It is good to know we have enough people for a rich and lively workshop in March.  Still a few places though.

In celebration I have given the website a spring clean.  Do let me know if it works, and if you have suggestions for improvement.

I am planning a new blog format and a series of blog enties on the fundamentals of Radix pholosophy and practice.  Look out for more information by email.

"Reaching In and Reaching Out," a gentle workshop with a flavour of Radix was a delight and a surprise to deliver.

We were at Keele University, not far from Stoke on Trent and Newcastle under Lyme, for the Institute of Transcational Ananysis (ITA) annual conference - a gathering that had a nice balance between personal warmth and professional zeala nd gravitas.

I have been going to ITA conferences on and off since 1982, and in recent years have taken it on myself gently to evangelize - sometimes with Michael R -  on behalf of the body and its wisdom and vitality to this world of predominantly talking therapists.

The workshop came to focus almost entirely on Reaching In.  Somehow, we never got to to the Reaching Out part.   

On the surface it was very quiet and undramatic.   Just as well, in a smallish room with no mats or cushions, though it did at least have a carpet.

Solo pulsation with an emphasis on following breath and attention inwards.  Then, when it came to working in pairs, something a bit magic and mysterious happened.

A simple exercise - you could call it “assisted curling” - led to a shift of atmosphere,  and some participants to talk about experiencing - “peace,” “safety” “ a foetal place,” “a place I haven’t been before.”   Others found no words in the place they came to.

I don’t think I have found the words  either.   Anyhow, these moments, where contact with the body (and the spirit?) outstrips the mind, are the ones that keep me  fascinated and engaged in this way of working.   That something lively, present, felt and shared - the essence of Radix work.

I have  come back fired up to put more energy and promotion into  both the London Radix Workshops and the Embodied Therapy - Trauma Training Programme - with its empahsis on "Somatic Learning"  that I am developing for later in the year.

It is Spring: time for re-awakening and renewal.

 After a few days -at last - of warming sunshine, and after attending a conference [see blog entry: ITA Conference reverberations] where I met some London Radix veterans and was able to introduce our way of working to some  people who were new to it, the spirit of renewal is upon me.

London Radix Workshops have been through a lean time. I have wondered if they can continue, whether to call an end to the whole project.  It is dispiriting to tell the one or two people who wanted to attend a workshop that it has been cancelled for lack of interest. 

But I am still passionate about our "Radix" "reichian" "embodied" way of working:  it is deep, enlivening, nourishing, challenging, simple yet capable of ininite comlexity, delicate yet staggeringly powerful.  Still passionate after all these years.

All these years: 

1959 I first heard Paul Ritter address the Heretic's Club in Cambridge on the topic "Is Sex Enjoyable?"  There I was introduced to Reich, and the concept of the Function of the Orgasm, and thereafter read everything of Reich's I could find.

1984 When I first heard of Radix on a resdential training with Bob and Mary Goulding, and went on to an introductory evening given by someone embarking on the Radix training.

1986 When I began my own process of individual Radix work and had my first taste of the London Radix Workshops as a participant.

1990 when I began my training as a Radix Teacher

1994 when I became a certified Radix Teacher, and became a co-leader of London Radix Workshops, and all the years since of dramatic, tender and heartwarming Radix sessions and workshops.

OK so we have not had much interest in the most recent workshops.  I refuse to surrender to despair - NO - to be true to the reichian process I have surrendered to despair, and out of those depths I am now rising up refreshed and reinvigorated to proclaim anew the potency and vitalising qualities of our work.

This blog is a step in the process of renewal.

Let me know if you have been touched by this passion.

What can we do to foster the work so that it flourises?  Let me have your ideas.