Today and in the immediate future, short-term therapy is a major available treatment for most clients. In this paper, I will discuss the use of Short-Term Redecision Therapy in the resolution of major childhood traumas, such as physical, sexual, and mental abuse. In Redecision Therapy, the client remembers, re-enacts, uses therapeutically, and then discards these early traumatic scenes.
This paper surveys a key concept of Ericksonian therapy. Cornerstone principles of an Erickson ian approach are presented and illustrated. The method can be incorporated into any psychotherapeutic discipline in order to enhance effectiveness.
The criterion of reality adaptation as a measure of mental health or pathology is a totally fictitious one, since what reality "really" is remains an arbitrary definition which, in turn, leads to a reification. However, out of these reifications can grow very important practical consequences - both positive and negative ones.
We shall discuss one of the most frequent family processes leading to adolescent psychosis. As a direct consequence of the couple's hidden relational malaise, one of the two parents pseudo-privileges the child over the spouse and instrumentally brings him/her up as the opposite of the spouse in every way. The involuntary cheating about feelings ("imbroglio of affections") enhances the possibility of a psychotic breakdown.
This revision of the original ABCs of RET and cognitive-behavior therapy shows that people's Belief System (B) about their Activating Events (A) of their lives largely contribute to their emotional and behavioral Consequences (C) but that A, B, and C importantly influence and include each other and that all three include interacting cognitive, emotive, and behavioral elements.
Accepted thinking about non-polar, non-psychotic depression has been impaired by ignoring crucial research. This shows that some cases are masked endogenous depression; others are anxiety-based in several ways. Therefore, each case must be investigated to decide appropriate treatment and thus surpass the mediocre results typified in the "Collaborative Study."
Recognition of body-mind unity requires acceptance of the fact that the body in its form and motility expresses the individual's personality as much as behavior and thinking. If there is to be a change in personality, the body must reflect that change. To change bodily attitude, one should work directly with the energy dynamics of the body. By mobilizing a person's energy, one opens up deep feelings that are otherwise inaccessible. This is critical in the treatment of depression which is directly connected to an energetic collapse in the body. The address will describe how one increases an individual's energy to promote his pleasure in life.
Evidence that the hourly and daily variations in our consciousness are related to the wavelike flow of messenger molecules operating on all levels from mind to gene will be reviewed. Stress, psychosomatic problems, and their resolution are a function of how we manage this wave nature of our consciousness. How do we create a new psychotherapy for the future that utilizes these natural windows of the mindbody?
The evaluation is the single most important clinical task of therapists who work with sexual problems. That is because accurate assessment is the key to successful treatment, and many unnecessary therapy failures can be traced to inadequate evaluation procedures and to the failure of the therapist to elicit pertinent information. Traditional psychological and psychiatric examinations, which emphasize the childhood roots of sexual problems are not adequate for evaluating sexual disorders. Dr. Kaplan will demonstrate her method of evaluation, which focuses on the patient's or couple's current sexual behavior and experience. This, together with historic information, provides the information required for understanding the dynamics of the dysfunction and for formulating a rational treatment plan.
Dr. Szasz will present a brief historical review of drug controls in the United States; a critical analysis of the transformation of the trade in drugs from a free market at the beginning of the century to a tightly statist system of controls today; and a market-oriented analysis of the "drug problem."