“It’s a good thing to know that a glass is to drink from,
It’s a bad thing not to know what you are thirsting for.”

– Antonio Machado

 

Reading Books For The Upcoming Training Year

Reading That Supports A Dynamic Synthesis of Facilitation Skills,
Emergent Psychological Processes & The Hero’s Journey® Myth

Readings will be assigned prior to each training week.  They will be relevant to the skills being taught for that particular week.  I will do my best to keep the readings reduced to a manageable amount of pages.

I will also provide my personal book notes that I make for most of the chapters to be read, which are more abbreviated and condensed from the chapter content.  They will be posted on the readings page in PDF formatting for easy downloading.

BOOKS

VITALIZATION IN PSYCHOANALYSIS – PERSPECTIVES ON BEING & BECOMING – Amy Schwartz-Cooney & Rachel Sopher

This will be a foundational book for the year, and I will draw from a number of the book chapters over the course of the three training weeks.

Vitalization refers to the process between two people that ignites new experiences and brings withdrawn aspects of the self to life. This book focuses on how process facilitation can be a uniquely creative encounter that can aid the enlivening internal process in both client and practitioner, offering a vibrant new take on the project of transformation.

WHAT ALIVE MEANS – Thomas Ogden

In his new book, Ogden promotes that this way of working allows a person to experience life in a way that feels more real, more alive, more personal, more imaginative, and more one’s own.  Ogden is concerned with helping the patient reclaim lost and un-lived life – a life that one was not able to experience when it occurred because it was too painful, too confusing, and too dangerous at the time. He expands on what it means to be oneself in an authentic way and how  a vitalizing process can help achieve that goal.

ESSENTIAL  PSYCHODYNAMIC PSYCHOTHERAPY – AN ACQUIRED ART – Teri Quatman

This is a fresh addition to the book list, but a worthy one as well.  This book is one of the best I have come across that provides a straightforward and foundational framework for going deeper with clients.  It is honest, intimate and practical, and very readable.  It speaks to many key components of the training material, including Listening, Creating Space, Silence, Transference, Counter-transference, and the artistic application process of these fundamental concepts.

BECOMING A PERSON – Neville Symington

The goal of any worthwhile depth process is to come to know who you really are – to become your own person. Symington offers a deep and compelling exploration of narcissism, and those defensive processes that prevent one from ‘being a person’.  He emphasizes the need to harmonize three psychological axes – emotional experience, personal communication, and self-reflection.  He also stresses the importance of the practitioner being able to free himself or herself, while encountering the client.  His style of writing is compelling and readable.

THE AUTHORITY OF TENDERNESS – Paul Willams

This essential book introduces new perspectives on non-linear processes that allow for the healing and recovery of the loss of self.  Paul writes about the inherent healing power of hard-earned, wholehearted self-acceptance, which is conceived by embracing the authority of another’s, and eventually, one’s own tenderness toward the self.  He addresses fundamental human struggles with isolation, annihilation, shame, pacts, along with strokes of good fortune.

Paul humanizes deep human suffering, as he himself is a fearless explorer of some of the darkest aspects of the human psyche.