WENDY BRATHERTON
CONTACT US
Tel: 01760 724704
Mob: 07527 476878
wendy.bratherton@btinternet.com
WENDY BRATHERTON
BodySoul Workshops
WHAT IS IT?
BodySoul Therapy provides a way of bringing together and integrating psychotherapy and body work, creativity and neuroscience, attachment theory and spirituality.
During childhood, with the right kind of opportunities and upbringing, our sense of who we are can develop fully. This may enable us to express our unique potential and truly be ourselves.
But for many of us this does not happen and our lives are built upon a diminished and distorted sense of self, influenced by difficult experiences we've had or good experiences we didn't have, and by education, family and social pressures or a restrictive growing environment.
IMPORTANT
To attend a BodySoul workshop it is necessary to have had some experience of Psychotherapy and Body Work
Soul and Body are not two things, they are one.
CG Jung, Zarathrustra Seminars
BodySoul programmes
These are designed to enable us to explore our buried potential and become aware of the blocks which prevent us from living a creative and full life. Then they help us release those blocks and explore potentials which seem new but, in fact, they are inborn and natural to us - they were always there.
BodySoul work holds that the mind and body are inseparable and must be worked on together for healing and growth. In BodySoul programmes we listen to our body’s symptoms, pay attention to our unfolding dreams and see where we are stuck in our lives. We provide space for what is in our unconscious to emerge through movement, voice-work, painting, journal-keeping, creative ritual and mask-making.
The safety of the "sacred" space created in the format of the programmes allows the healing of old wounds and the emergence of new energies. This creative approach helps us open new neural pathways, allowing us to heal old wounds and to discover our previously unlived potential in a vital and empowering way.
BodySoul as a therapy
BodySoul Therapy is rooted in the psychological ideas of Carl Gustav Jung, further developed by Jungian analyst Marion Woodman, dance educator Mary Hamilton and voice coach Ann Skinner in Canada.
Aspects of the recent developments in neuroscience have been incorporated into the work, as have insights from attachment theory. This focuses on the early-life connections between a child and parent or carer, and the way our basic sense of security developed, depending on the nature of that relationship.
For your interest, here's the BodySoul Europe website.
BodySoul Workshops and Talks
Every Autumn in early November, my Colleague, Marian Dunlea and I run a workshop entitled “BodyDreaming and Clay”. Marian has developed BodyDreaming as a way of engaging with dreams through the body. I teach Qigong and together we help participants calm and regulate their nervous systems. We work with dreams, deep relaxation, art materials and movement. We also spend time making clay masks which help to bring the new dream energy through.
The four-day course is held at the Ammerdown Centre in Somerset.
During the Covid pandemic, we took this workshop online. It ran over several weeks and was very successful. We might repeat it again online this year, if it is not safe to meet in person.
We also ran other BodySoul courses online to help therapists with their own selfcare, while coping with the effects on their clients’ mental health during Covid. This was entitled “BodyDreaming and Qigong - Self-regulation and Dreams.”