A Buddhist approach to therapy is concerned with the way in which we relate to others. Can we really relate to the people we encounter in life fully as people, or do we treat them as instrumental to our needs? Can we appreciate their ways of thinking and behaving or do we try to fit them into our patterns of expectation? Other-Centred Approaches are particularly concerned with helping clients to live in a more honest, appreciative relationship with the others in their lives, helping them to live in empathic connection rather than self-centred alienation. This course block will explore the fundamental qualities of an other-centred relationship and the paradigm that underlies this approach. This course block falls between the publication of David Brazier’s new book Love and Its Disappointment and Caroline Brazier’s book Other-Centred Therapy. It draws on theory from both these significant works. The Other Centred Approach is at the cutting edge of psychotherapeutic theory and this is an unparalleled opportunity to be involved in this important development.

The Necessary Condition is Love October 10-11
What place does a word like 'love' have in therapy? In 1993 David published the chapter called The Necessary Condition is Love in his anthology Beyond Carl Rogers. This chapter proposed that the ability to love was a fundamental human drive, and that successful therapy involved enabling the client to love more fully and freely. The therapeutic relationship both models this self-less love and also performs a function in facilitating change through skilled professional practice. It is both free flowing and boundaried; person to person and restricted by codes of behaviour. This core skills weekend will explore the complexities of the inter-personal exchange that happens in the therapy room and the core principles of Other-Centred Therapy. We will look at the way in which the therapeutic relationship is both a spontaneous communication and a skilled set of responses, a genuine expression of caring and an intentional healing practice. We will practice core skills and examine ways in which they support the development of real encounter.

Meeting Others October 12th – 15th
Mental health depends upon our ability to relate to others. As we encounter others, we are drawn out of our habits of view and action, which insulate us from life’s unpredictability. Yet in each meeting we impose our expectations. We see each other through misted vision. Nonetheless, in every encounter we are affected and can be changed. Our being is at stake as is that of the other. This four day section looks at the experience of relationship as it unfolds in various group and one-to-one meetings, and explores our capacity to see each other as others. We will explore other-centred methodology and theory and the ways in which it can enhance these meetings.

Other-Centred Theory October 16th
A day seminar in which we will explore the fundamentals of Other-Centred theory as presented in Caroline’s book of that title. This involves the appreciation of an inter-active model of the self, being through relationship, mirroring, the power of the object and the transformative effect of an evidence based yet person-centred approach.

Esteem and Transformation October 17th- 18th
In this course you will work with David who will explain and demonstrate the skills and principles set out in his new ground breaking book Love and its Disappointment: the meaning of life, therapy and art. Participants will gain an understanding of Esteem Theory, the manner in which the matrix of esteem supports and frustrates self-concern, how this opens the pathway toward constructive change in the way a person relates to his or her world, and how such change may be facilitated and enhanced. We will explore the use of object-related methods to enhance people’s appreciative relationship with the object-world which they inhabit. Through skills exercises we will draw out ways in which everyday experiences can be made more vivid and meaningful, transforming daily activity into a source of psychological and spiritual gro