Data centre infrastructure course description This course provides a foundation in data centre infrastructure technologies. It begins with a tour of virtualisation and the impact of this on the network before moving on to the spine and leaf design, how it works and how to scale. Layer 2 technologies enabling this architecture are studied in terms of the impact on the data centre. The course then progresses onto how Layer 3 technologies such as BGP, EVPN and VXLAN are used in data centre networks. The course then studies interconnecting data centres finishing with a section on automation and orchestration of both underlay and overlay networks. What will you learn Explain the spine and leaf architecture Recognise the impact of virtualisation, containers and orchestration on the network Describe how the following technologies are used in data centres: Multi port aggregation Overlay networks MBGP, VRFs, EVPN VXLAN COOP Data centre infrastructure course details Who will benefit: Staff involved with Data centres. Prerequisites: Network fundamentals for engineers Duration 2 days Data centre infrastructure course contents What is Ethernet? Data centres versus enterprise networks. Servers, Blades, Racks, Clusters, Storage, Virtual Machines, Hosts, guests, containers, orchestration. Virtual switches. Distributed switches. Live migrations (e.g. vMotion). IP addressing and VM traffic. Data centre network architecture Spine leaf design. North south traffic, East West traffic, Scaling: Ports, bandwidth. N+1 redundancy, ratio East West optimisation, oversubscription. 2 tier versus 3 tier Leaf/Spine. Pods. Underlay, Overlay L2 technologies STP vs link aggregation vs multi link aggregation. LACP, LLDP, CDP. Scalability. VLANs and VLAN pruning. L2 design recommendations. Disabling STP on edge ports. L3 technologies Underlay, Overlay, VXLAN, VTEP, VXLAN overlay forwarding, EVPN, IS-IS, COOP, MP BGP, VRFs, EBGP, IBGP, AS numbers, route reflectors. Anycast gateways. MTU considerations-for data and control planes. BUM traffic. Data centre interconnects Pods, fabrics, multi pods, multi fabric, multi site. VXLAN with BGP/EVPN Data center interconnect. Cloud integration, Inter Site Networks. Automation Automation and orchestration, Zero touch provisioning, Devops, Netops, telemetry automated configuration for underlay and overlay, SDN.
Essential EVPN training course description Ethernet VPN (E-VPN) and Provider Backbone Bridging E-VPN (PBB-EVPN) are emerging technologies providing Ethernet services over MPLS. This course studies the technologies in E-VPN/PBB-EVPN providing multi-homing, multi pathing, auto discovery, multicast, forwarding and fast convergence. What will you learn Differentiate between E-VPN and PBB-EVPN. Explain how E-VPN operates. Explain how PBB-EVPN operates. Explain how E-VPN provides: Multi homing Multi pathing Auto discovery. Essential EVPN training course details Who will benefit: Network engineers. Staff working for carriers. Prerequisites: Definitive Ethernet switching for engineers Concise MPLS for engineers Duration 2 days Essential EVPN training course contents Introduction to EVPN Network virtualization What Is network virtualization? types of virtual networks, network tunnelling, the consequences of tunnelling, packet load balancing, network interface card behaviour. maximum transmission unit, lack of visibility, VXLAN, protocols to implement the control plane, support for network virtualization technologies, merchant silicon Software, standards. The building blocks of Ethernet VPN A brief history of EVPN, architecture and protocols for traditional EVPN deployment, EVPN in the data center BGP constructs for Virtual networks, address family indicator/subsequent address family indicator, route distinguisher, route target, RD, RT, and BGP processing, route types, modifications to support EVPN over eBGP, keeping the NEXT HOP unmodified, retaining route targets, FRR support for EVPN, automatic propagation of NEXT HOP, RT/RD derivation, what Is not supported in FRR. Bridging with Ethernet VPN An overview of traditional bridging, overview of bridging with EVPN, what Ifs, why does NVE L3 get an advertisement for MACA? handling BUM packets, handling MAC moves, support for dual-attached hosts, the host-switch Interconnect, VXLAN model for dual-attached hosts, switch peering solutions, handling Link failures, duplicate multi-destination frames, ARP/ND suppression. Routing with Ethernet VPN The case for routing in EVPN, routing use cases in the data center, routing models, where is the routing performed? centralized routing, distributed routing, how routing works in EVPN, asymmetric routing, symmetric routing, VRFs in EVPN routing, summarized route announcements, BGP support for EVPN routing, comparing asymmetric and symmetric models, vendor support for EVPN routing. Configuring and administering Ethernet VPN The sample topology, configuration cases, configuring the MTU, the end first: complete FRR configurations, the Invariants: configuration for the spines, firewall, and servers, centralized routing, asymmetric distributed routing, symmetric routing, dissecting the configuration, configuring the underlay, configuring the overlay: FRR configuring the overlay: interfaces, examining an EVPN network, show running configuration, show BGP summary, show EVPN VNIs and VTEPs, identify which VTEP advertised a MAC address, comparing FRR and Cisco EVPN configurations, considerations for deploying EVPN in large networks.
