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Exciting news about our Workshop program.



Hello, Pat Quinn here.

Our 2012 program is now available.

We are providing more workshops than we have in the past, so you will have more choices. Three quarters of the workshops are brand new and those that are being repeated have continued to be in demand.

Our very popular six-month course “Expanding your Personal Potential” continues to be enormously beneficial to those who participate. It is truly life changing, making a positive impact on each person. This course will be a highlight of our 2012 program. It commences in June.

Our workshops provide wonderful opportunities for personal, spiritual and professional development.

With kind regards
Pat Quinn

PS. Please do not hesitate to call after hours or on the weekends: ph 0422 462 678






The Portiuncula Centre for Personal, Spiritual and Professional Development

The Portiuncula Centre was established in Toowoomba in 1988 to provide programs for personal, spiritual and professional development. A range of methods for inner exploration is offered including dreamwork, sandplay, breathwork, journal writing, emotional release processes, body work, art, meditation and voice dialogue.

These methods are presented in group workshops as well on an individual basis. More extended courses are also offered.

The Centre is situated on five acres in a beautiful garden setting. The facilities provide a nourishing and sacred space for those who come on their journey of self-exploration – they come from near and far. Simple accommodation is available.






Staff

The director of the Centre is Pat Quinn. Her experience as a Missionary Sister of Service for over 40 years has involved reaching out to people from all walks of life. She has worked within the church and also with the wider community beyond the church. Her vision is to support the healing and spiritual growth of all people.

Pat has studied spirituality and Jungian practice and theory; She is an accredited Journal writing consultant and has a lifetime of experience in counselling.

While a deal of Pat’s experience has been connected with the church, the Centre is a place where people of all backgrounds feel at home. Each person is supported in exploring their own spiritual path.

Pat is joined by a competent and dedicated staff who come from a range of backgrounds. The staff have a strong commitment to their own ongoing inner work and see this as an essential element in their involvement with others.

All hold diplomas in Emotional Release Counselling and Transpersonal Studies, and are members of the Association of Tranpersonal and Emotional Release Counsellors Inc. which is a constituent organisation of the Psychotherapy and Counselling Federation of Australia (PACFA). The staff are qualified practitioners of Holotropic Breathwork™, having trained with Dr Stan Grof and Tav Sparks. They are professional members of the Association for Holotropic Breathwork™ International.






Testimonials from participants in our extended courses


Doing the Expanding Your Personal Potential course with Pat and her wonderful team at The Port has enabled me to journey inside myself, and learn why I am who I am. It is a journey in which I feel I have been held with love and care, totally supported all the way. Pat has created this incredible haven - The Portiuncula - a safe place to explore the inner terrain, to let go of what holds us back, so we may grow into being who we were born to be, and reach our full potential. Inner journeying makes the outer journey so fuller! I will always be so grateful to Pat, for who she is and what she does. Toowoomba is truly blessed. Think about it no more. Take the leap. Expand your Personal Potential.

Jo Anderson


The" Port" for me has been a safe haven where I have been able to journey into my unconscious , identify and heal my traumas and by gaining insight realize slowly who I really am. The wholistic approach to the many modalities offered and the professionalism of the Director and her staff is quite unique - not offered anywhere else in Australia. I am so lucky to have found this healing path.

Dr Melanie Nicolson


'Expanding your Personal Potential' enabled me to open myself,  face my brokenness and wholeness allowing truth to emerge with a growing acceptance and understanding.  The love and friendship and support, along with the modalities and different techniques used, bring it all together, to put the wind back in my sail.  I am so grateful to Pat and the team for this safe port of call.  Thanks.

Lyn Lee


I found my time engaging in the course very rewarding. I have witnessed transformations in myself and in others, seen things I did not believe possible. I have laughed, cried, been happy and sad all in the one day. I believe I am a much better person now than I was previously.

John Mulckey


I have lived a life accompanied with Asperger’s Syndrome, a lack of self worth and self esteem with very little awareness of the problems that pursued me through my life. It has been the journey with Portiuncula and the Course “Expanding your personal potential” that bought me to a point of awareness that has given my life worth and new meaning with peace I have never known before. My gratitude always to The Portiuncula Centre, Pat and her staff.

Alf Mason


Before this course I was afraid of my emotions. I didn’t know how to handle my anger and sadness. Now I’m friends with my emotions and I am generally a lot happier in life. I love myself more and that gives me much more self-confidence.

Jo Chivers


I found the theory and the practical exercises presented by staff at the Portiuncula to be most helpful and that the other participants in the Course were an important and real support to me. At the end of the entire Program I was surprised to discover that all the exercises taken together had combined to produce an enduring sense of liberation and joy in life that were beyond my expectations. I would recommend the Portiuncula Centre to anyone who longs for more clarity and understanding in life.

A graduate of the course


Having participated in the course “Expanding your personal potential” I found the Port to be a safe place where I experience growth and healing in all aspects of my being. As a teacher of Counselling and Community Services at TAFE, I realise that personal and professional development is paramount. My journey at the Port confirms how important this is. The staff are to be commended for their caring professionalism and integrity. I recommend the Portiuncula to my students, my family, friends and colleagues for a dignified journey into wholeness.

Mary Laffan


I had been experiencing in my life desperation to live with greater freedom. A voice within me was crying out “There must be another way”. When I heard of the Port, I was looking for help in dealing with these struggles. I decided to enrol in the six month course ‘Expanding your Personal Potential’.

I thought I had come without high expectations and it was only when I had experienced the people and the processes that I realised these unconscious expectations had actually been met.

The personal and professional skills of the staff, the authentic modalities, the companionship of my fellow journeyers, and the safety fostered by these, has opened the way to a better life.

Darryl Harper, Armidale NSW


Where do you go, who do you talk to, what do you do when your life is full of aggression and indifference towards everyone?

My life, though half over, has just begun. Thanks to my journey at the Port, I have softened my heart, opened my eyes and turned listlessness into a joy for living. Breathwork, dream therapy, voice dialogue, sandplay, I had never heard of these magical healing modalities until the Port and its amazing staff showed me. I recommend that all men forget their fears, and awaken into a new way of living and being on planet Earth.

Ian Willey, 56 years


My time at the Port has been an exciting journey of self discovery. This has been made possible by the incredible support given to me by staff and fellow students. I now experience a greater authenticity and depth in my life which has enabled me to have a greater understanding of myself and others. My participation in the courses has been a really enriching life experience.

Pauline Mathews.