Online Zoom Forum: Winifred Rushforth: The Spiritual Vision in her Life and Work.
Date: Wednesday 28 February 2024.
Time: 7pm-9pm (UK time).
Event Description:
Format: There will be five talks, each of 12 minutes, followed by 20 minutes of discussion among the speakers and the chair, followed by Q & A.
Chair:
Keith Farvis:
Bio: I have a lifelong interest in personal enquiry and in finding the most effective way of addressing the challenges of our inner lives; mentally, energetically and physically. During my time living at the Salisbury Centre in the mid 1970s, as well as interacting with Winifred as a Trustee, I was fortunate enough to attend her ongoing dream groups which opened my eyes to how important it is to listen to these promptings from our unconscious. That curiosity has remained with me and I have attended various dream groups since that time.
My particular focus has tended to be on how we embody our inner life and I have worked as a Polarity Therapist and Biodynamic Craniosacral Therapist since 1990 and alongside a fulfilling career in IT.
Speakers:
Sue (Daena) Turner:
Title: Thoughts about Winifred Rushforth and her Philosophy of Life.
Description: This talk will share thoughts about Winifred Rushforth and her philosophy of Life.
Bio: Sue (Daena) Turner first met Winifred in 1971 when she was a student at Edinburgh University. Through Winifred she had the opportunity to explore dreams, both through Winifred’s dream groups and through individual analytic work with her. She was one of the founding members of the Salisbury Centre and although she left Edinburgh in 1974, she and other former residents of the Centre continued to regularly spend weeks at a time together, exploring dreams and the inner world with Winifred at the time she was writing her book, ‘Something is Happening’.
Sue has worked as an osteopath since 1975 and teaches osteopathy in the UK and abroad. Her particular interest is in the cranial and paediatric aspects of the work inspired by William Sutherland. Her book ‘Balanced Ligamentous Tension in Osteopathic Practice’ is due for publication this year.
Victoria Crowe:
Title: The Painting of Winifred Rushforth.
Description: I first met Winifred when I was invited to her 94th birthday party in Edinburgh.
I had heard about her and her work, which I found fascinating, and we had several mutual friends and interests.
When I began painting her some three years later, I had become familiar with her writings and ideas.
I had joined some of her groups, and had learned of the Jungian concepts of symbolism, myth and the unconscious mind.
As a young artist and mother I found her insights inspirational and important in helping to shape my ideas and recognise the concerns in my own work as a painter.
This talk will be about how meeting, knowing and painting Winifred encouraged me to look for deeper meaning and values in our lives.
Bio: Victoria Crowe studied in London at Kingston School of Art from 1961 to 1965, and at the Royal College of Art from 1965 to 1968.
For 30 years she worked as a part-time lecturer in the school drawing and painting at Edinburgh College of art, while developing her own artistic practice.
She has exhibited nationally and internationally and has undertaken many important commissions.
Victoria is a member of the Royal Scottish Academy.
She was awarded an OBE for services to art in 2004, and was a senior visiting scholar from 2004 to 2007 at Saint Catherine's College, Cambridge.
She received an honorary degree, (DHC), from the university of Aberdeen, and was elected, a fellow of the Royal Society, Edinburgh in 2010.
She has lived and worked in Edinburgh, Venice and the Scottish Borders.
Dr Gavin Miller:
Title: Rushforth’s Vitalism.
Description: This talk considers the significance of vitalism in Rushforth’s later career as a successor to the so-called ‘Christian psychotherapy’ of her earlier work with the Davidson Clinic.
Bio: Dr Gavin Miller is Reader in Contemporary Literature and Medical Humanities at the University of Glasgow. He is the author of Miracles of Healing: Psychotherapy and Religion in Twentieth-Century Scotland (Edinburgh University Press), and he is currently working on a project on UFO practices in post-war Scottish culture: https://ufos.ac.uk/
Jill McKay:
Title: The Spirituality of Winifred Rushforth
Description: This talk considers aspects of the spirituality of Winifred Rushforth, including her involvement with the Salisbury Centre.
Bio: Jill McKay was a student at Edinburgh University when she first met Winifred Rushforth. Along with others including Susan Turner, James Bennett and Patricia Cawley, she participated in the founding of the Salisbury Centre in the months leading up to its formal opening on January 1st, 1973. She was one of the first residents in the Centre and since then has moved to the United States where she now lives in Maryland. She keeps in touch with the Salisbury Centre and is both astonished and grateful that we celebrated its 50th anniversary in 2023.
Maggie MacKechnie:
Title: The Spiritual Thread through the life of Winifred Rushforth: Infancy to Old Age.
Description: I will reflect on how Winifred’s spiritual beliefs and questions arose in her early life, especially in the context of loving relationships and at times of separation, and how she integrated this with psychoanalysis in her work with people and her search for life meaning.
With reference to her participation in Sempervivum and her vision and establishment of Wellspring I will consider her legacy in these organisations.
Bio: I met Winifred in 1976 to work with the dreams that troubled me following my mother’s death. Meeting her changed the course of my life. I participated in her dream groups, then joined a group for mothers with infants, led by her daughter Di Bates, after which I trained in Jungian dream work. I left social work to join the staff group of Wellspring. leading dream groups in 1989 with Di Bates as first clinical director. I was actively involved in Sempervivum and The Salisbury Centre for many years.
I trained in Core Process Psychotherapy in 2006 and have been a Co Clinical Manager at Wellspring since 2017, the 8th to hold this position in the lineage of Winifred.
An archive recording will be made for the EICSP archive.
NB: There will be no refund if you cancel your booking.
Cost: By Donation:
Contact: Neill Walker, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
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Account Name: Edinburgh International Centre for Spirituality and Peace
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