CEU Courses
PsychoEmotional Self-Care for the Health Professional
PsychoEmotional Self-Care for the Health Professional
- Course Summary
As health-care practitioners, we choose to enter into a daily exchange with our client’s pain and suffering. This is a great service to others.
How do we take care of ourselves in this process? Many embrace physical workouts or body disciplines as a way of shedding stress and promoting health. Yet, what do we do for our minds? Read? Listen to music? Watch TV/movies?
This one-day course will present two very powerful techniques for calming, energizing, and clarifying our minds. Participants will learn and practice:
1- Mindfulness Meditation – the practice of resting/abiding in basic being
2- The Intentional Work of Logosynthesis. Logosynthesis is an integrative system for guided change, which allows for the recognition and systematic resolution of self-limiting patterns.
The goal of this course is to provide the participant with two immediately applicable methods for mind-training, that can be easily integrated into one’s daily life.
PsychoEmotional Self-Care for the Health Professional
[Morning Outline/Schedule]
Mindfulness Meditation
Definition of Terms: Consciousness; Brain; Mind
Consciousness – a byproduct of spirit entering dense matter (Tiller); the “knowing” faculty, that which “knows” the object (Damasio);
3 Levels of Consciousness (Dalai Lama):
1. gross level – the brain – integrating the multiple streams of sensory info along with mental activity;
2. subtle level – mind – the stream of thoughts, feelings, imagery, and impulse/intensity;
3. very subtle level – stillness – the experience of consciousness without thought.
· These definitions are in contrast to scientific reductionism/ materialism, which states that consciousness, or mind, is the by-product of the brain’s neural synapses (Kandel).
Mindfulness - Definition
· The deliberate directing of attention to any object. Mindfulness is what we use to hold our minds to any object;
· The quality of noticing;
· 3 qualities of mindfulness:
1. Familiarity
2. Remembering
3. Non-distraction
Passive vs. Active Attention
· Conventionally, the definition of the word “attention” includes: concentrated direction of the mind; consideration, notice, observation.
· However, in the Buddhist tradition of mind-training, it is pointed out that there are two kinds of attention: passive attention and active attention.
1. Passive attention is a reactive process, involuntary, in which we are passive participants in the experience. The object of attention is the active agent, and we are lost in a sequence of thoughts, feelings, imagery or memories. Passive attention is unstable – it is a reaction to a stimulus. A common example of passive attention is watching TV or a movie, or listening to music.
2. Active attention is the volitional, pre-verbal experience (does not involve thought or intellect) of directing attention at a chosen object. It is stable, non-reactive, vivid and clear. The energy of active attention disrupts habitual patterns and dismantles them. “Active attention is the door through which we step out of a life of reaction and habituation, into a life of presence”.
[Experiential – Give Mindfulness Meditation Practice]
4 Stages of Mind-Training
Stage 1: Struggle, Distraction, Resistance
• My personal issues kept on interfering and it was difficult to keep my mind clear and focused on the patient as a whole being, part of the whole.
• I found it challenging to keep my mind clear during the meditation.
Stage 2: Settling, Engaging Active Attention
• Felt it really calmed my mind, slowed me down.
• During the breathing, I became more conscious of the now, me, and what was around me.
Stage 3: Contemplation, Insight, Letting Go
• “Be Still and Know” – this is so much the heart of what we do, what we are, as osteopaths.
• It seemed easier to synchronize patients with the presence of the PRM, and maybe it is a coincidence, I felt a shift of consciousness in a lot of patients today.
Stage 4: Deepening, Maturing, Joyful
• Recognizing stillness as a doorway through which we can see, hear, feel… and know this mysterious Presence.
• Today with one patient I could really feel the “presence” in the patient and outside, it felt so beautiful. She said to my secretary, “I want to come back soon because I found someone who truly understands me.”
[Experiential – Mindfulness Meditation Practice]
[Afternoon Outline/Schedule]
What is Logosynthesis?
Logosynthesis is an integrative system for guided change, which allows for the recognition and systematic resolution of self-limiting patterns. It helps people solve problems in everyday life, and opens the door to fulfillment and success.
Logosynthesis uses the power of intention through words to facilitate change.
Where We All Start
We are Essence,
Beings beyond body and mind
We enter this world
as a True Self with a task
The Four Principles
1. Suffering is primarily the result of a lack of awareness of our true nature and our task in this world.
2. Awareness of our true nature is reduced by introjection and by dissociation.
3. Introjects and dissociated parts and are rigid energy structures in space, rather than abstract concepts.
4. The power of words (logos) allows us to dissolve these rigid structures, and use our life energy freely for our life task.
[Exercise: Think of a situation in which all your life energy was fully available to you. Note: when did it take place; where did it take place; who was with you? Share your experience.]
Energy Flow and Defense Mechanisms
- Introjection and Dissociation
Primary Dissociation occurs because specific interactions/experiences can’t be processed and integrated into one’s sense of self. The ensuing frozen reaction results in the creation of an “introject” – a representation of a memory of the outer world. This assists in creating predictability regarding otherwise painful/traumatic events.
Introjection and dissociation always occur together, creating a “frozen world”. Dissociation is a splitting off/fragmentation of a part of one’s conscious life energy. This manifests as: physical sensations and symptoms; thoughts, convictions and beliefs; habitual behavioural patterns; habitual emotions; fantasies, etc.
This blocks the natural, effortless flow of energy, information and awareness. Interruption of this flow causes suffering. In time, awareness of the Original Essence is lost.
[Dissociation Exercise: Remember a painful experience. What effect does this memory trigger in your body? Where in your body or in the space around you do you notice this response? How does this differ from your experience of when all your life energy is available to you?]
The Basic Procedure of Logosynthesis
- stuck energy can be set free by using the power of intention through words
Processing in Logosynthesis
· Logosynthesis enables one to dissolve rigid thought forms, to clear one’s personal space and to perceive its boundaries
- The Basic Procedure
- I retrieve all my own energy, bound up in —X—, and take it back to the right space within my Self.
- I remove all not-me energy, related to —X—, from all of my cells, all of my bodies, and from all my personal space, and send it back to wherever it really belongs / into the Light / to where it can do no more harm.
- I retrieve all my own energy, bound up in all of my reactions to —X—, and take it back to the right space within myself.
[Practice the Basic Procedure individually. Share experiences with others. Repeat.]
Interested individuals either contact Peter at 422-3760; or email at: peter@eastwindhealth.com
Course offered by Peter Goodman, DO (MP), MA, RMT
The hours of the course are 9-12:30 and 1:30-5.
Course Cost is $125.00
Start:Saturday 23 October, 10 09:00 am
End:Saturday 23 October, 10 05:00 pm
Location: