‘Melting the Couple Armour’ – Professional workshop for therapists
with individuals and couples , using body psychotherapy

Sunday, 3 May 2020,
09.00-12.00 (New York time)
14.00-17.00 (London time)
10.00-13.00 (South America time)
16.00 to 19.00 (Israel time)

A Zoom workshop in English
CPD – Continuing Professional Development

The workshop is designed for therapists with experience in various fields, who are interested in broadening their individual therapy skills into working with couples. We will learn how to integrate into individual and couple therapy techniques of awareness, movement, touch, and breathing, drawn from the body psychotherapy world.

In the contemporary reality emerging world-wide, part of the workshop will focus on online individual and couple therapy using Skype, Zoom and other platforms.

• A little about working with ‘couple armour’ in body psychotherapy ~

In my work in the clinic over the past 20+ years in individual and couple therapy using body psychotherapy, I’ve seen how one partner’s personal armour grows and starts affecting the other partner – and becomes more complex. Just as each of us has rigid, sealed places, so every deep encounter between two people creates problems between them at all levels. It can present as poor communication, insecurity, lack of intimacy and/or difficulties in sexuality, an encounter between wounds that create complexity, pain, distress, and more. All of these build ‘couple armour’.

As the burden of life on a couple increases, and their personal difficulties grow – both natural and normal processes – they experience difficulties that are felt at all levels: energetically, emotionally, physically, and in their breathing. It happens in both of them, and within the couple, and this creates the couple armour. In the workshop, we’ll explore ways to identify couple armour and the therapeutic techniques we can apply to treat it.

• The workshop themes

– Learning about ‘melting couple armour’ – we’ll learn what couple armour is and the process of melting it.
– We will discuss and experience the essence of couple therapy in body psychotherapy
– Obtaining therapeutic tools from the body psychotherapy world – mind-body exercises that we can use in individual and couple therapy.

• Personal development and growth as therapists

The transition from individual to couple therapy generates a personal and professional process of growth, empowerment, and development, as well as a deeper therapeutic perspective on working with couplehood, in both individual and couple therapy.

During the workshop we will experience a process of therapeutic expansion. From a therapist treating individuals, who contains and works with one patient, to a broader position, where the therapist can contain and assist two people in a state of inner- and couple-conflict. Simultaneously, the therapist observes and contains the relationship and its complexity.

• Please read my recent article from January 2020 published in SPT – Somatic Psychotherapy Today
The process of melting Couple Armour through Body Psychotherapy – http://bit.ly/2HwGA1O

• Price and Registration

The workshop price is : NIS 180, equivalent to USD 50, GBP 40, and EUR 45, and can be paid using PayPal or credit card.

You can sign up for training on the Facebook Event page, or by contacting me by mail or Sms.

I’d love to see you online soon,

About Gabriel:
Gabriel Shiraz is a trainer, lecturer, supervisor, and body psychotherapist for individuals, couples, therapists and groups. He has worked in the field about 25 years. He founded and was a director of the Body Psychotherapy program at Reidman College, from 2001 to 2008. Gabriel is currently a senior trainer at Reidman College, University of Haifa, and teaches Couple Therapy and Body Psychotherapy at other institutes in Israel and Europe, including the London School for Biodynamic Psychotherapy (LSBP). He is a qualified member of the European Association for Body Psychotherapy (EABP). Gabriel studied Biodynamic psychotherapy with the late Gerda Boysen in the nineties. He works with trained psychotherapists who want to develop and expand their skillsets in couples therapy and body psychotherapy. He believes that every experienced body psychotherapist can advance to working with couples as well. He also runs workshops for couples with a focus on improving their communication and relationships. Gabriel is 54 years old and married with four children.