Matthew Harwood

Resolving Internal Conflicts by Dialoguing With Sub-Personalities

One of the most effective ways of helping our clients to resolve their problems is to teach them how to access and relate to the sub-personalities which underlie the issues in question. By treating the inner world of the unconscious as a family system, and by engaging with the sub-personalities in an unbiased and compassionate effort to understand why they do what they do, in an ‘Internal Family Systems’ session the client learns that every part, no matter how negative it seems, actually believes that what it does is actually in the client’s best interest. And by learning to dialogue with our parts we learn how to release the burdens of pain and suffering that impede our chance to solve our problems and become who we truly are.

This revolutionary new way of doing psychotherapy, pioneered by Dr Richard Schwartz from the USA, is particularly helpful for working with the legacies of trauma.

Video Material demonstrating the method will be shown and there will be a live demo with a volunteer from the audience if time permits.

An Introduction to Working With Dreams

This 1-day workshop is designed for psychotherapists, counsellors & trainees who wish to study and practice the skills of working with dreams. Using a mixture of explanation, role-play and practice material supplied by me, the skills taught may be used by practitioners from any background or orientation.

Interested members of the public are also welcome to attend.

This workshop may be extended for a second day in which case there will be the opportunity to work on live dreams presented by members of the group.

A More Advanced Course on Working With Dreams

Designed as a follow-up to “Opening the Hidden Door”, this is a course for psychotherapists, counsellors and trainees who wish to extend their knowledge of the principles of dream interpretation and develop their skills.

Interested members of the public are also welcome to attend.

This workshop may be extended for a second day which provides the opportunity to work on live dreams presented by members of the group. 

Pesso Boyden Psychotherapy & Internal Family Systems

This 2-day workshop offers the opportunity to take part in a group process using two cutting-edge new ways of doing psychotherapy: Pesso Boyden & Internal Family Systems (IFS).  These powerful and effective, yet gentle and deeply respectful, new styles of working get to the nub of the issues underlying the presenting problem with a speed which is little short of astonishing. Each in their own distinctive way, they then go on to provide a deeply-felt emotional healing experience which enables the participant to overcome and resolve past traumas, wounds and losses.

Helping the Survivor to Process Their Grief & Move to Acceptance

‘My partner (recently deceased) visited me in my sleep last night.  It wasn’t a dream, I knew it was really him.’  How do we react, and what do we say, when our client presents us with a statement like the one shown above?  This workshop is designed for counsellors who wish to learn simple techniques for dealing with bereavement dreams brought by their clients.

It is also a useful introduction to learning how to work on one’s own dreams

Exploring Jung’s Concept of the ‘Animus’

The ‘animus’ was a term coined by Jung to describe what is usually referred to as the masculine aspect of a woman’s psych. It has a powerful role to play both (a) in terms of a woman’s outer life – where it assists or hinders her relationships and (b) in terms of her inner life – where it assists or hinders her psychological development.

Many of us have a fair idea of how the ‘animus’ is defined – in a theoretical kind of way. But how many of us really understand what is meant by integrating the ‘animus’ in practical terms? How does it manifest itself in actual life situations? Is it valid to talk about ‘the masculine aspect of a woman’s psyche’ or do we run the risk of falling into sexist, stereotypical thinking? How do Jung’s concepts stand up in the light of modern, feminist thinking? Whay do we tend to talk more about the negative ‘animus’ than its positive counterpart?

Illustrations will be drawn from literature and fairy tales including George Eliot’s ‘Middlemarch’, Emily Bronte’s ‘Wuthering Heights’, and ‘The Handless Maiden’.   

An Introductory Course in How to Interpret Your Dreams

In the Talmud it says: ‘A dream which has not been understood is like a letter which has not been opened.’

If we could only learn their language, we would find that our dreams speak to us with a profound wisdom which is capable of enriching our life, and challenging us to greater personal growth.

This workshop is for all those who would love to learn to interpret their own dreams or those of their partner or friends.

A Small But Significant Portal Opening Up to True Change

Over many years of working as a Jungian Analyst, I have become more and more convinced that true change only occurs when something happens inside the body at the cellular level.  In the depths of the body there is an inner wisdom, an inner ‘knowing’, that communicates itself – for those who know how to tune into it – by something called the ‘Felt Sense’.

Eugene Gendlin, the founder of the style of psychotherapy known as ‘Focusing’, was the first to develop the concept of the ‘Felt Sense’, although many other schools have adopted it.   He has written:-

‘A Felt Sense doesn’t come to you in the form of thoughts or words or other separate units, but as a single (though often puzzling and very complex) bodily feeling …. It is an unfamiliar deep-down level of awareness…’ (‘Focusing’ pp 32-33)

This workshop will consist of explanation, video demos and practical exercises exploring the theme of the ‘Felt Sense’ and its relationship to self-development.

The Fundamentals of Jungian Psychology

This course consists of two weekend workshops. It is suitable both for complete beginners, and for those who have more knowledge and experience and wish to deepen their knowledge of the fundamental principles.

Illustrative material will be drawn from dreams, fairy tales, and well-known literary classics.

Why Can’t I Change?

We’re at a dinner party and one guest says something which is apparently quite innocuous, but another guest flies into a fury. What has happened is that the first guest has accidentally trodden on one of the second guest’s complexes – quite a big one by the sound of it.

One of the most important ways in which Jung was able to study complexes and how they work was through administering the ‘Word Association Experiment’. Undertaking such an experiment leads to creating a fascinating map of one’s complexes and how they interrelate.  Not often used today, but it can be a valuable process of self-discovery for somebody undergoing a Jungian Analysis.

The study of complexes is so important to Jungian Psychology that at one time Jung actually wanted to call his school of psychology ‘Complex Psychology’.

This workshop (3 hours or 1 day) unpacks the concept of the ‘Complex’ and provides a fascinating introduction to how a ‘Word Association Experiment’ works and what it’s capable of revealing.