THE VERA VON DER HEYDT PUBLIC LECTURE SERIES:

Lecture - Descent into the Underworld: The Transformative Power of Retrieving Soul

In the ninth Vera von der Heydt lecture, we are delighted to invite Ursula Wirtz, PhD to talk about her approach to working with trauma, as detailed in her most recent book Trauma and Beyond (Routledge, 2021). Ursula invites us to follow her as she elucidates an approach to integrating lost and dismembered fragments of the psyche, working with destruction in the service of creation. Ursula shares many insights into the clinical, archetypal and spiritual dimensions of trauma as she reflects on the soul’s yearning for transformation and the quest for meaning. Her approach to trauma therapy is rooted in her forty years of clinical experience with traumatised people where she has witnessed light in darkness and hope in despair. Ursula invites us to look at the relationship between ‘possibility’ (the only word written on the last page of the Red Book) and reality in the processes of emergence and change. Illuminating the archetypal pattern of dying and becoming, she shows how the personal, mythological and spiritual aspects of the psyche provide the potential for transforming and transcending the suffering embedded in trauma. There will be a Q&A session following the lecture.

This lecture can also be attended separately from the workshop here.

*Afternoon Workshop: The Re-Emergence of Soul Panel conversation

A panel will join Ursula in a conversation addressing the question of the Re-emergence of Soul. Chaired by Cathy Bor, each panelist will be invited to share their own experiences in the consulting room and in lived life, and demonstrate that when we bring a particular presence to clinical work and our lives, we may witness the capacity to move beyond adaptations and connect to the greater personality, to dimensions of soul. Q&A will follow.

*Discussion around Clinical Material

To end the day, clinical examples from trainees will be shared with the panel. This material may come from a client!s dream, a synchronicity, a moment that shows and/or enacts the process of soul retrieval, or a very particular experience that a trainee has had whilst working with a client. This is the opportunity for all to listen to differing voices, to witness and explore how working with trauma is an experience of the soul. The intention of the workshop is to weave a myriad of experiences with wisdom, in the spirit of play and spontaneity, to honour this endeavour of psychotherapy and depth psychology.