Embodied approaches to Life and to Therapy

This month I reach my 78th birthday, and for me this marks a new and (I hope and intend) a productive phase in my life. 

Some wise person said:

"Live as if you would die tomorrow, 

and study as if you would live a hundred years."

If spared, I plan to work for the next seven years, in a measured way, and then at 85, turm more towards reflection, contemplation and reminiscence.   For some years now it has been my wish and intention to reach the age of 93 "practising Tai Ji and wondering about the future."  (At 63 I calculated that this was about 10,000 days away- a big but finite number. Now I am almost halfway there.)

However: "Man proposes, God disposes."

I hope during this time to pass on some what I have learned, and am still learning, about an embodied way of living; about the unavoidable clash of opposites and their power to generate new, unimagined, creative possibilities; about authenticity, authority and integrity; mutuality, respect, dependence, independence and interdependence; about Self-directed learning and about collaboration; and about the Socratic dictum that "wisdom consists in knowing that one does not know..."

What do I mean by "work" for this seven year period?

It is a while since I retired as a Supervisor, and even longer since I was in practice as a Somatic Trauma Therapist, or Body Psychotherapist.  I shall not be returning to that kind of regular and relatively intense personal commitment.  I have been enjoying having more space and freedom in my life.

Instead I plan to build a practice offering support and guidance - mostly in the form of Mentoring and/or Coaching - to people already set on some personal path of helping, creating, exploring.  Using Jungian terminology I want to work with people already engaged in a process of Individuation. The phrase that came to me was: Healers, Creators, and Seekers.   I am thinking of people who have made and want to make a contribution, and at the same time pursue their own personal Growth.

In practice this means:

• creating a Coaching and Mentoring offer for 2019
• developing the Self-Directed Learning (SDL) Model that has informed past workshops  (New Forest 2015, Lesbos 2017) into a an online course, with additional coaching on offer
  
  • delivering two SDL workshops, a weekend (MAR 15-17  New Forest,) and a week in Greece (SEP 13-20, Thassos)
  • creating an online SDL programme
• promoting Self-Esteem, and beyond that  (mutual) Human Esteem, as a foundation for Peacemaking (so sorely needed just now) through work based on the book Able & Equal; a gentle path to peace by Denton L Roberts.
• continuing to encourage people to experience how Embodiment, Awareness and Aliveness enrich their lives through the Radix Workshop programme (at least through 2019), and by supporting the Radix Institute Training Initiative.
• creating a programme for the Self-Care of Helping Professionals
• working as a Trustee in the Champernowne Trust on behalf of a Jungian perspective that acknowledges the depth of the Psyche, the power of imagination and creativity, and the scope ( and constraints) of human possibility.

Michael Gavin