Tri-Energetics Theory

Tri-Energetics (TE) is a broad-based integral system designed to help people satisfy needs, simplify wants, and clarify intentions. It teaches: know what you need, say what you want, have clear intentions. As an open-ended system TE employs a wide variety of psychotherapeutic approaches to illuminate often-camouflaged needs, wants, and intentions.

 

TE focuses on developing flexibility, tolerance, and curiosity, because awareness of the consequence of these attitudes leads to a satisfactory life. It provides practical methods for developing flexibility of body, tolerance (compassion) in the heart, and curiosity of spirit - all essential qualities for balanced living and effective problem solving.

 

By focusing on the unity of the body-mind-spirit, TE allows interventions on these different levels in a counselling setting. "Counselling" is defined as helping ordinary people to cope more effectively with practical life issues.

 

Rickie Moore, Ph.D. developed TE over years of working with clients in therapy and counselling, and refined it with the help of Henry Marshall, Ph.D. It is the therapeutic system used in all aspects of their work. Because TE evolved through years of experience, its strength is practical application rather than theoretical sophistication. However, people seeking help have a right to know the assumptions and methods of their service provider, and practitioners certainly need to reflect about these issues.

 

With this in mind, here are four questions often put to theories of counselling and psychotherapy.

 

1. What are the basic assumptions about people in general, and clients in particular?

 

TE views the person as a unity of soma - psyche - spirit. Unified functioning can be disrupted by traumatic experiences. Therapeutic work engages the person as a whole and helps re-establish integrated functioning of body, mind, and spirit.

 

It assumes that the fundamental functions by which humans relate to the world are needs, wants, and intentions.
* Needs can be understood as being either primary (necessary for survival) or secondary (necessary for accomplishing a particular goal). On a physical level, primary needs include air, water, food, shelter, and touch. Primary emotional needs include such things as safety, love, and importance. Spiritual primary needs are qualities like meaning, purpose, and inner peace. Where primary needs determine the ongoing function of life itself, secondary needs are linked to particular circumstances, such as needing to leave early enough to be on time for work or needing electricity to run the computer.
* Wants are desirable, but not necessary. They can be as specific as wanting broccoli for dinner, or as general as wanting to be happy for the rest of my life. However intense wants may be, they are not needs unless they are necessary for something.
* Intentions are plans of action and the purpose of behavior. A plan would be like, "I intend to stretch each morning." Intention as the purpose of behavior would be like, "I intend to show my teacher that I'm grateful."

 

It also assumes that flexibility, tolerance, and curiosity are fundamental qualities which regulate the functioning of the body, mind, and spirit.
The fundamental qualities of flexibility, tolerance, and curiosity regulate the body, mind, and spirit in a variety of ways. Flexibility is needed to physically prevent disease; it also reduces depression and anxiety in the mind and emotions, and prevents spiritual beliefs from rigidifying. Tolerance is wanted by mind and emotions to live and let live; it also enables us to establish physical boundaries, and allows acceptance of spiritual paradoxes. Curiosity about life's meaning is the spirit's intention (or plan); it also means being open to physical stimulation, and being emotionally and mentally interested in what is happening in oneself and in the world.

 

 

2. What are the sources of functional and dysfunctional feelings, thoughts, and behavior?

 

TE views both inborn factors and life experiences as playing important roles. Inborn factors include genetic or hereditary factors--the standard items known to bio-medical science--plus factors which relate to experiences from past lives. In the here-and-now world, life experiences condition the individual in the manner generally accepted in modern psychology, with gratification increasing associated behavior, and deprivation decreasing associated behavior.

 

 

3. How are feelings, thoughts, and behaviors perpetuated or sustained?

 

TE emphasizes that behavior is predominately shaped by the responses of others. Strokes, units of recognition or acknowledgment, sustain feelings, thoughts, and behaviors.
At a physical level, reactions to stress cause the body to defend itself and disrupt the flow of energy. These blocks accumulate and shape the body in what is called body character. Physical defenses (or armor) perpetuate defensive habits.
In the mind and emotions, decisions made in childhood during trauma become embedded in the psyche and influence us as adults. They exist as injunctions which limit actions (don't be close, don't feel, don't make it), and as drivers which motivate actions (be perfect, hurry up, be strong).
In the spirit, intentions are our determination to act in a certain way. Clear intentions sustain positive habits. Unclear intentions sustain dysfunctional habits.

 

 

4. What are practical suggestions for changing dysfunctional feelings, thoughts, and behaviors?

 

In general it suggests, learning to ask the following questions: What do I need? What do I want? What are my intentions? Am I flexible? Am I tolerant? Am I curious?

 

TE also advocates developing the abilities and qualities expressed in the following statements. Know what you need; say what you want; have clear intentions. Satisfy needs; simplify wants; clarify intentions. Be flexible, tolerant, and curious.

Specific suggestions for physical issues include a wide spectrum of interventions. Activities could include swimming, massage, yoga, sports, or dance. Body therapies could be indicated, like Feldenkrais, Bioenergetics, or Shiatsu. Counsellors frequently use the Seven Stretches and Stress-Reduction Body Work. Those who are more trained in physical interventions might work on dissolving blocks to change habit patterns to desirable behaviors.

