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Next In-Person Training Retreat: May 26-31, 2022!

Continuing Education: 2021’s training was approved for 33 CEs*

Track 2. The Experiential Training Course Module

Retreat Only—Existential-Humanistic Therapy: Principles of Practice

EHI Director of Clinical Training: Nader Shabahangi, PhD, MFT

EHI now offers this program track for those primarily interested in participating in the experiential training course, “Existential-Humanistic Therapy: Principles of Practice,” the same training retreat that we offer as part of the Foundations Certificate Program. This training is focused on principles of Existential-Humanistic (E-H) therapy practice skill development.

Why Do Therapists Attend This Training Retreat?

"The program showed me a doorway within myself into territory that I was aware of but had yet to fully conceptualize."

Jenelle

Retreat Only Description

This track is an opportunity for EHI to provide our experiential training to students who are not enrolled in the Foundations Certificate program. Students may always opt into the certificate track if they so desire.

This skill-development training module focuses on learning to: 

(a) identify meaning-making processes unfolding in the present moment, 

(b) illuminate these “actual but often unrecognized” processes by cultivating intrapsychic and interpersonal presence, 

(c) develop a safe and intimate therapeutic relationship, 

(d) recognize and work with existential life issues which may be present but disguised, and 

(e) recognize and work with transference and counter transference issues within an existential framework.

Once formally accepted into the program, participants enroll to attend the experiential training residential, and may also opt to participate in video or in-person consultations with our faculty.

Requirements

Residential Course Module w/ Optional Consult

This residential training course is the annual experiential training historically held as a retreat at Westerbeke Ranch in Sonoma, CA.  There is an experiential evaluation on the final day of the training. This module is the only module with in-person requirements any other optional modules are completed remotely.

*International & out-of-state program participants please note: Students are only required to attend in-person the Experiential Training, that is the only mandatory travel required for this program. 

This module is held remote. The video consultation groups meet once per month for 5 months via Zoom. The consultation module will begin the following the training and consists of five 2-hour group consults.  Group participants will consult on applying the training into real world client work.  Two EHI instructors will be group co-leaders.  The video consultation module is priced separately and if enrolled prior to the retreat is discounted for retreat attendees.

As an Experiential Retreat Training Program attendee you will be able to enroll and participate in the experiential training module. You may also choose to enroll in the optional video/in-person consult module. Some retreat-only attendees chose to upgrade to the Foundations Certificate program after attending the retreat, that is a future option.

 

The Experiential Training

Schneider and Krug’s APA textbook, Existential-Humanistic Therapy 2nd Ed, will be a core resource. Additional supplemental readings of Rollo May, James Bugental and Irvin Yalom will be included.

For a more info about the training course residential please visit the Training Course Description page.

The Core of EHI Programs

The mandatory 6-day, 5-night experiential training is the heart of EHI’s programs. It allows licensed professionals and graduate students in psychology or counseling programs to come together in a safe environment, get to know one another, and experience how E-H therapy is practiced up close and personally. All EHI’s education programs feature this existential therapy training.

Find out more about the Training! 

The Training

Training Approach

EHI instructors, noted leaders in the field, emphasize the key ingredients of the E-H approach, including empathy, acceptance, and genuineness, to model how trainees can create safe, collaborative and life-changing therapeutic encounters. They demonstrate how the therapeutic relationship, in and of itself is a vehicle for healing and change and how therapeutic “presence” cultivates sensitivity and appropriate responsiveness to clients emotions, relational patterns and inner worlds.These two essential principles: building the therapeutic relationship and working in the “here and now” are the foundational blocks of E-H therapy and EHI training

"The retreat is an opportunity to be part of a community where we can think together using the themes of E-H. We can apply theories to cases, watch the work of our mentors and each other. By living together we experience an intimacy that creates an environment that reduces barriers and the ensuing connections foster a greater capacity for learning."

Gloria

2022 Experiential Training Dates

 Approximately forty-five hours of programming are scheduled in this experiential.

Dates: May 26th - 31st, 2022

The residential starts at 4:00pm on the first day and ends 2:30 pm(after lunch) on the final day. 

Contact Us

If you have any questions or need further assistance, please reach out to us. We look forward to talking with you more about the program!

Director of Clinical Training

Nader Shabahangi, PhD, LMFT

 

Clinical Training Coordinator

Stephanie Weissman, PsyD

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2021 Experiential
Training Flyer

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Attendees Share Their Experiences

I too am still experiencing the effects of the amazing fellowship I encountered with you all. I learned a tremendous amount and was already able to get to a deeper level than ever before with a client I’ve been seeing for 3 years since my return. A true ‘breakthrough’ if you will. But it was the time spent together that seems to be the most significant factor of the retreat. I felt close, connected, and in awe of each and every one of you. For that I will always be grateful.
Corene
I am finding it hard to be fully here where I am and not thinking of the past week. However, the more daily life demands of me, the more I find myself transitioning back to this "reality", but now with a new awareness and sense of being. I experienced something so special with you all (and within myself) last week that I hope to carry it with me always. I am so grateful for the deep connection and the memories and the sense of "mystery" that seemed to be always present with us. I never thought it was possible to become so comfortable with and open to strangers. Being able to share our different backgrounds (context), challenges, core wounds, and protections was invaluable to me. I am deeply moved by the way we all witnessed each other's truths in the here and now, and that we learned how to share this gift with our clients. I hope to find ways to create similar connections and experiences for others- in my work with clients, in my personal life, and in my community.
Barbara
"I believe that Sawubona describes beautifully what we experienced in these few days. We were offered an opportunity to see and be seen, in a safe environment. The lived experience of “Encounter” was a vital step in our training as Existential-Humanistic therapists and for how we live our daily lives. It is not a stretch to say that we have all been radically changed as a result of this experience. We will be better therapists, parents, partners, students, lovers, writers, and whatever other role we may fill. I believe that we each embody a new sense of Sawubona and that our deepened awareness of presence and encounter has been profoundly enriched as a result."
Lisa
Looking back at the week I spent with all of you causes me to overflow with joy and fulfillment. It was truly an honor to spend a week sharing meals, stories, ideas, and an array of emotions with all of you. Thank you all for the support and guidance you provided which led to my understanding of the content. I found it very beneficial to have a group that came from diverse backgrounds as it allowed me to gain a further understanding of how EH can be used and interpreted in so many different applications.
Nick
It’s nearly a week since our group parted ways from what was co-created at Westerbeke Ranch. A timeless image was emblazoned in my mind as I sat at the edge of the frog pond staring out over the open field after a second full day of our immersion: an image of cottonwood seeds being carried in the evening breeze. “Is this what it feels like to be alive?” I recall asking myself. It comes back to me now as I picture each of us encountering one another and slowly, willingly shaking off the chaff to reveal what is most essential. Like the cottonwood, we have been scattered by the wind, made ready for germination. It feels almost a lifetime away from the daily life I’ve returned to, but the teachings and the great and small acts of courage continue to infuse my waking and dream states. Our time together wants to be remembered so that I, and we, may find our way back to that place of authentic connection and create it in the way we go about living our busy lives. My hope is that we bring an embodied sense of presence to all of our relationships as a balm to an increasingly disconnected world.
Adam
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Existential-Humanistic Institute, Inc. A California Benefit Corp