Boulder Psychotherapy Institute

Advanced Training in Applied Existential Psychotherapy (AEP) — since 1989

An Experiential Psychodynamic Gestalt Approach   •   Boulder, Colorado

Betty Cannon, Ph.D.

Boulder Psychotherapy Institute
1140 Lehigh St
Boulder, CO 80305

phone: 303 249 8840
website: www.boulderpsych.com

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Betty Cannon, Ph.D., is the president of the Boulder Psychotherapy Institute. BPI trains therapists in Applied Existential Psychotherapy (AEP). AEP interlaces the insights of contemporary existential and psychodynamic approaches with techniques inspired by Gestalt and other experiential therapies. Betty is its founder. She holds doctorates in both literature and psychology. She is Professor Emerita at the Colorado School of Mines and Adjunct Professor at Naropa Univesity and Regis University. She is the author of many articles and book chapters on existential therapy. Her book, Sartre and Psychoanalysis, is considered a classic in existential psychology. She has worked with individuals, couples, and groups in Boulder for over 30 years and trained therapists for over 20 years. Her long experience in the field has not diminished her passion for her work. She feels privileged to have shared so deeply with so many people over the years. Her life has been enriched by the courageous work of her clients and students.

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BPI Student Information

AEP Module I: Individual Therapy (April-Nov 2016) with Robyn Chauvin, M.A., L.P.C.

Applied Existential Psychotherapy (AEP) is an experiential psychodynamic therapy that interlaces the insights of contemporary existential and psychoanalytic/psychodynamic approaches with techniques inspired by Gestalt therapy and other experiential approaches. Each session includes a combination of didactic principles and experiential work and practice. The PDFs listed below include a list of suggested readings, class slides, and handouts and articles that you may want to read. The class normally meets twice a month on Saturday afternoons from 1:00 to 5:15 for a total of 60 hours. (First 15 minutes is social time.)

AEP Module II: AEP Relational Training (Friday Afternoon & Saturday Afternoon Sections)

Research shows that couples and relationship counseling is the least effective form of therapy. We offer an approach, based in a profound philosophy, that avoids the pitfalls of other therapies. Applied Existential Psychotherapy supports and elaborates the conclusion that John Gottman came to through longitudinal research with couples: Facilitation and support for individual and mutual meaning-creation is (or ought to be) at the heart of relational therapy. Using Jean-Paul Sartre's existential phenomenology, we teach you to invite clients to explore the twin poles of human existence: freedom and facticity (the circumstances of our lives) as these impact our relationships and ourselves. If we deny or overemphasize one or the other pole we may fall into 'bad faith' or inauthentic relating. If we try to suppress or control our own or our partner's freedom, we may end up with security at the expense of aliveness, spontaneity and desire. But if we overemphasize freedom, we may find it difficult to commit ourselves to a relationship or we may fail to develop care for our partner's needs and desires. Many couples approaches overemphasize either togetherness or differentiation. Applied Existential Psychotherapy takes both into account as the avenue to creating a more spontaneous, fulfilling, and intimate relationship style in which partners come to support each other's deepest desires and to create shared meaning in their relationship. You will learn to work with perennial relational issues in the context of an overarching philosophical framework. This larger framework is critical to therapy. It provides structure, meaning, and direction to all the techniques, methods, or interventions that the therapist may have at his or her disposal. Since existential phenomenology insists that all experience is bodily-lived experience, you will learn body-oriented as well as verbal interventions. You will also learn to explore family of origin issues as they impact current difficulties and collisions over relational meaning. Class has two sections: Saturday Afternoons, noon to 6:15, Mar - Aug (no meetings in May) & Friday Afternoons, 4 to 8:15, June 2015- Mar 2016 (no meetings in Sept orJan)

AEP Theory: Roots, Philosophy and Clinical Theory

This training meets once a month on Sunday afternoons, 4 to 8:15, November to October (no class in January or July). Applied Existential Psychotherapy (AEP) interlaces the insights of contemporary existential and psychodynamic approaches with techniques inspired by Gestalt and other experiential therapies. Explore the theoretical background of AEP with its founder, Betty Cannon. Sources will include Bettys book on Sartre and Psychoanalysis along with many articles and book chapters on existential philosophy, psychoanalysis and Gestalt. New material will include chapters in progress from the book Betty is writing with Reed Lindberg on AEP. Videotapes and experiential exercises will demonstrate didactic material.

Applied Existential Psychotherapy (AEP) - Gestalt and Beyond - Individual, Couples and Group Training with Betty Cannon, Ph.D.

AEP is an experiential psychodynamic therapy that interlaces the insights of contemporary existential and psychoanalytic/psychodynamic approaches with techniques inspired by Gestalt therapy and other experiential approaches. Each session includes a combination of didactic principles and experiential work and practice. The PDFs listed below include a tentative schedule of topics to be covered - with handouts for class and articles you may want to read. This class includes sections on AEP individual, couples and group therapy for a total of 76 hours. The workshop meets three times on Friday afternoons from 4 to 8:15 in November and December of 2010. First 15 minutes is gathering and social time. We meet three times a month on Friday afternoons from February through June of 2011. There are no meetings in January. Meeting Dates: Nov 19; Dec 3, 17; Feb 4, 11, 18, Mar 4, 11, 18, Apr 8, 15, 22; May 6, 13, 20; June 10, 17, 24 (We will schedule an extra session to make up for the missed session on Nov 5.).

 

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1140 Lehigh Street, Boulder, Colorado 80305  •  303-249-8840

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