The Lover's Journey - A Quest for the Inner Man and Woman

When: 
30/06/2018 to 07/07/2018
Time: 
see below
Where: 
The 'Slí an Chroí' Centre, Kiltegan, Co. Wicklow.
Contact/Bookings: 
Fergus / 021-4505711
Price: 
see below

THE LOVER'S JOURNEY is not - as the name might suggest - a workshop for 'couples'.  Instead it is a journey into the depths of our individual selves, based on the ancient concept of the Alchemical Marriage symbolised in the mediaeval woodcut above. During that journey we will come to know, to own and to unite the masculine and feminine archetypes which - regardless of our gender or sexual orientation - we all carry deep within.

As we move through the workshop we will explore and act out four fundamental aspects of ourselves - the negative and positive man and the negative and positive woman.  By bringing these images to life - and into contact with the other members of the group who are engaged in the same adventure of discovery - we can experience both their humour and their profundity.

By playing out these archetypes and having fun with them we will find that they become optional rather than obligatory.  At the climax of the workshop we will create a ritual of joining together these four facets of ourselves which must live harmoniously within us if we are to experience balance and wholeness.  By accepting and embracing these polarities, we open the door to a contact with others - and with ourselves - that is deeper, fuller, more real and more satisfying.

THE WORKSHOP will be led by graduates of Paul Rebillot's Advanced Training and is suitable for anyone with an interest in self-exploration or personal development. We will work using the uniquely creative and evocative Rebillot methodology that integrates Gestalt practice with elements of drama, movement, music, meditation, art and ritual in an original and powerful way. No previous experience of Gestalt practice is required or assumed.

PAUL REBILLOT, the creator of this workshop, was born in 1931 in Detroit, Michigan. Following an academic and professional career in the performing arts he trained as a Gestalt psychotherapist at the Esalen Institute under its co-founder, Dick Price. Price was the developer of Gestalt Practice, a less confrontational version of Gestalt therapy than that of Fritz Perls with whom he had trained. At Esalen Paul also came into contact with the mythologist Joseph Campbell, and from these two influences - together with his own uniquely creative insights - he developed the 'Hero's Journey', the first of a unique series of therapeutic structures – of which the present workshop is one – combining elements of theatre, Gestalt process, art, ritual, music and movement.  Annually from 1991 to 2008 Paul presented a series of very successful workshops in Ireland, among them 'The Hero's Journey', 'The Lover's Journey', 'Owning the Shadow' and 'Death and Resurrection'.  In March 2008, he retired from work in Europe, but continued to do training and consultancy work from his home in San Francisco.  Paul Rebillot died in February 2010.

ENQUIRIES OR FURTHER INFORMATION: Write to Fergus Lalor at 2 Harbour View Terrace, Summerhill North, St Lukes, Cork City, telephone 021-4505711 (answering machine) or e-mail to [email protected]

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