Nick Totton
Therapist, supervisor, author, trainer and workshop leaderA pioneering figure in embodied psychotherapy, and the role of the body in emotional healing.
In-depth clinical learning on a key area of practice, guided by leading experts.
Event overview:
The Process model takes the idea of supporting a natural healing process even further. In its pure form, it drops the language of “healing” and the notion that anything is wrong that needs to be corrected. Working very much in the present moment, this approach welcomes whatever occurs as the right thing – allowing the client’s bodymind to act rather than be acted on, and to generate motifs freely and playfully.
The ruling metaphor here is a river which, once undammed, flows powerfully to the sea. In this 2‑hour webinar, we will explore what it means to trust that flow: letting go of rigid theory, fixed treatment plans and ideas of normality, and instead following the process that is unfolding between therapist and client.
We will examine:
- Core principles of the Process‑oriented model in body psychotherapy
- Working with present‑moment phenomena – movement, image, fantasy, voice, impulse
- Dropping the assumption of a single “healthy” direction of travel
- How to follow and amplify spontaneously arising motifs in the session
- The clinical implications of seeing trauma and misadjustment as capable of self‑repair
A central strength of this model is that it avoids privileging the therapist’s version of reality, health and normality. It assumes that, given any real opportunity, trauma and misadjustment will tend to self‑repair – and that events which look wild, messy or confusing can be vital parts of that process, rather than deviations from it.
We’ll also consider how to weave together all four models from the series: Adjustment, Trauma/Discharge, Process‑oriented and Relational. There will be space towards the end of the session to reflect on integration – how these models can inform one another in your day‑to‑day work, rather than sitting in separate boxes.
Clinical Takeaway
By the end of this session, you will be able to:
- Describe the Process‑oriented model and its radical assumptions about “health” and “pathology”
- Work more confidently with spontaneous, unpredictable material in the room
- Follow the client’s embodied process without losing your ethical frame
- Experience your own bodymind as a co‑participant in the unfolding process, not just an observer
- Integrate a process‑oriented stance into your existing way of working, even in small steps
- Begin to integrate all four models into a flexible, responsive, embodied way of working
This webinar forms part of The Body Psychotherapy Series
The Body Psychotherapy Series is a four‑part Grove Series CPD pathway with Nick Totton and Robert Rees, exploring adjustment, trauma discharge, relational and process‑oriented models of body psychotherapy.
Dates and times
All on Zoom, 14:00-16:00 (UK time)
- Freeing the Breath: Adjustment in Body Psychotherapy – purchase recording
- Releasing Held Pain: Trauma Discharge and the Body – 27th November 2026
- Two Bodies in the Room: Relational Body Psychotherapy – 4th December 2026
- Following the Process: Spontaneity and Wildness in Body Psychotherapy – 8th January 2027
About this event
- Date:08 January 2027
- Time:2:00 pm - 4:00 pm (2 CPD hours)
- Fee:Starting from £30 (VAT included)
- Location:Live on Zoom, recordings available for purchase
