Applied Metapsychology is the whole subject that encompasses Traumatic Incident Reduction (TIR), Life Stress Reduction (LSR), and the Ability Enhancement Viewing Curriculum. TIR and LSR are taught in three workshops. Ability Enhancement work, used to facilitate viewer’s personal growth and development of potential, is taught in a series of eight workshops, the Ability Enhancement Workshops.
These eight workshops train a facilitator to deliver all sections of the viewing curriculum, as well as many additional programs for specific purposes.
Because the nature of this work is educational, we call this significant block of work the Ability Enhancement viewing curriculum in the sense of, “a specific course of study” since a viewer, engaged in the educational work of the sessions, completes each section in order as s/he moves along. the Ability Enhancement sections provide a long general case plan (customized for each individual viewer), giving the sequence of techniques designed to gradually increase a viewer’s abilities by removing charge from the case and by exercising life skills a viewer already has in order to improve command over these skills.
Probably if you are looking at training on the Ability Enhancement Workshop Series, you have taken one or more of the TIR and Life Stress Reduction level workshops that give you the tools to do a thorough job of unburdening a viewer’s case of the issues and concerns he or she comes in with. To qualify to be accepted as a student of this series you need to have completed the initial TIR & LSR Workshops, and have completed your own Life Stress Reduction as a viewer. It is also recommended that you have completed at least one internship (supervision) program with an AMI certified trainer.
The first seven Ability Enhancement Workshops parallel the Ability Enhancement viewing curriculum sections, with more theory, skills and specialized programs taught along the way. So while each workshop covers training in a specific section of Ability Enhancement work, it also includes a multitude of other skills and specialized training. The eighth workshop is devoted to case planning at this level, additional Ability Enhancement techniques, a range of new specialized programs, and material on how to work with difficult cases.
The series of eight workshops provides a broad array of techniques to facilitate growth. People doing this work achieve significant self actualization, improved quality of life and relationships, increased production and satisfaction in work, and enhanced creative ability.
The Ability Enhancement Workshop Series teaches:
- The full Ability Enhancement viewing curriculum: Here we move fully into the realm of personal growth, employing the strategy of discovery (compare with unburdening), to allow viewers to find areas of charge they had not previously been aware of and to develop innate abilities toward self-actualization (See below for a full outline of the subjects covered)
- More of the philosophy and fundamental skill sets that underlie the effectiveness of Applied Metapsychology, such that the facilitator will see enhanced results with all viewers as s/he moves through the training
- A number of specialized programs to address particular situations, such as pregnancy and new parenthood, the unique problems of the creative person, the viewer who is in an oppressive/abusive relationship, (See below for descriptions)
- Specialized skills and techniques for dealing with difficult cases
- Technical direction knowledge and skills covering all of the above
- Ability Enhancement Workshop Level 1
- Ability Enhancement Workshop Level 2
- Ability Enhancement Workshop Level 3
- Ability Enhancement Workshop Level 4
- Ability Enhancement Workshop Level 5
- Ability Enhancement Workshop Level 6
- Ability Enhancement Workshop Level 7
- Ability Enhancement Workshop Level 8
Ability Enhancement Workshop Level 1
In this workshop we cover the Help and Control Section of the Ability Enhancement viewing curriculum. Within the person–centered model of Applied Metapsychology, help is defined as “assisting someone to accomplish something that s⁄he intends to accomplish.” This is distinct from trying to force someone to go in a direction that s⁄he doesn’t wish to go, in the name of “help”. Control is another word that can take on a negative connotation when what is meant is actually “bad control”. Control that either overwhelms a person’s sense of self, or that has chaotic results, is bad control. Good control is beneficial and can actually be experienced as pleasant.
Every viewing technique involves both help and control, as the facilitator intends to help the viewer, and to that end, guides and controls the viewer’s attention so as to reach an end point on the issue being addressed. The Help and Control Section handles charge that might make viewing difficult at times. Handling charge on help and control is also very beneficial to life outside the viewing session. Successful human development from childhood to adulthood depends upon the individual learning to establish autonomy while still being able to relate to others effectively. Viewers report that personal relationships and work relationships improve as a result of this Help and Control section. Completion of this section allows one to feel comfortable and safe with both giving and accepting appropriate help.
