This training meets once a month on Friday afternoons, 4 to 8:15, November to October (no class in January or July). Applied Existential Psychotherapy (AEP) interlaces the insights of contemporary existential and psychoanalytic approaches with techniques inspired by Gestalt and other experiential therapies. We will explore the theoretical background of AEP - including roots, philoaophy and clinical theory.

Sources will include Betty’s book on Sartre and Psychoanalysis along with many articles and book chapters on existential philosophy, psychoanalysis and Gestalt. A chapter on "Applied Existential Psychotherapy (AEP: An Experiential Psychodynamic Approach" appears in a new book on Existential Therapy: Legacy, Vibrancy and Dialogue, edited by Laura Barnett and Greg Madison (Routledge, 2011). New material for this class will include chapters in progress from the book Betty is writing with Reed Lindberg, In the Spirit of Play: Applied Existential Psychotherapy (AEP). Videotapes and experiential exercises will demonstrate didactic material.

When: Monthly, Fri Afternoons, Nov 2011-Oct 2012 (no meetings in January or July)

Where: BPI 1140 Lehigh St., Boulder, CO 80305

Time: 4-8:15 pm (first 15 minutes social time)

Cost: $1000

Discount: 10% if you register by November 4

The Workshop Leader: Betty Cannon, Ph.D., Boulder Psychotherapy Institute President and AEP founder, is a licensed psychologist and certified Gestalt therapist. She has worked with individuals, couples and groups for over 30 years and trained psychotherapists for over 20 years. She is professor emerita of the Colorado School of Mines and adjunct professor at Naropa University. Betty is a member of the editorial boards of three professional journals: Sartre Studies International, Existential Analysis, and Review of Existential Psychology and Psychiatry. She is an internationally known author, lecturer and workshop presenter. Her book, Sartre and Psychoanalysis, is considered a classic in existential psychology. She is the author of many journal articles and book chapters on existential psychotherapy. She is currently writing a book with Reed Lindberg on Applied Existential Psychotherapy: Theory and Practice.

Topics to Be Covered

Why Do Theory?

Existence Precedes Essence: The Philosophy of Sartre and the Practice of Psychotherapy

Encountering the Past, Discovering Divisions in the Self, Emphasizing Relationship: Psychoanalytic Roots

Empowering the Client: Gestalt and Other Experiential Influences

Encountering What Is: Phenomenological Emphasis

Beyond the Unconscious: Reflective and Prereflective Consciousness

Good and Bad Faith: Lying to Ourselves as a Ubiquitous Human Phenomenon

The Centrality of Bodily Lived Experience: The Body For-Itself and For-Others

Playing and Human Development: Sartre and Winnicott

Past, Present, Future: Temporalization and Meaning Creation

Defenses, Transference and Countertransference: Actions Not Mechanisms

Beyond Transference and Countertransference: The Real Relationship

Choosing and Re-Choosing: Purifying Reflection and the Process of Change

Confronting Nothingness: Playfulness, Existential Anxiety, and the ‘Psychological Instant’

The Aim of Therapy: Repudiating the Spirit of Seriousness and Embracing the Spirit of Play