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Unconscious Relational Patterns, Cumulative Neglect, and Therapeutic Involvement

Unconscious Relational Patterns, Cumulative Neglect, and Therapeutic Involvement

Unconscious systems of psychological organisation and self-regulation are developed by our clients as a consequence of cumulative failures in significant, dependent relationships. Unconscious relational patterns may be ‘perceived’ by the client as physiological tensions, incomprehensible affects, longings and repulsions. In this context, the therapist’s sensitivity to and understanding of unconscious experiential conclusions, and the unique relational nature of therapeutic involvement is essential for an in-depth therapy of archaic relational patterns, current relational disturbances and fixated systems of psychological organisation.

Times:

10:00 am – 4:00 pm, London UK on both days

Venue: Broadway House, Tothill Street, London SW1H 9NQ

Important: no online streaming is available for this event

Limited seating event, please book early to avoid disappointment.

Ticket price includes attendance at London plus video recording of the whole event .

Note: Lunch is provided to delegates attending in person.

For more information on how to access handouts and video recordings please click here

There is no known commercial support for this programme.

This course does not qualify for CE credits.

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£ 249.00

Quantity:

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Course Credits

CPD: 10 / CE: N/A

Speaker(s)

Dr Richard G. Erskine

Course length in hours

10 hrs of video content

Location

London

Full course information

At this uniquely practical and intellectually stimulting training workshop, Dr Richard Erskine draws on an integrative therapeutic approach that spans the primary dimensions of human functioning: cognitive, behavioural, affective, and physiological, each within the context of a relational system. This comprehensive framework enables therapists to guide clients through the process of assimilating and harmonising the often-disjointed contents of their ego states. It helps clients to relax their entrenched defence mechanisms, relinquish long-held life scripts, and reengage with the world from a place of fuller, more authentic contact. At the heart of this process lies the goal of making the client ‘whole’: integrating disowned, unconscious, and unresolved aspects of the ego into a cohesive, resilient self.

Through a blend of lectures, case vignettes, and clinical discussions, the workshop explores how early attachment experiences are forged through physiological survival reactions, implicit conclusions, explicit decisions, and powerful introjections, all of which occur at critical developmental stages. Specifically, the training will elucidate:

  • How early physiological, affective, and interpersonal experiences can inhibit or distort the client’s intrapsychic processes, impacting their overall health and relational capacity.
  • The importance of tailoring therapeutic interventions according to the client’s unique attachment styles and patterns, thus making therapy more responsive to individual developmental histories.
  • The profound developmental impact of cumulative neglect and relational traumas, particularly how they lead to the formation of defensive structures that aim to protect but also limit the client’s engagement with self and others.
  • The intricate relationship between attachment dynamics, unconscious processes, and the formation of life scripts, demonstrating how early relational templates continue to shape the client’s internal world and relational behaviours.

For therapy to be effective at an in-depth level, therapists must cultivate a sophisticated understanding of internal working models, procedural and sub-symbolic memory, implicit memory systems, and the unconscious effects of cumulative neglect. Such comprehension requires therapists to integrate insights from a wide range of psychological frameworks, including psychodynamic, client-centred, behaviourist, family therapy, Gestalt therapy, neo-Reichian principles, object relations theory, psychoanalytic self-psychology, and transactional analysis. Dr. Erskine’s integrative approach will equip therapists with the knowledge and skills to provide interventions that are:

  • Rooted in research-based understanding of normative developmental processes, ensuring that therapy aligns with the client’s natural growth trajectory.
  • Deeply informed by theories that explain the self-protective, defensive processes employed by clients when their normal developmental needs have been interrupted by neglect or trauma.

Workshop Schedule

Session 1: An Introduction to Unconscious Relational Patterns

In this first session we learn how Life Scripts are unconsciously formed by infants, young children and even adolescents and adults as a creative strategy for coping with disruption in relationships that repeatedly fail to satisfy crucial developmental and relational needs. The unconscious organising patterns that compose a life script are often based on the quality of the infant / caregiver relationship. These early models are then reinforced and elaborated during a number of developmental ages to form the life script.

Session 2: The Developmental Impact of Cumulative Neglect and Its Link to Attachment

Bowlby wrote about the unconscious relational patterns and described the biological imperative of prolonged physical and affective bonding in the creation of a visceral core from which all experiences of self and others emerge. Building on our understanding from session 1, we explore how the therapist’s attunement provides the client with the security of affect-regulating transactions. Such affect regulation is the within a sensitive, caring relationship rather than in the client’s archaic attempts at self-regulation through clinging and over-adaptation, physical and emotional distancing, emotional confusion and fragmentation or social façade and emotional withdrawal.

Session 3: Case Vignettes and Examples

This session provides practical illustrations of the concepts discussed, with real-world examples drawn from clinical practice. Dr. Erskine will present case vignettes that highlight the interplay of unconscious relational patterns, cumulative neglect, and attachment styles, offering participants concrete insights into therapeutic application.

Session 4: Therapeutic Approaches

In this final session we will examine how our therapeutic focus can rely on the primary dimensions of cognitive, behavioural, affective and physiological, each within a relational system.

