Change is a result of what patients experience not merely what they understand. We will study sculpting, role-playing, utilization strategies and concrete metaphors. Experiential methods can be used in every part of the therapy including assessment, treatment and homework. Lecture and demonstration.
Cloe Madanes will present new conceptual models for understanding the most difficult problems presented to therapy and step-by-step procedures for resolving them. The workshop will include the presentation of videotapes of real therapy sessions with individuals, couples and families. There will be opportunity for discussion.
A "double bind" is a special type of conflict which creates a "no-win" situation. According to anthropologist Gregory Bateson, such conflicts are at the root of both creativity and psychosis. The difference is whether or not one is able to identify and transcend the bind in an appropriate way. The most emotionally intense double binds occur in the context of significant interpersonal relationships. Such a struggle can also occur between the inner parts of a person. These types of unsolvable struggles are often at the root of both mental and physical illness. They can also arise during a person's attempts to heal and thwart progress towards wellness. This workshop will cover ways to identify double binds, the underlying conditions which create them, and some of the ways in which double binds can be resolved or transcended.
A number of useful strategies for working with OCD will be presented in this session, including the combination of hypnosis with cognitive-behavioral strategies in reaction prevention and implosive approaches. Klajs will stress systemic ideas for increasing the effectiveness of therapy. Time will be allowed for participants to discuss the emotional reactions typically experienced while working with OCD patients.
This workshop will review the neurobiology of pain processing, affect and hypnosis. Neuro- imaging studies will be reviewed elucidating individual differences in pain sensitivity and identifying distinct areas of the brain differentially activated depending upon the nature of hypnotic suggestions. A hypnotic approach that develops a dissociation between sensory and affective components of pain through the accessing of prior positive emotional experience will be demonstrated.
Guided Metaphor is a systemic approach using the clients life story as a vehicle to restructure their lives. The client is empowered to create a new life story, and this is told back to them using hypnotic language. The client literally transforms the metaphor of his/her life.
The use of ECEM (eye closure, eye movement) will be demonstrated in this session. ECEM targets negative imagery associated with anxiety and involves the use of the eye movement component of EMDR within a hypnotic context.
Past experiences and future plans are organized in a sequence that marks out a "timeline" in our personal space. The shape and other characteristics of a timeline are a basis for both great skills and troublesome limitations. Learn how to elicit and change a timeline in relation to specific outcomes.
The use of metaphor is a hallmark of Ericksonian work. The varieties of metaphoric work will be presented and discussed briefly. The structures of basic and advanced metaphors will be presented. There will be a group exercise and demonstration of guided metaphor.
Metaphor, energetic bodywork, imagery and hypnotic techniques share a powerful complementary relationship. Our state of mind can dramatically influence our health and creative potential. This workshop will introduce participants to the human energy field and specific energy-based healing techniques which when combined with metaphor and imagery, can help replenish the mind and the body as well as manage a wide variety of symptoms including chronic pain, anxiety, depression and PTSD.
From a masterful storyteller, learn how to assess a client for metaphor therapy, how to tell stories that engage the client, how to make the stories metaphoric, and where to find sources for such tales. You will be guided through the step-by-step processes with illustrative case examples and simple, pragmatic exercises.
In addition to clinical hypnosis, Erickson's work also is characterized by a number of other innovative techniques, which should be in every competent clinician's "toolbox." This introductory level workshop discusses techniques such as anecdotes, implication, paradoxical intervention, task assignments and metaphor. The participant will have the opportunity to learn about these techniques, then practice the skills in small group exercises.
Inspired healing rests on a foundation of skillful assessment. Tailoring the treatment to meet the needs of the client is the cornerstone of Ericksonian therapy. Equally important is the readiness of the therapist to be flexible and change the direction of therapy whenever indicated. Skillful assessment provides the knowledge that makes this type of therapy possible. When a clinician knows how to uncover information vital to understanding a client, then opportunities for healing are better recognized.
"Hypnotic induction is not really important." Erickson agreed with this statement when I last saw him in 1979. Yet, it is important to help your client to be most receptive to therapeutic approaches such as reframing and corrective regression. We will explore, demonstrate and practice principles underlying "trance induction." Attendees will devise their own inductions and will integrate these inductions with therapeutic interventions.
