IC07 Topical Panel 11 - About Milton H. Erickson, MD - Betty Alice Erickson, M.S., Stephen Gilligan, Ph.D., Stephen Lankton, M.S.W., Ernest Rossi, Ph.D.
IC07 Topical Panel 14 - Utilizing Literature, Music and Other Arts to Elicit Change - Cheryl Bell-Gadsby, MA, MFCC, John Frykman, PhD, Michael Hoyt, PhD, Michael Munion, MA
One of the most important components of addiction is the uncontrollable urge to engage in the addictive behavior – unconscious motivation “run wild.” Participants will learn how to elicit the unconscious perceptual components of this compulsion and use these process variables to eliminate it. A second step redirects attentions more usefully.
In this workshop, Drs. Accaria and Appel will discuss their use of energy-based medicine techniques and how they integrate them into their clinical and hypnotherapy practices. Topics addressed will include: how to introduce energy-based methods to clients; how to determine with which clients to use these methods; how the clinician might market/advertise his/her use of energy-based techniques.
Whenever asked, “What is the most important aspect of using hypnosis?", Milton Erickson usually responded, ”observation.” He would say, “Look for what they don’t tell you.” We will include some observation-sharpening activities and some revealing experiences we have had with non-verbal information.
Let’s rework and reframe natural life transitions as positive. Disease models have no place in natural processes. Explore these aspects of change on the deepest levels of gene expression and brain plasticity during mind-body communication and healing in psychotherapy. Let’s explore how we can optimize our lives in an age of unprecedented scientific advances.
The expectation of change is central to doing Very Brief Therapy work. The theory and background of doing Very Brief Therapy will be given with many illustrations and examples. A variety of approaches for this work will be presented. The process will be illustrated with a volunteer.
The whole information of the Universe lies in each one of its parts. My Wise Part is more than my Unconscious Mind. I am that Universal Wisdom, the Good inside me; Creative Forces of the Universe. Participants will get in contact with their Inner Wisdom and learn to enhance and utilize it.
This workshop will demonstrate how we can start with the symptom and discover new ways to use hypnosis for diseases like phobias, panic disorders and depression. Dr. Bauer will describe interpersonal techniques to help these patients.
This workshop will enhance your abilities to energize yourself while improving the function of your immune system. Techniques presented will help you focus the power of your unconscious mind through specific suggestions that target optimal immune response. Participants also will learn several strategies to prevent chronic stress and boost energy levels often depleted by the demand of clinical work.
Though heavily defended, personal identity is contextually reframable. This paradox is utilized for treating otherwise resistant and regressive post-traumatic and personality disorders. Patients are respectfully challenged to define who they are, what they stand for and where they’re heading. This methodology proves effective, cost efficient and safe.
A blend of sculpting and hypnotic language is an effective tool to move a client, a couple, a family, or an organization out of an impasse. You can sculpt any idea, family pattern, group process, hope, dream, obstacle or relationship by putting it outside the self and observing it, which re-organizes and metabolizes it on new levels.
Eye Movement Integration Therapy (EMI) is one of the most innovative and effective treatments for difficulties stemming from highly distress- ing memories. This workshop will present the basic principles of EMI, as it was developed by Connirae and Steve Andreas in 1989, and include the refinements Danie Beaulieu has added during the last ten years of practicing, teaching, researching and writing about this technique.
What is there for therapists to learn from a country with a political philosophy of gross national happiness; from ancient, holistic healing tradi- tions; or from religions that practice mindfulness and compassion? Join a slide tour into the stunningly beautiful, remote Himalayan Kingdom of Bhutan, learn about the continuing educational aspects of the study program, and share the experiences of participants undertaking the journey.
Based on two models developed and implemented by Dr. Mills, this experiential workshop provides restorative approaches for expanding individual therapy to community healing after disaster. Cultural diversity, natural healing, spirituality, storytelling and “story crafts” will be utilized to demonstrate how to reawaken innate resiliency. Inherent in the models being addressed are the philosophies of Milton Erickson, Native Americans, Hawaiians and other transcultural teachings, along with the principles of play therapy.
