Biographical Keys and Life Phases - Module 1-1

Taking Charge of my Life's Journey

Life Phases is the Foundation Seminar for Life Pathways Biography (Life Story Work) Training. Taken as a single workshop the seminar gives valuable insights into the themes, changes and turning points in our lives. It strengthens and deepens our self-knowledge and provides keys for future change and growth.

These personal aspects taken further into

professional development have been found by many therapists, teachers, facilitators and consultants to offer a new perspective on everyday experiences. To see everyday experiences as part of a whole  life  picture can result in a deeper understanding of the connections and patterns between outer and inner life and this in turn opens new approaches to their work.

The course process leads from systematic work on one’s

own biography, as a fundament for working with others, through themes related to destiny and social interaction, to preparing participants to facilitate Life Story Work with individuals or groups.

Life Story Work contributes to resilience and health by strengthening the 'Sense of Coherence' (A. Antonowsky), resulting from the ability to make sense of life, to relate, to be part of life events and to contribute meaningfully to life situations.

The seminars are based on reflexive research developed by

Rudolf Steiner (1861-1925), Bernard Lievegoed (1905-1992), Gudrun Burkhard, Aaron Antonowsky, Coenraad van Houten and other contemporary writers, therapists and educators.

Typologies - Module 1-2

Temperament, Soul Type, Themes and Patterns in Life

Two archetypes are guiding images for this workshop: The four-fold archetype of the temperaments which are, for example related to the elements earth, water, fire and air and the seven-fold archetype of those seven planets which are visible without telescope.

Seven Qualities and Rhythms, derived from the archetypal image of the seven Planets are introduced as windows for creatively exploring events, cycles and qualities in human biography and personality. The Seven Soul Types each give a distinct soul colouring which influences us in the way we meet people and situations. Insights into the Four Temperaments help us to understand habitual patterns. The way our Temperament and Soul Type interrelate, affects many aspects of our lives including our inner balance. We will gain insights such as why some of us seem to have a natural inner balance and others appear to be in constant inner and outer battles.

In addition to the qualitative typology planets also offer guiding images to order themes and cycles in life. Themes include: Family, race, heredity, physical (body) constitution (Moon); balance between health and illness, humour (Mercury); love of the earth, nature, animals, children, care, nurturing, devotional and religious experiences (Venus); life encounters with people, places and situations, relationships (Sun); initiative taking, use of language, ability to start and finish, resistances, obstacles (Mars); knowledge, wisdom, structure, ordering, education, vocation, done with joy and sense of fulfilment (Jupiter); memory (holding the vision), sense of mission, taking up a spiritual pathway/perspective, carrying through (Saturn). Possibilities to map life charts depicting these themes and patterns will be explored.
Other typologies i.e. MBTI, DISC and Jungian Typologies will be introduced and compared to complement the seven and fourfold image.

Facing Personal Challenge - Module 1-3
Destiny Learning

This workshop pursues questions of destiny, revealing how the Double or Shadow can be understood as a Destiny Signpost and helper. The exploration starts with individual examples of repeated unsuccessful patterns in our lives where usually we repeat what works well for us. We follow a Seven Step Transformative Process that encourages an empathetic viewing of how we meet challenging events in our own characteristic ways. Blind Spots can become more conscious and learning opportunities can be taken up where previously we may have experienced only an obstacle.

The approach presented on this workshop has been originally researched and developed by Coenraad van Houten who also introduced the term 'Destiny Learning'. Being an adult educator he saw formal learning processes happening in schools and universities as 'Learning for Life' and 'Destiny Learning' as 'Learning from Life', if we are ready to take ourselves on as a 'Life Learner'. In this context Karma or Destiny is seen as part of everyday life and a spiritual reality. The theme will be explored through seminar content, supportive small group work and by creating imaginative pictures.

Life Encounters and Relationships - Module 2-1
Dependency, Independency, Interdependency - Anima and Animus

How are relationships formed and sustained, changed and dissolved? We consider the meaning of family experience, childhood and adolescent relationships, partnerships, friendships and collegial contacts. What is the deeper meaning of relating and solitude? In reviewing developmental themes and social attitudes we aim to deepen our understanding of difficulties and possibilities that can arise.

During this course on relationships we will take evolutionary-biological, socio-cultural, psychological-soul and spiritual perspectives to look at femininity and masculinity as qualities and polarities, and how they influence human relationships. The family is seen as the primal experience and mould for the life-theme "relationships", which will be looked at through the window of "Dependency - Independency - Interdependency". Further themes will be love, partnership, marriage and their development and meaning. We will also introduce developmental phases of relationships.

The Helping Conversation - Module 2-2
Four Levels and Seven Qualities in Encounter and Conversation

In this course we practise how to follow thoughts, sense messages and grasp underlying motives in conversations. The course aims to help us become aware of the different approaches we can take to meet daily interactions in life more consciously and effectively. Communication skills are introduced through the exploration of seven approaches derived from seven planetary qualities. By emphasising the importance of authentic interaction, we aim to widen our range of listening and responsiveness. We also focus on how to create open spaces and open questions.

