International Course in Sexual Grounding Therapy in France

What is Sexual Grounding Therapy ?

Sexual Grounding Therapy is an effective form of psychological self-development rooted in experiential body-psychotherapy in a group format. It was developed in the early 1990s by Willem Poppeliers, a Dutch clinical psychologist and body- psychotherapist, and the principal trainer. Sexual  Grounding Therapy  is  based  on Poppeliers'  pragmatic  theory,  and  is  an innovative  approach  to  systemic,  body-oriented depth psychology and sexual therapy. It offers a missing piece to many psychotherapeutic methods, since it deals in a clear, direct and pure way with all the delicate issues around sexuality and relationships.

Sexual Grounding Therapy follows Freud in considering the primal life force to be sexual, but goes beyond his original pioneering work by charting precisely how sexual energy unfolds during a person's lifetime. In particular, it provides a framework for realising how being born into the world of one's parents relationship (known in Sexual Grounding Therapy as 'The Triangle') and cultural context can impede the natural flow of this energy. Sexual Grounding Therapy offers a way to regain healthy sexual functioning, based on a model of psychosexual development and maturation, spanning an individual's life, from birth to death.

Content of the course

Sexual Grounding Therapy has pioneered ways for developing participants sexual mirroring into participants, so that they have a new experience of their sexual innocence and full support from parents, as models for male and female identity and everyday relationship. This could be seen as process to sexual reducation, like re-learning the facts of life.

For Sexual Grounding, one of the chief tasks in life is learning to balance our masculine and feminine elements, which are inherited through being born out of the union between a father and mother: our sources of life, gender, and sexuality. Sexual Grounding Therapy helps participants to achieve freedom from inappropriate projections and life-scripts, to regulate and harmonize an inner and outer flow of sexual energy, to place sexuality within the context of relationship, and to feel supported by their parents and ancestors.

In this way, we can develop a sexual life that is realistic and concerned with passing on what has been learned. We can then begin to own, our true human birthright - being rooted in our bodies, supported in our minds, and linked in a line of human care - supported in our sexual ground. This state could be said to resemble Carl Jung's concept of the "Inner Marriage", but in Sexual Grounding Therapy the results are to be experienced much more tangibly, in the body and in one's relationships.

During the course, participants re-experience the natural progression of development-from girlhood to becoming a woman, from boyhood to becoming a man. In dynamic exercises they experience the importance of receiving supportive sexual mirroring backed by theoretical explanation from the staff team. Participants are said to acquire a «cellular» knowledge, through body experience rather than simply a theoretical understanding.

The 'level 1' consists of four modules of self-development spread over 18 – 24 months in order to allow participants time to integrate the learnings of Willem Poppelier's revolutionary bodywork approach to sexuality.

To support integration of the material, participants are encouraged to attend support process groups in between course modules. Participants may choose to engage any of the registered Sexual Grounding Therapists to offer these groups, which usually span two days.

How does it work's?

Throughout the SGT Program the child (client) re-educates herself on a bodily level to sustain the natural curiosity arising from the genital/sexual energy, by honouring her innocence. The ‘parents’ (Role played by other participants) help the child in the Oedipal triangle first by regulating the resulting excitement. In the later developmental stages the regulation by the parents transforms into internalized self-regulation.

This is done in a group context, using techniques reaching from psycho drama, body therapies, Gestalt therapy and more, adapted into specific and very precise SGT structure, developed by Willem Poppeliers. Thus the client incorporates an experience of having had ideal parents to guide her from childhood, puberty and adolescence through maturation right up to dying as a sexual woman (or man).

The resulting, self regulated, sexually non-dependent adult is therefore freed to move from our prevalent co-dependent, over stimulated, egocentric sexuality to a fulfilled, relational love life. It generates a deep understanding of the participant's own gender identity and that of their partner.

This also is an invaluable help for parenting, as it heightens the awareness of children's innocence, excitement, curiosity and healthy regulatory mechanisms at each developmental stage, giving parents a road map of a sexual education that allows the child to develop into a free sexual being with a clear sense of boundaries and identity.

And for professionals who want to:

learn how to treat sexual problems of their clients in a professional manner

learn how to accompany the sexual development of children they work with 

gain clarity and a sense of boundary in direct body work, which is especially helpful when working with abuse victims

be stable, grounded and self-confident in their work.

Introduction Workshops

The Introduction workshop will offer a short overview about the main concepts and tools of Sexual Grounding Therapy®. We will work with the sexual development of the child in theory and practice and give insight in the developmental stages of grown up sexuality. Open to anyone with curiosity, introducing the work and informing participants about level 1 and level 2

Dates of next Introduction week end  

Dates of  next level 1  2023/2024

Dates of  next level 2  2024/2025

Any information, please contact : sgt.admifrance@gmail.com

International website : www.sexualgrounding.com

Sexual Grounding Therapy® not only gives us a deep understanding of ourselves within our parental triangle but enriches our understanding by connecting us to our ancestoral lines. This is a deeply satisfying and, most of all, highly empowering connection for every human being.