To achieve optimal health and functioning, we need our minds to be in a relaxed and focused state. This demonstration uses imagery, color, sound, light, metaphor and transfer of energy to achieve change in states of consciousness for mental and physical fitness.
Hypnotic conversation was a main contribution of Milton H. Erickson, M.D. Metaphor is a unique resource that allows patients to totalize visions of their problems and orient themselves to solutions. A theoretical review and fifteen question technique to elicit metaphors and utilize them in therapy, will be presented.
Cognitive-Behavioral therapies enjoy considerable empirical support as effective treatments for depression. Actively teaching cognitive and behavioral skills is essential to these therapies. Hypnosis has been shown to enhance client skill acquisition and to manage common depressive symptoms. In this workshop, we will explore ways hypnosis can assist in treating depression.
People slip in and out of trance every day. Couples evoke each other into positive trances (falling in love) and negative trances (reenacting family-of-origin, unresolved issues and identifications). In this workshop we will work with five hypnotic tools to help couples transform their relationship.
This workshop reveals the psychological secrets of success of elite athletes and performing artists and makes them available to therapists working with clients who wish to bust slumps or achieve excellence in any aspect of their lives - work, play or romance. Learn the psychological tactics of Lance Armstrong, Willie Mays, John McEnroe, Ali, EMINEM and Dumbo, and then learn how to put them to work for your client using hypnotic, solution-focused, strategic protocols.
Depression can be described in terms of interactive processes, both in the couple and in the family. In this perspective, the role played by the non-depressed family members in the development of depression becomes very relevant. Some useful principles for working with depressive individuals and families will be presented together with specific techniques and specific pitfalls that can be expected in the course of the therapeutic process.
Dr. Erickson had the creative ability to utilize what clients brought to therapy. In essence, he created a brand new therapy for each client he saw. He was a master at improvisation, yet his brilliance adhered to certain rules and structure. This workshop will provide opportunities for therapists to learn improvisational skills, to learn assessment, and to choose an intervention strategy to match the client's needs. The format will encourage audience participation in improvising.
Founded upon the principles of Ericksonian Play Therapy and indigenous teachings, this workshop will provide therapists with creative tools for working with difficult or traumatized clients through StoryPiay®, a multi-cultural, heart-centered, indirective model of therapy that bypasses the quills of pathology and draws upon the natural inner resources, skills and strengths of each child, adolescent, adult or family member to generate healing, growth and change.
This workshop addresses the treatment of acute and chronic pain related to psychological and/or somatic trauma. Special emphasis is placed on clients who present with complex symptoms such as fibromyalgia, chronic fatigue, and migraines that have proven refractory to previous treatment. Synthesis of Ericksonian strategies with EMDR, imagery and meridian therapies with Energy Psychology to help maximize self-regulation is explored and demonstrated.
Addiction problems usually are treated and understood as signs of personal deficits, ego-weakness and other incompetences. In this workshop, it will be demonstrated how, from a hypno-systemic view, addictions can be understood as the result of dissociated trance states which are unconscious attempts at solution, most often in loyalty-double binds. The addiction ritual has the function of a search which expresses an unconscious knowledge about the dissociated longing for an experience of meaning and fulfillment in relationships and life. This workshop will show many hypno-systemic strategies which translate the knowledge hidden in the addiction and utilize it for healthier solutions for both personal individuation and enriching relationships.
Means of motivating patients are crucial in effective psychotherapy. This workshop will explore methods for discerning motivational variables that can enhance the delivery of both hypnotic and non-hypnotic therapies.
Erickson reminded us that people are more resourceful than they know, but how can we respectfully connect clients with their natural resourcefulness and assist them towards their solutions? By exploring what someone likes we can tap into a richly textured collection of experiences that can then provide a coherent and effective direction to the therapy process.
This workshop explores hypnosis and integrative medicine to analyze the subtle human anatomy, diagnose the psychophysiological aspects of a problem and stimulate the healing response. Cutting edge research is reported and a variety of tools including light, sound and electromagnetic frequency are demonstrated. The therapist can use energetic trance techniques for treatment.
Couples constantly exchange messages. Tone of voice, inflection and non-verbal behavior often imply meaning contradictory to overt messages. Making covert implications explicit is a technique that, when done with sensitivity, promotes healing. A method of using this fundamental of communication theory to promote change in couples therapy will be demonstrated.
