Love, Longing & Sex: Understanding the emergence of Eros in the helping relationship
November 12 & 13th – Abbotsford Convent –
To Register Click here
$360 Early Bird and Student Rate – $460 after 30/8
For a full description of the workshop – Download the Flyer – LoveLongingAndSex
The emergence of erotic energy in therapeutic or other professional relationships has long been a challenging issue, provoking anxiety, confusion and fear in the practitioner. Uncertainty about how to manage these issues sits alongside an awareness of how inappropriate behaviour and boundary violations have cast a shadow over much professional work. Perhaps as a consequence, theoretical frameworks for understanding or working with Eros are limited, and typically are located firmly in the Freudian ideas of power and transference. The kinds of intellectual, educational or supervisory supports that therapists need to deal ethically and effectively with these issues also tend to be in short supply. These challenges are further exacerbated by a culture-wide difficulty in discussing sexuality in open, explicit and straightforward ways and a deep sex-negativity that often lies beneath many of the values and assumptions that shape our attitudes.
This workshop will seek to address these questions by outlining a new theoretical framework for understanding Eros and sexuality, and how this can be applied in clinical and professional settings. This will include a critique of the psychoanalytic ideas that have long-dominated our therapeutic interpretations, and the deeply embedded cultural assumptions that have been so central in shaping our attitudes towards sexuality. Consideration will be given to examining the ways in which these erotic themes issues emerge in relationships (clinical, organisational and professional) and options for working ethically and effectively will be explored. Finally, time will be taken to reflect on the personal narratives of practitioners, and how their attachment patterns, sexual histories and erotic longings function as the often un-examined ground to this delicate work.
In February 2017 I will be teaching a series of workshops in London and Oxford, UK. For further information, please visit Relational Change
Leanne O'Shea 