Network virtualization training course description This course covers network virtualization. It has been designed to enable network engineers to recognise and handle the requirements of networking Virtual Machines. Both internal and external network virtualization is covered along with the technologies used to map overlay networks on to the physical infrastructure. Hands on sessions are used to reinforce the theory rather than teach specific manufacturer implementations. What will you learn Evaluate network virtualization implementations and technologies. Connect Virtual Machines with virtual switches. Explain how overlay networks operate. Describe the technologies in overlay networks. Network virtualization training course details Who will benefit: Engineers networking virtual machines. Prerequisites: Introduction to virtualization. Duration 2 days Network virtualization training course contents Virtualization review Hypervisors, VMs, containers, migration issues, Data Centre network design. TOR and spine switches. VM IP addressing and MAC addresses. Hands on VM network configuration Network virtualization What is network virtualization, internal virtual networks, external virtual networks. Wireless network virtualization: spectrum, infrastructure, air interface. Implementations: Open vSwitch, NSX, Cisco, others. Hands on VM communication over the network. Single host network virtualization NICs, vNICs, resource allocation, vSwitches, tables, packet walks. vRouters. Hands on vSwitch configuration, MAC and ARP tables. Container networks Single host, network modes: Bridge, host, container, none. Hands on Docker networking. Multi host network virtualization Access control, path isolation, controllers, overlay networks. L2 extensions. NSX manager. OpenStack neutron. Packet walks. Distributed logical firewalls. Load balancing. Hands on Creating, configuring and using a distributed vSwitch. Mapping virtual to physical networks VXLAN, VTEP, VXLAN encapsulation, controllers, multicasts and VXLAN. VRF lite, GRE, MPLS VPN, 802.1x. Hands on VXLAN configuration. Orchestration vCenter, vagrant, OpenStack, Kubernetes, scheduling, service discovery, load balancing, plugins, CNI, Kubernetes architecture. Hands on Kubernetes networking. Summary Performance, NFV, automation. Monitoring in virtual networks.