Therapy is, inherently, a means of influencing a client, mostly verbally. This workshop will illustrate guidelines for making language more precise and effective in order to enhance the therapist's and client's goal of the therapy. Guidelines will be explained didactically, in a composite videotape of a clinical case and in dialogue with participants.
Like jazz musicians improvising a duet, you and your hypnosis clients sizzle best when you're in sync and when your improvised communications inspire fresh exploration and discovery of meaningful change. Learn and practice three essential principles for structuring effective hypnotherapeutic improvisations. 1) Always Connect! 2) Think Pattern! 3) Experiment, Listen, Respond!
Explore Ericksonian and other strategies within a framework of positive internalized habit and addiction control. Many metaphors, inductions, images, suggestions, reframings, tasks and understandings will be shared and experienced through every step of the therapeutic process in weight control, smoking cessation, and treating other unwanted habit and addictive problems.
ECEM is an approach to the treatment of trauma that integrates the eye movement component of EMDR within hypnosis. ECEM utilizes the effect of eye movements on imagery in the context of hypnotic safety, unconscious processing, self-suggestion, and future pacing. This workshop includes research review, demonstration and practicum.
This workshop integrates the lessons of Ericksonian and Solution Oriented approaches with the newer models of trauma that focus on the dysregulation of affect as central features of both PTSD and dissociative disorders. Attendees will learn specific skills that allow clinicians to work with abuse and trauma survivors that rapidly facilitate the containment and transmutation of negative affect, increased coping skills, and alleviation of flashbacks.
Anxious clients adhere rigidly to erroneous beliefs and coping strategies to ward off fear that keeps them from following through on therapy interventions. The strategic approach to cognitive-behavioral therapy helps clients find the courage and motivation to challenge these old beliefs and attitudes. Practical methods enable clients to disregard the content of their obsessive worries and to explore the feeling of uncertainty rather than fleeing from it. The cutting-edge anxiety treatment is now pushing further into the confrontational. Participants will learn how to help clients purposely seek out anxiety as their ticket to freedom from crippling fear.
This workshop will explore the manner by which hypnosis restores the natural balance of the mind and body. Participants will learn how hypnotic patterns can create or utilize pathways that resonate throughout the body and mind with synchrony at the cellular level. This will result in expanding the utilization of hypnosis to encompass the integration of systemic health.
One of the great values of the "special learning state" developed in hypnotherapy is that it can hold multiple, contradictory values and states without conflict. This workshop will explore how this capacity is critical to effective psychological functioning and therapeutic change, and will detail a model for the therapist for transforming problems into solutions and resources.
Specific direct and indirect techniques are required to activate family resources and to induce a deep and meaningful change of the most rigid family patterns. A family hypnotic session reveals the powerful and subtle resistances a family may develop in the course of the hypnotic treatment as well as of the many different solutions a therapist may adopt to overcome these resistances. Special focus will be on how to properly combine direct and indirect in the different phases of the therapeutic process.
Eye Movement Integration (EMI) was created by Connirae and Steve Andreas in 1989. It is a powerful and yet very simple tool to effectively help clients who suffer recurrent and negative memories such as PTSD or any other traumatizing experience. This workshop will present the basic principles of that technique, as well as a brief discussion on the possible mechanisms involved.
Meditation is a useful tool for therapy and for life. This experiential workshop describes meditation's roots in the ancient traditions of Yoga, Buddhism, Zen and Taoism. It will develop the mental tools used when meditating with exercises. Participants will be shown how to meditate and apply the result to stress, habits, emotions and learning.
In working with the problems of panic disorder, phobias and depression, this workshop will show how new hypnotic techniques using paradoxical behavior can effect solutions.
Treating post-traumatic disordered patients requires multi-level communication; overt contracting and informed consent, plus covert suggestion implying greater competency than patients experience. Key issues are role differentiation, establishing safety parameters, neutralizing regressive invitations, working with significant others, and challenging patients to master their trauma through redefining their personal identity.
Eating disorders are rapidly evolving towards a kind of "refined specialization." Young women with bulimic or anorexic tendencies have discovered different ways that enable them to control their weight without giving up the pleasure of eating, thus nowadays we encounter new forms of eating disorders. All these have different persisting patterns and attempted solutions. As a result, each requires a different treatment protocol.