Hypnotherapists risk frustration and failure when they strive to make something happen with clients – to induce them into trance and insti- gate change. A far more effective alternative is to invite clients into trance and co-discover possibilities of change. Participants will have opportunities to practice this collaborative approach to hypnotherapy.
Survival strategies (fight, flight, freeze) are deep patterns often learned at an early age. If not updated and enriched, they can become limitations. Bateson’s Levels of Learning provide a powerful roadmap for transforming survival strategies to more effective forms of protection and safety.
IC07 Personal Development Workshop 18 - From the Technique to the Person: How to Develop Hypnotists’ Resources to Activate Therapeutic Change - Camillo Loriedo, MD
This experiential workshop will offer practical and respectful solution-focused techniques for working compassionately and effectively with angry, traumatized and involuntary clients who have been beaten up by life, illness, or addictions.
Therapists who perform marital and sex therapy often become “vanilla-ized” by conservative and moralistic values espoused by the psy- chotherapy industry. Through a series of permissive group inductions attendees will reconnect with their erotic self. They will also engage in future foreplay regarding potential erotic selves. By more fully experiencing the erotic self, therapists will be more effective in working with sexually diverse clients who desire consensual BDSM, kink, fetish, and multi-partner experiences.
Ericksonian therapeutic approaches emphasize the importance of the relationship between the therapist and the client. This experiential workshop will give methods of connecting on deeper levels with clients and demonstrate these ways, both with and without formal hypnosis, as well as ways of using that connection for therapy. Practice opportunities will be provided.
With cases and anecdotes, this presentation shows how a therapist can question and review classic therapeutic statements and avoid giving the client suggestions which are difficult to achieve - such as clichés like "Express your anger," "Face your fears," "Live in the here and now" - and provide new and original ways of intervention.
This two-hour experiential workshop focuses on the Family Constellation Approach of Bert Hellinger. Hellinger's unique blend of traditional notions of therapy and alternative views of healing has captured the imaginations of people around the world. Here, participants will be introduced to some of the underpinnings of the work as well as have an opportunity to step into the "field" to experience a Family Constellation as a representative, observer, or client.
According to Helmholtz, reality consists of two abstractions. One is an independent or "objective" world that needs to be adjusted by a related or "subjective" world. However, a culturally determined atmosphere of detrimental double bind communication prevents experiencing both abstractions simultaneously, i.e. yielding chronic complaints. This workshop shows how easily one-sided behavior can be adjusted through utilizing a given individual's ambivalence via eliciting hypnotic phenomenology.
This workshop explores how the Native American belief system contains ingredients to keep the mind and body in harmony and promote well-being. We will explore adding time-frames, respect and gratitude; the circle of life, and symbols as reminders of the "right" path.
In this workshop, we will focus on the importance of self-esteem as an explanation for the problematic behavior of children and teenagers and discuss recent neurological research. We will show cases to apply some Ericksonian solutions in children who share negative self- esteem for their problematic behavior.
Ericksonian psychotherapy emphasizes the utilization of our resources. When I treat children with enuresis, I focus on resources and keep in mind that Ericksonian interventions should be brief because children may get tired of being in therapy for too long. Techniques tailored to a child and examples of inductions such as eye fixation utilizing toys will be presented. I will emphasize how to make several brief interventions quickly while utilizing "non human co-therapists" during home assignments, and the combination of conversational trance with tasks.
Attendees will be introduced to Ericksonian interventions and Thought Field Therapy interventions. They have been successfully utilized by the presenter to treat the symptoms of trauma in clinical settings, in the field (Rwanda and other African countries) and in large group settings (Charity Hospital and other new Orleans institutions.)
This workshop will offer a Semi-Structured Guide for interviewing couples, either together or individually, using hypnotic language and circular crossed questioning. A format will be given to lead the first and subsequent sessions. It will show how to construct questions, reframing and tasks using Ericksonian hypnosis and solution-focused therapy to get good results in about four sessions.
This presentation offers a completely new way of thinking about miscommunication, along with simple Ericksonian solutions. This perspective is based on Ericksonian approaches and from the author's observations of miscommunications. Observable trends of problem communication that results in mild trances will be illustrated along with ways to overcome and repair common miscommunication. Using an experiential and didactic approach, this workshop will provide participants with useable tools they can also teach their clients.