I want to discuss the existential-phenomenological challenges of viewing the human condition and explore alternatives for openness. 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. Opening- between Prof. Ernesto Spinelli and Dr. Yaqui Martinez “From my early days studying psychology, I never felt comfortable with psychopathological nosologies. They seemed exaggerated to me and demonstrated the intense human desire to classify all possible expressions of our existence. Likewise, I have not been comfortable with the tendency to promote dualistic perspectives that compartmentalize our reality into separate aspects where one is not only different from the other but even in opposition, such as the sane/insane dichotomy. During this dialogue, I want to talk with Ernesto about the difficulties involved, from an existential-phenomenological perspective, in viewing the human condition from this position. Perhaps we can ask ourselves together what advantages they offer and what alternatives for openness we can propose.” Dr. Yaqui Martinez. Dr. Yaqui A. Martínez-Robles is a psychologist with Masters, PhD and PsyD in Psychotherapy. He has training in Gestalt Therapy; Music Therapy; Transpersonal Psychology and Holotropic Breathwork (with the Grof Transpersonal Training Association); Narrative and postmodern therapies and Social Constructionism; and in Psychedelic-Assisted Therapy (with the Integrative Psychiatry Institute and MAPS-Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies). He is the author of four books, and co-author of another two, focused on the existential perspective. He has participated with chapters in several books and with articles in several journals. Yaqui is the founder of the Circle of Studies in Existential Therapy, in Mexico City and in Medellin, Colombia,. He teaches existential-phenomenological psychology and therapy in Mexico and different countries of South America. He is the current president of the Latin American Association of Existential Psychotherapy (ALPE). He works in private practice as an existential-phenomenological therapist and coach, in modalities one-on-one, couples and groups. 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 19 June 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:
Duration 2 Days 12 CPD hours This course is intended for The primary audience for this course is any IT, facilities or data centre professional, consultant and/or those who work in network cabling system design, implementation and operation. Overview With few exceptions, enterprises today rely on IT for the delivery of business-critical services - often directly to the end consumer. It is therefore vital that the mission-critical data centre is designed, maintained and operated with high-availability and efficiency in mind. Among all the facilities, network cabling is the foundation for the network and one of the major contributors to the availability of the data center.CNCDP© is a 2-day course designed to expose participants to in-depth knowledge in designing and installing the data network cabling system which includes key subject matters such as; technical standards, designing of different cabling sub-systems, calculation of material requirements, architecture, installation, testing and acceptance. Introduction to Structured Cabling System (SCS) Brief history of SCS Basic copper and fibre transmission Copper and fibre cabling Single and multimode fibre Step/graded index multimode fibre Difference between Commercial Wiring and data centre cabling Development of standards Role of standards ANSI/TIA 568 standard Common standards The new usage of cabling to support Smart building Horizontal and Administration - Commercial Building Standard diagram recap: ANSI/TIA-568 Functional elements and example Scenario A: Determine the number of work areas Scenario B: Determine the number of user locations Zone wiring Administration: Interconnect and cross-connect Angled and flat panels Creating a cabling schematic design Convert schematic into physical layout Calculating the material list Horizontal and Administration - Data Centre Standard diagram recap: TIA-942 Basic/Reduced/Typical data centre setup Traditional 3 layers network design/ Spine and Leaf network design Select termination hardware Administration design ToR/EoR/Spine & Leaf cabling design Network and cabling resiliency Create cabling schematic design for ToR/EoR Convert into patch panel/rack layout Calculate the material list for ToR/EoR Building Backbone - Commercial Building Backbone diagram Calculate the copper backbone requirements per Telecom Room (TR) Calculate the fibre backbone requirements per Telecom Room Summarize the building backbone requirements Recognised cables Backbone Patch panels The maximum backbone distances Create cabling schematic design Converting the schematic design into patch panel/ rack layout Building Backbone - Data Centre TIA-942 based backbone topology TIA-942 backbone requirements Recognised backbone cable ToR/EoR/Spine and Leaf Backbone distance estimation Resiliency of backbone cable routes Creating cabling schematic design Converting the schematic design into patch panel/ rack layout Field and Fusion Termination for fibre connectors Pre-terminated fibre trunk and copper cables Architectural Considerations ANSI/TIA569-D Cable pathway and spaces Common requirements for the rooms Definition of the rooms Entrance Room/Demarcation Ceiling and floor pathways types Cable trays/basket/ladder/conduit Inner duct/sleeve/slot Calculating of pathway size Cable run best practices Cable management/AIM Grounding and bonding Separation distance requirements for copper cabling to power cabling Fire stopping Fire rated barrier Fire rated jacket cable Campus / Outdoor Backbone Common campus cable installation and cable types : Aerial cable / Direct-buried / Underground in-conduit Outdoor cable installation planning Lightning / surge protection Approved ground for surge protector Creating a schematic diagram Converting a schematic into a physical layout Site Inspection and Testing Visual site inspection notes Installation common issues Copper testing standard Permanent link / Channel / Patch cord / MPTL testing configuration Fibre connectors Fibre testing standard Tier 1 & 2 certification Fibre link definition Fibre testing steps Fibre inspection and cleaning Calibrating the test sets - 3 methods Setting up mandrel for testing Fibre loss budget calculation G.657 Bend insensitive fibre Optical Time-Domain Reflectometer (OTDR) Exam - Certified Network Cabling Design Professional (CNCDP©) The exam is a 60-minute closed book exam, with 40 multiple-choice questions. The candidate requires a minimum of 27 correct answers to pass the exam. Additional course details: Nexus Humans Certified Network Cabling Design Professional (CNCDP) training program is a workshop that presents an invigorating mix of sessions, lessons, and masterclasses meticulously crafted to propel your learning expedition forward. This immersive bootcamp-style experience boasts interactive lectures, hands-on labs, and collaborative hackathons, all strategically designed to fortify fundamental concepts. Guided by seasoned coaches, each session offers priceless insights and practical skills crucial for honing your expertise. Whether you're stepping into the realm of professional skills or a seasoned professional, this comprehensive course ensures you're equipped with the knowledge and prowess necessary for success. While we feel this is the best course for the Certified Network Cabling Design Professional (CNCDP) course and one of our Top 10 we encourage you to read the course outline to make sure it is the right content for you. Additionally, private sessions, closed classes or dedicated events are available both live online and at our training centres in Dublin and London, as well as at your offices anywhere in the UK, Ireland or across EMEA.
