PDW 2024 | Fear & Anxiety; Joy & Excitement - The Dance of Aliveness or The Dance of Dysregulation

More details about Track 1 (with Fina Pla)

Track 1 is for newly graduated CBTs and those preparing for graduation. The objective of the workshop is learning about oneself as therapist and about the theme.

I see fear and anxiety (dysregulated states), joy and excitement (regulated states, as the two ends of a continuum. In Track 1 we will explore how fear and anxiety can be worked from a bioenergetic perspective including the contributions from neuroscience and polyvagal theory. As we know well, each one of us comes from childhood experiences where fear and anxiety were possibly present and which prevented us from connecting with the other end of the continuum, with experiences related to joy and excitement, in order to feel more alive.

We will work on our personal stories, to feel and express those feelings, digest and make sense of them, opening then the possibility to connect with more aliveness, joy and excitement and in doing so, we will then be able then to work on these issues with our patients.

We will explore this material through therapy and supervision sessions, group dynamics, transference and countertransference issues, practical exercises and theoretical contributions with the aim that participants can move in the continuum and get closer to feelings of joy and aliveness in their lives.

About Fina Pla: Clinical psychologist, psychotherapist, supervisor, trained in Gestalt therapy, Relational Psychoanalisis and EMDR. Member of ACAB (Associació Catalana en l'Anàlisi Bioenergètica), coordinating local trainer for the last two training programs of ACAB (2013-18) and (2018-22), and International trainer of IIBA since 2021. Co-author of two books, author of several articles, some of them published in the IIBA journal, has presented workshops in IIBA conferences and in other institutions. Interested in the application of Neuroscience and Polivagal Theory to bioenergetic therapy and lately curious about the application of psychedelics to the therapeutic setting for post traumatic stress disorder and resistant depression.

More details about Track 2 (with Margit Koemeda-Lutz)

Track 2 is for CBTs who have four or more years post-certification. who are interested in a post-graduate experiential learning process, going deeply into a theme. Supervision of work done during the PDW and developing supervision skills such as creative use of counter-transference will be covered in this Track.

In Track 2 we want to stimulate exploration into bioenergetic working with fear and anxiety. It is for CBTs who want to learn about themselves as therapists and about the theme. An introduction to anxiety disorders will be given concerning symptoms, etiology and treatment possibilities.

Therapy sessions done in the group or reported from own clinical practice and presented by role play will be discussed and supervised.  Attention to the management of transference and the effect of counter-transference on the therapeutic process will be explored.

Super- and intervision work will alternate with exercises that are related to fear and designed to give way to experiential sequences. While focusing on fear and anxiety we hope to also touch moments of joy and excitement, and eventually make for our personal dance of aliveness.

About Margit Koemeda-Lutz: Dr. Dipl.Psych. Margit Koemeda-Lutz, psychologist, psychotherapist, supervisor, IIBA faculty member, coordinating trainer in Switzerland since 2003, workshops and key notes at psychotherapy conferences in Switzerland, Austria, Belgium, Germany, at IIBA conferences; author and editor of papers, journals and books on body psychotherapy; reserach on the effectiveness of body psychotherapy.

More details about Track 3 (with Guy Tonella)

That can be “The dance of Aliveness”. | That can also be “The Dance of Dysregulation”.

Track 3 is for Supervisors, Local Faculty and International Faculty applicants, who are interested in experiential learning process for supervising and teaching about the theme such as introductory material, somatic structure and process, therapeutic process, transference; counter-transference are some examples.

The polyvagal theory of S. Porges introduces to the dance between Sympathetic, Dorsal and ventral Parasympathetic nervous system, a dance between the extremes of hyperexcitation and hypoexcitation. This dance invites us in Track 3 to enter the world of attachment traumas, meeting schizoid and oral characters, also borderline disorders and, finally, all kinds of factual traumas that may occur later.

How to increase aliveness, how to decrease dysregulation? | How to dance for pleasure not for suffering? | How to calm fear and anxiety and defrost joy and excitement? | Presenting exercises? | Exploring clinical cases? | Supervising? | Exploring theoretically?

… Attachment, Trauma, Sexual Identity, Grounding the Self, Inhabiting the body… And…?

Abut Guy Tonella: Doctor in Clinical and Developmental Psychology, graduate in Psychophysiology; teaching Psychology during 20 years at the University-Toulouse (France); belonging to the Collège Français d’Analyse Bioénergétique (CFAB-France); current IIBA trainer in France, Spain, Italy, Brazil, Argentine, China. Guy published several books and numerous articles.