Longitudinal research with newlyweds shows that 67% have a drop in marital satisfaction in the first three years of their baby’s life. Hostility between the partners increases, and the baby’s emotional, cognitive, and neurological development are all adversely affected. The Bringing Baby Home program, which will be described, is effective in preventing both these negative changes and post-partum depression.
The study of psychological trauma has been accompanied by an explosion of knowledge about how experience shapes the central nervous system and the formation of the self. The study of trauma has probably been the single most fertile area in developing a deeper understanding of the relationship among the emotional, cognitive, social, and biological forces that shape human development.
Dr. Houston will offer ways and means to profoundly make a difference for the betterment of people, communities, organizations and cultures worldwide. Drawing on her work in over 100 countries in training leaders in human development in the light of social change, she will offer liberating thought ways, as well as techniques of activating human and social potentials in sensory, psychological, mythic and symbolic, as well as, spiritual and integral levels of the human capacity. Together, these lead to enhanced abilities to creatively and effectively deal with present challenges. Dr. Houston will address the unique place that present movements in psychology have to offer in a world of radical shifts.
In this keynote address, the following topics will be covered: the development of cognitive therapy; applications to other psychiatric and medical conditions; the relationship of brain abnormalities to symptoms; the use of neuroimaging and cognitive therapy; and predictions of the future for cognitive therapy, and psychotherapy in general.
Most couples have at least one partner who withdraws. To bring about lasting change, withdrawers have to engage in the process of therapy and most importantly they must reengage in the relationship. Using video examples, this workshop focuses on how to engage withdrawers and help them reengage with their partners.
The first emotion our ancestors evolved was fear—and we remain highly threat reactive today, continually overestimating threats and underestimating opportunities and resources. We’ll explore multiple methods for helping clients “cool the fires” of fear and anger, and internalize inner strength and an appropriate sense of safety.
Building on the keynote on “taking in the good,” we’ll explore ways to use positive experiences to soothe and potentially replace negative material (e.g., relationship upsets, pain from childhood). Through discussion and experiential activities, we’ll match healing experiences to disturbances in the brain’s core motivational systems (Avoid harm, Approach reward, Attach to “us”).
Deficits such as affect blindness, alexithymia, and poor theory of mind will likely lead to mutual dysregulation in couples during periods of distress or threat and is the driving force behind relationship dissatisfaction and dissolution. This workshop will introduce attendees to the most common social-emotional deficits and will demonstrate how to identify these deficits and what to do about them in couple therapy.
Remarried couples are often poorly served by therapists who treat them without enough appreciation for the unique complexity and multiple loyalties of stepfamily life. This workshop will combine clinical assessment and treatment issues with a special focus on values issues, such as commitment and fairness that often dominate conflict in stepfamilies.