“Meaning-Fullness” critiques traditional psychiatric diagnosis, advocating for an existential/phenomenological approach to mental health. 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. Meaning- between Prof. Ernesto Spinelli and Dr. Jan Resnick “Meaning-Fullness aims to develop an alternative approach to traditional psychiatric diagnosis of psychopathology through an understanding of the existential vacuum and a phenomenology of language and the body. There is a growing epidemic of mental un-wellness even though there has never been so many psychiatrists and psychologists available. This contradiction demonstrates how a bio-medical approach is far too limited at best and a radical mistake, at worst. Through the use of theory, philosophical discussion and case studies, Meaning-Fullness seeks to elaborate how mental disturbance and emotional suffering, traumatic and dissociative experience, emptiness and meaninglessness, can be understood differently and then worked with in psychotherapy. When an existential/phenomenological perspective informs the therapeutic relationship, terms like treatment, healing, cure, recovery, growth and development, can be seen in a different light from the standard narratives and take on a wholly different meaning.” Dr. Jan Resnick. Dr. Jan Resnick is a senior psychotherapist, supervisor, and author. He has a PhD in Psychology (Psychoanalysis). As founder and Director of Training, he ran a Nationally Recognized and Accredited Registered Training Organisation called The Churchill Clinic for 18 years which became the largest such organisation in Australia for conferring post-graduate qualifications for training Psychoanalytic Psychotherapists. He was the Founding President of the Psychotherapists & Counsellors Association of Western Australia where he later received an Outstanding Achievement Award after serving 10 years on the Management Committee. He was an Editorial Advisory Board Member of the national journal Psychotherapy in Australia for 20 years and currently, an Advisory Board member of Blue Knot Foundation (formerly ASCA – Adult Survivors of Child Abuse). He is accredited by the Royal Australian New Zealand College of Psychiatrists to supervise psychiatry registrars in psychotherapy and has taught in the Advanced Psychotherapy Training Program. He has presented at many conferences including last year in Valencia, Spain for the International Association for Relational Psychotherapy and Psychoanalysis, also for the Mental Health Practitioners Network of Australia, and 3 times for the RANZCP Psychotherapy Section bi-national conference. He runs a supervision group for Psychiatrists practicing psychotherapy for the past 15 years and supervises Developmental Paediatricians at the State Child Development Centre in West Perth. He has presided over 4 mental health charities and has over 100 publications including two books. His book based on his clinical work as a couples’ therapist is How Two Love, Making your Relationship Work and Last. His latest book published by Karnac Books (Oxford) is called Meaning-Fullness, Developmental Psychotherapy and the Pursuit of Mental Health, an existential/phenomenological and relational approach based on his clinical work over more than 47 years. 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 19 July 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:
Learn Tai Chi at your own pace with expert guidance. Sessions conducted via Zoom and In-Person, subject to mutual agreement.
