Anxiety and depression go hand in hand; untreated anxiety during childhood is a top predictor of depression in adolescents and young adults. This workshop teaches how to interrupt the patterns of anxiety and depression in children, first by recognizing what patterns need to change and then using creative and hypnotic language, homework, humor to actively make shifts happen. Concrete strategies are based on three frames that help simplify and target the patterns so common in anxiety, depression, somatic, and sleep problems.
This presentation poses a substance abuse treatment which acknowledges and accommodates the personal needs being addressed by substance use, bypasses perceived resistance and employs idiosyncratic psycho-biological learning to achieve a body-mind gestalt complementary to the client’s sobriety. Client self empowerment and relapse prevention are built into the intervention This method develops a safe framework for addressing any subsequent mental health themes directly or indirectly related to substance misuse. Ideomotor questioning is employed as a practical conduit to body-mind communication and function.
Drawing on Erickson's idea of the common everyday trance, we will find an easy and respectful method of inviting anyone into hypnosis. Because hypnosis creates an experience, we can explore ways of assisting any individual to move beyond the possibility of a preferred outcome that brief therapy is so helpful for and allowing them to create a direct and bodily felt experience of that desired outcome.
Clinical experience and research has shown energy psychology (EP) to be a highly effective brief treatment of PTSD in contexts that range from war related PTSD in US veterans to the effects of genocide in Rwandan orphans. This workshop presents an elegant integration of Interpersonal neurobiology, polyvagal theory and memory reconsolidation that underlies energy psychology approaches to trauma treatment. Discover how to actually remove the traumatic energy/emotions from traumatic events that facilitates insight, mindfulness and posttraumatic growth.
We all have habits, from seemingly harmless to life threatening. But how do they work? And what makes them so resistant to change? This workshop presents a simple model of four categories of experience—the benefits and costs of maintaining v. relinquishing a habit. This brief approach emphasizes mindfulness practice and works well with other psychotherapeutic methods.
Facilitating the RNA/DNA epigenetics of creating new consciousness is the next step in the evolution of psychotherapy. Restricting psychotherapy to the limitations of the cognitive-behavioral level is becoming a disservice to psychology. We must embrace the bioinformatics of the new technological devices that make it possible to assess and facilitate the dynamics of gene expression and brain plasticity economically within a single session of psychotherapy.
Building on the contributions of Milton Erickson, MD, therapists can advance their work through the introduction of evocative techniques gleaned from studying codes of influence in the arts. The artist and the therapist share similar domains: a striving to alter perception; to modify and expand perspectives; and to stir the human heart. Therapists can explore how to use untapped aspects of their medium through teasing out the connections between the palette of the artist and the traditional toolbox of the clinician.
The major way that people cope with trauma in North America is to use some form of religious or spiritual rituals and meaning-making activities . In this workshop , Dr. Meichenbaum will consider both the positive and negative modes of spiritual coping, ways to assess for client’s spirituality, and ways to integrate spiritually-based interventions into psychotherapy, where indicated.
Pulitzer prize winning author Thomas Friedman recently observed, “The era of average is over. In the 21st century, everyone is going to have to find something extra to stand out in their field.” What can mental health and substance abuse professionals do to enhance their performance? Available evidence makes clear that attending a typical continuing education workshop, specializing in the treatment of a particular problem, or learning a new treatment model does little to improve effectiveness. Over the last decade, Scott D. Miller, Ph.D., together with colleagues at the International Center for Clinical Excellence, have been tracking the outcomes of thousands of clinicians around the world. Along the way, they have identified specific practices that separate highly effective from average clinicians.
In Part 2 of Dr. Erickson’s Orientation to Sexual Development, Milton Erickson continues his interesting lecture about the natural developmental processes involved with sexual/relational maturity. This video begins with Erickson telling charming stories of his sons sexually and relationally developing, which illustrate the principles outlined in the video.