Courses and talks with Rob Parkinson
With four decades of experience as a performer and public speaker and twenty plus years of widely varied experience as a therapist, Rob Parkinson brings enormous skill and knowledge to his training courses – alongside an ability to entertain and relax audiences and groups so that the fascinating ideas and techniques he presents can make better sense.
Courses and Talks for organisations and the general public:
Courses for professionals:
Courses and Talks for organisations and the general public:
1. Take it easier: banish stress and find new balance
Very often excess stress can easily be managed by learning new skills and meeting basic needs better. Sometimes it has deeper roots; sometimes it ruins lives. How do you tell the difference before ‘bad stuff happens’ and how can you learn the vital skills of stress management and real relaxation? This enjoyable, entertaining and creative course provides important answers.
Take it Easier can be presented in short form for organisations as one single day or two half day courses and is also presented regularly for small groups at The Brief Therapy, usually as 4 x 90 minute sessions presented weekly. For further details, please download these PDFs:
Half and Full Day Stress Busting Courses for Organisations
Short Stress Busters courses at The Brief Therapy Centre
2. Spellbinding: The Art of Storytelling:
Everyone can benefit from learning storytelling skills. Whether you are a public presenter or a parent, whether you are a professional or a just a person looking for a creative, fun, accessible art form, this enjoyable and highly engaging course is for you.
Spellbinding is presented four times a year at The Brief Therapy Centre as a one day training for small groups between 4 and 8 people. Courses for larger groups are sometimes presented at public venues across the UK. It has also been extensively presented as an in-house training for various organisations (see courses for professionals below and also. http://www.imaginaryjourneys.co.uk/training/the-art-of-storytelling/
Typical one day course outline (Downloadable PDF – The Art of Storytelling )
Courses for professionals:
Stories for Change
Three courses for therapists, counsellors and anyone else concerned with helping people to make positive changes. The courses are complete in themselves and yet complementary, together teaching an all-round understanding of the gentle yet powerful skills of transformation through the art of telling the right story at the right time in the right way to the right person. (See also http://www.imaginaryjourneys.co.uk/training)
1. Powerful Stories : The transforming power of storytelling.
Human beings are natural storytellers – but when things go wrong, the stories they tell themselves can be badly skewed. Telling stories is a hugely effective and immediate way of reframing, showing new possibilities, new ways of looking at things and also of talking directly to the imaginative mind, bypassing more conscious resistances, allowing positive changes to happen.
This fascinating, fun, highly practical course is designed to meet the needs of therapists, counsellors, health workers and others wanting to use stories for development, change and healing. It introduces the art of telling tales in therapy, exploring many of the themes Rob developed in his much-praised book, Transforming Tales (How stories can change people) and will be relevant to anyone interested in stories and what they can, whether they are experienced tellers of tales or complete novices.
2. Making Metaphors: creating stories and other images for change.
Anyone can make metaphors that can be highly effective in helping people to change – with a little imagination, a little thought and with the kind of expert guidance and structure this absorbing and engaging course provides.
Whether you are a therapist or counsellor seeking creative ways to help clients, a teacher or a support worker or a public presenter looking for better ways to ‘get through’ or simply someone who wants improve communication skills, this course offers valuable insights and new skills. Understand the huge importance of metaphor in human life, learn the art of instant transposition, understand and use the metaphor continuum all the way from analogy to epic, find ways toreverse the negative ‘stories’ that hold people back and match your own transforming tales to the time, the place and the person.
3. Storytelling, guided imagery and hypnosis: Combine three healing arts seamlessly.
In this enjoyable, stimulating and highly practical day, the connections between telling stories for imaginative fun and guided imagery for purposes of healing, soothing, problem solving and working with life challenges is fully explored. Understanding how they relate, how skills can transfer between them and can also be further enhanced by hypnotherapeutic technique gives the flexibility to move smoothly between these ‘outer forms’ without labeling what you are doing separately. Whether you work in counseling and psychotherapy or in healthcare or simply want ways to be more effective in your own life and work, this course will prove fascinating and endlessly useful.
These three storytelling courses are presented by Imaginary Journeys and are available as in-house trainings adaptable for the needs of suitable professionals, as public workshops at various venues and also as small group courses at The Brief Therapy Centre. Please contact us if you would like details of dates of upcoming courses, wish to be put on the waiting list for one of these or want to discuss arrangments for putting on the course. (See also www.imaginaryjourneys.co.uk )