Empowered Feminine

Mythology presents visual depictions of what empowers human beings and this workshop explores the empowerment of the feminine in Indian mythology and compares it to the innate power of the therapeutic relationship and its links to the feminine. What do we really do as practitioners at an unconscious/subconscious level? Do you think that the mainly silent listening position of the practitioner is at times understood as uselessness? Is a talking therapy also an embodied therapy? Are therapeutic professions mainly for women? Negative and toxic elements in the therapeutic interactions affect the psyche and body of the practitioner and could be termed as occupational hazards of therapeutic work. This workshop will explore with group work what we ‘take’ from others – ‘toxic’ elements such as greed, anger, frustration, despair etc. which are unwittingly absorbed in caring professions. These are embodied phenomenon, rather than situated only at verbal and/or mental level. In short, we do not practise just a ‘talking cure’ but an ’embodied cure’! The aims of this workshop are:

• To feel more empowered in your caring role.
• To develop a creative understanding of the toxicity you are working with and how to work with it better.
• An exploration of descriptions such as ‘slut’, ‘vampire’ etc. traditionally associated with ‘bad’ femininity through a psychoanalytic lens.
• To enable participants to feel rejuvenated through live dance demonstrations.

This workshop is open to qualified and training psychotherapists and counsellors and mental health practitioners. Comments from a previous workshop with Smita Rajput Kamble: “The day was gently led – and to some powerful places. However, it was fun and enlivening.”  “Learning this way is uplifting and inspiring.”