Suggestions for emotional issues would include activities-such as support groups, gatherings, singing, talking, or touching. They could involve mind-heart therapies that use screaming, crying, or laughing. They might include specific therapeutic techniques such as Gestalt, Rogerian, or Transactional Analysis.

TE suggests a wide variety of interventions for spiritual issues. One's actually employed would depend upon the client's own understanding of what constitutes a spiritual activity. Possibilities to consider would include meditation, chanting, ceremonies, rituals, shamanistic journeys, silence, walks in nature, planting trees, sacred sex, cultivating forgiveness, and simple acts of kindness.

© 2007 Rickie Moore & Henry Marshall

 

 

 

 

Tri-Energetic Counsellor Training

Between 1988 and 2005, one hundred sixty-four students were educated in ten Tri-Energetic (TE) Counsellor Trainings.

The TE Counsellor Training teaches people to counsel. Before anyone can use TE to counsel others, they have to understand themselves. TE Counsellor Training uses self-discovery as the path to helping others. It addresses the needs, wants, and intentions of the body, mind, and spirit. It focuses on developing flexibility, tolerance (compassion), and curiosity, because awareness of the consequence of these attitudes leads to a satisfactory life. It helps people learn to think by thinking, to do by doing, and to learn through laughter and play.

 

Students discover their own personality styles and character types. They learn group leadership, communication and coaching skills. They practice yoga and a variety of physical healing methods. They meditate, chant mantras, and participate in shamanistic ceremonies. TE counsellors learn how to develop and use their intuition as the primary tool for understanding and counselling others. They learn that everyone needs to be encouraged, acknowledged and loved for who they are - even counselling trainees. The course provides an environment in which students of diverse ages and cultural backgrounds raise their self-esteem through positive feedback and the freedom and encouragement to make mistakes.

As an open-ended system TE utilizes a large number of techniques and theories including Gestalt, Transactional Analysis, Person-Centered, Primal Scream, Bioenergetics, Brandon's Sentence Completion, Jung's Typology, and more. To encourage and accelerate the learning process, theories are often presented in a humorous and entertaining way. During training sessions, students participate in, observe, and process counselling sessions conducted in the group by the instructors and Teaching Assistants (selected graduates of the training doing advanced study). Trainees also conduct counselling sessions with fellow students, often supervised by Teaching Assistants.

Because of the training's intense and intimate learning method, students are invited into the course only after they participate in a minimum of one of the groups we offer and demonstrate a strong commitment to their own personal development. The training takes two-and-a-half years to complete. Every six months the group meets for six days in a residential setting. Students are expected to attend all six sessions during the two and a half years, and are responsible for paying the course tuition even if they miss a session. Training sessions are conducted in English and meet the Netherlands in a remarkable retreat center complete with vegetarian meals, swimming pool, and Turkish bath.

Between sessions, students are encouraged to participate in regional Study Groups where they meet for fun, learning, and support. Practicum experience is flexible and students are only required to assist in at least one of our groups after they have completed the first two training sessions. Assignments are always suggested not controlled, with the exception of a paper due at the last session of the course. The paper about TE is not graded, the length is optional, and it can be written in the student's mother tongue.

Upon completing the course curriculum (pdf-document on curricululm) , students who demonstrate an ability to counsel and show through their paper an understanding of TE graduate and receive a diploma. Graduates who want professional counsellor credentials (pdf-document on credentials) and who have sufficient practicum, supervision, and personal development experience are eligible to apply for membership as Basic Counsellor in the Netherlands Association for Counselling (NAC) and in the European Association of Counselling (EAC) . More importantly, however, is the underlying message of the diploma that says, "Here is someone who has the courage to explore his/her Self - an intuitive counsellor who can provide guidance, support, solace, and love."


© 2007 Rickie Moore & Henry Marshall

 

 

Advanced Tri-Energetic Counsellor Training

Between 2000 and 2006, twenty-one advanced counsellors were educated in four Advanced Tri-Energetic (TE) Counsellor Trainings, in which they served as mentors for counselling students.

 

Advanced TE Counsellor Training offers broad theoretical perspectives, practical training experiences, and opportunities for advanced students to explore areas of their special interest. In this training, advanced students who are graduates of the TE Counsellor Training serve as teaching assistants in a TE Training course. As teaching assistants they teach selected topics, and provide counselling for basic students. The intention of this course is to enable advanced students to become skilful and comfortable as mentors who can ultimately teach TE courses.

Advanced students are encouraged to take a broad view of counselling and psychology, and to integrate human behavioral theory, practice, and research at the individual, group, and societal level. They are prepared to work with individuals, groups, and systems. They are challenged to apply theoretically grounded, research-based interventions in ways that promote growth and change toward healthy and productive living.

Advanced TE Counsellor Training is designed to support individual strengths and initiatives. Students develop individualized learning plans that accommodate the heterogeneity in their levels of prior education and training. Although progress and interventions are closely monitored in their role as teaching assistants, advanced students are encouraged to design a learning program planning that lets them acquire knowledge and experience in ways that best suit individual preferences, strengths and weaknesses. In short, respect is given to the individual needs, wants, and intentions of each student.

