5 Courses in Liverpool delivered Live Online

Polarization, or the “polarized mind,” is a fixation on one view, causing widespread destructiveness. It needs presence and love to address. We aim to explore the lived experiences on irregular perceptions of reality with an open mind. Each Saturday includes: a live dialogue between Prof. Ernesto Spinelli and an International Existential Therapist; a moment to share your thoughts and feelings with the teachers; and a final integration facilitated by Bárbara Godoy. This series of ten dialogues set out to explore the multifaceted dimentions and complexities associated with Existential Therapies. It attempts to engage with various interpretations of insanity through the lens of patients often painful, confounding, and deeply unsettling life experiences. Polarisation - between Prof. Ernesto Spinelli and Prof. Kirk Schneider “I view polarization or that which I call the “polarized mind” as the fixation on a single point of view to the utter exclusion of competing points of view, and I see it as a core dimension of human destructiveness both individually and collectively. Arguably, polarization or the polarized mind is responsible for more devaluation and abuse than any other general psychological dimension, and it crosses cultures, parties, disciplines and so-called diagnosed and undiagnosed populations. In fact it is the undiagnosed populations—polarized cultural, political, and religious leaders and their followers–who have arguably caused the most human destructiveness by far, over those whom we conventionally termed the diagnosed The polarized mind may be partly dispositional but appears to be largely fear-driven and requires abiding presence and love to address it. We are in a race against time to avail people to these “nutrients.” Prof. Kirk Schneider. Prof. Kirk J. Schneider, Ph.D. is a leading spokesperson for contemporary existential-humanistic and existential-integrative psychology. Dr Schneider was a 2022 Candidate for President of the American Psychological Association (APA), a co-founder and current president of the Existential-Humanistic Institute (an award-winning psychotherapy training center), and a two-term Member of the Council of Representatives of the APA. He is also past president (2015-2016) of the Society for Humanistic Psychology (Division 32) of the APA, recent past editor of the Journal of Humanistic Psychology (2005-2012), a founder and frequent presenter/facilitator of the bridge-building dialogue approach the Experiential Democracy Dialogue and a trained moderator for the conflict mediation group Braver Angels. Dr Schneider is also an adjunct faculty member at Saybrook University and Teachers College, Columbia University and an Honorary Member of the Society for Existential Analysis of the UK and the East European Association for Existential Therapy. He received the Rollo May Award for “outstanding and independent contributions” to the field of humanistic psychology from the Society for Humanistic Psychology, APA and is a Fellow of seven Divisions of the APA (5, 9, 32, 42, 12, 29, and 24). His work on existential-integrative psychotherapy has been featured in a special issue of the Journal of Psychotherapy Integration (March 2016), as well as The Wiley World Handbook of Existential Therapy and the APA’s forthcoming Handbook of Psychotherapy. Dr Schneider has published over 200 articles, interviews and chapters and has authored or edited 14 books including The Paradoxical Self, Horror and the Holy, Rediscovery of Awe, Awakening to Awe, The Spirituality of Awe, The Polarized Mind, The Handbook of Humanistic Psychology, Existential-Humanistic therapy, Existential-Integrative Psychotherapy, The Wiley World Handbook of Existential Therapy, The Depolarizing of America: A Guidebook for Social Healing and his latest volume (February, 2023) Life-Enhancing Anxiety: Key to a Sane World. Dr. Schneider’s work has been featured in Scientific American, the New York Times, USA Today, The Guardian, Vanity Fair, Forbes Health, Psychology Today, BBC World News and many other health and psychology outlets. Prof. Ernesto Spinelli was Chair of the Society for Existential Analysis between 1993 and 1999 and is a Life Member of the Society. His writings, lectures and seminars focus on the application of existential phenomenology to the arenas of therapy, supervision, psychology, and executive coaching. He is a Fellow of the British Psychological Society (BPS) as