Competence
Every therapist has those moments: you’re not sure what’s going on with the client’s process and start to wonder if you’re out of your depth. You start thinking you need to do more training and probably refer the client to someone more experienced.
But how do we know if it really is a competence issue or a confidence edge? And who’s confidence edge, yours or your clients – it could be transference?
In this module, we explore this experience in depth to find out how to tell if it’s competence or confidence and what it means for your process as a therapist, and for your client’s process.
Embracing Anxious
So many therapists feel a huge pressure to not make mistakes, to get everything right – the responsibility feels immense.
But making mistakes is essential (and unavoidable) as a therapist, and when we respond well to them, they’re often deeply transformative for clients.
In this module, learn new ways to sit with the unknown, how to use your own nervousness as a barometer, and ways for dealing with mistakes.
Self-disclosure
Self-disclosure is an important but complex therapeutic intervention. When should we share? When shouldn’t we share? What’s OK to share?
Not only do we need to be clear in ourselves what our own boundaries are, we need to be clear on why we’re doing it and how we think it will serve the client.
In this module, we explore the purpose of self-disclosure, how to determine when and what, and understanding how it can be misused.
Your Trainer
Dr Silvia Camastral
Silvia has been a Process Work therapist and supervisor for over thirty years and has a passion for supporting therapists to not only build their skills but to also connect with their deep calling to the role of therapist so they can live the role with congruence and purpose.
She has been training and supervising therapists for nearly two decades as a senior faculty member of Australia and New Zealand Process Oriented Psychology (ANZPOP), and other institutions including ACAP and QUT.
Silvia’s qualifications include a PhD in General Psychology, a Master of Counselling (QUT), a Diploma in Early Childhood Education, and a Process Oriented Psychology Diplomate.
Read more about Silvia here.
THE DETAILS
Dates & Times
All sessions 10 am – 12 noon (Melbourne time) on the following Wednesdays:
3, 17, 31 July
14 Aug
Fees
Standard rate $630
Concession rate $470
Participants from Global South economies are eligible for fairtrade rates – please email us at admin@anzpop.org to arrange this.
Cancellations
Location
Online on Zoom. The Zoom link will be emailed at least two days before the first session commences.
This is an experiential course and in the spirit of encouraging attendance and creating a safe-enough space, sessions are not recorded.
Professional Development points
This course meets the requirements for Category A, Continuing Professional Development points with PACFA.
We believe that it also meets the requirements for ACA, AASW, and APS, but if you are a member of these associations, please check to confirm as the PD frameworks differ widely.
Recordings
The course sessions will not be recorded.
ANZPOP acknowledges the traditional owners of the lands we live and work on, the Aboriginal Australian, Torres Strait Islander, and Maori peoples. We pay respect to their elders past, present and future. We give thanks for the wisdom of these peoples that has informed the Process Work approach. We honour the courage, resilience and spirit of traditional peoples in the face of the devastating impact colonisation has had and continues to have on their culture, wellbeing, and sovereignty.