An Experiential, Expressive Therapeutic Training Workshop for Multi-Disciplinary Practitioners
With Dr Elaine Grech (Ph.D.)
Warranted Gestalt and Systemic Psychotherapist,
Expressive Arts Therapist (EXAT)
Accredited Supervisor and Warranted Teacher
Date: Wednesday 30th July 2025
Time: 8.30 am to 1.45 pm (5 CPD hours)
Location: Pembroke, Malta (Limited Number)
Price: 100 € (includes tea breaks)
Early Bird: 90€ if you pay by the 30th May 2025
“Dreams are the guiding words of the soul.” Carl Gustav Jung
Would you like to explore collaborative and expressive therapeutic interventions that give a voice to what our dreams are trying to tell us?
Would you like to practice embodied expressive therapy interventions that can be incorporated into our work with dreams?
Would you like to develop your attunement to the varied multi-sensory strengths and needs of different service-users as you work with them and their dreams?
This workshop is aimed at professionals who would like to learn more about integrating dream work in their practice or understand more about their dream processes to support their personal and professional growth.
My inspiration for working with dreams comes from the Gestalt, Systemic and Expressive Arts Therapy (EXAT) fields and reflections from Carl Gustav Jung. The trauma-informed Expressive Arts Therapy model is the conceptual framework that holds the multi-sensory, right-brain interventions in my work, which I am now excited to announce that, after training over the years with the Trauma-Informed Practices and Expressive Arts Therapy Institute, I have fully integrated the Expressive Arts Therapist as one of the primary modalities that informs my practice (EXAT). I will incorporate and integrate ideas from these modalities in this training. This training can be suitable for practitioners open to developing a multi-sensory way of expressing themselves to serve the people we work with. Since the workshop is experiential, it also aims to support the practitioners' personal and professional growth.
The professionals include psychotherapists, family therapists, psychologists, psychiatrists, counsellors, guidance teachers, teachers, creative arts therapists, social workers, child and youth care workers, support workers, teachers, holistic health practitioners, and many others.
“Dreams are like inner consultants bringing valuable wisdom and insight into our lives.”
As part of the training, a few volunteers can work on a dream with me within the larger group. You are invited to participate in this training by bringing dreams or fantasies to work on with me in the group. There will also be time to pair up into twos and take turns practising the dream-work skill with a peer of your choice in the group. I will also share with you a presentation of ideas on how we can work with dreams to help you give a conceptual framework to the experience, inviting you to ask questions or share ideas about the work.
In Gestalt therapy, the therapist does not interpret the dream but provides an opportunity for the “explorers” (clients) to discover themselves. Fritz Perls considered a dream an existential message of what is missing in our lives. While dreaming or daydreaming, we are writing our script. These dreams contain an essential statement of who we are. According to Fritz Perls, we are split up into many parts, and the beauty of working with a dream is that every part in it is yourself. By identifying with different parts in the dream, we can become aware of what we can easily see in ourselves and parts of ourselves that we have disowned. From a systemic perspective, the dream or fantasy, can also be seen as an exploration of a message which needs to be directed to significant people in the clients’ life which might include family members, peers, colleagues, the professional(s) whom the dreamer is working with, or the other group members. When working with dreams, integrating the trauma-informed expressive arts therapy model, we will also explore and practice multi-sensory expressive therapeutic interventions. So, while some of us start with a visual symbol (art expression), others might begin by getting in touch with a sensation in their body (interoception), others with a movement, and others with a sound or word. The expressive therapy interventions practised will be contextualised within this multi-sensory working model.
Reflection:
I have always been fascinated by dreams. I have recollections of me as a child painting my dreams on paper and fantasising about how I would finish the dream if it had to continue. Throughout my adolescence, I explored dreams in my drama training and my poetry writing. My interest in dream work peaked in my training as a Gestalt therapist. During those years, I had the golden opportunity to explore the meaning of my dreams more profoundly. Through this journey of exploration, I have been enriched as a woman and a psychotherapist. I am grateful to my therapists and teachers for sharing their wisdom about dreams and to all the “explorers” who over these 25 years have invited me to step into their dream world.
Booking and Payment Procedure: (Please read all the information before you book).
1. Booking through the website:
https://www.drelainegrechpsychotherapist.com/upcoming-events
Click Register Now at the event of your choice. If the website allows you to book, it means there is availability. If the workshop is fully booked, a notification with a waiting list option will appear.
2. How to secure your payment:
• Payment must occur within 24 hours; otherwise, your registration will not be secured.
• Write your name and the workshop's title when processing the payment so that payment can be identified.
• Please email payment confirmation to
ZWxhaW5lbWFyeWdyZWNoIHwgZ21haWwgISBjb20= so I can confirm your booking: Name and Surname, Workshop Title and Date, Method of Payment chosen, and email address for correspondence regarding the workshop.
3. Participants will receive a receipt of payment via the email provided within the following week and after completing the workshop. Within a week, you will receive a certificate of attendance with the number of CPD hours completed. The certificate will reflect the completed hours, so please ensure you are present for the whole workshop.
4. Please note that it is on a first-come, first-served basis, and your booking can only be confirmed after payment and registration.
5. The payment is non-refundable except in the rare event that the facilitator cancels the workshop. The payment for the workshop is NOT transferable to someone else. If the person who has booked and paid cannot attend, they cannot transfer their booking to someone else.
6. Bookings must be made individually; prospective workshop participants are still requested to book and pay individually even if an organisation wants to sponsor employees' attendance. They will be given a receipt of payment in their name, and they can choose to present it to the organisation.
7. You will receive an email with the location and some ideas for training preparation about a week before the workshop.
Payment Options:
Full Fee 100€
Early bird fee: 90€ if you pay by the 30th May 2025
Payment Options:
Payment on Revolut or Mobile Banking: 00356 99447307
Paypal
ZWxhaW5lbWFyeWdyZWNoIHwgZ21haWwgISBjb20= (If using PayPal, please add 5 euros to the amount to cover the PayPal Fee).
Online Bank Transfer
SWIFT Code: VALLMTMT IBAN: MT60VALL22013000000040013125068
I wish you well, and thank you for your service to the community!
Looking forward to our dream space.
Many blessings 😇
Dr Elaine Grech
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