We would like to invite you to a workshop: Phenomenological Psychopathology with a special focus on depression designed for psychotherapists/counsellors and psychotherapy students from the second year of the 4-years training.
At the urging of Carmen Vazquez Bandin, who has read Thomas' books and is enthralled with his understanding of phenomenology, we sought him out and invited him to come to Krakow to conduct the workshop for us.
“While searching the Internet for an article that would complement and reinforce some of the concepts of our basic Gestalt therapy theory, I accidentally came across Dr. Thomas Fuchs. My surprise was to discover that his concepts fit perfectly with our theory: phenomenology, body/environment fields, kinesthetic resonance, Leib/Körper and many other basic concepts in our psychotherapeutic practice. I believe that attending his seminar is a unique opportunity for personal growth, enrichment and expansion of psychotherapeutic resources."- Carmen Vázquez Bandín, Ph.D.
At the beginning of the workshop, we will look at phenomenological psychopathology, which not only studies and describes the subjective experience of mental disorders, but can also be the basis for all methods of psychotherapy that pay special attention to subjective, especially bodily experiences.
We will begin by presenting the phenomenological perspective, and in particular the concept:
- the phenomenal field
- intercorporeality
- experienced space
- body memory
- horizontal ((embodied) unconsciousness.
“Phenomenology is fundamentally opposed to any injection of psychic life into a disembodied inner space. It recognizes the person not as a separate entity representing the inner world, but rather as an embodied being dependent on and interacting with the world. Embodiment denotes the human experience of having and being a body; the term conceptualizes the body as a dynamic site of meaningful experience, rather than as a physical object separate from the self or mind. Thus, rather than being confined to the head, people inhabit their bodies and, through the body, act out their lives, stretching into space and engaging with others. This corresponds to an embodied, ecological view of the mind and brain. [...] ”
This view of Thomas' person, taken from his book “The Interactive Phenomenal Field and Living Space: A Sketch of the Ecological Concept of Psychotherapy,” has far-reaching implications for our concepts of psychopathology and psychotherapy.
Later in the workshop, we will turn to the specific topic of psychopathology, which is depression, understood as numbness in bodily constriction and heaviness, with loss of (inter)bodily resonance.
In one of his books, “Depression, Intercorporeality Interaffectivity,” Thomas Fuchs writes about illness this way:
“The disease is not in the patient, but the patient is in the disease, at that moment; for mental illness is not a mental state, but an altered way of being in the world”.
In the book “Psychopathology of Depression and Mania: Symptoms, Phenomena and Syndromes,” we find: “In contrast to the common cognitivist picture, in which mental states and emotions are located in our heads, phenomenology views emotions as embodied relationships with the world, and in particular as something that is “in between” individuals. Human beings do not have moods or emotions independent of their relationships and interactions with others.”
“The individual's relationship with the environment is characterized by temporal coupling. At the biological level, endogenous and exogenous rhythms are aligned. At the emotional and social level, we are coupled to others through processes of resonance and synchronization. These couplings are not static, but go through periodic phases of balance and imbalance, disturbance (perturbation) and reconciliation, desynchronization and resynchronization. Various biological and psychological processes serve to restore the present or actualize the individual. These include the periodization of vital functions, the compensation of deficiency through the satisfaction of needs, and the repetitive processes of coping with unfinished forgetting, sleep, remorse, grief or crisis.” “Melancholia as a Desynchronization: Towards a Psychopathology of Interpersonal Time” by Th. Fuchs
ABOUT LIDER:
Prof. Dr. Thomas Fuchs is a psychiatrist and philosopher, he teaches at Heidelberg University and his research focuses on phenomenological psychopathology and anthropology of the body, phenomenology of the body, theories of phenomenology, embodiment theory and enactivism. Prof. has long been concerned with the problem of empathy in the human body, in the encounter with Others. On the one hand, in direct intercorporeality, on the other in the virtual dimension.
Thomas Fuchs stresses that psychotherapists dealing with the body, physicality and movement experience their effectiveness in inter-body encounters. They prioritize primary empathy i.e. direct bodily communication with the patient/client. They see the mutual bodily resonance from diagnosis to intervention as fundamental.
Thomas Fuchs is head of the Section of Phenomenological Psychopathology and Psychotherapy at the Psychiatric University Hospital in Heidelberg. He is also editor of the journal Psychopathology and president of the German Society for Phenomenological Anthropology, Psychiatry and Psychotherapy (DGAP).
In 2023, he was awarded the Erich-Fromm Prize in Humanistic Psychology.
His main areas of research: Phenomenological psychology, psychopathology and anthropology, embodiment theories and neuroscience.
FORMAL INFORMATION
VENUE: Beera Meiselsa 1 (Centrum Doradztwa Rolniczego)
TRANSLATION: The workshop will be held in English with translation into Polish
DATES: September 5-7, 2025.
HOURS:
Friday: 10 a.m. - 6 p.m
Saturday: 10 a.m. - 6 p.m and
Sunday: 10 p.m.- 2 p.m.
COSTS : 450 EUR
1st installment - 200 EUR - needs to be paid within 7 days from the moment of receiving confirmed registration email.
2nd repayment – 250 EUR needs to be paid till 05.08.2025
Additionally one has to fill in the registration form (link below).
Please pay above amount to the account:
Szkolenia Gestalt sp. z o.o.
Bank: Pekao S.A.
Address: 123 Lea Street
30-133 Krakow, Poland
Kod SWIFT/BIC Bank Pekao: PKOPPLPW
PL69 1240 4432 1978 0011 0328 6180
INFORMATION: kontakt@szkoleniagestalt.pl
REGISTRATION ONLY THROUGH THE APPLICATION FORM: https://forms.gle/ppxc4EVqmNgBGbc17