Our second meeting took place on Thursday 16th March, and present, apart from Beth and myself, were Toby, Richard, Amanda, Juliet, Valerie, Helen, Jonathan, Jackie, and Mark from Warwickshire Women Magazine. Mark decided to check our Network out after I sent him some information about it, as spirituality is a direction he is trying to integrate in this new magazine. We discussed the possibility of writing a spiritual column for Warwickshire Women, so watch this space.

Guest speaker for the evening was Margaret Godwin, a Process Oriented Psychotherapist, bodyworker and creative artist from Leamington Spa. Rather than speaking about her work, Margaret decided to do a number of exercises with us that illustrate how Process Therapy might work. Process Therapy, a model developed by Dr Arnold Mitchell et al. in 1960, is 'an innovative approach to those aspects of experience which first appear chaotic, surprising and disruptive. Its methods accurately follow the wisdom of nature, through observing precisely the signals and unique structure of any individual or group process. The methods bring awareness and interaction between all parts of our experience, including those that often remain unseen, unappreciated and marginalised. With awareness, apparently destructive patterns are found to hold creative seeds which, when approached with interest and accuracy, can lead to new information and opportunities for change.' (RSPOPUK booklet, 2006). The works focuses on dreams, personal development, movement, trauma, creative processes and more.

During her demonstration, Margaret paired us up in little groups and we had the opportunity to discuss childhood dreams that had particularly disturbed and/or frightened us, and connect with these feelings. What I found interesting was that I could not actually remember any of my childhood dreams, although there must have been many, but I f0und the exercise useful because I applied it to a recent dream. In another exercise, Margaret invited us to connect with our addictions, or rather, the feelings and needs behind these addictions. Examples were addictions to food, substances, or people. She asked us to focus on the feeling in our body that would be evoked when we actually give in to our addiction, for example, do something that we know is not good for us, and feel the energy without having to act on it - a potentially very powerful and transformative process.

In yet another exercise, we went into a meditative state and scanned our bodies for aches, pains and energy blocks, and tried to visualise them, as well as communicate with them to connect with the underlying message that the pain is trying to give us.

I found the exercises quite useful, but would have appreciated a little more background information on Process Work, and perhaps more space and time to explore the things that came up during the exercises in a group. However, our time was limited! Many thanks again to Margaret for giving her time and energy to the group. For further information on Process Work, please see www.rspopuk.com

Our next meeting will take place on Thursday 20th April at 8 pm. Guest speaker will be announced nearer the time on this site and on flyers around town. Richard has offered to start the meeting off with a small meditation, so please be prompt if you intend to come. We also have a central altar in the room every time to focus the group's energy, and you are all invited to bring personal and special things to place on the altar!