SIGNAL AMPLIFICATION WORKSHOP
PROCESSWORK AS DEEP PLAY
Process Work Institute, 2049 NW Hoyt St. Portland OR
Saturday March 8th 10am-5pm 2025
Facilitator: James Boutin
$80-150
This workshop will take you on a journey into one of the core techniques within Processwork called Signal Amplification. Processwork, developed by Arnold Mendel in the 1980s, is a collection of somatic techniques and awareness practices that integrates Jungian psychology with eastern and embodied paradigms. Our workshop will be held at the Process Work Institute (PWI) in Portland, OR – one of the international hubs of processwork.
Signal Amplification is a method for engaging with the embodied signals our psyche offers us—signals that manifest in diverse ways: visual, auditory, kinesthetic, and proprioceptive. These signals are everywhere: that barely noticeable thing that flickers through at the edge of your consciousness when you meet someone new, the sudden rush of heat in your chest when someone talks over you, a strange tightening in your throat whenever someone makes eye contact too long, a momentary impulse to speak in a fake accent when you’re nervous, etc. They are the psyche’s attempts at communication, and they carry deep meaning and significance.
Through signal amplification, we will experiment with and expand upon these signals that we encounter, exploring what happens when we extend a feeling to our entire body, intensify it through movement, practice restraint, or shift it between different sensory channels. This exploratory process helps us engage with the energy within us and around us. The process itself is inherently playful and experimental - we don't know exactly how a given amplification will affect the system - but much like improvisation there is a trust that comes with following impulse - a sensing of where aliveness is moving through our body.
According to Processwork, these signals are trailheads to parts of ourselves that we have unconsciously pushed away. Signal amplification is a process whereby we attempt to integrate them into our experience thereby expanding our sense of self and facilitating a Jungian process of individuation—the integration of unconscious aspects of the self into a semi-coherent whole.
We hope that participants will walk away from this workshop with a deeper understanding of how to identify and amplify the subtle signals their body and psyche are offering. You will learn techniques to explore and integrate these embodied messages in a playful, exploratory way, allowing dynamic energies or even characters to emerge through movement, voice, and visualization. You may encounter parts of yourself—energies or dynamics—that feel otherworldly, strange, or chaotic, and experience the powerful effect of embracing these energies in a way that allows them to become more integrated into who you are. You will gain practical tools to continue this work on your own, expanding your self-awareness and emotional flexibility, and hopefully begin to integrate these new insights into a fuller, more authentic sense of self.
–🌾— PRACTICALS DETAILS —🌾–
Price: Price is tiered based on an sliding scales of income/subsistence and ranges from $80-150
Sliding Scale: Please try to reasonably and honestly select the price that reflects your economic situation. If you are unable to find a price that is suitable for you, please get in touch [[email protected]]. We are committed to covering our basic costs, while also making this possible for everyone who needs it.
Timing: Our workshop will begin promptly at 10am on Saturday. We will be unable to accommodate late arrivals, or participants who only want to attend part of the workshop. There will be a 1-hour lunch break in the afternoon, and participants are encouraged to bring a lunch or they can easily find good lunch options in the area.
Maximum Participants: 20
Covid Policy: We will follow CDC protocol regarding covid isolation and engagement. If any participant has symptoms of covid (i.e. cold symptoms), we ask you to please take a home-test and if you test positive you cannot attend the workshop. If you test negative, and you are sick, we ask you to still wear a mask (as tests can deliver false negatives). For everyone else, masks are optional.
Cancellation Policy: Refunds are available up to 30 days before the event - minus a $20 processing fee. After this time we are unable to provide a refund for the event. Partial refunds might be given if a cancellation takes place under extenuating circumstances (e.g. a death of a 1st or 2nd degree family member, serious non-preventable illness or accident requiring hospitalization). Refunds in such cases remain at the discretion of the local organizers and will be decided on a case to case basis according to the timing of the cancellation and other factors.
Out of Town Participants: The Deep Play Institute is not able to provide accommodations for out-of-town participants. DPI is also not able to refund any travel or housing costs in the unlikely event of cancellation.
About the Deep Play Institute The Deep Play Institute is a nonprofit organization committed to exploring life’s deepest questions through transformative play. DPI’s facilitators – therapists, artists, coaches, and philosophers – aim to use play to bring people into an experiential questioning of what it means to exist. Each program that DPI runs is a unique container, creatively constructed and inspired by practices that include: Gestalt therapy, Process Work, Psychodrama, Internal Family Systems Therapy, Tavistock Group Relations, Relational Psychoanalysis, Authentic Relating, Nonviolent Communication, Circling, coaching, performance art, contact improvisation, experimental theater, LARPs, surrealism, existential games, and various schools of meditation.
