Gestalt therapy and Ericksonian hypnotherapy are experiential methods of change. In combination they can be synergistic. Psychotherapy is best when clients have first-hand experience of an alive therapeutic process. Such dynamic empowering experiences pave the way for dynamic understandings. Drs. Polster and Zeig will engage with each other and participants to examine commonalities and differences in their work in this engaging all-day workshop.
Fundamental concepts central to present-day effective systemic therapy will be described in this presentation. The connection between present day systemic therapies and research conducted during the 1950s and 1960s by the Palo Alto Group and the Mental Research Institute (MRI) will be described. Featured will be the contributions of Palo Alto Group members Gregory Bateson, Don Jackson, MD, John Weakland, Jay Haley, and William Fry. Seven specific, learnable concepts and techniques will be taught that make treatment more effective and efficient.
New developments will be presented in the theory and technique of strategic therapy with individuals, families, and couples, including prescribing the metaphor and the use of confusional techniques with families. Concepts will be illustrated with videotaped examples.
Like lock and key, illness and treatment are matching, symmetrical terms. Because the term "mental illness" is misleading, I prefer to avoid the term "psychotherapy," which refers (or ought to refer) to a particular kind(s) of dialogue, discourse, or situation of personal influence.
Ericksonian hypnotherapy and the Self-Relations approach are experiential methods of change. In combination they can be synergistic. Psychotherapy is best when clients have a first hand experience of an alive therapeutic process. Such dynamic empowering experiences pave the way for dynamic understandings. Drs. Gilligan and Zeig will engage with each other and the participants to examine commonalities and differences in their work.
This three-hour workshop is designed to give an overview of Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT), and is intended for mental health professionals who wish to acquaint themselves with the treatment or who are considering further training in DBT. DBT balances change-based technology (behavior therapy) with acceptance-based principals (validation). Both of these strategies will be introduced along with dialectical strategies (those that provide the balance of acceptance and change). The frame of DBT will be highlighted and the modes and functions of comprehensive DBT will be defined. Methods of instruction include lecture and videotapes of treatment to demonstrate the principles and strategies of DBT.
Therapists are supposed to make clients safe and secure, creating a cozy haven from a cruel world, right? Well, when it comes to treating anxiety, there’s growing evidence that the quickest, most effective approach involves instructing them to ramp up their fears while telling themselves how much they welcome the experience. In this workshop, you’ll learn how to help clients shift their relationship with their fears and override the responses that perpetuate them.
IC01 Workshop 24 - Finding the Energy to Heal: Ericksonian Principles and Energy Psychology - Maggie Phillips, PhD
This workshop explores ways of applying principles of energy psychology to Ericksonian methods of
mind/body healing. Ways that energy therapies, including Ericksonian hypnosis, EMDR and various
body-focused methods, can reopen psychological "meridians" blocked by stress to promote energy
shifts that help resolve symptoms and restore health will be presented and practiced. The format
includes video and live demonstrations, a brief practicum and case consultation.
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. In this workshop, we will see how a therapist can generate a ritual space where symptoms and other disturbing experiences can be "midwifed" into new identities.
The challenge of personal transformation is faced differently in the East and West. Typically, Eastern meditation emphasizes how to cultivate higher states of consciousness that "go beyond" ego identifications, while Western therapy focuses on how to "work through" problematic states. This workshop explores an integrative model that suggests how to use both approaches in a complementary way: sometimes "transcending, sometimes "transforming", and often doing both at the same time. The connection between meditation, generative trance, and selfrelations will be a central focus.