Welcome to the Four Cycles Institute (Instituto Cuatro Ciclos)

Since our inception in Barcelona in 2004, we have supported professionals keen to update their training from a holistic, rigorous and deeply human perspective.

The Cuatro Ciclos Institute was founded with the aim of becoming a meeting place for professionals in psychotherapy, psychology, healthcare, education and other fields related to emotional regulation and human development.

This vision was enthusiastically embraced by our first students and collaborators. Gradually and steadily, the Institute took root in Catalonia and expanded its professional community.

Barcelona’s unique character as an open, international and culturally diverse city, combined with the quality of our programme, enabled us to develop training programmes of ever-increasing scope aimed at professionals in psychotherapy, mental and emotional health, medicine, education and care.

Over the years, the Cuatro Ciclos Institute has established itself as an international platform for continuing professional development and as a mark of quality for professional development in Spain, Italy, the United Kingdom and other countries in Europe and Latin America.

Our training programme

Our training is clinical, experiential and professional in nature. It is specifically aimed at practising psychotherapists, psychologists, healthcare professionals, educators and therapists who wish to broaden their knowledge and develop new skills for their practice.

We specialise in programmes that integrate three fundamental dimensions:

theory, practice and experience.

We strive to bring the contributions of researchers, clinicians and lecturers with solid, internationally recognised track records to our community.

Our programmes cover, amongst others, the following areas:

• Interpersonal and affective neurobiology.
• Attachment theory and human relationships.
• Emotional and nervous system regulation.
• Psychological trauma and trauma-informed care.
• Sexuality, intimacy and couple relationships.
• Relational and body-oriented psychotherapy.
• Human development across the life cycle.
• Mental health and mental health care settings.
• Integration of body, mind, emotions and relationships.

We do not seek merely to impart theoretical knowledge. We design learning experiences that can be incorporated into professional practice in a concrete, ethical and responsible manner.

Continuing professional development and professional recognition

In Spain, our programmes offer certificates detailing the number of teaching and training hours completed. These certificates may contribute towards meeting the continuing professional development requirements set by various professional associations and bodies, in accordance with the criteria established by each organisation.

The Cuatro Ciclos Institute also has a collaboration agreement with the Col·legi Oficial de Psicologia de Catalunya and with Editorial Eleftheria, aimed at promoting continuing professional development and facilitating access for psychology professionals to specialised programmes.

In Italy, the Cuatro Ciclos Institute is accredited on the Ministry of Health’s list of foreign organisations authorised to provide training. For this reason, certain programmes taught in Italian may award Educazione Continua in Medicina (ECM) credits to healthcare professionals registered with their respective professional bodies or associations.

Furthermore, the Cuatro Ciclos Institute forms part of the UK’s Continuing Professional Development (CPD) system. This affiliation helps to guarantee the methodological, pedagogical and educational standards of our programmes and the corresponding certificates.

The specific validity of each certificate, accreditation or number of credits is always indicated in the detailed information for each course.

An international learning community

We offer face-to-face, online and blended learning programmes for professionals from different countries and clinical traditions.

Many of our courses are translated into Spanish or Italian, with the aim of facilitating direct access to the teachings of international researchers and lecturers without losing the conceptual, clinical and experiential nuances of their approaches.

We aim to contribute to the creation of a diverse, reflective learning community committed to the quality of care.

A community made up of professionals who understand that professional development is not merely about acquiring new techniques, but also about cultivating presence, relational sensitivity, regulatory capacity, critical thinking and ethical responsibility.

Our vision

We believe that human relationships can become a profound source of healing, growth and transformation.

For this reason, we place the following at the heart of our approach:

• The quality of the therapeutic relationship.
• The integration of body, mind and relationships.
• The regulation and co-regulation of affective states.
• An understanding of protective and survival responses.
• Respect for each person’s unique experience.
• Dialogue between scientific research, clinical practice and lived experience.
• Collaboration between different professions in healthcare, psychotherapy and education.

Our aim is for those who take part in our training programmes to become an increasingly conscious, regulated and regulating presence for their patients, students, families, teams and communities.

The Four Cycles

The Institute’s name refers to the cycles of life and the spirals of growth, transformation and renewal that characterise the human experience.

The number four represents the dimensions that inspire our approach:

the body, the mind, relationships and the profound or spiritual dimension of existence.

These dimensions do not operate in isolation. They influence one another and play a part in the way each person organises themselves, protects themselves, forms bonds and finds meaning.

From this integrative perspective, we aim to continue building bridges between disciplines, countries, generations of professionals and different ways of understanding human wellbeing.

We welcome you to the training programmes and the professional community of the Cuatro Ciclos Institute.

Enrique Arellano Farias

Director and Head of the  Four Cycles Institute (Instituto Cuatro Ciclos) ®

Barcelona, Spain