TRAINING IN SOPHROLOGY
We believe sophrology can make a positive difference to the world – to individuals, families and societies – and the Institute offers training courses to show you how to use the techniques and ideas of sophrology to improve your wellbeing, and to help others too.
Whether you want to learn sophrology for yourself, or whether you want to train in it so that you can work with others, you first need to experience its benefits by taking a journey that is organised in four stages. If you are a counsellor or psychotherapist, a meditation or mindfulness teacher, a life coach or wellbeing practitioner, this course will add valuable tools and insights that will enhance your work.
Learning sophrology through the four stages will take at least nine months – and most likely a year with pauses for integration. This is deep, transformative but also enjoyable work, and this can all be done through learning online with our interactive and mentored courses.
All the courses are self-contained, so you don’t need to complete all of them to benefit from what you have learned. Here’s an overview of the training:
LEVEL ONE
The aim of this first level is to foster a more integrated sense of self, so that you feel more at home in your skin and in your body, more harmonious in your thoughts and feelings, more contented, sleeping better, and able to concentrate more effectively. There is a strong emphasis on helping you become more aware of the present moment, rather than constantly thinking about the future or ruminating on the past, and you should find yourself feeling less stressed and anxious, more easily able to relax at will, and you will have created the foundation for a regular meditation practice.
LEVEL TWO
While much of the work of the first level is designed to develop your awareness of your body, the aim of the second level is to integrate this new-found deeper awareness with an enhanced appreciation of your mind - with its capacities for perception, concentration, contemplation, memory and imagination. You work with the power of hope, and in particular with the ability to project your consciousness into the future, to help you achieve your goals.
LEVEL THREE
In this third phase of the work, you develop your feeling-self, and learn how to incorporate positive experiences from the past into your present awareness and future actions. The movement meditation you learn helps you to integrate your awareness of the outside world into your consciousness, and by working with your sense of time - of the past, present and future - you deepen the process of integrating mind and body, and enhance your ability to work towards your goals.
LEVEL FOUR
In Level Four you grow from developing and integrating your own self, to feeling yourself as an integral and meaningful part of all life. To accomplish this, the exercises focus on exploring and then embodying values. These values start to act as guiding lights for your thoughts, feelings and actions - not just at an intellectual level, but within your own physical embodied experience too. Having worked on developing and harmonizing yourself with the first three levels, you are now more free and empowered to give of yourself to others and the world.
So there you have it - an overview of an amazing journey that awaits you, that helps you develop your potential and enhances your well-being. And along the way, you will also be shown how to work with specific issues: how to reduce anxiety and stress, how to sleep better, and much more.