10th - 11th March 2011 - Chichester, West Sussex
In this workshop inspired by the work of Charles Faulkner and George Lakoff, Andrew T. Austin demonstrates how to overcome stuck states and create effective movement towards your personal goals. "Not enough people pay attention to their mode of transport," Austin explains, "in trying to move forward in life, people need to know in which direction they are heading and how far they need to go in order to reach their goal. The way they transport themselves towards that goal is vitally important and of course it is their body that is their transport."
"Attending Metaphors of Movement was enlightening and I think you have
began to add a very important intervention to a Therapists tool box and
created another model for creating personal change. Focusing on
behaviour and what we do when in a situation that is causing distress is
liberating and as designed enables movement instead of inertia and
sometimes paralysis. The content was clearly delivered and as always
with fun and humour." J. Bissett
Clients often arrive in therapy complaining of a lack of movement in their lives, both metaphorically and literally. Common expressions of how the person feels that reflects this lack of movement include:
- I feel stuck
- I don't feel like I am going anywhere
- I am stuck in a rut
- I feel like I am going around in circles
- I'm not making any progress at all
- I am not moving forward
- I feel like I am going backwards
There are many expressions that reflect a lack of movement in a person's life. In addition to this, many people lack direction:
- I don't know where I am going
- I don't know which way to turn next
- I feel lost
- I lack direction in life
- I feel disorientated
- I feel like I'm going the wrong way in life
- I don't know the right way forward
Instead of paying attention to these metaphors of movement and direction, all too often in therapy there is an excessive attention paid to the kinesthetic system and the emotions. As a result we often find a person who finds themselves unable to move forward until they have the right feeling in place.
It is often noticed that many martial arts and systems of physical movement are highly philosophical in nature, an example that is well known to many people is from Aikido, where an opponents movement is not blocked, but instead is redirected. In this Metaphors of Movement workshop, Austin demonstrates the relationship between the way a person moves their body and the way a person moves through their mind and through their life.
"Wow! I have just returned from co-training with Andy Austin in the Advanced Mastery Training sponsored by Tools For Transforming. I would have gladly given up my training days to Andy so that I could have learned even more (and I can’t recall saying something like that before—ever.)
When I edited Andy’s extraordinary book, The Rainbow Machine, I kept thinking, “How on earth did he know that would work?” Now I know at least some of the answers to that question...
Metaphors of Movement is a very effective—and easily learned—development of one aspect of “Clean Language” that provides a way of getting people “unstuck” with a multitude of problems—particularly useful with clients with very little access to their internal experience, such as seriously depressed clients." Steve Andreas
IEMT Practitioners may note that from May 2010 Advanced Practitioner status in Integral Eye Movement Therapy can be acquired by any certified IEMT practitioner attending the 2-day Metaphors of Movement workshop, and either of the following one day masterclasses:
- Dealing with Chronicity
- Game Theory and Systems Design
