Psychothérapie Intégrative: Formations et ateliers

Healing the neglects and traumas of childhood requires a psychotherapist who is attuned to each client’s levels of emotional and cognitive development. To achieve this form of personal development, psychotherapists, counsellors, and anyone working in the human relations fields need to be able to apply Child Development concepts and research findings in their professional practice.

This knowledge is helpful for professionals in all fields where a deeper understanding of the personality of the client is important. Dr. Erskine will teach a variety of concepts by using illustrations and he will also engage some participants in discussing cases from their own prac-tice for supervision. He may do personal therapy with some people to facilitate a discus-sion about the theory and methods used.



Dr. Erskine will cover these important subjects:

• Early childhood memory that is embodied in physiological sensations, entrenched in affect, or unconsciously enacted in relationships. Such memories are not available to conscious thought because they are prelinguistic, presymbolic, procedural, and implicit. However, these neurologi-cal imprints give rise to unconscious relational patterns that effect our clients in their adult lives.
• Physiological, emotional and behavioral signs of infant and parent relational disruptions are evident from the first few months of a child’s life and throughout adolescence. We may see subtle versions of these same self-stabilizing dynamics in adult clients when they tighten their bodies, agitate, avoid eye contact, or deflect from their feelings. Such behaviours may signal un-resolved relational disruptions in early childhood, that continue to create disruptions and conflicts later in adulthood.
• Generating methods that are attuned to an infant’s, young child’s, or school-age child’s par-ticular rhythm, their affect and cognitive level of functioning, and the unique relational-needs at the level of development where an adult client may be fixated. We need to be therapeutically re-sponsive to the withdrawn and silent client, the client who is either hypo- or hyperactive, as well as the client who is resistive or belligerent. Each of these behavioural manifestations may reflect the neglects and traumas that leave a person stuck at an earlier level of development.

This 4-day Zoom Master Class will focus on various methods of psychotherapy that are influ-enced by the theories and research in Child Development. We will explore various child devel-opment hypotheses and concepts that are based on the writings of John Bowlby, Eric Erickson, Selma Fraiberg, Jean Piaget, and Donald Winnicott as well as a number of current child de-velopment researchers.

Recommended reading to prepare for this workshop :

1) Moursund, J.P. and Erskine, R.G. (2003). Integrative Psychotherapy:
The Art and Science of Relationship. Pacific Grove: Brooks/Cole Thomson
Learning.
2) Erskine, R. G. (2015). Relational Patterns, Therapeutic Presence:
Concepts and Practice of Integrative Psychotherapy. London: Karnac Books.