Dr. Fisher will present an fMRI study of intense romantic love, a primary mating drive, and the impact of this brain circuitry on human sexuality, human marital stability and therapy using SSRI antidepressants.
During the past five years, the field of neuroscience has given us an overwhelming amount of information related to couples therapy. It is now up to us as clinicians to integrate this knowledge into our practice. Join the challenge, as we use these exciting new facts to help couples move from the relational log-jam to lasting change.
Chronically angry, hostile, distancing and rigid couples are a clinical and personal challenge. In this workshop, you will learn to change the trajectory of therapy as soon as entrenched patterns are noticed, to stay out of their conflict, and stay calm in the middle of their storm.
Madanes will discuss some difficult cases and participants are invited to present their own cases for consultation and advice from Madanes. Emphasis will be on partner abuse, assessment and intervention, including cultural factors and community resources. A minimum of five to ten participants will have a chance to consult. The group will engage actively in exercises to demonstrate specific techniques.
Madanes will present strategies for preventing marital violence, from minor occurrences to severe violence. Participants will have a chance to consult with Madanes about their own cases.
This workshop discusses the brain circuitry of the three primary mating emotions: lust, attraction and attachment. It traces the evolution of these emotion systems and illustrates how their neural circuitry contributes to contemporary patterns of marital harmony and discord including adultery; divorce; stalking behavior; clinical depression due to rejection in love; and other issues brought to contemporary couples therapy.
Through stunning new brain imaging research, the ADD brain has been uncovered. Based on extensive research using brain SPECT imaging, Dr. Amen has been able to see where ADD resides in the brain and why it has such a negative impact on behavior, including relationships. This workshop will discuss the impact of ADD on relationships and give strategies to help cope with the major issues.
It is said that men are afraid of intimacy. Love-avoidant men don't know what intimacy is; what they fear is subjugation - being drained, used, entrapped. These men most often have histories of enmeshment with either one or both parents. That enmeshment can be positive (e.g. the caretaker} or negative (e.g. the scapegoat), but it always leaves the person with both shame and grandiosity.
The classic passive-aggressive person is a help-rejecting complainer who will not follow through with carefully crafted agreements and seems to be immune to targeted insights. They often end up with a despairing partner.