Dr. McWilliams will review ten different psychological lenses through which individual differences have been viewed (temperament, attachment style, observed clinical pattern, defensive structure, affective organization, implicit cognition, motivational tendencies, individual and cultural location on the self-definition versus self-in-relation polarity, central relational theme, level of severity of problem), emphasizing with clinical vignettes the practical value of appreciating each perspective. Intended to be directly relevant to participants' clinical work irrespective of their theoretical orientation or level of experience, this workshop welcomes case material and collaborative problem-solving.
In psychotherapy, negative emotions are essential parts of a client's stuck places. This workshop focus on how to identify, welcome, and transform such difficult emotions, such that they become integral elements of a solution.
In this workshop I will show how to use a process-based therapy approach to guide intervention, based on a new form of process-based functional analysis. Using Acceptance and Commitment Therapy and an extended form of its psychological flexibility model I will show how idiographic analysis can be used to fit treatment kernels to client needs, rather than using protocols that target syndromes.
Couples often come to therapy in the aftermath of infidelity. Their marriage is in crisis, their emotions are intense, and you are required to quickly organize a lot of complex information into a coherent treatment plan. How do you do this with confidence?
Discover what to look for, how to delineate core treatment issues in the initial, middle and termination stages of therapy. Next, use 10 parameters to assess the meaning of the infidelity and then uncover the major types of lies and deception to give you a solid way to determine what to address and when.
Motivational factors may be central in the life of a couple. The panel will describe conflicts due to motivational factors and provide therapeutic options.
Extrinsic forces, centered in racism, classism, sexism, heteronormativity, ageism, ableism, and other intersecting identities impact relationships. However, they factors are not extrinsic, as we are all steeped in and operate from or are operated on, but these factors making them all too present and, unfortunately, made invisible to us as clinicians and the relational systems that we work with. The panel will define these factors, explore the power of their invisibility and impacts on relationships at the micro, mezzo and macros levels of experience and discuss their clinical implications on relational and systemic therapies.
In this golden age for models of couples therapy, therapists may wonder if they should be practicing the “one best model.” The research is clear that couples therapy models that have been tested are about equally effective, and that there are a number of key ingredients in any effective way to practice couples therapy. The presenter will describe these key ingredients that cut across models and some skills necessary to practice any model. He will argue that since this therapy is about improving relationships, the relationships we establish with our couple clients—balanced, caring, and sometimes challenging—are the heart of what we have to do well.
The empty chair psychodrama was first made popular by Fritz Perls, founder of Gestalt therapy. It has since been adapted into Redecision Therapy, The Developmental Model, Voice Dialogue, Family Constellation, and even Cognitive-Behavioral therapy. PACT has adapted this approach for use within the couple session when consistent projection or projective identification processes impede the forward development of one or both partners. This particular technique uses Self and Object Relations theory to capture real time archaic self and object representations that maintain an ego syntonic, regressed relationship with one (or more) original caregiver(s). The psychodrama provides an opportunity for the couple therapist to bring this maladaptive early relationship to light and to make strides toward ego dystonic rejection of the regressive behavior.