Hypnosis lends itself nicely to certain aspects of eating disorder treatment. Eating disorders like anorexia nervosa clearly display trance phenomena. Changing or disrupting any element of an eating disorder complex may inspire beneficial shifts in other parts of the complex. This presentation illustrates several successfully applied hypnotic approaches designed to establish a reality-based body image in an eating disordered person over a relatively brief treatment sequence.
Addressing the affective dimension of pain in addition to the sensory focus typical of hypnotic pain management techniques greatly expands one's therapeutic impact in a manner congruent with the way Erickson practiced. This workshop will involve a didactic presentation, clinical demonstration and individual exercises designed to impact the affective dimension of pain.
All of us are shaped by an essence, the stuff we are made of, the hero within. After drawing up an inventory and statement of the basic heroes that we've integrated and the stories that are the ones of our deep metaphors, we will travel and explore those resources that have contributed to our constructions and our structuration in productive and counterproductive ways. This workshop will offer ways to utilize them in our therapeutic goals for inner change.
Hypnoprojectives are a tool that can help us utilize the potentialities of the hypnotic process and enable our patients to do their own reframing. It can be used to expand awareness, shift perspectives and draw upon internal resources split off from conscious awareness. Attendees will be introduced to the use of Hypnoprojectives, learn two basic protocols and practice and discuss clinical applications.
Over the past 20 years, Dr. Rossi has innovatively expanded Ericksonian work by demonstrating its connection to molecular biology, chronobiology, chaos theory and mathematics. This course will explore the relationship and relevance of Dr. Rossi's mind-body work to other forms of psychotherapy. We will learn how mind-body work utilizes and integrates many of the core processes used in the work of Winnecott, Klein, Masterson, Kohut, Jung and cognitive behavioral therapy.
Feel uncomfortable about marketing your private practice? Or maybe you tried marketing with disappointing results. You are not alone. Most therapists weren't taught in graduate school how to build and market a financially rewarding private practice. This presentation offers practical, step-by-step instructions for building an effective, ethical and low-cost marketing plan to attract self-paying clients and addresses specific methods of increasing your marketing confidence.
The daunting task of leading clients from a disempowering sense of external control to an actualizing sense of inner control becomes doable by helping them reframe their behavior from actions to language, i.e. seeing actions as an attempt to send a message or a signal to the world around them. This practical idea will be illustrated in role-play demonstrations of the WDEP system: Wants (or behavior as language), (self) Evaluation, and (action) Planning.
Participants will learn brief Ericksonian solutions to problems commonly experienced by clinicians to rapidly heal themselves and their clinician/clients. Problems that clinicians commonly face include emotional problems ABOUT their client's emotional and behavioral problems, procrastination concerning the tremendous amount of paperwork with which clinicians are often burdened, the absence of observable progress with a client, the uncertainty that exists in the healthcare environment and a plethora of other potential barriers.
This workshop focuses on the practical applications of Milton Erickson's utilization approach and applications of hypnosis in working with children diagnosed with Asperger's and other high functioning autism spectrum disorders. There is evidence to suggest that more concrete and strategic applications of Erickson's utilization approach may better serve us when we treat ASD and other individuals with language, processing and attention disorders.
This presentation addresses the issues of teen anger and "acting out" from Erickson's utilization approach to treatment. Interventions psychotherapists can integrate into family therapy enhancing parent capabilities and encouraging improved relating to their teens will be presented. An experiential exercise will be provided helping attendees integrate hypnotic and strategic approaches into their treatments.
This presentation will focus on both Ericksonian principles of supervision and hypnosis supervision. The presentation will include Ericksonian principles of supervision, employing hypnosis in supervision and the nuts and bolts of hypnosis supervision.
This course will focus on Ericksonian interventions in the treatment of insomnia including the use of hypnosis and strategic tasks. Participants will learn to use metaphors, therapeutic ordeals and skill-building exercises to develop sleep-enhancing patterns including compartmentalization and adaptive risk assessment.
