Letter from Laura Gutman to those who are interested in the professional training.

My school is mainly based on the study and practice of the methodology of the construction of the human biography that I've developed along many years. It is a therapeutic personal inquiry methodology for both men and women.

The first year is quite simple. I am in charge of the theoretical classes. At the same time, I suggest students that they should participate in a personal development therapy group coordinated by two professional from my team who will help them throughout the year to build their own human biographies. Within this group the students witness each others´ processes. As most of the students are experienced professionals in other areas, this system of going over their own history, sometimes arouses rejection and even laziness, “Why again?” But I understand that there is no "professional training" possible if we don´t go through the sieve of our preconceived ideas and our own “characters”.

The whole of first year is about the discovery of our characters and especially about approaching the emotional reality of our childhood, which has almost always been more lacking, solitary and damaged than what we have imagined.

For many people, this process is too painful. Those who still have the desire and enthusiasm to continue can go on to the second year of school. In the course of that year, we learn to do the "family maps”. That is to say, we draw complete family scenes, both from our childhood and present time, and look at all the movements "from outside". The whole group of students is witness of each other’s map. We can say that each student "lends" her/his history and the organization of light and shadow, for the study. At the end of the year, we have gone through the difficulties, the blindness and prejudices, which are the most frequent obstacles to deal with every human biography. In parallel, the students also continue in their respective groups of personal inquiry, going even deeper in their own biographies.

At this stage of the training, almost all the students have had the personal and group experience of how painful this process can be. We are looking for shade. If we seek painful things we have sent to the shade, in general we will not find anything nice. We come closer to emotional sad realities, violent, hostile, and arid, of which we are very seldom aware.

After two years, I do a subjective choice. I simply choose among my students, those whom I think might be suitable to work in the future in my institution under this methodology. This is the reason why I attach so much importance to the process they have gone through over the past two years. I don't care about previous professional training (and I mean exactly that: I don't care if they are doctors, psychologists, psychiatrists, sociologists, lawyers, architects, teachers, teachers of yoga, nurses, soul searchers, housewives, young or old, male or female, with children or no children, heterosexual or homosexual. I don't care. In fact I don´t ask for any requirement to be admitted in my school, except for the willingness to open their hearts and commit emotionally). However, I deeply value the personal process each individual has done; I do it from a personal and subjective appreciation, full of inaccuracies and errors.

Those who have been selected are enrolled in a third year of training. They are "practitioners". The system works like this: many people contact our institution requesting for psychological assistance. Some cannot afford our fees. Therefore we have an assistance service "at institutional fees": a funny euphemism used in Argentina which means "for less money". Those people, who pay less, will be treated by one of these "practitioners" who are graduates from my school to whom we refer “real patients" to be treated under my methodology, i.e., the organization of the human biography. We do the human biography always, always, always, no matter what their apparent motive for consultation is. During the third year of training, my supervision is permanent, case by case, and interview by interview.

This third year is often very hard. It is a brutal encounter with reality. Or more specifically with the abysmal emotional void of the majority of patients. My commitment is very dedicated and personal. Each practitioner faces her/his limitations, fears, difficulties, own ingenuity and shadow.

At the end of the third year, I face once more a new unpleasant instance of having to do a selection. I choose people that I think are able to work within my team. Each year is different. Some people continue their own professional path, enriched by all they have learned that will tinge for sure the own practice. Others are admitted to work with me. The work we do always aims at the search of our own shadow.

Therefore to do the professional training in my school the prime requisite, is to go through the personal process of the construction of the human biography, designing our map, reviewing our relationships and bonds, being fully aware of our own characters, also being able to identify who has influenced our discourse, review our wars, confronting our miseries, our fears and all our survival mechanisms.

This explanation is intended for those who are interested in this proposal, so that you know that this school does not work from any ideological position regarding children upbringing, or any other area of human experience. We want to address with greater awareness the reality everything we don´t remember from our childhoods, and still it pulls the strings of our lives, son that later we can implement this methodology when we accompany, facilitate the personal inquiry processes of other adults. We offer a methodology proven, efficient, connected, deep and honest that with training and dedication can become a new profession for those who wish to do so. I hope I have been clear. To those who want to try this way, I welcome you with my arms wide open.

Laura Gutman