In this keynote address, the following topics will be covered: the development of cognitive therapy; applications to other psychiatric and medical conditions; the relationship of brain abnormalities to symptoms; the use of neuroimaging and cognitive therapy; and predictions of the future for cognitive therapy, and psychotherapy in general.
After a brief description of Family Therapy on the 1960s, and an equally brief description of where it is today, we will make a comparison of the success of family therapy in Europe and the shrinkage in the U.S. A new model of family assessment in four easy steps will be described.
The terror of death plays a larger role in our inner life and our psychological problems than is generally thought. Too often psychotherapists avoid inquiry into death anxiety; either because they do not know what they can offer patients or because they have not confronted their own anxiety about death. If we come to terms with mortality in our own personal therapy and familiarize ourselves with the topic, we can offer a great deal to patients terrorized by death. Individuals with much terror about death can be helped, not only to enjoy relief from fear, but also may find that an encounter with death will enhance their life. As wise men have pointed out through the millennia, death confrontation can awaken us to a fuller life.Awakening experiences, if we learn to recognize them, are amply available in everyday therapy. One important method of coping is to avoid large reservoirs of un-lived life.