A workshop for therapists, mental health workers and those in the front-line caring professions. Connection and presence with our clients is vital for mental health workers and those working in the caring professions.
This experiential workshop explores how we can keep our inner creativity active so we can avoid the pitfalls of negative routine patterns that keep us disconnected from ourselves and our clients. We will work from a place of spontaneity that is safe, by exploring and experiencing improvisation techniques from music and dance-movement therapy.
We will demonstrate how we cultivate these improvisation techniques as resources for our professional work. Creativity is the willingness to let go of control and be free from premeditated ideas and plans for working with clients so we can engage with them more fully and more in the present moment. Increased creativity in our work is a protector against compassion fatigue and burnout and leads to more positive outcomes for our work and personal lives.
We will outline and demonstrate the theories supporting creativity as an essential source of well-being. This will happen through the medium of slide presentation, improvised drumming, listening to music, body awareness and dance movement, reflections, journaling, small group work and feedback.
EDUCATIONAL OBJECTIVES OF THE EVENT
Theoretical Foundations of Creativity and Wellbeing
The event aims to provide participants with:
• An understanding of the Broaden-and-Build Theory of Positive Emotions, including how positive emotional states expand momentary cognitive and behavioural repertoires and contribute to the development of enduring psychological, cognitive, and social resources.
• An understanding of Engagement and Flow Theory, including the psychological conditions that support flow states (optimal balance between challenge and skill, focused attention, immediate feedback, reduced self-consciousness, and altered perception of time) and their established relationship to wellbeing and therapeutic effectiveness.
• Knowledge of Self-Determination Theory (SDT) and its application to therapist wellbeing and clinical practice, including the role of autonomy, competence, and relatedness as core psychological needs supporting professional functioning and resilience.
Creativity as a Mechanism for Therapist and Client Flourishing
• An understanding of everyday creativity as a pathway to psychological flourishing, recognising the role of routine creative engagement in supporting emotional regulation, adaptability, and personal and professional growth.
• Knowledge of creative self-efficacy and creativity-related belief systems, including their influence on engagement in creative processes and their relationship to life meaning, satisfaction, and wellbeing.
• An understanding of contemporary research examining mechanisms through which creativity supports wellbeing, including both intrapersonal processes (e.g., identity formation, emotional processing, cognitive flexibility) and interpersonal or contextual processes (e.g., relational attunement and social connection).
Embodiment, Self-Care, and Professional Development
• An understanding of embodied learning as a core component of psychotherapy skill development, including the roles of interoceptive awareness, autonomic nervous system cues, and embodied empathy in therapeutic attunement and relational presence.
• Knowledge of evidence-informed approaches to therapist self-care, including principles for developing and implementing individualised self-care protocols that support professional sustainability and therapeutic effectiveness.
Facilitators: Dr Marko Punkanen and Michael Dillon
Marko Punkanen, PhD., is a Finnish music therapist, dance/movement therapist, psychotherapist, psychotherapy trainer, certified sensorimotor psychotherapist and trainer. He has over 20 years experience in the treatment of severe traumatisation. His specialist area is in the treatment of complex and attachment trauma, the bodily symptoms of trauma (somatoform dissociation) and the use of the body in trauma treatment.
Michael Dillon, is the Director at Ballyvaloo, he is a psychotherapist by training with specialist training in Trauma work and is a certified Sensorimotor Psychotherapist. In the past he has worked with the MEND programme (Domestic Violence Intervention Programme in the South East) for over 10 years, as a therapist with the HSE in Counselling in Primary Care (CIPC) ,the Self Harm Intervention Programme (SHIP) and in counselling management.
He has a life long interest in spirituality. He has degrees in theology, arts and postgraduate qualifications in psychotherapy and management.
Hosted by: Dr. Marko Punkanen & Michael Dillon.
Cost: €750