Advanced students are trained to respect differences in experience and background and to actively participate in a competency-based learning environment that values close collegial relationships between teachers, advanced students (teaching assistants), and basic students.

Throughout the Advanced TE Counsellor Training the art and science of counselling and supervision is thoroughly explored. During teaching sessions advanced students counsel basic students and make teaching presentations from the course curriculum (pdf-document on curriculum). Teaching assistants receive one hour of group supervision daily.

Advanced students who served as teaching assistants during the four sessions of the six-day TE trainings receive 140 hours of theoretical-technical training of which at least 68 hours are practical training experiences under our guidance. In addition they receive 52 hours of work experience as a counsellor, 24 hours direct counselling experience, and 24 hours of group supervision by us on this work.

Advanced students who served as teaching assistants during the six sessions of the six-day TE Counsellor trainings receive 144 hours of theoretical-technical training of which at least 72 hours are practical training experiences under our guidance. In addition they receive 162 hours of work experience as a counsellor and 54 hours of group supervision by us on this work.

Upon completing the course, advanced students who demonstrate ability to counsel and mentor receive a diploma. Graduates who want professional counsellor credentials (pdf-document on credentials) and who have sufficient practicum, supervision, and personal development experience are eligible to apply for membership as Accredited Counsellors in the Netherlands Association for Counselling (NAC) and in the European Association of Counselling (EAC) .

 

© 2007 Rickie Moore & Henry Marshall

 

Tri-Energetic Training

Between 2005 and 2008, fifty-three students were educated in two Tri-Energetic (TE) Trainings.

 

TE Training teaches practical techniques for understanding oneself and others. It addresses the needs, wants, and intentions of the body, mind, and spirit. It focuses on developing flexibility, tolerance (compassion), and curiosity, because awareness of the consequence of these attitudes leads to a satisfactory life. It helps people learn to think by thinking, to do by doing, and to learn through laughter and play.

Students in the TE Training will learn:

 

• Tri-Energetic theory and innovative techniques
• Counselling and coaching skills
• How to solve conflicts non-violently
• How to lead a group
• How to develop intuition
• How to listen with more than your ears
• How to identify feelings
• How to raise your self-esteem
• How to express anger
• How to develop compassion and empathy
• How to forgive
• How to meet your own needs
• How to be intimate
• How to increase sexual/sensual satisfaction
• How to use mantras, music and movement for healing
• How to integrate spirituality into daily life
• How to meditate
• How to love and respect yourself
• How to relax and enjoy inner peace

During training sessions, students participate in, observe, and process counselling sessions conducted in the group by the instructors and Teaching Assistants. The TE Training takes one-and-a-half years to complete. Every six months the group meets for six days in a residential setting. Students are expected to attend all four sessions during the one and a half years, and are responsible for paying the course tuition even if they miss a session. Training sessions are conducted in English and meet in the Netherlands in a beautiful rustic retreat center.

Between sessions, students are encouraged to participate in regional Study Groups where they meet for fun, learning, and support. They are also encouraged to study and explore topics introduced by trainers and teaching assistants in the (TEweek1), (TEweek2), (TEweek3), (TEweek4) training sessions.

Upon completing the course, students receive a diploma. Completion of this course partially satisfies requirements for membership as a basic counsellor in the Netherlands Association for Counselling (NAC) and in the European Association of Counselling (EAC), and can provide the basis for further counsellor training.

© 2007 Rickie Moore & Henry Marshall

 

Tri-Energetic Trainer Training

Between 2006 and 2008, twelve trainers were educated in the Tri-Energetic (TE) Trainer Training, in which they served as trainers for basic students of TE.

 

TE Trainer Training challenges talented graduates of the TE Counsellor Training and Advanced TE Counsellor Training to create a Trainer Team to mentor TE Training sessions. The experience of building a Trainer Team that serves the group as counsellors, teachers, and role models is designed to support TE Trainers in offering trainings and groups of their own.

The TE Trainer Training extends over one-and-a-half years. Every six months the Trainer Team leads the TE group in a six-day residential session. In each of the four residential sessions, members of the Trainer Team are encouraged use their unique skills in meeting the needs of the group. In each session Trainers receive 60 hours supervised practicum in Tri-Energetic Counselling education/training consisting of 29 hours general work experience as a counsellor, 24 hours of direct counselling 1-on-1 or 1-on-group, and 7 hours group supervision.

 

Between sessions, trainers are encouraged to mentor regional Study Groups where TE students meet for fun, learning, support, and to explore topics introduced in the (TEweek1), (TEweek2), (TEweek3), (TEweek4) training sessions.  

The TE Trainer Training emphasizes creative expression of individual strengths and team building. TE Trainers respect the individual needs, wants, and intentions of students and colleagues. They give full expression to their own talents with the intention to empower their Trainer Team colleagues and the group that they serve.

© 2008 Rickie Moore & Henry Marshall