AFFECT THERAPY I — 22-23 March in person and online
The first of six very affordable weekends online and in person. Exploring new ways of living, loving, being with ourselves and others. Through movement, Zen meditation, dreamwork, group process, creative writing. For in-person participation click here For online attendance click here General outline:
22-23 March 2025 The Sirens Song and the Enigmatic Message: Affect and Early Development.
26-27 April 2025 Zen and the Unconscious: Meditation, Dreamwork, Free Association. Co-facilitated by Dr Manu Bazzano and Zen Master Keizan Scott Roshi.
31 May-1 June 2025 This Body, this Earth: Affect, Movement (Butoh) and Embodied Practice.
20-21 September 2025 The Rhizome: Multiplicity of the Psyche. Flow writing and postqualitative research.
18-19 October 2025 On Love, Sex, and Giving Birth to Oneself.
22-23 November 2025. Active and Reactive forces. Therapy as an Art.
The weekends will take place in Hampstead, North London, and online from 10am to 4pm UK time. They are booked individually. Links to the other five weekends will be published soon. The work will include some theory and plenty of experiential practice. Places are limited. Book early. Some sessions will be co-facilitated (names to be confirmed). Certificates of attendance available on request. Cost for individual weekends: £107.54.
I am a writer, psychotherapist, Zen priest and Butoh dancer. My forthcoming book is Difference and Multiplicity: Adventures in Philosophy and Psychotherapy. An Affect Therapy Manifesto and a collection of essay titled The Primacy of Affect will be published towards the end of 2025.
NO SYMBOLS, NO MEANING: WELCOME TO THE HERMENEUTIC LABYRINTH — Thursday 5 June 2025
6-7.30PM In Wimbledon, London and online. Organized by SAFPAC. Tickets £15/£5. Click on the Eventbrite logo below
A genuine philosophy of becoming (and a psychoanalysis-psychotherapy inspired by it) naturally shuns symbols and inductive meaning, those conventional shibboleths that lure us into believing that what is impermanent can be made permanent, that what is confused can be made clear, and what is mediocre can be made great. Symbols in particular are “images that suppress the noise of the senses and dip the forehead into the stream of transcendence” (Robert Musil). Against symbols, I will argue in favour of allegory, a construct that is loyal to emergent phenomena — in life as in therapy. Against inductive meaning, I will present the case in favour of free association and rhizomatic investigation – modes of inquiry that grant access for both practitioner and client/patient to the hermeneutic spiral or labyrinth
The Angel of History 13 December 2024 7pm Hampstead, London
A note after the event. Woke up feeling overwhelmed with joy, thanks to the tender, engaged participation of all who came last night to the Angel of History event. A packed room meant none of us felt the cold December night. The attentiveness and generosity of all participants; your encouraging, generous words moved me deeply and spurred me on to continue dancing, thinking, writing, living and loving. What a tremendous gift life is. Sending love to all my dear friends and fellow travellers on this winter morning. Manu, 14 December 2024. Some comments from the audience: “Incredibly tender and beautiful performance. It transmitted so much grace and love”. (Jenny T). “I’m still astonished by your performance, your commanding presence, your vulnerability, its subtle athleticism, the heart-opening tenderness it evoked in me”. (Jeremy W.) “Thank you for the gift of yourself. It overwhelmed me, but not with blows to be parried, but gestures that have found their way inside”. (Christian S.) “Thank you for sharing yourself and your extensive theory and practice of life with us. It was an honour to participate in such a tender gathering” (Bea trice M.) “I was stunned by your skill and control. Congratulations. For me your dance was terrifying, evoking past horrors in the world” (Sara W.) “An inspiring performance. If most mainstream performers could do half as much!” (Will H.) “Your movements and the shapes that you made were, in places, close to the brush and ink paintings of the early Taoist and Buddhist masters” (Natasha W.) “I felt inspired beyond my wildest expectations during your not-of-this-earth Butoh performance.” (Tom P.)
A Performance followed by discussion. Tickets £11.55. Click on Eventbrite link below.
Zen retreat in the Lake District, 10-15 November 2024
The retreat is now full. Watch this space for future retreats!
