Professional psychotherapy training

Specific training in Soul Centred Psychotherapy has been offered by the Kairos Centre in St Kilda, Victoria since 1993.

The first level is an 18 month program, The Mythic Way. This course presents the leading edge of mindbody healing within a Soul Centred context. Graduates qualify for certificates in

• Soulful Presence Counselling
• Thought Matrix Meridian Counselling I
  
• Thought Matrix Merdian Counselling II

The next level of the training builds on The Mythic Way program and offers a series of modules over a two and a half year period. Graduates receive a Diploma of Soul Centred Psychotherapy after successfully studying and practising therapeutic interventions based on

• Body-centred psychotherapies
• Jungian psychology
• Humanistic psychology
• Ericksonian hypnosis and psychotherapy
• Energy psychology

Classes are conducted from 7 to 10 pm one evening a week over four terms a year, with four full day sessions and individual reviews scheduled each year.  

The training meets the PACFA training standards.

Selection for the training is by individual interview.  Training is at post-graduate level--undergraduate degree and Recognition of Prior Learning (RPL) are both accepted.  Applicants also need to demonstrate the presence of some fundamental capacities such as self-awareness, relational ability, ethical behaviour, and a mature capacity to function in work and personal relationships. These are assessed via personal interviews, referees, and/or a demonstrated ability to work in a therapeutic or team setting. This can include the family setting when applicants are women returning to study after many years in 'domestic management'.

Characteristics of a therapist
We believe that to work deeply with other people requires us to be working deeply with ourselves and to have developed in a number of ways. Obviously life experiences develop us and contribute to the ability to be a psychotherapist. There are, however, many ways of responding to experiences, and one of the understandings to emerge from clinical work is that we all tend to have response patterns that developed early in life and that have become somewhat automatic, unconscious, and generalised in our adult lives. It is these patterns, and the dynamics underlying them, that are usually the subject of therapy, and that need to be addressed in order to work therapeutically with others.

Soul Centred Psychotherapy teaches that these patterns develop from both personal history and from collective, or archetypal, patterns. While this is addressed theoretically in the course, there is also an expectation that trainees will be exploring their own inner work during the training via experiential processes and personal therapy.

While it is difficult to determine the exact characteristics necessary to be a therapist, there are specific areas of functioning which do seem to be important

• The development of a good observing ego or witness
• Constancy of self-perception
• Differentiation between adapted self (persona) and observing ego
• Formulation and execution of clear intentions
• Capacity to own projections or regressions
• Emotional stability
• High anxiety tolerance
• Differentiation of feelings
• High frustration tolerance
• Experience of self-cohesion
• Differentiation between self and other; clear boundaries
• Reality based perceptions of others
• Capacity to accommodate useful new information or experience (for internal structures to change in response to meaningful information or experience rather than holding to an idealised or adapted sense of self)

Our understanding is that the basic ground of being human is also the basic ground of being a psychotherapist and is fundamental to training and development in this area.

Assessment

There is a basic attendance requirement of 90%, as participation in group discussion and experiential processes is a vital component of the training.  Further written assignments and practical assessments are conducted throughout the course.

Trainees must meet certain specific criteria appropriate to the stage of the training.  These are assessed via written papers and video-taped demonstrations.  The assessment criteria are made available to trainees.  Self-assessment assignments are also completed  throughout the course.  These criteria are discussed in a supportive one-on-one setting each year.

The training is conducted in a small group setting of between 8 and 14 trainees. One or two trainers are present with each group, depending on the training requirements. This setting allows trainees to feel supported emotionally and in the learning process.

Individual review sessions are available as required. There are opportunities for practice, reflection, experimenting, and appropriate feedback on performance.

The training maintains a balance between personal process and the educational environment.  It is recognised that the course content will, at times, stir personal responses for participants.  There is provision for some processing of this within the training session, although individuals are encouraged to seek support in a one-on-one review session with a trainer and to arrange individual therapy.

The training is conducted at The Kairos Centre in St Kilda, Victoria, Australia.  Facilities include a large meeting room, three separate practice rooms, and a supper/informal meeting area. There is audio/visual equipment and an extensive library.

As the trainers are practising psychotherapists with at least 10 years experience, the training relates strongly to practice situations.  There is an active relationship between trainers and trainees, with ample opportunity for discussion and reflection on theory and practice.

Directors of Training

The Soul Centred PsychotherapyTM training was developed by Dr Kaalii Cargill and Andrew Cargill in the early nineties.

Andrew Cargill has worked as a psychotherapist for 25 years.  He began exploring the human experience through Eastern spiritual practice thirty years ago.  A recognition of the importance of the body in inner work led him away from spirit based approaches to study body centred therapies.

He recognises the importance of the feminine principle in personal and collective healing, and especially the task of contemporary males in reconnecting with soul.  The approach of energy medicine to mindbody healing and resolution of trauma is an important part of his work.


His qualifications include Humanistic Counselling, Bio-energetic body work, and Energy Meridian Therapy.

Kaalii Cargill has been working in the field of psychotherapy for thirty years, with qualifications in social work, psychology, and clinical hypnotherapy.

Her PhD was in the area of mindbody healing.  It explored the contemporary practice of an ancient method of birth control.  She is seeking a publisher for her book, Don't Take It Lying Down:A Guidebook for Women in the New Era.  A particular area of interest involves the feminine mysteries of other traditions and the adaptation of initiation rituals to personal therapy.

The training course is a natural extension of her belief that therapy is not about fixing something that is supposedly broken, but rather about teaching people to attend to the rich language of soul.

Kaalii is the current President of SCAPE--Society of Counselling and Psychotherapy Educators, and is on the Board of PACFA.  She is registered as a psychologist in Victoria.  As well as working in clinical practice for 30 years, she has also worked in training delivery as a social science tutor in the private school system and as a tutor in tertiary education.

Kaalii and Andrew live and work in Melbourne, Australia.  They have a grown family of four children and (at last count) seven grandchildren.

For further information on the trainings or to arrange an interview, please contact Kaalii on (03) 9534 0795 or Email info@kairoscentre.com