Without exception, developers and devotees to particular methods claim superiority in conceptualization and outcome of their chosen approach. Meanwhile, governmental bodies, professional organizations, and third party payers are assembling, mandating adherence, and in some instances limiting payment to lists of treatments considered “evidence-based. So, “what works?” The presenter will identify core factors responsible for therapeutic success regardless of theoretical orientation or psychiatric diagnosis. The research on “what works” will be carefully translated into practical, common sense, and empirically supported therapeutic skills that can be used for the efficient and effective resolution of problems clients bring to treatment.
BT10 Workshop 16 - Working with Teens Who Hurt: A Strengths-Based Approach - Kenneth Hardy, PhD
This workshop will provide a strengths-based approach for working effectively with at risk teens who hurt. The VCR Approach, a strengths-based model, for working with at risk youth will be discussed as a conceptual framework and clinical strategy. Special attention will be devoted to working with youth from marginalized backgrounds.
This brief model has a powerful effect on couples. Misleading in its simplicity but potent in its outcome, the Three C’s approach uses the couples’ own words to design and realign the relationship in a strategic manner. Lecture, live demonstration, experiential exercise and discussion will be used for meaningful exchange.
BT10 Workshop 18 - The Generative Self in Psychotherapy: How Higher States of Consciousness Can Transform Problems into Solutions - Stephen Gilligan, PhD
The Generative Self approach emphasizes how the state of consciousness in which an experiential challenge is held determines whether a problem or solution develops. The model identifies three types of mind—Somatic, Cognitive, and Field—and how each mind can be operating at a Primitive, Ego, or Generative Level. We will see how a problem degrades a person’s consciousness level so that change is impossible, and how that low-level state can be improved to a Generative level, so that the problematic experience either spontaneously changes or is more easily engaged. Numerous practical techniques and clinical examples will be offered.
BT10 Workshop 19 - Therapeutic Yoga: A New Brief Creative Psychotherapy - Kathryn Rossi, PhD
This workshop is an introductory presentation of a new narrative approach to therapeutic yoga that can be used by everyone in everyday life. We build a neuroscience bridge between the Cartesian mind-body gap with positive therapeutic narratives that accompany classical yoga movements and the four stage creative process for resolving our ongoing life issues.
BT10 Workshop 20 - Hypnosis and Strategic Psychotherapy - Michael D. Yapko, PhD
Why did therapy legends Milton Erickson and Jay Haley routinely incorporate hypnosis into their creative strategies of psychotherapy? Because it works! Too many therapists think of hypnosis as distinct from what they do, yet are forever striving to immerse people in new experiences and perceptions - key reasons for employing hypnosis. In this workshop, we will explore how hypnosis can be strategically applied in therapy.
BT10 Workshop 22 - Empowering the Self Through the Heart of Healing - Maggie Phillips, PhD
Heart-based intelligence is an effective tool for expanding and empowering the self. Theory and techniques will center on mindfulness, HeartMath,™ hypnotic self-suggestion, Somatic Experiencing,™ and Energy Psychology to teach heart-opening expansion and strengthening of the whole self. Techniques will focus on ways of lowering emotional stress and reducing inner conflict, while increasing heart coherence, emotional maturity, and resonance. Participants will explore research on the brain-heart dialogue, the impact of positive emotions, and experiences that create heart-centered resonance with self and others.
BT10 Workshop 23 - Frontiers of Trauma Treatment - Bessel van der Kolk, MD
The study of psychological trauma has been accompanied by an explosion of knowledge about how experience shapes the central nervous system and the formation of the self. We have learned that most experience is automatically processed on a subcortical level, i.e. by “unconscious” interpretations that take place outside of awareness. Insight and understanding have only a limited influence on the operation of these subcortical processes. When addressing the problems of traumatized people who, in a myriad of ways, continue to react to current experience as a replay of the past, there is a need for therapeutic methods that do not depend exclusively on understanding and cognition.
What about you – the therapist? Conducting brief treatment places additional and special burdens on the person of the therapist. This workshop puts the Socratic dicta of “know thyself” and “heal thyself” into practice. We shall focus on 12 selfcare strategies that are clinician-recommended, research-based, and practitioner-tested. Come join us for focused lectures, copious handouts, group demonstrations, thought experiments, and interactive discussions.