* * Comments from Participants * *
This hugely enriching secular residential Intensive Depth Therapy Workshop was lead by Dr. Paul Vereshack in the Glen Cree Reconciliation Centre, in Ireland in April 2005. The pace was rigorous, exhausting and exhilarating. The quality of work that people did was breathtakingly courageous and poignant. Paul skillfully facilitated a group of five men and five women, from 9 nationalities. His humility, wisdom, skill, experience, and way of being allowed him to manage both the group process and the individual work done on the mat. The "wide open field of permission" with carefully and firmly maintained boundaries, along with his unconditional acceptance created a place of utter safety.
He helped us to practice perfect attunement with no room for error. His passion for honesty and accurate empathy was seen daily, and he was deeply respectful of each individual's experience, expression, needs and process. He refused to force closure or to insist on "integration". He said that if you do the deep work, the brain integrates by itself, organically, and in its own time.
Paul does not play power games and he said that therapists must have nowhere to hide. (Must be open and honest at all times.) At no stage did I ever feel I had to go farther than I felt was right for me
His management of conflict within the group was inspiring, asking people to speak their truth, listen, take it to the mat, and then look at the other person, having done the work to achieve "new eyes".
In giving me the opportunity to make prolonged deep eye contact with him I pitted myself against the steel of his "disinterested love". I did not sense any need coming from him and found him to have a deep inner calm.
He interspersed teaching comments throughout the week during the reflective spaces between primal sequences.
He never used touch unless it was requested and may have erred on the side of being too cautious.
Since returning home my own clients have sensed a much deeper wide open field of permission coming from me and have done some very deep work.
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"Wow, wow."
A.S. (Male)
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Paul created a "wide open field of permission," and this is a social skill which combines empathy with every person and trust in every process, without knowing at all times what exactly is going on, whether that person is sitting up, or on the mat. This requires a facilitator who is in control for safety purposes, and not in control for the purpose of permission to feel and explore feelings. What could be more "contradictious" !
But experiencing Paul’s uncompromising acceptance and art-like ability to support every person exactly in the way he or she needed it was all that I required to do my work. Sometimes by asking questions, sometimes mirroring our words and suggesting small phrases or just a saying a single word, and a few times taking a risk and saying something seemingly provocative and quite often saying nothing at all, he miraculously brought everyone out of their shells and into their pain. There was no way to understand the magic we experienced, but surely two aspects present, were Dr. Vereshack's inimitable ability to focus on the mat and on the group process at the same time. He thereby validated the seemingly minimal achievements of the inexperienced on the one hand, and let experience speak for itself in those who had actually had more primal experience.
Paul has the ability to notice small things and to discover the energy in a particular part of a sequence of phrases which someone might use to talk himself into his feelings.
I whole heartedly encourage everyone on their quest for healing to give themselves a gift by attending such a seminar. "
R.W.R. (Male)
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Dear Paul, I was very impressed with your clarity of expression when teaching, lecturing and even talking with me.
Your ability to see the situation as it is and not distorted by your own history is amazing. Thank you for your acceptance and respect to me and being such a positive example in today's world. You have a giant heart of love with which you make profound changes in our lives.
T.M. (Male)
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A few words on the workshop and its results for me. First, this workshop was very valuable to me.
It cut through a lot of bullshit. I like this way of working because it gets to the root causes of problems. I was ready for it and I reckon my earlier work had softened me up to some degree.
At the same time I wish I'd done this years ago. I thank you for providing the wide open field of permission which enabled me to go where I went. We were and are a great group and we worked our socks off! The work done continues to resonate in me. I am more emotional, more able to get in touch with sadness, joy and anger. The group was wonderful and we worked really well together.
The fact that one person's work on the mat often inspired another person to go where they needed to go showed how healthily emmeshed we became in a short time. You were the best kind of therapist, Paul. Your presence and attitude made a lot of heartfelt work possible. All in all, people, venue, work, this was brilliant. I think the Irish vibe had something to do with it too!
D.O. (Male)
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The workshop was very valuable for me. Watching so many new people do their primal work, triggered a lot of my own stuff. After the week ended, I felt so much more in tune with myself, and I think I am more in one piece now. Being in the group made me aware how much I hide the sensitive innermost me. I saw that there are in fact people who I can trust. The process also made me aware that I may use therapy as a defense against engaging the present. It was valuable for me to work with you, because many of your methods are new to me and I can now apply them to myself.
T.M. (Female)
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I have participated in deep feeling group therapies, and also facilitated them on and off for many years. I have never come away from a group, as I did in Ireland, with the sense that I had been deeply seen, heard and understood, both by myself and by others. Paul's Irish Group Intensive was a first, a true sharing and meeting of souls in all their various stages of development. I attribute this enormous achievement firstly to the fact that most of these participants were experienced in deep work, secondly to this being primal process possibly at its best, and finally to Paul's facilitation, which was highly skilled and disciplined and played no favourites. If I have any constructive criticism it pales in comparison to my overwhelming, deeply touched and enthusiastic response.
G.D. (Female, Therapist)
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Your group experience was very affirming for me. It provided a safe supportive place to explore my inner life and follow the energy held in my body. I felt I safe to take risks and to enter deeply into the process of my inner explorations .... and, Viola ! Here I am feeling more free and more present to myself and the world. Thanks.
A.D. (Female)
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