Rachel Cook TSTA-P
Field of audience: All

Language: English
Level of audience: All

A vital and passionate life in all its fullness is about embracing change; finding personal meaning, empowerment and identity; and welcoming, accepting and celebrating the interconnected forces of life and death (Berne’s (1969) “eros” and “mortido”). Our work as therapists is therefore to help people make a positive difference to the world and experience life and relationships more fully, vibrantly and intimately by facing authentically their life, death, and erotic vitality. So often, however, these topics are surrounded by embarrassment, shame, avoidance, and fear, which can hinder the therapeutic and life journey. This workshop will be an opportunity for an honest, open and authentic exploration of our own relationship with death and all aspects of our diverse and erotic selves, and how we can work more courageously and effectively with our clients in these areas by taking ethical risks and through appropriate use of self-disclosure.
Rachel will use contemporary material from her upcoming book on “Existential Perspectives in TA”, her 2022 and 2023 TAJ articles, and the theoretical legacy left to us by Berne and other first and second-generation transactional analysts, to guide our explorations on the erotic and death. We will co-create our learning through discussion, clinical examples, and creative/experiential exercises, and discover together how we can help ourselves and our clients find greater meaning and purpose in the joys and challenges of the different stages of life and death, celebrate more fully our erotic selves, and develop a greater capacity to love, grieve, laugh, suffer, and connect to ourselves, others, the world and the spiritual.