This course offers a practical step-by-step approach to overcoming addictions and other vicious cycles. A multidimensional learning approach utilizing Ericksonian strategies and hypnosis helps one's patients make small changes in each of the areas of their lives: mental, emotional, physical, spiritual, behavioral and social. These six changes ripple out in a positive, interactive fashion to create a new way of life. Sample hypnotic protocols are distributed and explained.
Group and individual demonstrations will illustrate the use of novel ideodynamic hand approaches to therapeutic hypnosis as presented in chapter 10 of Rossi's "The Psychobiology of Gene Expression: Neuroscience and Neurogenesis in Hypnosis and the Healing Arts."
This advanced workshop will center on three stages of therapy in an Ericksonian model, the setup, the intervention and the follow-through. We will learn how hypnosis can be used in assessment and in each stage of therapy. There will be lecture and demonstration.
Testing individual hypnotic susceptibility and suggestions of some phenomena of deep hypnosis will be demonstrated in the frame of reference of traditional hypnosis to be compared with the experience of Ericksonian hypnotists and subjects. The technique offered will be more directive and explicit than the Ericksonian tailored approaches and metaphors.
IC01 Short Course 40 - Ericksonian Approaches to Weight Loss and Non-Smoking: Strategies to Enhance the "Psychology of Permanent Habit Control" - Brian Grodner, PhD
This workshop addresses everything from cruelty in families, to terrorism in politics and the abuse of psychopharmacology and managed care. It offers a higher order resolution method to all levels of human conflict and a model of human dignity.
In this workshop, attendees will learn how to recognize couple symptoms as shared or separate-track trances and it will be demonstrated that symptom inductions in couples are something we can observe. Dr. Ritterman will teach, through entrancing role plays, methods to counter destructive couples suggestions with beneficial hypnotherapeutic counter-inductions. She will focus on the use of synchronicity and reciprocity in couples development. Attendees will gain an understanding of trance and hypnotic happenings in couples and receive supervisory input for innovative ways to help couples heal each other and love again.
For many, Erickson set the prototypical example of how to be creative and often evoked a You Said What?! (YSW?!) reaction from clients and students. As we describe in the new book, Creative Therapy in Challenging Situations: Unusual Interventions to Help Clients (Hoyt & Bobele, 2019), such YSW?! interventions are particularly useful and effective when approaching unusual client problems.
In Turkey I had the opportunity to research the resources about Sufism (for example Rumi is the most well known sufi in the world and he lived in Turkey) and I studied it both as a student and as a therapist about 15 years. Sufism has actually two big steps. Understanding yourself and life first by mind than by heart. While I was creating the Optimum Balance Model (OBM) I think I did the first part. During this conversation I'll try to explain steps of the inner journey of a Sufi, I'll share my experiences and the story of how they try to tame their Ego.
Eating Disorders are a good example of massive interdependence among family members. Salvador Minuchin described families with Anorexia Nervosa as enmeshed families, and the interdependence it is certainly the base for enmeshment. Recent studies as well as more extended clinical experiences demonstrate that although bulimia appears to produce less reciprocal involvement, and some other form of apparent disengagement, we really can say that reciprocal interdependence in the family it always present, even if it assumes more hidden and complex forms.
Great strides have been made in PsychoSocial Genomics as well as the placebo effects in psychotherapy. We will share our views of how these new state-of-the-arts sciences can gently be integrated into psychotherapy sessions and improve outcomes.
Learn Ericksonian principals for encouraging men to participate and enjoy psychotherapy.
Utilize strategies for dealing with their own biases regarding difficult men.
Expand definitions of healthy masculinity.
Often students use hypnosis as a context for creating a safe or comfortable state of mind, suggesting away symptoms, or uncomplicated ego-strengthening by bolstering encouragement. This is little more than psycho-education done in trance. But hypnosis offers opportunities for far more therapeutic intervention. This open discussion format will help participants dig into this area and develop some expanded possibilities for therapy during hypnosis.
Many clinicians focus on breathing, calming, or other distraction techniques when dealing with anxious children. However, focusing on "getting rid of the worry" often backfires, and leaves children and teens feeling more hopeless than engaged. But, when we use short "relaxation" practices with children to shift their patterns and beliefs--when we use this time of focus to deliver and seed valuable information--we create great opportunities for change, engagement, and skill-building. In this hour, I'll describe the tricks to getting the most out these exercises, without stepping into the trap of elimination.