well as an APECS accredited executive coach and coaching supervisor. In 2000, he was the Recipient of BPS Division of Counselling Psychology Award for Outstanding Contribution to the Profession. And in 2019, Ernesto received the BPS Award for Distinguished Contribution to Practice. His most recent book, Practising Existential Therapy: The Relational World 2nd edition (Sage, 2015) has been widely praised as a major contribution to the advancement of existential theory and practice. Living up to the existential dictum that life is absurd, Ernesto is also the author of an on-going series of Private Eye novels. Date and Time: Saturday 12 April from 2 pm to 3 pm – (UK time) Individual Dialogue Fee: £70 Venue: Online Zoom FULL PROGRAMME 2025: 25 January “Knots” with Prof. Ernesto Spinelli and Bárbara Godoy 22 February “Healing” with Dr. Michael Guy Thompson and Prof. Ernesto Spinelli 22 March “Difference” with Prof. Tod DuBose and Prof. Ernesto Spinelli 12 April “Polarisation” with Prof. Kirk Schneider and Prof. Ernesto Spinelli 3 May “Character” with Prof. Robert Romanyshyn and Prof. Ernesto Spinelli 21 June “Opening” with Dr. Yaqui Martinez and Prof. Ernesto Spinelli 19 July “Meaning” with Dr. Jan Resnick and Prof. Ernesto Spinelli 25 October “Invention” with Dr. Betty Cannon and Prof. Ernesto Spinelli 15 November “Hallucination” with Prof. Simon du Plock and Prof. Ernesto Spinelli 13 December “Hysteria” with Bárbara Godoy and Prof. Ernesto Spinelli Read the full programme here > Course Organised by:

Recognizing the brilliance of someone psychological disturbance normalizes their experience and opens the door to transformative change. We aim to explore the lived experiences on irregular perceptions of reality with an open mind. Each Saturday includes: a live dialogue between Prof. Ernesto Spinelli and an International Existential Therapist; a moment to share your thoughts and feelings with the teachers; and a final integration facilitated by Bárbara Godoy. This series of ten dialogues set out to explore the multifaceted dimentions and complexities associated with Existential Therapies. It attempts to engage with various interpretations of insanity through the lens of patients often painful, confounding, and deeply unsettling life experiences. Invention- between Prof. Ernesto Spinelli and Dr. Betty Cannon “When I first saw the topic of this year’s dialogues, I asked myself whether I had anything to contribute. After all, I told myself, I do not usually work with psychoses or other so-called ‘extreme’ or’ irregular’ states of consciousness. This started me thinking about a series of demonstration videos that I have been making with students and supervisees over the last couple of years as part of a book project. Do those videos display ‘extreme states’? To my surprise, the answer is yes. They are filled with experiences that might be described as hallucinations (positive and negative), dissociative states, paranoia, delusions, manic and depressive states, crippling anxiety, schizoid withdrawal, depersonalization and derealization, and body dysmorphic phenomena. Not to mention the so-called normal neurotic trances that Freud called transference, countertransference and defenses, psychedelically induced extreme states, and those nightly hallucinations, our dreams. So why did I not remember at least some of these states as being ‘extreme’? Perhaps the answer lies in my perspective on therapy, which is largely existential-phenomenological. I think that the following quote, from a letter that Sartre wrote to R.D. Laing, captures the essence of this perspective: “Like you, I believe that one cannot understand psychological disturbances from the outside, on the basis of a positivistic determinism or reconstruct them with a combination of concepts that remain outside the experience as lived and experienced. I also believe that one cannot study, let alone cure, a neurosis without a fundamental respect for the person of the patient, without a constant effort to grasp the basic situation and relive it, without an attempt to rediscover the response of the person to that situation and––like you, I think––I regard mental illness as the ‘way out’ that the free organism, in its total unity, invents in order to be able to live through an intolerable situation.”