This panel will focus on the COVID-19 pandemic and its impact in the field of Psychotherapy.
Panelists will address the pandemic's effect on the psychotherapy community in relation to patient needs, therapy, and stress response. The impact on relationships, and psychological perspectives will be identified. Additional issues include how COVID-19 has affected patients in limitations/barriers/roadblocks/challenges in access to therapy.
Major Depressive Disorder (MDD) is the most common mood disorder on earth and earlier this year was ranked as the number one cause of suffering and disability worldwide by the World Health Organization (WHO). Depression is a complex, multi-faceted disorder and many different theories have been formulated to describe its etiology and course. In this joint presentation, Drs. Polster and Yapko will compare and contrast their viewpoints about depression, the liberal use antidepressant medications, and why good psychotherapy is more important than ever.
Psychiatry and by extension all mental health professions have not embraced the clinical use of neuroimaging, whether it is SPECT, PET, QEEG or functional MRI techniques. This leaves psychiatry as the only medical specialty that virtually never looks at the organ it treats, leading to misdiagnoses, ineffective treatment (outcomes are virtually no better than the 1950s), and persistent stigma. This lecture will focus on how neuroimaging enhances diagnoses, leads to more effective treatments, and shatters stigma.
Therapy is successful when clients are able to experientially realize positive life changes. While the identification and transformation of symptoms is important in this regard, the activation of the client's creative capacity to change is even more important. This paper outlines 6 steps in this therapeutic process: (1) opening a mindful field, (2) setting positive intentions, (3) developing and maintaining a creative state, (4) identifying a “storyboard” for achieving goals, (5) transforming negative experiences, and (6) everyday practices. Methods and case examples will be given to illuminate this core process.
Traditional Western European therapy operates from hidden assumptions: (a) disorders reside in individuals, (b) disorders are departures from conventional (statistical) norms, (c) psychological principles derived from the dominant group are universally applicable, and (d) therapy consists of a series of strategies and techniques detached from the cultural context. When imposed upon clients of color, however, they potentially produce therapeutic harm.
It is not that difficult to produce change within a session, but a far greater challenge to ensure that these changes are lasting. In this conversation, Robert Dilts and Stephen Gilligan will each identify the key dimensions of sustainable change, then open a conversation about how to generatively apply them.
Poetry and Presence: Each can lead to client change. This session explores the intersection of two experiential methods, gestalt practice and Ericksonian therapy.
In the aftermath of experiencing traumatic and victimizing experiences, most individuals are impacted, but some 75% go onto evidence resilience, and in some instances Post Traumatic Growth. If the “body keeps score”, then what distinguishes the 75% resilient group from the 25% who develop PTSD and related disorders? This debate will address this question and the treatment implications for psychotherapeutic interventions.
The modern perspective of hypnosis considers the role of attention and absorption in catalyzing adaptive responses. Hypnosis provides a context for developing new associations on multiple levels that have therapeutic potential. In this clinical demonstration, a hypnosis session will be conducted to assist the client in evolving resources that may be helpful to facilitate personal growth.