On the subject of control, the ideal condition is a person who is able to control (being a successful parent, teacher or manager depends on this) and accept control when appropriate. This is to say, the person is able to be causative and responsible in life, while also allowing others to be the same. Being able to accept control does not mean accepting abuse or other inappropriate control; it is actually bad control in the form of poor management that people most often protest. Freedom from charge on the subject of control, both in giving and receiving, allows a person’s life to run more smoothly and effectively.
Prerequisite: The TIR Workshop, TIR – Expanded Applications, and the Life Stress Reduction Workshop
Time: 2 1/2 Days
Objectives:
As demonstrated through examination and supervised activities, the student will be able to:
- Understand the relationship between Life Stress Reduction and Ability Enhancement
- Have a working knowledge of the design and philosophy of the the Ability Enhancement viewing curriculum
- The ability to facilitate the techniques of the Help & Control Section of the Curriculum
- The difference between unburdening and discovery
- The ability to work with the phenomenon of self-directed viewing
- Knowledge of the basics of technical direction for Ability Enhancement
Outline:
- Basic Facilitation and Ability Enhancement
- Introduction to the Ability Enhancement viewing curriculum
- What is learning and how does it relate to viewing?
- A plan for optimum progress, from Life Stress Reduction through Ability Enhancement
- Unburdening vs. Discovery
- Methods and Techniques of Facilitation
- Technical Direction of Ability Enhancement
- Self directed viewing
- The Help and Control Section
- The theory of Help and Control
- Help techniques
- Control techniques
Ability Enhancement Workshop Level 2
Prerequisite: Ability Enhancement Workshop Level 1
Time: 2 1/2 Days
This workshop covers the Memory Enhancement Section of the Ability Enhancement viewing curriculum. Lack of a good ability to remember events of the past can be a barrier to effective viewing. It is hardly surprising that memory is dulled and encumbered by the net of past traumatic incidents. Some of these incidents of course will have been addressed during Life Stress Reduction, but probably not all. The good news about memory is that by addressing relatively pleasant memories as we do in the Memory Section, the viewer can do a lot to reorder his/her mental world and make it more accessible. Recalling pleasant memories is therapeutic in itself and opens up one’s history to easier recollection. Being able to think about the past without triggering past traumas is another benefit of the Memory Enhancement Section.
Objectives:
As demonstrated through examination and supervised activities, the student will be able to:
- Use Exploration to produce significant case progress
- Facilitate the techniques of Memory Enhancement
- To do a Domain Assessment, either as a way to find items to address, or as a standalone technique at a gentle gradient
- To understand memory as it relates to session work
- How to get a viewer more able to work with memory
Outline:
- Exploration
- Theory of Exploration
- Exploring to find items to address
- Exploring life domains
- Exploration and end points
- Exploration for the purpose of case progress
- The Memory Enhancement Section
- Theory of memory enhancement
- Memory enhancement techniques
Ability Enhancement Workshop Level 3
Prerequisite: Ability Enhancement Workshops Levels 1-2
Time: 2 1/2 Days
This workshop covers the Communication Section of the Ability Enhancement viewing curriculum. Communication is the key to resolving difficulties in life. The viewer’s contacts with other people are usually what are most problematic in life. Beyond that, we may say that communication is, or can be, one of the greatest joys of living. Enhanced ability to communicate improves the quality of life most effectively. Communication comes early in Ability Enhancement work also because it is crucial that there be a clean and workable communication channel between the facilitator and the viewer before getting into problem resolution and the subjects of the sections later on.
It is suggested, though not mandatory, that the viewer take the Effective Communication Program in preparation for doing this viewing section. Everyone has the ability to communicate. Removing charge on the subject and exercising that innate ability brings that ability more under the command of the person. As in all sections of Ability Enhancement, the subject is addressed in many ways, and on a variety of flows.
Objectives:
As demonstrated through examination and supervised activities, the student will be able to:
- More effectively build and maintain rapport
- Recognize and make use of physical indicators of charge
- Facilitate the techniques of the Communication Section
- Comprehensive understanding of the component parts of the complete communication cycle
- The ability to differentiate between social and session communication
- How to build a viewer’s ability to communicate
Outline:
- Communication and Enhanced Rapport
- Presence and intention
- Interest
- Differentiating the parts of communication, in social vs. session situations
- Exercises
- Physical Indicators of Charge
- The Communication Section
- Theory of communication
- Advanced Communication Exercises
- Techniques of the Communication Section
Ability Enhancement Workshop Level 4
Prerequisite: Ability Enhancement Workshops Levels 1-3
Time: 2 1/2 Days
This workshop covers the Resolution Section of the Ability Enhancement viewing curriculum. One of the major issues that disturbs a person is conflict, inconsistency, incompatibility, misalignment or incongruity; in other words, problems. When faced with an incongruity that is of concern, one will tend to fixate one’s attention on it. That is why a facilitator will address problems and worries when they arise before or during a session. Being fixated in a problem greatly inhibits case progress. This section of Ability Enhancement provides a more permanent ability to inspect problems and a greater ability to resolve them. The result is a state of inner greater congruity or harmony, and also a greater degree of decisiveness: “resolution”, in both senses of the word.
