Clinical Demonstration 11 from the Evolution of Psychotherapy 1995 - Humanization of Technique, featuring Erving Polster, PhD.
Educational Objectives:
To describe and illustrate the difference between ordinary human engagement in therapy and technical engagement.
To describe a moment when you could discern a felt meeting of minds between patient and therapist.
The human reflex to summarize and animate experiences is a springboard for the formation of selves. Through lecture and live therapy demonstrations, Dr. Polster will show how to identify the population of selves within and how to restore linkage among them, creating a dependable sense of personal identity.
Methods for training therapists customarily are directed to developing cognitive abilities. Using Milton Erickson as a model, an alternate, experiential approach is offered. The "evoking style" of the therapist determines the outcome of the treatment more than the theoretical and clinical methods to which the therapist ascribes.
How does one master the practice of psychotherapy? Should training emphasize theory, technique, or research? What about the personal growth of the clinician? We will identify seven essential "postures" through a series of graduated, Psychoaerobics exercises. Attendees will participate in growth games and group hypnosis to explore the merging of discipline and spontaneity that occurs in the most artful and effective clinical work. The program focuses on refining the therapist's lenses (perception), muscles (therapeutic power), heart (compassion), and hat (social role).
Educational Objectives:
(1) List three therapist postures that were especially well-developed in Erickson.
(2) Given a case, describe how to use a Psychoaerobic exercise.
A consistent, testable theory can permit the importation of effective techniques, not theories, on patients. Knowing when to apply a specific technique and how to enhance compliance will be stressed.