We spoke with Antoni Bolinches, coordinator and professor in charge of the Specialist Course in Vital Therapy to learn more details about this new training offered exclusively by ISEP, in collaboration with the Antoni Bolinches Institute of Psychology.
Together with ISEP, you are exclusively offering the first Specialist Course in Vital Therapy. How did this idea come about?
On the one hand, from the demand of psychologists themselves who were interested in learning my therapeutic method. And on the other, from the success of the seminar I gave at ISEP within the “Learn from the Best” series.
What new contributions does Vital Therapy bring to the world of 21st-century psychology?
I believe it is an easy-to-learn, easy-to-explain, and easy-to-apply method that resonates with new times, not only psychologically but also sociologically. We are going through a global crisis of the value system, and Vital Therapy starts from a hardly questionable idea: in life, good moments are for enjoying, and bad ones are for learning. Therefore, the method teaches how to ‘positivize’ those bad moments, of which we have plenty, to turn them into vital learning that helps us mature and strengthen ourselves psychologically. To facilitate this process, I have created a new theory of personal security and maturity, from which the patient themselves learns to become their own therapist.
How will the Specialist Course in Vital Therapy be structured?
Evidently, there are theoretical contents, but its great novelty is that, since it is Vital Therapy, all students will go through two intensive individual therapy sessions and will be supervised by me in the first cases they attend as Vital Therapy Specialists.
What does it mean for a psychologist to specialize in Vital Therapy? How can it improve their professional practice?
For those who resonate with the method, a whole world of intervention possibilities will open up because the method is applied in both individual therapy and couples therapy. Therefore, the vital therapist will be qualified to effectively attend to a wide range of cases that commonly arise in a psychologist’s practice.
Therefore, for those who do not have a defined intervention model or want to enrich the one they already possess with an easy-to-apply method, they have a golden opportunity to be part of the first generation of vital therapists who, with their activity, will contribute to the well-being of people and the improvement of society.
As you have already highlighted, the training includes therapeutic sessions for students and, in addition, your course offers guidance during the first cases…
That is one of the great peculiarities of the course. Nobody is born knowing everything, and therefore, I consider it essential that, in addition to the theoretical contents and therapeutic sessions, all students can be supervised in their first interventions to dispel the doubts that usually arise when someone starts as a therapist. Keep in mind that the first difficulty every clinical psychologist must overcome is the “ghost of incompetence.” I am aware of this, and that is why I commit to guiding and supervising the first cases of all students participating in the course.