Signal Amplification is a method for engaging with the embodied signals our psyche offers us—signals that manifest in diverse ways: visual, auditory, kinesthetic, and proprioceptive. These signals are everywhere: that barely noticeable thing that flickers through at the edge of your consciousness when you meet someone new, the sudden rush of heat in your chest when someone talks over you, a strange tightening in your throat whenever someone makes eye contact too long, a momentary impulse to speak in a fake accent when you’re nervous, etc. They are the psyche’s attempts at communication, and they carry deep meaning and significance.
Through signal amplification, we will experiment with and expand upon these signals that we encounter, exploring what happens when we extend a feeling to our entire body, intensify it through movement, practice restraint, or shift it between different sensory channels. This exploratory process helps us engage with the energy within us and around us. The process itself is inherently playful and experimental - we don't know exactly how a given amplification will affect the system - but much like improvisation there is a trust that comes with following impulse - a sensing of where aliveness is moving through our body.
According to Processwork, these signals are trailheads to parts of ourselves that we have unconsciously pushed away. Signal amplification is a process whereby we attempt to integrate them into our experience thereby expanding our sense of self and facilitating a Jungian process of individuation—the integration of unconscious aspects of the self into a semi-coherent whole.
We hope that participants will walk away from this workshop with a deeper understanding of how to identify and amplify the subtle signals their body and psyche are offering. You will learn techniques to explore and integrate these embodied messages in a playful, exploratory way, allowing dynamic energies or even characters to emerge through movement, voice, and visualization. You may encounter parts of yourself—energies or dynamics—that feel otherworldly, strange, or chaotic, and experience the powerful effect of embracing these energies in a way that allows them to become more integrated into who you are. You will gain practical tools to continue this work on your own, expanding your self-awareness and emotional flexibility, and hopefully begin to integrate these new insights into a fuller, more authentic sense of self.
–🌾— PRACTICALS DETAILS —🌾–
Price: Price is tiered based on an sliding scales of income/subsistence and ranges from $80-150
Sliding Scale: Please try to reasonably and honestly select the price that reflects your economic situation. If you are unable to find a price that is suitable for you, please get in touch [[email protected]]. We are committed to covering our basic costs, while also making this possible for everyone who needs it.
Timing: Our workshop will begin promptly at 10am on Saturday. We will be unable to accommodate late arrivals, or participants who only want to attend part of the workshop. There will be a 1-hour lunch break in the afternoon, and participants are encouraged to bring a lunch or they can easily find good lunch options in the area.
Maximum Participants: 20
Covid Policy: We will follow CDC protocol regarding covid isolation and engagement. If any participant has symptoms of covid (i.e. cold symptoms), we ask you to please take a home-test and if you test positive you cannot attend the workshop. If you test negative, and you are sick, we ask you to still wear a mask (as tests can deliver false negatives). For everyone else, masks are optional.
Cancellation Policy: Refunds are available up to 30 days before the event - minus a $20 processing fee. After this time we are unable to provide a refund for the event. Partial refunds might be given if a cancellation takes place under extenuating circumstances (e.g. a death of a 1st or 2nd degree family member, serious non-preventable illness or accident requiring hospitalization). Refunds in such cases remain at the discretion of the local organizers and will be decided on a case to case basis according to the timing of the cancellation and other factors.
Out of Town Participants: The Deep Play Institute is not able to provide accommodations for out-of-town participants. DPI is also not able to refund any travel or housing costs in the unlikely event of cancellation.
About the Deep Play Institute The Deep Play Institute is a nonprofit organization committed to exploring life’s deepest questions through transformative play. DPI’s facilitators – therapists, artists, coaches, and philosophers – aim to use play to bring people into an experiential questioning of what it means to exist. Each program that DPI runs is a unique container, creatively constructed and inspired by practices that include: Gestalt therapy, Process Work, Psychodrama, Internal Family Systems Therapy, Tavistock Group Relations, Relational Psychoanalysis, Authentic Relating, Nonviolent Communication, Circling, coaching, performance art, contact improvisation, experimental theater, LARPs, surrealism, existential games, and various schools of meditation.
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James Boutin is a process-oriented facilitator whose professional passion is helping organizations use conflict as one of their greatest resources for positively impacting our world. A former high school teacher of fifteen years, James builds safe and fun learning communities through improvisational play, care for culture, and a deep respect for all human experience. In his free time, he enjoys neeedlessly complicated strategy-based video games, cat memes, and coffee shops.
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