Centre for Existential Practice in Woollahra | Education

Centre for Existential Practice

Locality: Woollahra

Phone: +61 431 401 659

Address: PO Box 358 Paddington NSW 2021 Woollahra, NSW, Australia

Website: http://www.cep.net.au/

Likes: 565

Add/Update information

Reviews

Tags

• Education

24.01.2022 A thank you to Emmy for sharing her thoughts and existential ideas on supervision. A great outcome for everyone. Lockdown is teaching us all so much. Shame we couldn’t share the veggies...

20.01.2022 Thank you Leunig

15.01.2022 A story from Irvin Yalom (taken from UKCP Updates) I am writing this bit because with all these world issues going on sometimes we have to remember just how magical our work can be. Three years ago I was in Washington DC for PESI’s Psychotherapy Networker Symposium which is a three-day conference attended by some 4,000 therapists. For me, the highlight of the weekend was a talk by Irvin Yallom. He is a hero of mine because he recognises the delicate nature of psychotherapy an...d how it hinges on tiny moments of meeting and recognition. He was then in his eighties, a little Jewish guy in a suit that had once fitted but now hung from his diminished frame. He was shrunken but his voice was clear. So, here’s the story. A prospective client visits Yalom in his Manhattan offices. She says, 'Dr Yalom. I have come some way to see you because I hold you in high esteem. I have read all your books and I have seen you interviewed, and I know that you can help me. My life has been bad since the beginning. I was born in the slums to a terrible family, I have made money but emotionally nothing has ever gone right for me. I cannot get over my beginnings. I have had a lot of therapy, but no-one has ever really made a difference. That's why I have come to you. I know that you can help.' Yalom listens to her and then says, 'I am really sorry I cannot help you. I understand your issue but the therapy will take some time and that’s something I do not have. I am old and I doubt if I would live long enough to complete the work.' She pleads. He is unwavering. She leaves angry and upset. A few minutes later the doorbell rings. It’s a delivery from his publishers containing the unbound proofs of his memoirs. Yalom unwraps the parcel and carefully spreads the pages out over a large table. Then the doorbell rings again. The rejected client is back still angry. She had left her umbrella. He beckons her to follow him and leads her to the table and the manuscript. He points to a picture of a terrible New York slum property. They were both silent for a minute and then he says, 'That's where I was raised.' Something happens in the silence between them. She stares at the picture and then at Dr Yalom and her breath changes. Still in silence she slowly turns and leaves but there has been recognition between them. If that was where the man she admires so much was raised, perhaps there is still hope for her.

14.01.2022 Thanks to the pandemic and its economic fallout, we are all philosophers now. The slow cure, as philosophy has been called, is exactly what we need. This is ...philosophy not as metaphysical musing but as originally conceived by the ancient Greeks: practical, therapeutic medicine for the soul. See more

13.01.2022 Simone de Beauvoir is currently Philosopher of the Month at the Oxford University Press website. 12 journal papers and book chapters are free to read: http://bit.ly/OUPBeauvoir

07.01.2022 A little 'nothing' for the weekend

04.01.2022 Looking forward to welcoming Emmy and Digby if not in person in Sydney but in an online community environment.