An Approach to the Numinous

Part 2 - Dreams 

February 9th -11th, 2024

Marian Dunlea with Patricia Llosa, Pauline Sayhi & Abigail Whyte

Module 8

 Module 8 is the penultimate of the final three modules in the BodyDreaming training programme. Using the somatic practices and theory that form the bases of BodyDreaming, we will work on dreams and images in our small groups. We will focus on the method of embodied active imagination to enable the dream image to move in our bodies, to speak to us from the somatic unconscious. We recognise that our body and psyche are not distinct and separate, rather they form a continuous wave of Self–regulation. In the process something totally new presents itself, heralding the possibility of meeting and engaging with the numinous. 

What We’ve Covered So Far

 The practice sessions in our modules have focused on two types of awareness or “attunement”: inner attunement, focused on our own bodily feelings – known as interoception; and outer attunement, towards the people, objects, and nature that impact us in our environment. 

By paying attention to the responses in our nervous system, we come to recognize habitual patterns and “complexes” that are often activated. With the practice of “titration”, slowing down the activation, we learn to resource and reset our nervous systems from heightened states of activation. 

We experience a greater ease and spaciousness in the body and psyche, extending our capacity to tolerate old triggers and uncertainty. Because of this our receptors are more engaged, and we enter our images with greater curiosity. 

This newfound ease and agency mark a shift from a state of defensiveness to one of trust, openness, and receptivity. Something totally new presents itself, heralding the possibility for the numinous. 

BodyDreaming prepares us to receive the numinous. It allows us to be present in a way that expands our consciousness, bringing us into greater communion with all life. 

In the Final Modules

In these final three modules we further develop the somatic practices and theory – which affirm that our matter and all matter is alive and interconnected. 

By developing an embodied experience of our own matter as a secure base, we may engage in a participatory relationship with the world around us. 

Jung maintains that it is through an encounter with the numinous that “real therapy” is possible, and that “inasmuch as you a ttain to the numinous experience you are released from the curse of pathology” (Jung, 1973, p. 377). 

By establishing an embodied home for our soul, we begin to realise that our body and soul, psyche and matter, are each reflectors of the numinous, what Jung referred to as the “hint of the god” (Jung, 1997, p. 919). 

Dates 

Dates Time Zone

Friday February 9th from 2pm to 8pm 

Saturday February 10th from 2pm to 8pm 

Sunday February 11th from 2pm to 5pm 

Time Zone

Dublin, Ireland (currently GMT)

Venue

Online via Zoom

Please plan on attending all sessions.

Tuition Fee

€390

Continuous Professional Development

15 hours

Notes

• At the discretion of the faculty, each module can be taken as a standalone experience or as part of the BodyDreaming training. 
• New participants will receive a recording of the online Introductory Workshop to view prior to the module. 
• The training weekend will comprise of theory and practice, experiential learning and embodied practice sessions, dream work, movement, voice work, ritual and art. We work in large group sessions and in small break-out practice sessions. 
• Each breakout group will have an assistant present, from our team of assistants, who all provide containment and guidance for the small break out practice sessions. 
• To request an application form, or for more information about the training, please write to Julia and Cat at BodyDreaming@gmail.com. Instructions about payment will be provided once your application has been processed 

Module 8 – Recommended Reading

Chapter 9: “Intimations of the Numinous: ‘It feels like a visitation from the lady in red in here’”. In BodyDreaming in the Treatment of Developmental Trauma: An Embodied Therapeutic Approach, by Marian Dunlea (Routledge). 

Forthcoming: Final Module

Module 9 (Part 3 in the Approach to the Numinous): 7th, 8th & 9th June 2024