* When a client and I together are able to appreciate the true brilliance of this invention, my experience is that it not only normalizes the client’s experience, it also opens the doorway to change. It allows us to invent something new.” Dr. Betty Cannon. Betty Cannon, PhD, is a licensed psychologist who has taught and practiced in Boulder, Colorado, for over 40 years. She is Professor Emerita of the Colorado School of Mines and president and founder of the Boulder Psychotherapy Institute, which has trained mental health professionals in Applied Existential Psychotherapy since 1989. In addition to existential philosophy, especially the philosophy of Sartre, AEP has roots in Gestalt therapy, classical and contemporary psychoanalysis, humanistic psychology (especially the person-centered therapy of Carl Rogers), and body-oriented psychotherapy. Betty is a member of the editorial boards of the Journal for the Society of Existential Analysis and Sartre Studies International. She is the author of Sartre and Psychoanalysis and numerous articles and chapters on existential therapy. Her mentor was Hazel E. Barnes, who translated Sartre into English and who was the world’s foremost Sartre scholar until her death in 2008. Betty is her literary executor, and her book on Sartre is dedicated to Hazel. Prof. Ernesto Spinelli was Chair of the Society for Existential Analysis between 1993 and 1999 and is a Life Member of the Society. His writings, lectures and seminars focus on the application of existential phenomenology to the arenas of therapy, supervision, psychology, and executive coaching. He is a Fellow of the British Psychological Society (BPS) as well as an APECS accredited executive coach and coaching supervisor. In 2000, he was the Recipient of BPS Division of Counselling Psychology Award for Outstanding Contribution to the Profession. And in 2019, Ernesto received the BPS Award for Distinguished Contribution to Practice. His most recent book, Practising Existential Therapy: The Relational World 2nd edition (Sage, 2015) has been widely praised as a major contribution to the advancement of existential theory and practice. Living up to the existential dictum that life is absurd, Ernesto is also the author of an on-going series of Private Eye novels. Date and Time: Saturday 25 October from 2 pm to 3 pm – (UK time) Individual Dialogue Fee: £70 Venue: Online Zoom FULL PROGRAMME 2025: 25 January “Knots” with Prof. Ernesto Spinelli and Bárbara Godoy 22 February “Healing” with Dr. Michael Guy Thompson and Prof. Ernesto Spinelli 22 March “Difference” with Prof. Tod DuBose and Prof. Ernesto Spinelli 12 April “Polarisation” with Prof. Kirk Schneider and Prof. Ernesto Spinelli 3 May “Character” with Prof. Robert Romanyshyn and Prof. Ernesto Spinelli 21 June “Opening” with Dr. Yaqui Martinez and Prof. Ernesto Spinelli 19 July “Meaning” with Dr. Jan Resnick and Prof. Ernesto Spinelli 25 October “Invention” with Dr. Betty Cannon and Prof. Ernesto Spinelli 15 November “Hallucination” with Prof. Simon du Plock and Prof. Ernesto Spinelli 13 December “Hysteria” with Bárbara Godoy and Prof. Ernesto Spinelli Read the full programme here > Course Organised by:

Introduction to Menopause (via Zoom)Course Focus:This comprehensive two-day course serves as an invaluable introduction to menopause care within the primary care setting. Understanding menopause, its effective management, and the ensuing implications for women's well-being are pivotal aspects for healthcare practitioners, particularly practice nurses who frequently engage with women facing menopausal transitions during their consultations.Course Highlights:Understanding Menopause:Dive into the core concepts of menopause, grasping its multifaceted aspects, and gaining a deep understanding of its physical, emotional, and psychological dimensions.Effective Menopause Management:Explore optimal strategies for managing menopause, equipping practitioners to provide well-informed guidance to women traversing this life phase.Short and Long-Term Implications:Delve into the implications of menopause for women's well-being, both in the short and long term, enabling practitioners to offer holistic care that addresses immediate concerns and promotes long-term health.Tailored Approach for Practice Nurses and AHP's:Recognize the pivotal role of practice nurses and AHP's in menopause care, understanding the specific challenges they encounter during consultations with menopausal patients.Competency Framework for Progression:Access a comprehensive competency framework that empowers nurses to work towards mastery in menopause care. This framework can be validated by