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Letter from the President, Jeffrey Morrison
What's the difference between the clients that change and those who struggle to find their way forward? How is it some clients seem to sense inwardly while others stay on the surface or recycle familiar thoughts and emotions? What is it that brings change and how do we help facilitate that?
For me, the first and primary thing is to be present as another living being. That means setting my experiences to one side and my learning to the other and just being present with the person "in there." The next step is in being curious and sensing for an opportunity to reflect their experience back to them. Then I notice if they take the refection and pause and sit with it. In other words do they take a brief moment to sense inwardly to see if these words fit their direct concrete sense of "it." If they just skip over their experience and go on to explain their story or feel the same familiar feelings nothing new will happen.
Research by Dr. Eugene Gendlin and others at the University of Chicago discovered that improvements in therapy had very little to do with a therapist's orientation, specific techniques, or with the type of problems being addressed. Instead the important element of positive change had to do with "how" clients processed their experiences internally. They slowed down, became less articulate and checked their words with how the whole of a situation felt inside their body. Focusing developed out of this research as a way of articulating this inward bodily attention and teaching anyone how to access it.
Two simple examples:
I am sitting with a new client and she says "it's like ...well ...hum ...oh I don't know." I respond, "You know something about it. Just take a moment to gently be with what you are sensing and see if some words come." She does and is able to say something more that wasn't there a moment before. Something unclear was brought into focus when her body brought forth just the right words.
A male client is going on and on about how he hates feeling stuck. I ask him to sense "what it feels like in his body to be stuck." He says "It makes me angry." I say "some part of you is angry at being stuck, but what's the feel quality from the point of view of the stuck part? He pauses and brings his awareness inward. Then he says, "its like being in snow up to my waist."
Those words came from his holistic bodily felt sense of his situation. He experienced a shift in how his problem was held in his body followed by steps for change. He remembered a difficult time in his life with his father that had a similar feel quality. After exploring that felt memory he began to shift from anger to compassion for something in him that was stuck in just this way. He was no longer at war with himself. He could listen to his stuckness in just the way it needed for him to move forward.
You may not know Focusing but give this a try with whatever approach you use. Simply ask your client to sense how what they are talking about feels in the middle of their body. Encourage your client to pause and take some time to just be curious and let words come freshly. You may be surprised by what happens next.
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November Speaker
Friday, November 20, 2009
Dance/Movement Therapy,
Using Movement in Psychotherapy
Leif Tellmann, MA, ADTR, LMHC
Our first explorations of the world are through movement. Long before we talk, we move. We move through our lives, experiencing in our bodies thought, feeling and memory. Through movement we express our spiritual truths, our communal stories, our personal grief and joy.
The field of dance/movement therapy emerged in the 1950's as two historically divergent paths touched: the introduction of the body in psychotherapy (an example is Wilhelm Reich's use of muscular manipulation to address body "armoring" in response to stress and trauma) and the re-emergence of the psyche in American dance, as modern dance choreographers began to use emotional expressiveness as the basis of their work. As modern dance continued to form, some dancers and choreographers began to discover (or perhaps rediscover) the possibility of dance as a healing tool and as a way to better understand not only how we move, but also how we feel and who we are as people.
Since its formation, dance/movement therapy has recognized that the body and mind cannot be separated. While this concept was initially on the fringes of psychotherapeutic thought, addressing the body within the context of psychotherapy has now entered the mainstream, with prominent thinkers in our field embracing the idea. Today, dance/movement therapists use movement in many different ways with many different populations and goals.
This presentation will give an overview of the history and current practice of dance/movement therapy. Using case examples as well as live and video demonstrations I will show some of the various ways movement can be used to deepen and expand the therapeutic process. Participants will have the opportunity to participate in a simple movement experiential as a way to broaden their own skills and find new ways to process and understand their work with clients.
Participants will leave with:
1. An understanding of dance/movement therapy, its history and how it is practiced today.
2. An understanding of how and why movement is used in the private practice counseling setting.
3. An experience of how we, as therapists, can use our own bodies and movement as a way of deepening our understanding of ourselves, our clients and our therapy process.
Leif Tellmann, MA, ADTR, LMHC is a licensed counselor and dance/movement therapist in private practice in Seattle. He also directs the Creative Arts Therapies department at Kline Galland Home, a skilled nursing facility in south Seattle, and leads community workshops using movement, creativity and group process. Leif's counseling approach has been heavily influenced by his training in the mindfulness-based Internal Family Systems model as well as dance/movement therapy and Ecopsychology. Learn more about Leif and his approach, and also view his video about dance/movement therapy at www.StillnessAndMovement.com.
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December Presentation:
As is the custom for SCA in December, there is no presentation this month
Happy Holidays to All!
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Workshops and Classes
Relationships Are Hell: Is It True?
....Four questions that can change your life called The Work of Byron Katie offered in a one-day workshop on Saturday, November 7th, 9:30 - 5:30. Fee is $125. Participants will have the opportunity to focus on one troubling relationship in their lives, whether past or present. This relationship can be with a partner or former partner, family member, parent, sibling, child, or your body, food, money, career. Anything that brings stress to your life is appropriate. For more information see www.thework.com.