Usually, we are not aware of our breathing, yet we are always doing it. Moreover, breathing provides a way of consciously managing processes of an unconscious nature. During this course, a theoretical introduction will be made from breath work traditions such as Yoga, to our actual medical understanding of the breathing process. Practical and simple exercises will be done and clinical applications will be given, including the use of breath work in hypnosis.
The utilization of body work and improvisational theatre can be employed for different therapeutic purposes. In a therapy group with sexually abused survivors, it is a useful tool in the tradition of Ericksonian therapy. Since sensory body work and improvisational theatre elements are excellent tools to absorb the patient's attention in an equally structured and playful way, they become actors and creators of their new body experience. This will be an experiential workshop.
Dreams are a non-threatening way in which the subconscious mind expresses information and gives clues to solutions within the patient's own frame of reference. Ericksonian techniques in the utilization of dreams will demonstrate how to guide development and help people find ways to accept and learn from each experience that life sends our way.
The use of Conversational Unconscious Communication gives the therapist a greatly enhanced ability to influence the client to generate lasting positive change. This workshop will enable the participant to learn the structure and uses of therapeutic metaphor and the interspersal technique at both the conscious and unconscious levels of the mind.
Excessive anxiety in childhood is a significant predictor of eventual comorbid depression and other conditions. This presentation will identify the cognitive processes and coping strategies that help create a cycle of anxiety, psychological isolation and depression in anxious children and families. Attention will be given to the development of specific, empirically supported Ericksonian strategies which can help shift the anxious individual and family toward malleability, creativity and adaptability.
Children and their families face many challenges that, depending on how they are managed, will have long-lasting influence either for better or worse. In this presentation, we will focus on some of these challenges and will describe some helpful interventions derived from Ericksonian approaches that have been successfully applied in a multicultural school setting.
To enhance client's responsiveness to therapeutic directives, Erickson would often seed interventions in an indirect fashion and then later build upon them. This workshop aims at enhancing the practice and understanding of this brief Ericksonian solution, including: a) research results on the effectiveness and boundary conditions of seeding; b) a demonstration video; and c) a small group exercise.
Switching from his/her digital to analog brain functions allows the therapist to get in deep touch with the client in order to be part of the system rather than to be an observer. This workshop will show how to improve this ability.
Our healing art begins within our hearts and imagination. Artful solutions leap beyond straight-line logical thinking. Ideating, from architectural design, is a structured process that responsibly generates solutions, artfully aspiring to heal mind, body and spirit. This creative playground offers "imagination igniting" skills. The stages of ideating will be taught.
This is an experimental session incorporating six demonstration participants and a larger, non-participating observing audience. It will begin with a short introductory presentation on utilization, and proceed to demonstrate the "Tools for Trance" technique. The experience will reinforce abilities of inducing trance and develop skills in utilizing verbal and non-verbal information.
Incorporation of a few simple, easy-to-learn, easy-to-practice hypnotic interventions can be an effective adjunct to other treatment modalities. This workshop will offer participants a side-ranging selection of different hypnotherapeutic tools that can be used to promote affect regulation. Attendees will be introduced to the Affect Regulation Toolbox, a collection of tools with six therapeutic objectives to treat the over-reactive client: mindfulness, sensory awareness and cues, impulse control, co-existing affective states, resource utilization and positive affect development.
Underachieving adolescents present a significant challenge to the therapist. Traditional therapies are often slow and may be ineffective and frustrating both to the therapist and the client. Provocative Therapy is an active humor-based therapy that often elicits significant changes quickly. Case studies will help illustrate principles and techniques therapist can use with adolescents and other client who may present a challenge.
Genuine integration of highly skilled psychotherapy and pharmacotherapy has, for some, become a lost art. However, careful use of both can be highly effective for clients. Using a model we have developed over 10 years of collaboration on complex child, family and adult cases, we demonstrate how Ericksonian therapies and biological treatments can be skillfully integrated to improve outcomes for our clients. Case examples will bring the core elements of our model to life.