We comprehend how ‘Script Cure’ involves an internal reorganisation and new integration of affective and cognitive structures, the undoing of physiological retroflections, the decommissioning of introjections and the conscious choosing of behaviour that is meaningful and appropriate in the current relationship or task rather than being determined by compulsion or fear of archaic coping reactions.

Learning Objectives:

By the end of this workshop, participants will be able to:

  • Recognise and interpret unconscious relational patterns arising from cumulative neglect and failures in early dependent relationships, and understand how these patterns manifest in physiological, affective, and cognitive experiences.
  • Apply an integrative therapeutic approach that addresses the interplay between cognitive, behavioural, affective, and physiological dimensions within the client’s relational system, allowing for more comprehensive therapeutic engagement.
  • Understand the formation of life scripts and how they are reinforced throughout developmental stages, impacting the client’s sense of self and relational capacities.
  • Differentiate between attachment styles and patterns and adapt therapeutic interventions accordingly, recognising the individual developmental histories that shape each client’s relational dynamics.
  • Assess the developmental impact of cumulative neglect and relational trauma, and employ therapeutic strategies aimed at addressing the defensive systems that arise in response to such trauma.
  • Utilise case vignettes and examples to deepen understanding of how unconscious relational patterns and attachment dynamics manifest in clinical practice, and apply this knowledge in therapeutic settings.
  • Facilitate the process of Script Cure by guiding the client through internal reorganisation, resolving retroflected physiological responses, decommissioning introjections, and fostering conscious, meaningful behaviour in current relationships.
  • Integrate insights from various psychological frameworks into a cohesive therapeutic approach, drawing on psychodynamic, client-centred, Gestalt, and transactional analysis models to provide in-depth, research-informed interventions.

© nscience 2024 / 2025

Location

What's included in this course

What you’ll learn

At this uniquely practical and intellectually stimulting training workshop, Dr Richard Erskine draws on an integrative therapeutic approach that spans the primary dimensions of human functioning: cognitive, behavioural, affective, and physiological, each within the context of a relational system. This comprehensive framework enables therapists to guide clients through the process of assimilating and harmonising the often-disjointed contents of their ego states. It helps clients to relax their entrenched defence mechanisms, relinquish long-held life scripts, and reengage with the world from a place of fuller, more authentic contact. At the heart of this process lies the goal of making the client ‘whole’: integrating disowned, unconscious, and unresolved aspects of the ego into a cohesive, resilient self.

Learning objectives

  • Recognise and interpret unconscious relational patterns arising from cumulative neglect and failures in early dependent relationships, and understand how these patterns manifest in physiological, affective, and cognitive experiences.
  • Apply an integrative therapeutic approach that addresses the interplay between cognitive, behavioural, affective, and physiological dimensions within the client’s relational system, allowing for more comprehensive therapeutic engagement.
  • Understand the formation of life scripts and how they are reinforced throughout developmental stages, impacting the client’s sense of self and relational capacities.
  • Differentiate between attachment styles and patterns and adapt therapeutic interventions accordingly, recognising the individual developmental histories that shape each client’s relational dynamics.
  • Assess the developmental impact of cumulative neglect and relational trauma, and employ therapeutic strategies aimed at addressing the defensive systems that arise in response to such trauma.
  • Utilise case vignettes and examples to deepen understanding of how unconscious relational patterns and attachment dynamics manifest in clinical practice, and apply this knowledge in therapeutic settings.
  • Facilitate the process of Script Cure by guiding the client through internal reorganisation, resolving retroflected physiological responses, decommissioning introjections, and fostering conscious, meaningful behaviour in current relationships.
  • Integrate insights from various psychological frameworks into a cohesive therapeutic approach, drawing on psychodynamic, client-centred, Gestalt, and transactional analysis models to provide in-depth, research-informed interventions.

You'll also be able to...

Develop the ability to interpret and modulate the body’s nervous system (sensory and autonomic) to regulate arousal levels in clients and for safer trauma therapy

Identify and acquire recovery options and strategies for trauma clients inappropriate for trauma memory processing, particularly for those who don’t want to and those who decompensate or dysregulate from memory work

Also develop the ability to interpret and modulate the body’s nervous system (sensory and autonomic) to regulate arousal levels for professional self-care

About the speaker(s)

Richard G. Erskine, Ph.D., is a Clinical Psychologist and Training Director of the Institute for Integrative Psychotherapy (New York City and Vancouver).  Originally trained in client-centered child therapy, Dr Erskine also studied Gestalt therapy with both Fritz and Laura Perls.  He is a certified clinical Transactional Analyst and a Licensed Psychoanalyst who has specialized in psychoanalytic self-psychology and object-relations theory.  His work is an integration of these concepts and more than forty years of clinical experience, which has included working with disturbed children, inmates in a maximum security prison, borderline and narcissistic clients, post-traumatic stress and dissociative identity disorders.  Recently his research and clinical practice have focused on the treatment of the schizoid process and on the psychotherapy of obsession.

He is the author of several books and scores of articles on psychotherapy theory and methods.  His best-selling book (with Jan Moursund and Rebecca Trautmann) is “Beyond Empathy: A Therapy of Contact-in-Relationship” (1999, Brunner/Mazel) and most recently, in 2015, he has published “Relational Patterns, Therapeutic Presence” (Karnac).

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