The morning group work helps to become more aware about how thinking, feeling and willing are expressed in the context of statements we will listen to.
The afternoon group work aims to develop fundamental skills for Helping Conversations.  We will start with strengthening our awareness of crucial first impressions. We will then follow the thread through the conceptual level on to the emotions and finally to the motives and will-impulses underlying the spoken words.  Finally we practice how to hold and maintain a process and bring it to a close.
This approach has supported many professionals employed in helping and consulting professions. It may also support those who work with adolescents, parents, or teachers.

Meeting Conflict - Module 2-3
Ways to Recognising and Working with Conflict Patterns

In this seminar we will explore the potential for self-development in the challenging encounters with other people.
Typical incidents out of personal experience will be explored to find individual patterns and personal styles of action and reaction in conflict situations. We will also look at constructive and destructive forces influencing conflict situations, the dynamics and escalation of conflicts and how it can be insightful to consider the conflict partner's perspective. The seminar encompasses experiential work and group dynamics as a training element.

A Seven Step Learning and Transformation Process will be introduced and applied, the starting points being individual conflict situations. Participants are asked to bring notes about small conflicts that have happened to them and which could be used as learning material during the course.
Fundamental ideas for this workshop have been derived from Friedrich Glasl's book 'Confronting Conflict', and Rudolf Steiner's indications regarding Spiritual and Subterranean Hierarchies and Carl Gustav Jung's work on the Shadow.

Trials and Thresholds in Everyday Life Module 3-1

Reflecting on Peek-, Abyss- and Transition Experiences

Mozart's opera 'The Magic Flute' depicts trials as incidents within a formal initiation process. Modern consciousness has stepped beyond these formal initiations, but trial-like incidents appear as part of daily life. In difficult life circumstances we may feel as if we are losing the ground from under our feet, being swept away by a wave, or feeling consumed by a fiery experience.

How do we find ways to live with the increasing uncertainty of con-temporary existence and how can we discover in the uncertainty a truly creative, albeit demanding source of potential?

On this course we aim to distinguish the distinctive nature of contemporary "trials" that confront us as individuals within cultural life and compare these with the old pictures of "fire, water or air trials." What does the expression "humanity is crossing the threshold" actually mean in this context? <Double: How do we find ways to live with the increasing uncertainty of contemporary existence and how can we discover in the uncertainty a truly creative, albeit demanding source of potential>. Phenomena related to the elements - fire, water, and air - connected to the Trails will give the foundation to explore the theme on different levels up to a spiritual perspective and back to everyday life.

Mental Health - Crisis and Challenge - Module 3-2
Learning and Therapeutic Approaches to Life Story Work

This seminar helps us to better recognise when someone may be facing a mental health crisis and needs accompanying or help to find appropriate treatment. Through seminar presentations and by using own life experiences as illustrations we aim to cultivate an empathetic under-standing of 'mental crisis or illness' in order to better accompany individuals carrying this as part of their biography.

We learn main indicators for metal crisis to be aware of in consultancy or counselling situations. We discuss what defines Mental Illness, taking into account Carolin Myss' message of a possibly healthy 'Spiritual Madness', indicating a spiritual experience or a chaotic transition phase of inner development.

Our aim is not treatment, but helping participants to be more able to recognize signals possibly indicating mental health issues and to develop empathetic attitudes for accompanying somebody going through a crisis.
Please be prepared to share personal - or personally observed - experiences which shed light on some of the conditions we will be looking at.

There will be more presentation than usual on our workshops but these will be interwoven with group work and sharing in plenum. We will also look at how any of us can be affected at some points in our lives by an inner crisis that maybe the touchstone for change, albeit it may be a difficult and challenging experience.

Life as a Spiritual Journey - Module 3-3
Spirituality - Cult - Religion
Striving for a Meaningful Life - Finding my Place and Contribution

Spirituality is part of the 'here and now', not otherworldly, pre-birth or after life. Images taken from world myths and fairy tales - including contemporary movies - suggest that the development of our 'silent self' is nourished by a 'water of life' which can be found as hidden treasure within the 'ordinary world'. Exploring our biographies we can trace life-giving, life-supporting and life-changing influences, and learn how to call on them more consciously.
We also reflect and share about meaningful texts and practices from the variety of backgrounds represented between us. This might include poetry, verses, meditations, prayers and guidelines for inner work or dynamic meditations we met and found valuable.

So skim through your collections and bring books, texts, postcards, photos, poetry, verses, music, meditations, prayers, guidelines for inner work or spiritual practices, or any items which -
•       Illustrate your journey
•       What you practiced
•       What you found valuable
•       Or what helped you through situations of inner turmoil, outer challenges and transitions.
Hopefully we will share a rich variety from many different backgrounds and indications for very different purposes - from Anthroposophy via Dervish Dances to Zen Meditation. Please honour your full journey not just your current path; bring 'artefacts' as symbols for some pivotal incidents or moments. A usual fruit of this workshop is, that we return home with heads, hearts and hands full of 'spiritual gems' collected and shared between us and we never know in advance how something we carry brings meaning to another person's experience.

Requirements:

Applying for the Foundation or other individual modules

Requirements for undertaking the full training

• Professional qualifications and/or relevant working experience

• Recommended minimum age: 28

• Interest in a spiritual perspective on human development

• Preparedness to participate in supervision and peer-supervision

Facilitator

Application for Enrolment:

For the foundation module and other individual courses

For the full training

Enrol Here