experienced team members, fostering ongoing skill development.Dynamic Learning Environment:Through interactive sessions, case studies, and discussions, participants will engage in a dynamic learning environment that facilitates the absorption of knowledge and practical insights. The course encourages networking and collaboration, enabling practitioners to learn from both expert facilitators and fellow participants.Learning Outcomes:Upon completion of this two-day course, participants will be equipped to approach menopause care with heightened confidence and competence. Whether they occasionally encounter menopausal patients or engage with them more regularly, practitioners will leave with the tools and strategies to provide informed and supportive care, positively impacting women's well-being during this transitional phase.Target Audience:This course is tailored for a diverse range of primary care practitioners, including practice nurses, cervical sample takers, and those who regularly engage with menopausal patients without specialized training. All practitioners seeking to enhance their expertise in menopause care are welcome to attend.Day One09.15Coffee and registration09.30Introduction and course objectives09.40Physiology and definitions10.00Menopause symptoms10.45Coffee11.00What do we need to ask?13.00Lunch14.00Management Strategies: Hormonal and non-hormonal treatment of menopause symptoms14.30Diet, Lifestyle and Exercise14.30Complementary therapies15.00Case Studies 15.30Action plan, evaluation, and resources15.45CloseDAY 209.15Coffee and registration09.30Review of Day 1 and tasks09.45Women with special needs10.00Contraceptive options for peri-menopausal women10.45Coffee11.00What do we need to ask?13.00Lunch14.00Which HRT when and how14.30The older woman15.00Case Studies 15.30Action plan, evaluation, and resources15.45Close

This 8-week course is aimed specifically at promoting your overall health and wellbeing. Amanda will teach you some simple yet surprisingly effective techniques drawn from the Zen tradition to help you manage your everyday life.  These techniques will help you deal with stress, pain, improve your concentration and focussing skills and boost your general health and wellbeing.  Frequently asked questions Who is this course for? This 8-week course is suitable for anyone who is looking for an introduction to meditation and mindfulness. It is useful for those looking for ways to help cope with stress-related problems, depression, illness and pain. It is equally useful for anyone wishing to boost their health, wellbeing and general enjoyment of life. How much time do I need to commit during the 8-week course? Where is it? There is one class each week and it lasts for 1.5 hours. You need to commit to listening to just one 30-minute meditation every day. You can take the course in person at a small studio in Lincolnshire, convenient for Louth, Horncastle and Spilsby. Alternatively, I can deliver 1-to-1 and pair classes in your own home. Corporate clients - your venue. Online via Zoom. What do I need to wear and bring to class? Wear comfortable clothing. Nothing too tight that restricts you from relaxing. Please bring: Something to rest your head on like a small pillow A blanket You will be provided with: A welcome pack with course book 8 audio recordings of the meditations we do in class A cup of tea/coffee etc if you are in person with me as the kettle’s always on! How much does it cost? All prices are per person: Group classes (max 12) In-person: £180 Online: £160 Pair In-person: £200 Online: £180 One to one In-person: £250 Online: £230 What are your meditation qualifications? I am a graduate of the Zen Mediation and Mindfulness course for Health and Wellbeing (100 hrs) taught by Zenways. This course is accredited by the International Mindfulness Teachers Association (IMTA). Learn more:  Zenways IMTA How is this course different to MBSR/MBCT-based courses? This Zenways course is purely meditation and mindfulness based, with no admixtures of psychotherapy. The orientation is teacher-student rather than therapist-client. Although these practices are being used in the NHS and other healthcare settings, we take a much wider view of wellbeing, believing that it’s more than simply alleviating psychological distress or stress reduction.

Learn strategies to manage emotions to effectively mitigate negative emotional states that affect us beyond measure during Life Change and Transitions with believe-IN!