Difficult couples challenge therapists with their aggressive interactions, their demands for intimacy and their high levels of sensitivity to any confrontation. Dr. Bader will demonstrate how to start and sustain positive momentum with these high distress couples. Participants will discover how to create a context for change that uses four pillars to anchor all sessions. Participants will learn to make strong confrontations, take a firm leadership role and more smoothly interweave intra-psychic and systemic interventions. Video, role-play and clinical transcripts will all be used to demonstrate these principles.
Hypnosis is commonly thought of as a tool to enhance the therapy. It also can be used as a "lens." The phenomenology of hypnosis can help us to understand an essential aspect of the trance state, the symptom state, the solution state and the therapist's state, thereby providing new options for treatment.
From Freud to Erickson to the current practice of psychotherapy, the nature of human problems has remained the same. What has changed is which problems we consider are within the realm of psychotherapy to elucidate. When Erickson introduced the concept of directive therapy, the field changed, not only in terms of how to do therapy, but also in terms of what are the issues a therapist must address. Is there a place for the concept of evil, for the practice of justice, and for the spiritual realm in therapy? What do we know today that we didn't know a hundred years ago? How can we preserve the existence of the therapist as humanist, social activist and systemic thinker?
Working with terminally ill patients and their families is necessarily time-limited. The effects of such work can be dramatic and lasting for both patient and survivors. This magnifies the effects of such therapy and thus underscores the importance of intervening elegantly and boldly, moving through patients' (and therapists') fear of death.
Many thoughtful and perfectly logical treatment strategies in family therapy fail because the intervention goal is two steps ahead of the client. By looking two steps back from this goal, the therapist can design the appropriate sub-tasks and the primary task can be successfully completed. The most commonly encountered sub-tasks will be discussed.
Improvisational theater is a useful component in brief therapeutic approaches. It can be used for different therapeutic purposes. One important goal to be achieved is the patient's development of a healthier body perception as well as their natural recognition and expression of sensual feelings. In this context, the use of improvisational theater elements helps to connect with forgotten or hidden resources of abused women with multiple trauma symptoms. By absorbing the patient's unconscious mind in a state of creative, sensual energy the patient's potential is utilized and can serve as a powerful catalyst to energize their own healing resources.
We are often of many minds as we approach the interactions, decisions and crisis of our daily lives. By utilizing the intriguing language of the computer world, we will learn how to identify and enhance awareness of the many selves we inhabit and to recognize their internal relationships with each other. We will also learn strategies for using these concepts to activate and facilitate. This workshop will be experiential with a didactic introduction and discussion.