Personal disturbance is accompanied by feelings of disconnection within one’s self and with others. Reconnection is accomplished when
the therapist guides the patient into a fertile conversational stream - a moment to moment impetus toward personal resolution.
Experiential components central to brief, strategic approaches to psychotherapy. We will compare and contrast Ericksonian and psychodynamic perspectives.
Based on the meticulous work of Ivan Pavlov, the Foreground-Background process involves using the "foreground" and "background" of perception with respect to a problem situation and a resource experience to create a quick and seemingly “magical” change. Usually, what is foregrounded in the experience of a problem or resource is quite different. The background of the two experiences, however, often shares many features which can be used to create bridge to resourceful experiences, leading to a transformation of the problem experience that is gentle, unconscious and effortless.
In a 1964/2008 paper MHE documented how "hypnosis was used for the specific purpose of placing the burden of responsibility for therapeutic results upon the patient himself after he reached a definite conclusion that therapy would not help and that a last resort would be a hypnotic 'miracle'.” I will first demonstrate how to gently shift this "burden of responsibility for therapeutic results" in a brief, easy-to-learn group process with the entire audience. Time permitting, anyone who feels they have failed during this group process may volunteer for a therapeutic experience with me in front of the entire audience.
At the heart of psychotherapy is the idea that listening to someone is an inherently healing act. Can an understanding of the grammar of music help us better understand the grammar of how patients communicate? Can Mozart help transform how we listen? Join NPR and PBS commentator Rob Kapilow [or conductor/composer/author--whichever you think is better] for a unique exploration inside the language of music to see if it can help us learn to listen like Mozart.
It’s been 50 years since the revolutionary inception of General Systems Theory that started couples and family therapy. Yet the central concepts were never made precise, or measurable and the theory never became scientific. In this workshop we show how we can now complete this theory and produce effective and powerful couples and family therapy methods.
Trauma is a fact of life. Veterans and their families deal with the painful aftermath of combat; one in five Americans has been molested; one in four grew up with alcoholics; one in three couples have engaged in physical violence. Dr. Bessel van der Kolk, one of the world’s foremost experts on trauma, has spent over three decades working with survivors. He explores innovative treatments—from neurofeedback and meditation to sports, drama, and yoga—that offer new paths to recovery by activating the brain’s natural neuroplasticity.
In this presentation, Drs. Zeig and Johnson will present the essence of Sal Manuchin’s thinking and practice over the past 60 years. They will take us through his therapeutic process, and deconstruct the complexity of his artistry into simple techniques that can be used by therapists of different orientations.
This workshop will detail a philosophy and methods of working briefly and effectively with people who have been traumatized. An array of new methods has shown that previous conceptions and methods of working with trauma are unnecessarily long-term and re-traumatizing. These new approaches, rather than being based on the past and deterministic models, are oriented towards the present and future and a sense of possibilities.
Couples therapy is made much more complex when one or both partners suffers from PTSD. This workshop will demonstrate with films and lecture how to apply Gottman Method Couple Therapy to the treatment of PTSD. Films include cases of both childhood and military trauma.