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Welcome to the Lifespace Institute!

 

There are spaces available for those wishing to join the Professional Counsellor Training Program.

To contact us:   please email us at coordinator@lifespace.ca

 

The Lifespace Institute is located in Toronto (central west) and offers skills training courses in Counselling and Human Relations.  

 

Training is provided in Life-Centred Transformational Counselling(TM), a holistic methodology that integrates rich processes from a full spectrum of methodologies, emphasizing the experiential, humanistic, and transformational. All levels of inner work are covered: the somatic (body), mental, emotional, and spiritual. Practical skills training is the focus.

 

Upcoming Professional Counsellor Training Courses for 2010

 

SCHEDULE

 

(1)  Course 623: Advanced in-the-Body Processing and Self-Maintenance will be 5 Saturdays spread out: Feb. 6 & 27, Mar. 13 & 27, and April 10. Time: 11am-6:30pm. (Make-ups available for missed classes.)

 

(2)  Course 634: Transformational Healing of Past Wounds(TM) and Transformational Belief Work(TM) will be 5 Saturdays spread out from April 24 to about June 19. Time: 11am-6:30pm. (Make-ups available.)

(Exact dates to be determined in consultation with those who register.)

 

COURSE DESCRIPTIONS

 

Courses are in-depth, yet the material is broken down into digestible steps, which are demonstrated, discussed, and then practised in class and at home, with the assistance of Training Manuals. Home practice is recorded for supportive and specific feedback in class. Learning is thorough, occurring on many levels, including, the conscious and the subconscious; the professional and the personal.

 

Your own in-depth healing journey (plus learning how to maintain the transformational direction in daily life) is an integral part of this program . A mutual support and facilitation network is also created.  In fact, some people study at Lifespace for these personal elements alone.

 

Course 623: Advanced in-the-Body Processing and Self-Maintenance:

Personal Empowerment:

  • Self-Maintenance: 
  • Andreas' Core Transformation: a streamlined parts work method that is especially easy to apply for working with oneself, and for keeping the transformational direction active in daily life.                          
  • New Code NLP (Neuro-Linguistic Programming) methods for facilitating self-help:                          
  • Personal Edit: an easily self-facilitated process for enhancing and maintaining the inner work.                          
  • Charts: a method for left & right brain integration and helping with dyslexia.                          
  • The Swish for automating the change (from Classic Code NLP).                          
  • Transformational Questions: how to use an image, and other methods for finding your own right questions to shift your inner process and clarify your life path.                          
  • Advanced in-the-Body Processing: taking inner parts work and focusing to a whole new level of in-the-body processing, incorporating the 7 steps of Transformational Unfolding(TM) with deepening methods from:                          
  • Somatic Processing (digesting and clearing old constrictive patterns held in the body).                          
  • Transformational Expressive Arts(TM) (how to use as enhancers of each step).                          
  • Body-Centered Therapy: the safety, resourceful physiology, depth, and transformational processes of Transformational Unfolding(TM) are combined with tools from Body-Centered Therapy:                          
  • How to be aware of and utilize subconscious flags (non-verbal signals), taking the work deeply into the body, hearing these subconscious messages, and discovering what is needed for fuller living.                          
  • Methods for safely intensifying the contact with and unfolding the felt sense, for centred breathing, and for passionate vibrant living.                          
  • Advanced Focusing: the use of Gendlin's Focusing is deepened, as you learn how to contact in the body, stopped processes needing to be heard and carried forward.                          

Course 634: Transformational Healing of Past Wounds(TM) and

Transformational Belief Work(TM):  Healing the Past, Creating the Future:

  • Takes the transformational processes deep into the healing of trauma and limiting beliefs, and further deepens the understanding of core life (spiritual) principle.                     
  • Elements are drawn from New Code NLP (Neuro-Linguistic Programming), Classic Code NLP, Focusing, Somatic Processing, Belief Work, and Spiritual Understanding, and are integrated in a unique way with the 7 steps of Transformational UnfoldingTM .                     
  • Clearing the Effects of Trauma: a variety of methods for are learned for safely approaching those deeply wounded places, and reclaiming your wholeness of self now, so that you are no longer stuck reacting from the hurts of the past:                     
  • Visual Methods (from a distance):                     
  • Transformational Healing of Past TraumaTM:  Theatre Method (easiest to apply). 
  • Transformational Healing of Past TraumaTM:  Survey Method (to see childhood origins of current woundedness, limiting beliefs, and behaviour patterns).                     
  • In-the-Body Methods: 
  • In-the-Body Transformational Healing of Past Trauma(TM):  Age Regression 
  • In-the-Body safe use of Transformational UnfoldingTM and Transformational Integration of Inner PartsTM (when working with deep wounds and traumatized parts: Breath of Life)                     
  • Advanced Focusing pointers for working with both "Simple" Trauma (survived a life-threatening situation--PSTD) and Complex Trauma (grew up in a chronically abusive environment).                     
  • Somatic Processing: working with both hyperarousal and with flat affect or frozen states.                     
  • Past Life Regression: how to apply the above processes to Past Life Regression (it is not necessary to believe in past lives) and to deepening your understanding of the overarching purposes and ongoing lessons that you are working with in your life.                     
  • Different Ways of Developing and Building Inner Resources/Strengths , including Left & Right Brain Methods.                     
  • Transformational Belief Work(TM) goes deep, including both Cognitive Therapy and the subconscious levels.  Instead of just changing your thoughts at a surface level, you also discover your true magnificent self at a deep core level.                     
  • Spiritual (Life-Enhancing) Principles as a guide to the process are brought into awareness throughout the program.  This course adds a key model for working with spiritual alignment, and applies it to working with life-limiting beliefs.                     

 

REGISTRATION has started, and requires a $250 non-refundable deposit to hold your place in any course. Usually, students start in the fall of any particular year. However, if you have enough pertinent counselling experience and training, it is possible to start at a later point. (See Admissions for further details.)

 

We have a consistent group of dedicated students, journeying through the 2 year program, growing and building together. To be admitted into the program, a student must already have some relevant experience or be working in a field related to counselling or human relations.

 

Course Location: the High Park area of central west Toronto, with easy TTC access and parking.

 

To contact us:   please email us at coordinator@lifespace.ca 

 

 

Founding Premises and Mission Statement

 

 

The Lifespace Institute was founded in 1982 to fulfill the need for a comprehensive and skills-oriented counselling training program. The effective tools provided within this program offer students a solid base that can be used to help the self as well as others.

 

Our training methods emphasize a practical approach, where people systematically receive practical skills through the provision of guidelines and demonstrations. Students are taken through the processes with a facilitative trainer, and provided with opportunities for practice and feedback.

 

The FoundationSkills taught at the Lifespace Institute provide the necessary conditions for effective counselling and positive personal change. Research shows, and we firmly believe, that a therapist's warmth, authenticity, non-judgmental caring, and empathic listening are essential for working with people successfully. These are also the qualities, in addition to pertinent life experience, that we are looking for in our potential students.

 

Working out inner feelings, and discovering personal truths and life direction, are crucial. To achieve this end, the foundation skills of our training are based on Robert Carkhuff's communication training workshop and Eugene Gendlin's focusing methodology. Into this foundation are integrated a comprehensive range of transformational tools for working actively with more challenging issues, such as, trauma, inner conflict (parts dialogue), disconnected aspects of self, and limiting beliefs. Principles for working constructively with nonfunctional or highly reactive emotional states are applied to working with addiction, anxiety, and depression (including bipolar). Dream work and the expressive arts round out the program.

 

The Lifespace Institute provides students with a flexible model for therapeutic change by integrating a rich variety of methods to enhance transformation. At each stage, students are provided with practical tools and given the opportunity to embrace the knowledge and incorporate it into a style of therapy that fits for them. It is a holistic program, for encompassing the whole person: body, mind, heart, and spirit.

 

Our mission seeks to provide a safe space for students to flourish also on their personal healing paths. A key goal is to teach Life-generative processes and tools that maximize both the inner and outer life.

 

We are committed to offering the highest level of professional development, using teaching methods that support advanced learning. Diversity and multicultural awareness are also integral aspects of learning at the Lifespace Institute.


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