Techniques You Will Learn:

1. Holistic Process Theory: Learn how to apply holistic approaches to improve overall quality of life for healthcare professionals.
2. SEQOL and QOL5 Questionnaires: Master these evidence-based tools to assess and enhance quality of life, with practical applications for personal and professional development.
3. Existential Coaching Techniques: Explore coaching strategies to help healthcare professionals rediscover meaning and joy in their work.
4. Life Mission Theory: Discover how defining and aligning with a personal mission can transform career satisfaction.
5. Stress and Emotional Resilience Practices: Learn techniques to manage stress and cultivate emotional resilience through holistic methods.

Program Structure and format:

The fellowship will be conducted through modules of five 50-minute talks. Each module is customized to your personal needs and is designed to provide comprehensive learning through existential coaching and holistic medicine. 

The participant is expected to be willing to share all important things in his or her life; the information given during the course will be treated strictly confidentially. Between the modules the participants are expected to do exercises related to the learning-modules. The exercises consist partly of writing exercises, partly of meditative self-inquiry, and partly of exercises to change or modulate behaviour towards a more conscious, more ethical and more constructive and involved life. The exercises will involve all relevant aspects of life. It is important to stress that the talks start with you, your situation and your needs, and thus will be individually tailored to fit your specific needs. 

The training is aimed at physicians, nurses, therapists, psychotherapists, psychologists, physiotherapists, massage therapists and bodyworkers, acupuncturists/acupressure therapists, social workers and other healthcare professionals seeking better quality of life, work-life balance, better impact and more success in their service and work, and the experience of personal fulfilment in their life and their career.

The format is 5-25 weekly 50 min talks about the subjects mentioned in the modules below and related subjects. Søren Ventegodt scientific papers or his 8 textbooks on evidence based holistic medicine, psychology/psychiatry and sexology can come into use when relevant. Expect the work to take the form of a combination of reading, emotionally focused, existential psychotherapy, combined with personal and practical exercises. Both the papers and the books can be found on researchgate.net. 

Module 1: Understanding Sickness, Suffering, Unhappiness, and Existential Crisis in Healthcare

• What is existential crisis, and why do health professionals so often burn out?
• Why do we – from an existential point of view - become physically or mentally ill? 
• What creates the human experience of suffering, frustration and unhappiness?
• Being honest to yourself, identifying symptoms of meaninglessness and professional dissatisfaction.
• Case studies of healthcare professionals dealing with existential challenges. Taking inspiration from other people’s journeys. 

Module 2: Holistic Medicine: Existential Healing (Salutogenesis), and Quality of Life Improvement

• Introduction to holistic medicine, and holistic health practices for healthcare workers.
• How to prevent health problems through conscious living, and overcome physical, mental, and spiritual challenges. 
• Measuring the quality of life (QOL): Overview of the SEQOL and QOL5 questionnaires and instruction in how to use them – on self and others.
• The importance of emotional, mental, physical, spiritual, and sexual health for professional success and well-being in health care.
• The concepts of consciousness, spirituality, and religion in medicine and professional work with patients. How do function in medicine with a religion or spiritual conviction.  

Module 3: Coaching for Joy and Meaning in Work

• Existential coaching strategies for rediscovering joy in life and how to enjoy practicing healthcare.
• The life force is the fundamental source of all joy, energy and interest – but what is it and how do we manage it?
• Techniques for coaching peers and colleagues in improving their personal and professional lives.
• Realigning personal values and talents with care for Self and others, 
• Ethics of aligning personal interests with professional actions and responsibilities.

Module 4: Life Mission Theory and Professional Fulfilment

• Defining your life mission = your core talent = your gift to the world. 
• What is the meaning of life / the purpose of your life? 
• How to realise your core talent and use it in your daily life - to transform your Self, your life, and your career.
• Practical steps for healthcare professionals to develop self-insight, to reconnect with their own purpose of life, and to find strength to overcome life’s challenges.
• Tools for ongoing self-reflection, deep self-inquiry, personal growth, and mission alignment.

Module 5: Emotional Resilience and Holistic Stress Management

• Techniques for managing stress through holistic practices (self-reflection, awareness exercises/mindfulness, physical and breathing exercises etc.).
• The importance of healing mind and body when one subconsciously is holding on to old ideas, emotions and beliefs coming from childhood traumas (often called “the human unconscious”)
• How to free the life energy = finding joy in life 
• How to be a whole person – happy physically, mentally, emotionally, sexually and spiritually - to build emotional resilience privately and in the healthcare settings.
• Maintaining work-life balance through a holistic approach: Finding your true values and getting your priorities straight. Leading your life to happiness and making it the way you like it.  

Conclusion:

Participants will emerge from this fellowship with a deeper understanding of life, emotions, body and mind. The goal is to understand how we all create our own experience of life, thus understanding the nature of human suffering, frustrations, sickness, and existential crises. Out of this understanding we learn how to meet and overcome life’s many challenges. 

In short the course offers existential healing work and holistic personal development, supported by existential coaching. 

Participants will after sufficient self-reflection be equipped with practical tools to improve their quality of life, both personally and professionally. 

If things go well, you will find more understanding, love and compassion for yourself. With this change your will be able to understand and support other people better, both your loved ones, your colleagues, and your patients. In the end you will be of more value to your peers in the healthcare sector, as well as to your patients.

On a practical level, this programme can serve as a point of entry to become a psychotherapist. The Quality of Life Research Centre in Denmark offers further training in the form of one-on-one-counselling as well as group therapy and Balint work.  

The training conducted in this framework can be acknowledged as training psychosomatic psychotherapy for health care professionals in a number of European countries, and thus be accredited as a part of the formal training required for becoming a psychotherapist.

On a philosophical note, the experience of life comes from mind: our life is primarily created by the way we think about life. A happy life comes from a deep alignment of our talents and life purpose with our personal and professional living and acting, in all aspects of life. Our life with our friends and our one-to-one relationship is as important for a good working-life quality as our relationship to our work, our peers and our patients.

The essence of holistic existential philosophy is that everything is intimately connected, and no part of our life can be left out of sight and un-explored, when we want to improve our quality of life, and our quality of working-life. 

Hippocrates said, that there is no art of medicine and no art of life. There is only the art. In the end of the day all is one. The final conclusion will be, that there can be no successful working-life without self-knowledge, happiness, and a good personal life.

Further reading

Dr. Ventegodt is a prolific writer who has published more than 20 books and 250 scientific articles in the areas relevant for this program. Many of his publications are available for free on researchgate.net. With over 7000 scientific citations and a h-index of 47 is he one of the leading scientists in his area of research, which covers a long list of subjects in holistic health, existential healing, salutogenesis, psychosomatics, holistic psychiatry, sexology, quality of life, and human existence: happiness, life purpose, talent, quality of life, quality of working-life, and meaning of life. 

https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Soren-Ventegodt

Recommendation of individual training sessions with Dr. Søren Ventegodt. 

This is a once in a lifetime opportunity to experience the help and support of one of the most skilled and experienced holistic therapists. With more than 10.000 hours on individual therapy and training and a documented success rate of about 50-80% when working on chronically unhappy, dysfunctional, and physically and mentally ill patients nobody else could help (1-6), he is believed to be one of the rare therapists that sometimes can make even the impossible happen. 

He offers individual training sessions that will focus on your personal weaknesses and strengths, to empower you to be the human being and the therapist you have always dreamed to be. In case you’re at the point in your life where you’re contemplating change, whether it be on the personal or professional level, existential psychodynamic therapy can be extremely helpful.

“Psychodynamic psychotherapy is generally not for the faint of heart and I can at this point not say what would be a true measure of success for me. What I can say is that, if you have a hard time finding someone to talk to who is smarter than yourself, Soren is the man! He is also recklessly honest, humble and transparent about himself and much more compassionate than he looks like. Interacting with him has restored my faith in the profession and I would particularly recommend him if you are looking for training in therapy.” Anna, medical doctor, Germany, October 2024

References

The effectivity of Dr. Ventegodt therapy on physical illness and pain, as well as on mental, sexual, working-life and existential problems has been documented in i.e. the following papers: 

1.Ventegodt S, Thegler S, Andreasen T, Struve F,Enevoldsen L, Bassaine L, et al. Clinical holistic medicine (mindful, short-term psychodynamic psychotherapy complemented with bodywork) in the treatment of experienced physical illness and chronic pain. ScientificWorldJournal 2007;7:310-6. 

2.Ventegodt S, Thegler S, Andreasen T, Struve F, Enevoldsen L, Bassaine L, et al. Clinical holistic medicine (mindful, short-term psychodynamic psychotherapy complemented with bodywork) in the treatment of experienced impaired sexual functioning. ScientificWorldJournal 2007;7:324-9.

3.Ventegodt S, Thegler S, Andreasen T, Struve F, Enevoldsen L, Bassaine L, et al. Clinical holistic medicine (mindful, short-term psychodynamic psychotherapy complemented with bodywork) improves quality of life, health, and ability by induction of Antonovsky-salutogenesis. ScientificWorldJournal 2007;7:317-23.

4.Ventegodt S, Thegler S, Andreasen T, Struve F, Enevoldsen L, Bassaine L, et al. Clinical holistic medicine (mindful, short-term psychodynamic psychotherapy complemented with bodywork) in the treatment of experienced mental illness. ScientificWorldJournal 2007;7:306-9.

5. Ventegodt S, Thegler S, Andreasen T, Struve F, Enevoldsen L, Bassaine L, et al. Self-reported low self-esteem. Intervention and follow-up in a clinical setting. ScientificWorldJournal 2007;7:299-305.

6.Ventegodt S, Andersen NJ, Merrick J. Clinical holistic medicine in the recovery of working ability. A study using Antonovsky salutogenesis. Int J Disabil Hum Dev 2008;7(2):219-22.

Said about Dr. Ventegodt’s therapy/individual training:

• Simple, profound, life changing-  Amanda G, UK
• Innate, organic, safe environment, own pace, no rules, no pre-requisite, excellent results/outcomes- Liz S UK
• Amazing ‘therapy’ –when open to it, floodgates open and not just one but hundreds of light bulbs can go on. Very powerful. NN, UK
• Søren creates a safe and secure environment, in which one can explore difficult and highly emotional issues. All he uses is word and touch... on the surface it looks like not much is happening... In my first session with Soren, my life literally changed: My entire world turned upside down... or more accurately: it righted itself. This has been the turning point of my life. Thank you Soren for your calmness, love and daring to take me to the most difficult places and support me there, so I can finally truly heal. GW, UK 
• Soren gave me some advice which I will need to put into practice. I needed the session with him so that he would reinforce and reaffirm some things for me which was immensely helpful. Shankari, UK
• Working with Soren in one to one sessions over one year so far has enabled me to integrate some crucial life events, develop more emotional and mental clarity and has strengthened some of my abilities in dealing with practical life. On a personal level I experienced therapy as extremely helpful and just wish I had met him earlier. Being a medical doctor trained in complementary and alternative therapies myself it was particularly hard for me to find a therapist I could open myself up to since the field of holistic practitioners is rather confined. Working with a colleague on personal life questions raises confidentiality and transference issues on a whole different scale compared to my pre-med days and Soren has handled our specific concoction of personal counselling, scientific discussion and teaching the art admirably. To me personally, remote sessions from the context of my home and in a mutually foreign language, worked better than in-person therapeutically work I had done previously as I had more resources to connect to my inner experience than on site, so I can definitely recommend doing this work across countries, native language and social circumstances. Al together interacting with Soren has deepened my understanding of therapy as well as what it means to be human and I’m thoroughly grateful for the chance. A, medical doctor, DE