"It isn't normal to know what we want. It is a rare and difficult psychological achievement."
Abraham Maslow
The Discovery of Will
Dates and format
This consecutive four-day experiential course will currently take place from Friday to Monday on the following dates in 2022:
- 11 – 14 March
- 13 – 16 May
- 7 – 10 October
Facilitated by Samantha Cairns and Peter Crowe
Content
The Discovery of Will is delivered as a four-day course where you will explore how your behaviours shape the ways that you experience yourselves and the world. You will learn how to identify these patterns and direct your will towards purposeful change.
As humans we depend on patterns to manage the intricacies of daily life, yet when our circumstances change our behavioural defaults do not always continue to be as effective. Recognizing our patterns and how they serve and limit our purpose, opens new ways of reading a situation and responding to the information around us.
Participants are encouraged to reflect on their unique journey of soulmaking: putting their own experience at the centre of their learning and comprehension. While each participant is the subject of their own enquiry, they may also use the group to explore questions of choice, intimacy and compassion by deciding which aspects of their personal story they share and which they elect to keep to themselves.
The discovery of the will in oneself, and even more the realization that the self and the will are intimately connected,may come as a real revelation which can change, often radically, a [person’s] self-awareness and [one’s] whole attitude toward [oneself], other people, and the world. [One] perceives that he [or she] is a “living subject” endowed with the power to choose, to relate, to bring about changes in his [or her] own personality, in others, in circumstances. This enhanced awareness, this “awakening” and vision of new, unlimited potentialities for inner expansion and outer action, gives a new feeling of confidence, security, joy—a sense of “wholeness.”
Roberto Assagioli: The Act of Will. 1973
The Discovery of Will course brings together experiential and theoretical learning to introduce the basic concepts and principles of psychosynthesis. For each of the seminars, course learning will be delivered through a combination of maps and models, theoretical explanation with examples, and experiential techniques, including mediation, drawing, reflective writing, discussion, guided imagery, and enactment. These four-day intensives are structured to help those looking to find a meaningful path through what Keats termed, “the vale of soulmaking”.
Course modules
- The language of inner experience and the psychosynthesis map of the psyche
- Body, Feelings and Mind – a dynamic information system
- Identity and Personal Freedom
- Subpersonalities and Multiplicity
- The Will/Aspects of the Will
- Self-realisation and Spiritual Awakening
- Imagination and Creative Expression
- Synthesis and Evolution
What will I gain from attending 'The Discovery of Will' course?
"I found the Discovery of Will weekend workshop a truly transformational experience" – Course participant. Read more testimonials.
- Insight into limiting patterns and blocks
- The possibility for more open, honest and authentic relationships
- Movement and change
- Tools for life, value and direction
- Access to creativity, imagination and intuition
- Connection to inner wisdom, meaning and purpose
In getting curious about your inner world, you will explore serving and limiting aspects of your personality and learn to relate to them differently. You will begin to discern what Assagioli called the ‘loving observer’: that part that is both at the core of each one of us while also connecting to something “above and beyond” our exclusive concerns. Finding compassion and acceptance for the aspects of our personality that we struggle with, can gradually bring diverse and sometimes conflicting elements together into an organic and purposive whole. In this way, we may get clearer as to what is of value and truly meaningful to us. By connecting with and strengthening the will, we can also increase our capacity for change.
Designed as an introduction to the essential methodology of psychosynthesis, the course will be of particular value to people wanting to discover themselves at a deeper level, as well as those whose interest is in applying the inclusive frame of psychosynthesis to their own fields. It is particularly appropriate for people at a critical juncture of their lives and who seek clarity and direction; for those feeling called to attend more to the spiritual aspect of their lives; and/or for those for those who having achieved a number of significant life goals are now wondering ‘what’s next’.
The Discovery of Will offers a transformative and enriching opportunity for personal development and spiritual discovery via a programme that encourages you to open to possibility, embrace your potentiality, and explore creative insights and inspiration. As part of the course, each person will have an opportunity to meet individually with a psychosynthesis psychotherapist in order to explore their own process in depth.
Weekend structure
- Friday 9.00am–5.30pm
- Saturday 9.00am–5.30pm
- Sunday 10.00am–5.30pm
- Monday 9.00am–4.00pm
There will be an hour allocated for lunch and coffee breaks during the day. On Saturday evening, there will be the opportunity to gather around a fireside to share stories, poems and songs.
N.B. Attendance on The Discovery of Will course is a pre-requisite for the year-long All That We May Be programme, nonetheless, the course forms a unique opportunity to deepen your personal and/or spiritual journey whether or not you intend to continue your studies in psychosynthesis.
Book your place
The Discovery of Will programme is open to anyone who considers they have the necessary self-capacity to manage the four-day intensive (we suggest age 25 or over, though younger people have attended).
If you are interested in applying for one of our courses please contact Peter Crowe at peter@consciouscollective.org.uk with any questions. You'll need to secure your place wit a £50 deposit and send us a completed application form. A copy of the full application form can be downloaded here.
The Discovery of Will course fee: £320 (includes a £50 deposit).
The safety of participants is always our highest concern. We hope to be able to offer the course in person in 2021 once it becomes safe to do. Due to restrictions regarding the Covid-19 pandemic, we will be delivering the the March and May 'The Discovery of Will' courses online via Zoom.
Contact
Peter on 01754 3225011 or email: peter@consciouscollective.org.uk