Michael Soth:

People Skills for the 21st Century

a new kind of psychology

Michael Soth

Most disciplines to do with people skills – management, helping professions, counselling and therapy, coaching and many others – are very much last millennium. Developed at a time when unlimited progress and expansion, constant growth and the unquestioned exploitation of nature were the order of the day, these disciplines are rooted in ‘unsustainable’ assumptions. What makes human beings tick, what’s healthy and normal and what the roots are of people’s pain and suffering – all these important questions are based on assumptions about human nature and motivation, about human psychology.
Traditional psychology focuses on the mind and control of the mind over thoughts, feelings and the body. It also emphasises conscious intention, goals and vision and for many exacerbates the pursuit of perfection. But as C.G. Jung observed decades ago, a healthy psyche is not driven by perfectionism, but by a quest for wholeness and dynamic balance.
What would people skills look like based on an idea of sustainable wholeness ? Can we update 20th century psychology to help us with the challenges of this century and this millennium ?
What would be the ingredients of a sustainable psychology – as if people mattered ?

Strand: Sustainable Consciousness & Psychology

Type of event: Presentation and experiential workshop

Place:

Starts: 15:00

Ends: 16:00

Presenter's Personal/Professional Background: Michael Soth

psychotherapist, facilitator & consultant

Michael Soth is an integral-relational Body Psychotherapist, trainer and supervisor (UKCP), living in Oxford, UK. Over the last 20 years he has been teaching on a variety of counselling and therapy training courses, alongside working as Training Director at the Chiron Centre for Body Psychotherapy .
Inheriting concepts, values and ways of working from both psychoanalytic and humanistic traditions, he is interested in the therapeutic relationship as a bodymind process between two people who are both wounded and whole. In his work and teaching, he integrates a wide range of psychotherapeutic approaches.
He has written numerous articles and is a frequent presenter at conferences. Extracts from his published writing (including several book chapters) as well as summaries of presentations are available at http://www.soth.co.uk. He is currently organising a training for leaders and group facilitators, called The Communitas Project.

Email: michael@thrivingsustainably.org.uk

Phone:

01865 725 205

Website: http://www.soth.co.uk