The spring seems to be slowly peeping through the hardest winter we have had for some time and it is time to write another blog for the ICCP web-site. It does feel like its been a long one and although the snowdrops are coming up, only the “hardy perennials” of us are in our element.
I thought I would open with a poem that has been a friend to me through the low-key February time that is upon us, where winter greyness is not yet past but possibility is emerging.
This is by Claire mc Donnell a Donegal poet:
A breeze, smooth as cream ,cools my cheek,
Each blade of grass is heavy with dew;
The blackbird shawls the dawn in music;
The wood is soothed by cooing pidgeons;
Noisy starlings return to nest in the eaves;
The robin flits close by, jingling his song.
Ewes stand eyes closed, suckling lambs
That nuzzle and butt skin –warm udders;
Angular cattle line up by the gate,
Their breath steaming from moist nostrils;
The dog turns her belly to the pale sun and sighs;
The old donkey has come through another winter.
I feel again what I believed impossible.
(from Feeling for Infinity, Claire Mc Donnell.Summer Palace Press 2006)
The winter has been a time of staying close to fires for me and learning to make better stews. The snow at new year meant that I had to cancel the Coming Home workshop scheduled for Jan 4-7th , this was a pity as a workshop like this is a wonderful way to start into the new year, but it was not to be, as the venue, Tig Roy, is in the beautiful but then, snow-bound Glen of Atherlow in Co Tipperary. We have rescheduled the workshop for July 15-18th, when I will be combining the level one Coming home workshop which was held very successfully in July last with the level two workshop .I am looking forward to this as I will be combining a structure for people to explore their life purpose and to look at how they are rooted in community, clan and history. We will again be using movement, meditation, poetry and group process, .. a wonderful environment for a reflective summer break. http://www.iccp.ie/personaldevelopment
I am especially looking forward to the developing work with men that is unfolding for me this year. We have another Holy Sex-Wild Love workshop coming up on April 23-25th . This powerful workshop led by Leigh Tolson and assisted by myself was very well received when we launched it in December. We had 25 men attend who came to receive teaching from Tantric and Taoist traditions on sexuality and energetic practices related to being a vital man and lover. Such was the interest that we are running another in April. It feels such an appropriate time to be doing so given how male sexuality has been so pained and misguided in Ireland ,(thinking of the Ryan and Murphy reports) It is also important for men’s health, with the shocking rise in rates of prostate cancer, to help men stay alive and vibrant in their sexuality through their middle and later years. Contact germurphy@edgeworth.ie
We have received feedback on the workshop that some men also need a deeper healing time to heal wounds to their sexuality coming from earlier in their lives. We have organized a Rite of Passage, a residential workshop for men on June 24-27th in Wicklow. This will be a safe, supportive event which will facilitate men work through painful past experiences relating to their sexuality. We expect men coming on this workshop will have already taken part in the level one workshop to get the teaching of Tantra and energy work. .Useful books have been Tantric Love by Ma Ananda Sarita and Swami Anand Geho,Gaia books 2006, The Way of the Superior man Daniel Deida ,and a wonderful read .. Tantric Quest by Daniel Odier Inner Traditions Books 1997.
Like all emerging spring times there is also the processes of ending as we prepare to begin again. I have been especially aware this winter of the impending ending of the psychotherapy training at the Institute, where after 26 years we are suspending the training, and have no intake this year .We do have a group ending this year, and it feels a good time to allow a pause to see where we go with the training into the future.
Another ending has moved me deeply over recent days. Dr Michael Corry died on Monday evening last, Feb 22nd. He was a dear friend and a fine psychiatrist and proponent for change in the psychiatric system in Ireland . His work with the Wellbeing Foundation where he facilitated the Depression Dialogues was powerful in allowing those with a label of ``depressed `` to speak together ,and perhaps see how there could be a value in seeing depression in other ways, including the value in looking at depression as a verb as well as a noun, asking the question ``what might I be depressing ?``. The focus of his work was about empowerment of people who could lose their sense of self determination at times in their contact with mental health services. This self determination is of course so core to the humanistic and integrative principals that the Institute if Creative Counselling and Psychotherapy is based on and is key to Vision For Change, the Government map for development of mental health services in Ireland. It was unfortunate that Michael was embroiled by being complained against by a colleague and taken to the Medical council in his last months of life. This related to the controversy about the young man Shane Clancy who was involved in a killing in Bray Co.Wicklow last summer. Michael questioned the possible connection between the use of prescribed drugs of the SSIRs variety and the rise in aggression in Shane. He is not alone in this question (see Seroxat Secrets on Web) and there is a body of evidence which questions the over use of these drugs. It seemed strange that Michael’s rights to ask such questions could be seen as an offence affecting his fitness to practice.!! One part of Michael's legacy which remains unfinished is his work to have compulsory E.C.T. banned in Ireland. He led a campaign to have this done and got a private members Bill introduced in the Seanad in 2009. This was defeated but the Government has agreed to have an investigation into the use of E.C.T. in this way.
Bless you Michael on your journey ………
Finally, the dark times of winter allowed me to go deeper into meditation and I was pleased to discover a meditation practice called AYP ( advanced yoga practices- www.aypsite.org )which combines the inner presence of being with energy practices including tantra and pranayama from yoga, and so combining a pursuit of bliss and ecstacy , a potent combination!!.
So endings and new beginnings …a good way to enter the spring of 2010 .