Objectives:
As demonstrated through examination and supervised activities, the student will be able to:
- Facilitate an array of objective techniques
- Understand the theory of problems and problem resolution
- Facilitate the techniques of the Resolution Section
- An understanding of the theory of how and why objective techniques work
- An understanding of the theory of the Expanded Orientation and Awareness Program, when it may be used, and the kinds of end points available from the techniques in this program
- Knowledge of how to use objective techniques from the point of view of a technical director
Outline:
- Comprehensive Theory of Objective Techniques
- The rational of objective techniques
- How objective techniques relate to problem resolution
- The Resolution Section
- Theory of problems and problem resolution
- Resolution techniques – objective
- Resolution techniques – subjective
- Expanded Orientation and Awareness Program
Ability Enhancement Workshop Level 5
Prerequisite: Ability Enhancement Workshops Levels 1-4
Time: 2 1/2 Days
This workshop covers the Reconciliation section of the Ability Enhancement viewing curriculum. When misdeeds have been committed, and thereafter a person cannot forgive and achieve reconciliation with self or others, the result is guilt and hostility. Guilt and hostility mainly spring from a person’s own misdeeds, which s/he has subsequently withheld, or from charge connected with others’ misdeeds. Someone commits a misdeed when unable to resolve a problem in a more constructive fashion. Unwanted situations, when encountered, must be handled in some way or other. Ideally, they are handled by confronting, understanding, and communicating, leading to a resolution of the problems contained therein that is optimal for all concerned.
In an unencumbered state, people will naturally act in the best way they can see to solve difficulties in life. When encumbered by emotional charge, they will feel forced by circumstances to commit misdeeds. Once the Resolution Section is completed, the viewer will be able to see a better way of handling difficulties and will now be more willing to handle misdeeds and the guilt that is connected with them. Regretted actions tend to reduce a person’s awareness and abilities. The Reconciliation Section clears off charge concerning these things, leaving the viewer much more able to perceive and to think clearly. Great relief usually accompanies the clearing up of these regretted actions. Part of the ability gained in doing the work of this section is an increased sensitivity to things that need to be cleaned up as life goes on, and also an increased ability to face up to doing so. The world actually seems to be a brighter place and the people in it seem to be friendlier and easier to understand.
Objectives:
As demonstrated through examination and supervised activities, the student will be able to:
- Demonstrate an understanding of the difference between the general and specific forms of an item, why we shift emphasis at this stage of Ability Enhancement work from general to specific items, and why we work to get specific answers from viewers at this level
- Explain the theory behind the People Program and when it is used
- Apply the People Program
- Demonstrate an understanding of the theory of the Reconciliation Section, and how misdeeds, withheld communications and regretted statements affect a person’s abilities and view of him/herself and the world
- Apply the techniques of the Reconciliation Section
- The Integrity Program and how to use it to meet a variety of viewer needs
Outline:
- The People Program, addressing difficulties with people
- The Reconciliation Section
- Theory of misdeeds, criticism, withheld communication, and reconciliation
- Techniques of Reconciliation
- The Integrity Program
Ability Enhancement Workshop Level 6
Prerequisite: Ability Enhancement Workshops Levels 1-5
Time: 2 1/2 Days
This workshop covers both the Resilience Section and the General TIR Section of the Ability Enhancement viewing curriculum. Any lack of ability to communicate, to resolve problems, or to proceed through life without committing misdeeds against self or others is bound to affect a person’s resilience and to lead to upsets. When these areas are substantially discharged, the viewer can productively address past upsets and the subject of change.