A starting point to this series of dialogues on insanity, where we will be analyzing R. D. Laings brilliant book "Knots". With Bárbara Godoy 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. Knots - between Prof. Ernesto Spinelli and Bárbara Godoy “As a starting point to this series of dialogues on insanity; I wanted to return to R. D. Laings brilliant book which was originally published in 1970. Knots consists of a series of dialogue-scenarios that can be read as poems or brief plays, each demonstrating the intricacies and insanities of human relationships. I would like to expand on Laings insights by exploring the professional relationship between therapist and client as yet another human relationship that, while constantly expanding (and expounding on) its intricacies, might do well to pay more attention to its accompanying insanities.” Prof. Ernesto Spinelli. 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. Bárbara Godoy M.A., Adv. Dip. Exi. Psy, UKCP accredited Psychotherapist and Supervisor, MBACP and SEA – Director of Therapy Harley Street. Bárbara’s academic experience in London since 2008 includes lecturing and researching on the theory and practice of Phenomenological Existential Therapy on Doctorate, MA and professional courses at the School of Psychotherapy and Counselling Psychology, Regent’s University and the New School of Psychotherapy and Counselling directed by Emmy van Deurzen. Bárbara has facilitated therapeutic Group Work internationally since 1997. The question about the meaning of Being-Woman was the topic of her thesis completed in 2005 and evolved into two main Women’s Groups: “Nine muses” and “Four Seasons” which she leads in addition to her individual private practice. Currently, as the clinical director of THS, Bárbara leads a team of over 20 professional practitioners in the area of Psychological services and Wellbeing consultancy. Bárbara is also the founder-director of THS’s Personal Development and CPD Programmes. Date and Time: Saturday 25 January 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:
I’ll share a case of visual hallucinations, showing how an existential-phenomenological approach helps understand their meaning and purpose. 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. Hallucination- between Prof. Ernesto Spinelli and Prof. Simon du Ploc “The phenomenon of hallucination has been a subject of debate for centuries. It has been suggested that its function was one of revelation or prophesy, and those who hallucinated were often considered to have a ‘sacred’ affliction. In recent times, their function, at least in the West since the Age of Reason, has been often been reduced to primary indicators of schizophrenia and other forms of psychosis. Lumped into the ‘core phenomena’ of schizophrenia, the concern is not so much what they are, or what they mean to the client, or even their content, but their treatment and control. I will present an excerpt from my own clinical practice with a client who presented with distressing visual hallucinations. This piece of work illustrates how approaching such irregular perceptions of reality from an existential-phenomenological perspective can provide a way of understanding their meaning and purpose within a client’s lived experience. I will suggest that such an approach also enables us to take a creative position regarding wider notions of sanity and madness, a position which enables us to navigate a path between, on the one hand, the medical model which typically focusses on reduction and management of hallucinations, and on the other hand, a Laingian view of hallucination as a route to ‘hyper-sanity’. Adopting such a path may enable us to work more confidently with clients when they present with unusual or disturbing perceptions.” Prof. Simon du Ploc. Prof. Simon du Plock is Senior Research Fellow at the Metanoia Institute, London. He was Head of the Faculty of Post-Qualification and Professional Doctorates at the Institute from 2007 to 2020, in which role he directed counselling psychology and psychotherapy research doctorates jointly with Middlesex University. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society for Medicine, a Foundation Member with Senior Practitioner Status of the BPS Register of Psychologists Specialising in Psychotherapy, and a Member of the BPS Register of Applied Psychology Practice Supervisors. He has been a BPS Chartered Counselling Psychologist and UKCP Registered Psychotherapist since 1994. He has authored nearly one hundred journal papers and book chapters on existential therapy, and he has co-edited Existential Analysis, the Journal of the British Society for Existential Analysis, since 1993. He was an editor of the 2019 Wiley World Handbook of Existential Therapy. He has lectured and trained internationally, and in 2006 he was made an Honorary Member of the East European Association for Existential Therapy in recognition of his contribution to cooperation between West and East Europe in the development of existential psychotherapy. His clinical and research interests include phenomenological research methodology, clinical and research supervision, existential pedagogy, and working with issues of addiction and dependency. 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 15 November 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: