About Jirina Prekop

Dr. phil. Jirina PREKOP was born in 1929 and grew up in Moravia (the former CSR). She studied philosophy, psychology and pedagogics.

In 1970, after the collapse of the Prague Spring, she took refuge in the Federal Republic of Germany. She worked at the Olgahospital in Stuttgart, mainly in the range of developmental disorders, until her retirement. Due of her interest in autism, she took over Holding Therapy from Martha Welch (USA) under the personal scientific consultation of Nobel prize winner Niko Tinbergen (Oxford). She then linked this with the systemic approach of Bert Hellinger and developed it in her own terms into a medium for renewing love in the context of family bonds. She has written numerous professional articles and books, some of which (like e.g. her bestseller The Petty Tyrant) have been translated into 24 languages. Together with Bert Hellinger, she published the book If You Knew, How Much I Love You. She is the first chairwoman of a friendly society that works to foster Holding as a therapy and way of life and is the head of an international training institute for Holding therapists. Other institutes, as well as a training centre in the Czech Republic, have been founded in her name (e.g. in Mexico City).

Jirina Pekop is very engaged in travelling and gives lectures and workshops all over the world (e.g. Mexico, South Africa, Argentina, Uruguay, Belgium, Spain, Czech Republic, etc.). Here, you can find a summary concerning two different workshops held by her.

Unfortunately, she does not speak English and therefore requires an interpreter (German or Czech).

What is the holding therapy workshop about?

This course emphasises 'holding' as way of life within anthropological, biological, theological and philosophical perspectives. Holding is the original mould of the incarnation which the child first experiences under the heart of his pregnant mother and as an infant in his mother's arms. Within the bond and love of the parents or parental substitutes, the child learns both empathy and how to deal with aggression. Our modern society with the ongoing mechanisation and numerous ideological processes has lost this instinct-based education of the heart. You cannot teach an old dog new tricks and thus, the adult has to request for therapeutical help.

Holding therapy was invented by Martha Welch (USA). It was established as a therapy for bonding disorders by Nobel Prize winner Niko Tinbergen and was then passed under his scientific leadership to Jirina Prekop. Prekop's method of holding therapy emphasises holistic perception. It provides a setting for the self-development of the client as well as the entanglements in his family system which will be identified and treated from a solution-orientated perspective. The reconciliation of conflicts that can't be handled linguistically, but rather through an embodied experience will be attempted within the three generations of the family wherever possible. The parents need to be reconciled with their own parents in order to be open for marriage and to step into their role as parent. This often provides the solution for the child.

In this workshop, the basic elements of holding therapy will be introduced and various methods of embracing will be demonstrated. The participant will be given ample information about the five practised kinds of the holding therapy:

• parent-child-holding (at any age of the child, that is also, if the child is above 60 years old)
• reconciliation e.g. with absent parents under visualisation
• married couple-holding
• Re-Bonding (to catch up emotional experiences of the birth and after the birth)
• sleephugging

Who is it for?

Experts from social professions and interested parents

Practical self-awareness course for learning Reconciliation therapy as visualised by Prekop

Reconciliation therapy is the only type of holding therapy which can be learnt without normal training (2-3 years). It does not make one capable of directing Holding between parents and children or with married couples. Reconciliation therapy was developed as a result of the necessity of finding a preferably effective reconciliation of adult children with their parents. These parents are, literally or effectively, absent due being deceased or due to senile decay and are hence not able to take part in conventional Holding therapy.

This course is suitable for pastors, general and geriatric nurses and naturally for doctors, psychologists and psychotherapists. It is of particular advantage for experts who themselves hold family constellations using the Hellinger approach. In terms of Hellinger, the rehabilitation of an interrupted movement towards e.g. mother or father is supported. Reconciliation therapy enables the emotional comprehension of feelings arising from the family constellation, but not completely acknowledged. Instructed by the therapist, the client experiences the reconciliation process under visualisation in the arms of a group member (if possible his own spouse) who holds him tightly.

The aim of this course is the self-awareness of one's own reconciliation as well as learning reconciliation therapy as a therapeutic instrument.

(Please bring suitable clothing, a blanket and a small pillow.)