The Workshop: AEP is an experiential therapy that interlaces the insights of contemporary existential and psychoanalytic/psychodynamic approaches with techniques inspired by Gestalt therapy and other experiential approaches. Many psychoanalytic approaches ignore the body, while many experiential approaches fail to take into account defenses, transference and countertransference issues. AEP takes into account the full spectrum of human experience - body, meaning, emotion, the impact of the past, and the choices that need to be made to create a different future.

This is our relational training module: It offers a fresh look at relationship issues, including some less conventional relationship styles such as open relationships, same sex couples, and polyamory. There is also a section on sex therapy. The purpose is to learn to work with people on the relationship style that they prefer-and to work to make that style more authentic and rewarding.

Location: 1140 Lehigh Street, Boulder, CO 80305

Dates: Saturday afternoons, Nov 2014 - Apr 2015 (no class in Jan)

Time: noon to 6:15 pm (first 15 minutes social time)

Cost: $1500 (It is possible to arrange a payment plan and to pay per group. Cost for all groups is $25 per hour or $150 for a 6-hour training group.)

Discount: 10% discount if you register and pay by Oct 15

Workshop Leader: Betty Cannon, Ph.D., Boulder Psychotherapy Institute President and founder, is a licensed psychologist and certified Gestalt therapist. She is the originator of Applied Existential Psychotherapy (AEP). She has worked with individuals, couples and groups for over thirty years and trained psychotherapists for over twenty years. She holds doctorates in both literature and psychology. She is Professor Emerita at the Colorado School at Mines and Adjunct Professor at Naropa University and Regis University. Dr. Cannon is a member of the editorial boards of three professional journals: Sartre Studies International, Review of Existential Psychology and Psychiatry, and Existential Analysis. She is an internationally known author, lecturer and workshop presenter. She is the author of many journal articles and book chapters on existential therapy. Her book, Sartre and Psychoanalysis, is considered a classic in existential psychology. She is the executive contributing editor for the section on Existential Psychoanalysis for the Edinburgh International Encyclopaedia of Psychoanalysis.

Assistant: Robyn Chauvin, M.A., L.P.C., is a senior member of the teaching faculty at the Boulder Psychotherapy Institute. She has 17 years experience and is a Licensed Professional Counselor, certified AEP therapist, and Board Certified Music Therapist. She has varied experience in hospice, inpatient psychiatric, and private practice psychotherapy. She is adjunct faculty in the Graduate School of Psychology at Naropa University. Her approach and methodologies include Gestalt, Applied Existential Psychotherapy, Psychodrama, and The Bonny Method of Guided Imagery and Music. Of particular interest is working towards wholeness with persons facing internalized oppression or complicated trauma. Ms. Chauvin is currently writing a book on Gender Construction and Freedom: An AEP Approach.

Topics

Existential Issues in Couples Therapy
Approaching the Issues: Putting Them on the Table
Working with Communication: I-Thou versus I-It
Bad Faith Versus Authenticity
Verbal Interventions
Body-Oriented Interventions
Family of Origin Issues in Couples Therapy
Cultural Issues in Couples Therapy
Reclaiming Projections
Transparency
Play Versus Seriousness
Cultivating Genuine Reciprocity
Transference in Couples Work
Countertransference in Couples Work
Working with Defenses with Couples
Moving between the Interpersonal and the Intrapsychic
Working with the Romantic and the Erotic
Sexuality: Body and Meaning
Alternative Relationship Styles: Same Sex Couples, Bisexuality, Transexuality, Swinging, Polyamory