Grace Bell is a certified facilitator of the Work and has a private practice in Lake Forest Park, working frequently with young women with disordered eating, people of all ages troubled by divorce or the end of a primary relationship, and financial issues. Ask about partial scholarship space. Please contact Grace at gracebell@comcast.net or 206-650-1230.
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SCA Meeting Dates
2009-2010
Sept. 18
Oct. 16
Nov. 20
Happy Holidays!
no meeting in December
Jan. 15
Feb. 19
March 19
April 16
May 21
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SCA meets on the 3rd Friday
of each month (except July,
August & December) from
8 to 11 am at the
Swedish Cultural Center
1920 Dexter Ave. N.
More info: 206-283-1888, or
www.seattlecounselors.org
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CA Leadership Team
2009-2010
President
Jeffrey L.Morrison, MA
4505 - 44th Ave. SW
Seattle, WA 98116
Jeffrey@morrisontherapy.com
206.935.7850
Vice President
Gila Fein, MA
1812 E. Madison St., #106
Seattle, WA 98122
h: 425.881.1232
c: 425.941.0190
gilafein@comcast.net
www.feincounseling.com
Past President
AnnMarie Stankovich
MA, LMHC, NCC
444 Ravenna Blvd. NE, Suite 301
Seattle, WA 98115
amscounseling@comcast.net
c: 206.354.6384
www.amsbusinesscoaching.com
Treasurer
John Tran, MA
1812 East Madison Street, Suite 102
Seattle, Washington 98122
w: 206.617.2338
info@capitolhillcounseling.com
www.capitolhillcounseling.com
Secretary
Lorynann Nichols, MS, LMFT
Center for Couples & Family Healing, PLLC
11417-124th Avenue NE, #204
Kirkland, WA 98033
o: 425.889.0832
c: 206.290.8305
f: 425.827.6221
loryann@verizon.net
www.centerforcouples.com
Committees
Membership
Barbara Farwell Alexander
1914 North 34th St. Suite 500
Seattle, WA 98103
barbara@oasiscounselingseattle.com
206.949.7929
www.oasiscounselingseattle.com
Newsletter Editor
Grace Bell, MA, RC
17102 Brentwood Place N.E.
Lake Forest Park WA 98155
gracebell@comcast.net
206.829.8048
www.goodisnow.com
Programs
Dennis McCarthy, MA RC
1904 Third Avenue, Suite 315
Seattle, WA 98101
dennis@unstuckseattle.com
206.595.2659
www.unstuckseattle.com
Programs
Tony Barrick, Ph.D.
210 West Galer Street
Seattle, WA 98119
drtony@queenannepsychotherapy.com
206-718-4488
www.QueenAnnePsychotherapy.com
Web Liaison
Stephanie Bender
5029 - 11th Avenue NE, #204
Seattle, WA 98105
stephanie@stephaniebender.com
h: 206.853.8349
w: 206.259.9311
www.stephaniebender.com
Hospitality
Sarah M. Heath, MA
753 North 35th, Suite 204
Seattle, WA 98103
206.282.7223
sarahmary@mindspring.com
sarah@sarahheath.com
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Join SCA!
For membership information
and an application to join SCA,
please log on to our website:
www.seattlecounselors.org/
application.html
or call Barbara Alexander at
206.949.7929 or email her at
barbara@
oasiscounselingseattle.com
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Membership &
Meeting Fees
Annual
Membership Fees
Individual ...........$85.00
Agencies ..........$115.00
Student/Senior....$42.50
Half-year ............$42.50
(Apr.-Sept.)
Meeting Fees
Member .............$20.00
Non-member.......$30.00
Student/Senior....$15.00
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Mission Statement
Seattle Counselors
Association is a
professional community
of mental health counselors
serving the entire
Puget Sound region.
We challenge ourselves
to continue growing
in our work. We invite an
exchange among
diverse individuals and
disciplines, embrace
creative tension, support
the self-reflection that
underlies ethical practice,
and welcome
new practitioners.
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Meeting Schedule
8:00 Registration
8:15 Introductions
8:50 Networking
9:00 SCA business
9:15 Speaker
10:45 Networking
11-12 Board Meeting
(Open to all)
Refreshments provided!
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SCA Connections is the newsletter of the Seattle Counselors' Association and is published five times a year. All rights reserved© by Seattle Counselors Association. Submissions may be sent to gracebell@comcast.net.
Please use email for all inquiries and submissions. If you don't have access to email, call Grace at 206.829.8048 Design & Production: Spear Studios 206.621.0240
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Office Space AvailableFor Lease: Totem lake sublease available in beautiful 11 office psychotherapy suite. Days available in several offices. Subleasors would be part of an LLC with shared costs. Contact Julia Laibson @ 425-218-0745 or Ellie Hochman at elliemsw@verizon.net.
Seattle, Market Place One Bldg (2300 Western Ave. #340) Sublet beautiful view office 1.5-2 days/week. Fully furnished, shared waiting room, fax, copy, parking & easy access. Call Martha Lyttle @ 206/860-0155
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