We address acute upsets when they show up at the start of a session because no progress will be made in the session over the top of an upset. Chronically upsetting situations are addressed in Life Stress Reduction. The Resilience Section goes deeper to address all aspects of change and upsets, not only because resistance to change can impede case progress but also, since life itself is full of change, general resistance to change tends to make life unpleasant and difficult. Here we address major upsets which have changed the course of the viewer’s life; we also exercise their ability to deal with change. Enhanced ability to resolve upsets and to tolerate and even welcome change, makes life more livable and enjoyable.
In Life Stress Reduction, the viewer addressed traumatic incidents that were then currently reactivated. Ability Enhancement work often causes other traumatic incidents to come into view, as layers of charge are peeled off. As they emerge, they are taken up and resolved. Once the Resilience Section is completed, we take a good look at past traumas that may not have been addressed to this point, and also at any unwanted feelings, sensations, emotions, attitudes, and pains that have not yet been addressed. The work done during Ability Enhancement allows the viewer to view traumatic incidents that had not been accessible before. Completion of this section brings about a feeling of comfort and well-being.
Objectives:
As demonstrated through examination and supervised activities, the student will be able to:
- Use the technique of Selection, allowing a viewer to pinpoint and work with core assumptions
- Facilitate the techniques of the Resilience Section
- Discover and handle previously unrecognized traumas
- Explain the theory of resilience
- Demonstrate the relationship between change and upsets
- Discuss the theory of mental processing and why Selection works
Outline:
- Selection, a rapid and powerful technique
- Theory of the mental process of Selection
- Rules and techniques of Selection
- Resilience and Change
- Theory of Resilience
- Techniques of the Resilience Section
Ability Enhancement Workshop Level 7
Prerequisite: Ability Enhancement Workshops Levels 1-6
Time: 2 1/2 Days
This workshop covers the Rightness Section of the Ability Enhancement viewing curriculum. The Rightness Section is the final section of the Ability Enhancement lineup. In this section we address misunderstood and false information as well as fixed ideas of various types. Confusion and fixidity impede mental functioning. Clearing them off restores clarity and flexibility. Because of pain, force, and confusion, someone has seized on certain ideas as fixed guideposts in life. These ideas are not changeable by reasoning alone, because they are held in place by emotional pain that results in an unwillingness or inability to face certain things. All the work that has been done up to this point on Ability Enhancement has eliminated enough emotional charge to permit the viewer to address fixed ideas directly.
All sorts of fixed ideas affect our rightness; the more rigidly fixed our ideas, the less often we will actually be correct in our thinking. One key type of fixed idea is the sort people use to assert their own rightness, while asserting the wrongness of others. Sorting these out allows a viewer a new freedom to simply be, in the present moment, and to allow others to be. The end point of the Rightness Section consists of an enhanced clarity of thought and cognitive ability, and the freedom from the need to assert one’s own rightness, as well as a new higher plateau of ability to perceive, to act effectively in the world, to interact with others, and to enjoy life.
With the freedom of perception and action achieved by going through the Ability Enhancement viewing curriculum, the viewer is set to gain more from subsequent trips through Ability Enhancement, and is more likely to obtain insights from living in and of itself.
Objectives:
As demonstrated through examination and supervised activities, the student will be able to:
- Use an expanded theory of learning, knowledge, and data sorting
- Increase a viewer’s ability to study and to effectively apply what s/he has learned
- Facilitate techniques of the Rightness Section
- Clarify the definitions and relationships between “rightness” and ability
- Explain the effect of fixed ideas in a person’s life and how to address them
- Discuss how the effects of words and symbols that are misunderstood or not understood on a person’s functional intelligence
Outline:
- Rightness and the Theory of Learning
- The effects of charge on rightness
- The learning cycle
- Learning by the process of data sorting
- Study difficulties
- The Comprehension Program, words, phrases, and symbols
- The Rightness Section
- Theory of Fixed Ideas
- Techniques of the Rightness Section
- The General TIR Section
Ability Enhancement Workshop Level 8
Prerequisite: Ability Enhancement Workshops Levels 1-7
Time: 3 – 4 Days
This workshop gives an overview of technical direction for the entire Ability Enhancement viewing curriculum. In this training the student builds understanding of the thinking process necessary for creating case plans for a viewer to go through Ability Enhancement with the greatest success, meeting that individual’s needs. This workshop also offers a multitude of specialized programs and supplemental techniques to meet specific viewer needs. We review some programs taught along the way during the Ability Enhancement Workshop Series, as well as adding many new specialized programs to optimize success. Following is a description of many of the specialized programs that you will learn or review (in alphabetical order):
Ability Enhancement Workshop Level 8 Specialized Programs:
- The Comprehension Program
- This program addresses words, symbols and phrases that have been wrongly understood, incompletely understood, or not understood at all. This action fits well with the Rightness Section, but may well be done earlier, especially if a viewer is having difficulties studying or understanding material s/he needs to comprehend. One could use this program more than once if the need arises. It could be that a viewer is interested enough only to “get over the hump” when having study difficulties and later on might have interest doing some more work on the Comprehension Program. A viewer can feel brighter, more in the present and even smarter as a result of freeing up attention that was tied up in past confusions that never got resolved.
