Professional training for those in the helping professions to explore what working with soul and spirituality means to them
Creativity / Community / Curiosity / Compassion Ritual / Reflective Practice / Respect Unconditional Positive Regard / Hope
What is Soulful Practice training?
The course will enable participants to experience a depth in their personal and professional selves, and to access their unique understanding of soulful practice through the framework of Anthroposophy, Person-Centred Approach and the Creative Arts Therapies. This will be experienced through creative and compassionate facilitation, held within a model of collaboration, community and ritual.
Where & When?
The training will take place online and in person fortnightly on Thursday evenings January 9th – July 3rd 2025 - See table below for full dates and course themes
Session times will be 6-9pm - The final session on 3rd July will be extended until 10.00pm to include a shared meal.
The course will be a mix of online and in person sessions held in east Bristol, address provided on acceptance.
Why Soulful Practice?
Wild Dandelion has recognised that we are currently living in a socio-political climate that is becoming increasingly fragmented and divided, that there is a push for individualism at a time in which people are feeling lost and disconnected. People are seeking belonging and finding it in ways that encourages tribal mentality and increases disconnect. This is set in the wake of a pandemic and within an environmental crisis – humanity’s soul is suffering and those in professions wanting to help are heading for burn-out. With this in mind Wild Dandelion has asked:
‘What can nourish, encourage and support humanity to move from division to connection, lostness to purpose, tribal mentality to compassionate community?’
‘What can we do to nourish, encourage and support those professionals who are driven to work with the discord and shadow at play?’
Soulful Practice training emerged from this enquiry with the aim of providing professionals who work in the helping professions with an opportunity to develop and deepen their relationship to soul and spirit, specifically in the realm of professional practice.
The aim of the training is to enable each participant to have a permissive space for their own soulful exploration, synthesising personal process with professional application.
Key components of the training:
Creativity
Community
Curiosity
Compassion
Ritual
Reflective practice
Respect
Unconditional positive regard
Hope
Who are the teachers / facilitators?
Teaching will be facilitated by the Soulful Practice team, experienced practitioners within the fields of Anthroposophy, Creative Arts Therapies and Person-Centred psychotherapy, the three main frameworks from which the content is delivered. It will be delivered by Wild Dandelion in collaboration with Relight harnessing their unique and practiced approach to facilitating CPD in the helping professions and years of experience working within the creative and person-centred therapies. Biographies of the facilitators will be provided once a place has been confirmed.
Key themes of the training:
Mapping the journey to this role, what is your calling?
Role of healer/helper from different perspectives and cultural frameworks
How do we define and construct soul for ourselves, in our practice and in society
How do we define and construct spirit for ourselves, in our practice and in society
Creativity and the creative process
Somatic awareness, felt sense and embodiment
Grief, loss, fear and love
The human condition
Reframing mental health
Full dates & themes:
Understandings of Soul and Spirit
Soul and Spirit will have unique meaning to each one of us dependent on your faith and cultural upbringing and present experiences. The purpose of this training is not to develop one definition for all to adhere to, but for you to find your own explanation within the multiple frameworks and lenses we will explore together. Nevertheless, it is important to start from a place of shared understanding of what we mean by Soul, Spirit and Spirituality.
Soul Our Soul lives within the centre of us, it is our ‘core organism’, it is the whole of us, more than flesh and blood, more than our conscious thought. Our Soul holds no agenda, it is intuitive, unconscious, creative, passionate, it holds our hearts desires.
Spirit Our Spirit transcends beyond us, reaches out from our centre, relates and connects to those around us, it is the true essence of who we are and how we exist in the world. Our Spirit finds its way beyond reality, beyond the world that has been created for us and can reach into unknown depths.
Spirituality Our Spirituality belongs to our faith however that looks – faith in humanity, ourselves, Mother Earth, God, Mohamed, Buddha, Jesus, faith in a notion etc. Spirituality is the embodiment of listening to our Soul, trusting how our Spirit transcends and moves through us, towards others and into the unknown.
'The therapeutic relationship is increasingly spoken of as spiritual. This is, I believe, an act which marks out particular moments. Yet, the notion of spirituality is also ineluctably vague. In order to speak of it in a more emotive way, a public language has to be found. This choice of public language is itself a spiritual decision, about the nature of reality. People with very different world-views may have similar spiritualities; those with similar experiences and belief-systems may show great spiritual diversity' (Worsley p.140)
Worsley, R. (2002) process work in person-centred therapy – phenomenological and existential perspectives. Hampshire: Palgrave
Cost:
£600 per person A deposit of £200 is needed to secure your place on acceptance
Application Process:
Please read the Application Criteria carefully before applying. To apply complete the Application Form and send to [email protected]