Psychotherapy and Life Management
As a therapist Liz has developed dimensions based on psychodrama theory, feminism, psychodynamic psychotherapy, the cognitive therapies and expressive arts. She works one-to-one with clients to meet both short and long term needs, and offers personal growth workshops several times a year.
Work with Individuals
Liz works with clients presenting a wide range of challenges and difficulties. E.g. Self-defeating patterns, alienation, perfectionism, loss and bereavement, relationship problems, workplace stress, anxiety, depression, and the challenges of parenting and/or caring for aging parents.
She is particularly active in bereavement counselling and she is an approved psychotherapist for referral from the Bereaved Families of Ontario.
Work with Groups
Liz brings thirty years of experience and a great love of group process to her groups. Believing Moreno’s statement that “We are all therapeutic agents of one another”, she delights in facilitating growth and encouragement of each group member.
Personal Growth groups begin with a theme and unfold in response to participants’ needs and readiness.
Life Management workshops introduce concepts, (such as befriending our defences, role theory, the nature of change, differing experiences of bereavement) and take participants through a series of experiential exercises to apply the concepts to their challenging life situations.
Upcoming Workshops
The Janus Gate: Marking Progress and Passages
A One day workshop in Saskatoon,Saskatchewan
Thursday October 29, 2009
The journey of personal growth and healing can sometimes seem long and arduous. We have not developed rites of passage to mark and celebrate our internal transitions. The Janus Gate, developed by Liz White, is an exercise that is both simple and powerful. It facilitates the individual to discover and articulate the changes that have taken place within their healing process, and to anchor the readiness for a richer perspective in the months to come.
The god Janus was the Roman god of doors and gates and windows. January is named after him, as it opens a new year. In this exercise we acknowledge strengths that we have discovered in the course of our recent months, and our readiness to let go of some limiting beliefs or convictions that have held us back. We stop, take stock, and look ahead. It is brief and carefully focused, going to the core of our changes. Sometimes it is useful at a birthday, or before a marriage, finishing a group experience, or at a particular passage in life. Other times it is a midstream checkin – in a bereavement journey, in a lengthy illness or challenging period. What have I lived, how am I changed and what do I see ahead?
This exercise can be experienced in a group, with others helping to bring it to life, or in a one –to-one setting. The workshop will include a demonstration of the Janus Gate exercise and practice in small groups, so that each participant will experience receiving and directing and supporting roles in the process. We will reflect on where and when it could be most useful to us.
For more information or to register, please contact Brian Walton at
brian.walton@saskatoonhealthregion.ca.
A Gathering of Ghosts
a Two-Day workshop in Regina Saskatchewan
October 31, November 1, 2009
A GATHERING OF GHOSTS: A PSYCHODRAMA WORKSHOP
Hallowe’en celebrates the passage between the living and the dead.
At this sacred time those who have died become more real to us,as we consider and shape how we live with them. Some we knew and
lost, leaving legacies of joyful memory or of bitterness and
recrimination. Some ancestors we have heard about through the
family stories; others are lost in the common histories of
migration and suffering, of pioneering and vision.
In this workshop we will let our spirits reach out to rejoin and
enliven those we carry within us. We will lay some to rest,
reclaim those who can feed our spirit, and
strengthen our roots in lives that have gone before.
Join us to dance with the family skeletons!
At Prairie Sky, St. Mary’s Anglican Church, 15th Ave.& Montague
6 pm Saturday evening Hallowe’en supper
At 2640 Angus Blvd.
Fee: $200 includes supper
Befriending Our Defences
Emotional Intelligence in Action
A One Day Workshop in Oshawa, Ontario
Monday Nov. 16, 2009
We go along managing life in a reasonable way, despite the challenges. Then we or someone we care about feels threatened in some way. Enter the expert defence system. The defender is reactive, full of distortions and holding on for dear life.
Living defensively is familiar, tiring and alienating. Worse still, one defensive stance evokes another, and before you know it, the battle escalates, and the impasse is in place! With action methods, expressive arts, encouragement and humour we will find new mastery of challenging life situations that tend to evoke our defences. Bring your partner! Sign up your staff team!
- Experience a demonstration of four common defences
- Encounter and befriend your strongest defensive self
- Identify signals that warn of an impending defensive takeover
- Develop strategies for moving back into spontaneity and connection with others
- Learn which other people’s defensive roles are most challenging for you and why, and some ways to work creatively with them.
Turning Points:A Residential Retreat for Women
Uxbridge, Ontario
Friday supper to Sunday noon, November 27 – 29, 2009
In this time living in communtiy we will take stock of our lives before the long winter.
It is a time to simplify. To clarify. To take charge.
What is nourishing and what is taking up space in my life?
Where am I giving and receiving and why?
What mental gymnastics make me crazy?
What beliefs seem empty?
Whom do I invite to people my world?
What choices am I afraid to make?
Who and what will be my real companions?
What intentions can I manifest to enrich life on the planet?
Join us in company of women to reap your harvest. In a beautiful country setting celebrate space and quiet, and abundance in the group and at a bountiful table. We share accommodation in a gracious home, with a hot tub.
We use stillness and psychodrama, group process, creative arts, reflection and writing.
Fee: $300
Limited to 10 women
The Day of the Spirit
This event, offered each year at the beginning of January, is my gift of thanks to those who have worked with me.This is an opportunity to take time, reconnect with others on the journey, pause to reflect on your own intentions and spirit, and be nourished by the companions, the program and the soup lunch.
in Oshawa: Friday afternoon, January 8, 1 – 4pm.
The content and location will emerge before the next newsletter.
in Toronto, Saturday January 9, 2010 9:30 – 4:30
25 Keewatin Ave. Toronto
This year I am pleased to welcome Rita Benson to give us a day- long experience of Soul Collage. This is a quiet, meditative date with ourselves and images and the group. Rita is a gifted leader and I am looking forward to participating in this rich process.
Annual Women’s Midsummer Retreat on the Island in Muskoka Wednesday to Sunday, August 4 – 8, 2010
You are invited to join a wonderful community of women on an island in Muskoka to take time for yourself.
As always, we live and work in community, sharing accommodation and simple and sumptuous meal preparation. The lake and its boats, the porch and its swings, the meadow and its quiet, the fireplace and its warmth all offer their particular charms. Time in the group is balanced with time alone for reflection and rest. Psychodrama, creative arts, music and stillness bring balance to our workshop.
Fee: $625