The social interaction theory of resistance will be presented followed by application of the theory at critical junctures in the therapeutic dialogue. Errors therapists make that create resistance as well as approaches for resolving and by-passing resistance will be discussed. Utilization of "Yes but . . ." and "I don't know" responses through adjustments in the therapist's approach and through a meticulous use of language will specifically be addressed. Detailed handouts will be provided.
Milton H. Erickson, MD understood that "the conscious (thinking) mind doesn't do much of anything of much significance . . . while the unconscious mind is an infinite storehouse of dreams, potentials and solutions . . ." This short course will teach a brief, solution-focused, strategic, hypnotic approach to anxiety related disorders. Participants will learn to employ Ericksonian interventions including solution-focused questions, strategic task assignments, and formal/conversational hypnosis via live demonstration, experiential exercise and case studies.
Sargent's "Phobia Release Process; Heal the Essence of Self;" What if you could neutralize a phobic response in about 20 minutes, giving your clients a choice of how they respond in the face of that old stimulus? The Sargent Phobia Release Process stops knee-jerk, out-of-control panic reactions, and more importantly, gives the clinician the tools to then discover the underlying perceived threat to safety. Update the brain's database by reprogramming the amygdale in each hemisphere.
Almost 20% of people of a child-bearing age suffer with infertility. Hypnotic interventions are a powerful short-cut to treatment. Attendees will learn how to use creative thinking and hypnotic protocols to develop personalized scripts to use with clients.
Arabs, Muslims and Middle Easterners are well-established populations in North America and are still growing. In this presentation, we will examine their various backgrounds, religions, mentalities, professions and subcultures as well as their psychological needs, struggles and aspirations. The challenges they face and represent also will be discussed. Practical and therapeutic guidelines for all types of caregivers dealing with this population will be presented.
The use of stories, anecdotes and metaphors greatly facilitates "brief solutions" as the therapeutic message is encapsulated in a highly condensed form in the teaching tales and humorous anecdotes typical of Sufi Approaches. In these tales, utilizing trance phenomena, the message is available for recall far beyond the time of the actual therapeutic encounter. This approach quickly, thoroughly and lastingly effects therapeutic change. In this workshop we will focus on Teaching Tales in combination with music. The approach is experiential: participants will actually experience a traditional Sufi Session of Story Telling, based on which the theory and technical aspects will be taught.
Homeopathic remedies can be comfortably and effectively used as an adjunct to Ericksonian hypnosis and psychotherapy. When a correct match is found between the client's emotional and psychological state and the remedy is offered, the client frequently enters an altered state of consciousness or trance which facilitates profound and lasting change. Dr. Wasserman will demonstrate his trance-following technique induced by deeply resonant homeopathic remedies, and will introduce the use of remedies through live demonstrations and clinical examples.
This workshop will give real life examples of Ericksonian brief intervention, leading not only to resolution of community conflict, but to the strengthening of local support networks. School, legal, neighborhood, religious and "new movement" conflicts will be addressed.
This workshop highlights the use of Ericksonian approaches including the use of the therapist as a facilitator of change in working with clients from different cultural and ethnic backgrounds. Seeding, paradoxical intervention and humor will be used to help participants find ways to join with a multicultural clientele. The presenter will use provocative video clips and activities to invite participants to consider some innovative approaches in working within a diverse and multicultural society.
Increased consumer use of the internet and technology gives therapists new ways to reach potential clients. Technology may be one of the best ways to market a private practice in the coming decade. Much of this technology is easy to learn and implement. Learn how to increase your private practice using the technology of websites, blogs, pay-per-click advertising, credit card services, audio recordings, online assessments and appointment managers.
A key idea in Milton Erickson's work was that a person's problematic experiences and behaviors can be skillfully accepted and utilized as the basis for therapeutic change. Self-Relations psychotherapy develops this idea further, emphasizing symptoms as indicating the death of an old identity and the impending birth of a new identity. Thus, we don't try to "get rid of" depression, anxiety, or other "acting out/acting in" expressions, but instead invite them into a human relationship of "sponsorship", where their healing and helpful nature may be realized. We will see how a therapist can generate a ritual space where symptoms and other disturbing experiences can be "midwifed" into new identities.