Psychotherapy did not start with Freud. Although largely forgotten, its origins can be directly traced to traditional healing practices (e.g., mesmerism, mind curers, the occult). In the age of science, healing has been reduced to prescriptions for changing people’s thoughts, feelings, behaviors, emotions, or brain chemistry. Lost in translation are the many ways clients’ cultural and spiritual beliefs and practices can, according to research, improve engagement and outcomes.
The panelist will compare and contrast their approaches to working with children and adolescents. Fundamental principles will be offered. Relevant research will be outlined.
Understanding the clients spiritual predilections can be important in helping some clients to achieve therapeutic results. Panelists will discuss how they use spiritual orientations in medical/psychological practice.
Milton Erickson contributed extensively to the health sciences, and many of his innovations have been researched empirically. Erickson was also the architect of the wounded healer used his disabilities to advance the lives of others.
Anxiety disorders are among the most common reasons that patients seek therapy. Hypnotic processes have been empirically validated to treat anxiety disorders including obsessive-compulsive illness.
This primarily experiential workshop will guide participants through two related hand focusing hypnotic induction techniques that utilize both Western and Eastern concepts of energy balance. This will include Western concepts of nerve conduction, hemispheric functional differences, cybernetics, resonance, coherence and entrainment, with Eastern concepts of polarities and the unblocking, flow and balance of energy (Chi, Prana).
After decades of working with anxious children and teens, I have two unshakable truths: families MUST be involved in treatment and anxious patterns are shifted through experiential learning. Working with the FOUR critical concepts to manage anxiety in families and the SIX patterns that must be interrupted, this workshop will describe HOW to create active, engaging assignments for families to do between sessions and describe the TEN favorites that I return to again and again.
Known as The Wizard of the Desert, Dr. Milton Erickson is revered for his therapeutic genius, his brilliance as a hypnotist, and his encouragement for therapists to utilize all available resources, both their own and the clients’. One of those resources described by Dr. Erickson as a level of perception not necessarily conscious is what typically we call intuition.
In this didactic and experiential workshop we will examine the therapeutic utilization of intuition from the perspective of three clinical phenomena of an Ericksonian approach.
Posttraumatic stress disorder consists of a complex of symptoms including hyper arousal, social withdrawal and intrusions. The panelists will describe commonalities and differences in their approach to PTSD.
Hypnosis has an extensive history and research findings about its use with functional problems. Panelists will describe their experience in the medical applications of hypnosis.
Utilization is a state of response readiness in which the clinician stands ready to utilize whatever exists in therapeutic situation to advance clinical goals.
In this hour-long discussion, participants will have an opportunity to address questions regarding deliberate practice and their use of routine outcome measures in clinical practice.
Milton Erickson contributed extensively to the health sciences, and many of his innovations have been researched empirically. Erickson was also the architect of the wounded healer used his disabilities to advance the lives of others.
Although your clientele may be voluntarily seeking treatment, you will occasionally encounter individuals who are strongly opposed to outside influence. Standard techniques and procedures often fail to achieve results with these individuals. This workshop will describe the type of approach that achieves positive outcomes in cases of complex resistance.
The language of hypnosis is an expressive grammar oriented to eliciting changes in state, mood, and perspective. We will study the use of truisms, yes-sets, presuppositions, dissociation statements, and implied causatives. Lecture, demonstration, practice.
This workshop will describe the Ericksonian principle of Utilization and its use in a trance induction. Utilization is a trademark of Ericksonian therapy and hypnosis and one of the things that makes it so effective and powerful. Live demonstration will help illustrate the concept. Exercises will help attendees to learn the concept of “Utilization”.
In this session, you will learn about trance phenomena, the experiential distortions that often accompany hypnosis. You will learn how and why to evoke them in induction and treatment.
Hypnosis is a natural vehicle for use of therapeutically effective metaphors and anecdotes. Participants will be taught to develop effective trances for this. Learning to find themes for and the creation of metaphors and anecdote will be taught and practiced. Using those interventions within the trances will also be taught and practiced.
This presentation will explore the utilization of brief experiential activities in helping clients to access and enhance their naturally occurring resources. Experiential activities help to increase client engagement and participation in therapy as well as connect them to aspect of self that are resourceful. In this session, participants will learn the philosophy behind utilizing in-session experiential activities and how these relate to bringing forth existing client resources.