Contrary to the popular mythology, what makes hypnosis valuable is its ability as a tool to create a safe and comfortable context for self-exploration. As a direct consequence, people routinely find overlooked or dormant resources that would help empower them to not only feel better but be better. In this demonstration, we'll explore how hypnosis might be helpful in increasing a sense of personal empowerment.
This demonstration will feature Feedback-Informed Treatment, a pantheoretical approach for evaluating and improving the quality and effectiveness of behavioral health services. It involves routinely and formally soliciting feedback from consumers regarding the therapeutic alliance and outcome of care and using the resulting information to inform and tailor service delivery.
Rumination involves spinning around the same thoughts over and over again, analyzing endlessly why something happened or what to do about some situation. Rumination increases anxiety and depression levels, and perpetuates itself by the client believing that by ruminating, he or she is “doing something.” In this workshop, we’ll explore rumination and its negative effects, highlight the relationship between rumination and global cognition, and emphasize the importance of developing good discrimination skills. We’ll also consider the role of experiential processes such as hypnosis and mindfulness in treatment didactically as well as with a guided group experience.
Is there any doubt that people learn more easily through experience when they’re focused and receptive? Or that growth is easier when rigid perceptions and boundaries of experience are softened and redefined? Hypnosis highlights the malleability of subjective experience and empowers people to live their best lives. In the past, hypnosis was considered by many to be the “crazy cousin nobody wanted at the therapy family picnic.” But, as the contributions of hypnosis in neuroscience (especially neurogenesis and neuroplasticity), epigenetics, clinical effectiveness, and interpersonal dynamics have steadily grown in importance, hypnosis can be identified as a core component of good therapy in whatever form it may be delivered.
The modern perspective of hypnosis considers the role of attention and absorption in catalyzing adaptive responses. Hypnosis provides a context for developing new associations on multiple levels that have therapeutic potential. In this clinical demonstration, a hypnosis session will be conducted to assist the client in evolving resources that may be helpful to personal growth.
EP13 Dialogue 03 – Social Dimensions of Psychotherapy – Erving Polster, PhD and Michael Yapko, PhD
Moderator: Betty Alice Erickson, MS
Educational Objectives:
Given a topic, describe the differing approaches to psychotherapy, and identify the strengths and weaknesses of each approach.
Why does a grown adult need to be reminded by a therapist that he or she no longer needs to feel or act like a helpless child? Why does someone treat a new boyfriend or girlfriend unfairly as if he or she is the same as the last one who hurt him or her? One answer: Global thinking. Most people – therapists included – are global thinkers, people who metaphorically “see the forest but not the trees.” Global thinking is highly correlated with depression as well as PTSD.
Contrary to the popular mythology about hypnosis, clinical hypnosis enhances personal mastery by promoting greater self-awareness, increasing access to personal resources, and amplifying of a sense of personal agency in actively choosing growth-oriented responses. How hypnosis can help empower people will be highlighted in this clinical demonstration.
BT12 Dialogue 08 - Social Factors in Depression - Erving Polster, PhD, Michael Yapko, PhD
Educational Objectives:
Given a topic, describe the differing approaches to psychotherapy, and identify the strengths and weaknesses of each approach.