- The Creative Person Program
- This program was designed primarily for artists, writers, performers, etc.; however, many business people are and consider themselves to be creative people, and this program could be adapted to suit them as well. The program consists of four components: 1. A general assessment for all creative/artistic people, 2. An assessment for writers and fine artists, 3. An assessment for performing artists (which could be adapted for anyone doing public speaking), and finally, 4. A section containing a wide variety of other actions that can be used to write a more in-depth extension of the case plan for a creative person.
- The Enhanced Awareness Program
- This program can be done at various points. It fits quite well with the block of objective techniques that come with the Resolution Section. It also makes a good, rather advanced program to do after the Rightness Section. This program invites the viewer to examine his/her relationship with body, environment and the physical world in general.
- The Exploration by Domains Program
- This is a very light, easy program for viewers who are a bit fragile and need to build up some confidence and ego strength. Viewers, for whom this is the correct level of challenge will find it pleasant and affirming.
- The Fixed Identities Program
- This program was especially designed to free up identities that are rigid and inflexible, limiting the person’s options in life. For some viewers, an identity such as survivor, combat veteran, or divorced person can become stuck, such that their energy is tied up in that one identity. Then their other roles in life such as parent, wage earner, or creative person can suffer. This program makes use of a technique that allows a viewer to examine and sort out any false assumptions s/he may have picked up in life, as well as to un-stick any fixed identities.
- The Integrity Program
- This program is taught in the Ability Enhancement Workshop Level 5 and fits well with the Reconciliation Section, but a technical director may choose to use it at a different time. Viewers having difficulties with issues about ethics, integrity, moral codes or just doing what is right in life, will have the opportunity during this program to clear up confusions and charge from the past on these matters and also to develop and fine tune their own personal code of ethics.
- The Oppressive Relationships Program
- This program uses both facilitation and consultation to address the issues of oppressive relationships. Whether a relationship is truly abusive, or just difficult and painful, this program will help.
- The People Program
- This program can be done along with the Reconciliation Section, during Life Stress Reduction, or whenever needed. The viewer looks at attitudes and emotions toward people that are making life more difficult and less enjoyable. Shy or even socially phobic people are among those who will benefit from this fairly light, but very effective program. People who tend to be abrasive or abrupt with other people will also benefit from looking at emotions on the various directions of causation in relation to other people.
- A collection of techniques for Pregnancy and New Parenthood
- This is a fairly self-explanatory program. It is a template of possible actions that can be used to tailor-make a program for a pregnant woman and her family. It covers charge from past events, concerns about the future, and practical considerations.
- A collection of techniques for Serious Illness
- Like the Pregnancy Collection, this one for people coping with serious illness provides various possible viewing and consultation actions to reduce charge from past events and to support the person in the present.
Objectives:
As demonstrated through examination and supervised activities, the student will be able to:
- Utilize programs and collections of techniques addressed to specific conditions such as: pregnancy, serious illness, oppressive relationships, and creative blocks
- Develop programs for difficult and resistive viewers, and the understanding of what makes a case resistive
- Demonstrate effective case planning to see a viewer through the entire Ability Enhancement viewing curriculum
- Explain the range of supplemental techniques and the understanding of how and when to use them throughout each section of Ability Enhancement
- Discuss the theory and practice behind effectively supervising others to expand their own professional development and avoid burnout
- How to produce expanded results using simple, familiar techniques
Outline:
- Theory of Technical Direction
- Additional Techniques for each Section of Ability Enhancement
- Specialized Programs and Collections of techniques
- The Theory of Remediation
- Addressing the difficult case
- Use of the Comprehensive Case Assessment
- Writing and extended program from the Comprehensive Case Assessment