Sexuality and Suppressions

Attraction and repulsions, sameness and difference, desire and guilt, loving and being in love, the place of hatred, the unconscious decision to repress or sexualise or even sublimate: these will be the topics of this unusual talking workshop.

In the field of personal growth and self development a cluster of factors may be conspiring to divert your attention away from sexual themes. A century after Freud lifted the lid we have defensive psychotherapy and nervous professionalising, New Age cant, millenarian spiritualising of liberation, the marginalizing of dissonant sub-cultural voices by a more strident moral majority, good olde English reticence, plus the sheer inherent difficulty of staying with these perennials (whatever the current therapeutic fad). Ring any bells for you? This workshop will support you in righting the balance of your attention. The aim is to help you stay with personal reflections, rooted in bodily experience, while not forgetting the cultural context.

There will be sufficient open group time to keep participants ‘with it’ between structured phases and regular interludes of movement to music. The workshop functions on the hitchhiker principle of “tell it while you can” and the lift you get will be catalytic. You can expect a twofold shift after the workshop: a deepening of your dialogue with yourself and a capacity for more openly communicating with others where your sexuality is concerned.

The workshop is an opportunity to respectfully question your sexuality from a variety of angles across a range of themes in the company of others doing likewise. You will be able to:

• Explore how your identity (who you are) and sexuality are related.
• Clarify judgements others have made about your sexuality.
• Own the influence of social class/cultural background on your sexuality.
• Identify your patterns of attraction and patterns of fantasising.

• Develop an inner dialogue with your parents regarding your sexuality.
• Assess the impact of sexual abuse (if any) on your sexual development.
• Access the sexual dimensions of your body image.
• Review how your sexuality is mirrored in works of art, films, theatre, literature.

Note: A requirement for attending this workshop is a commitment to not act out your feelings afterwards.

Guy Gladstone

is a body psychotherapist who has been working for twenty years with ongoing and weekend groups at The Open Centre, the long established (1977) independent personal growth centre. He is accredited as a group psychotherapist by The Association of Humanistic Psychology Practitioners and is a graduate of three trainings - The Institute for the Development of Human Potential (2 years), The Institute of Psychotherapy and Social Studies (3 years) and The British Association of Analytical Body Psychotherapy (5 years). He supervises practitioners in a variety of settings. He is interested in the politics of the therapy profession and the cultural value of groups for personal growth.

Booking Procedure

You may ring at any time to ascertain current availability of places on Sensations series workshops. You may book directly using the registration form. If you want to discuss booking or have any queries you may ring beforehand on 020 7272 6672 or email.

Sensations Series

Sexuality and Suppressions can be attended on its own or in a series of six theme based workshops. Details of any of the other Sensations series workshops are available on this website. The others are Facing up to Shame; Body Image, Discovery and Change; Shock and Stress; Anger, All Angles; and The Rainbow of Desire. The unifying element of these workshops will be an exploration of the phenomena of your personal bodily experience. Participants will be helped to recall and communicate the exact sensations associated with their experience. The charge of the themes will be grounded and contained through carefully structured exercises.

Attending a Sensations series workshop may serve as an introduction to work in one of several ongoing analytical body psychotherapy groups. Further details of weekly ongoing groups and weekend groups are available on this website. Current or former members of these groups may also attend the theme workshops in order to focus on specific concerns surfaced/surfacing in that setting.