The new brain science explains many of the mysteries of love and offers new hopes for troubled relationships. Neuro-scientific approaches are used to address the most common reason cited for divorce, i.e. growing apart. Three clinical techniques will be presented which are specifically designed to create an intimate bond between two people and pave the way to grow together instead of apart. Lecture, video, handouts and experiential exercises will be used.
Anthropologist Helen Fisher discusses the brain networks associated with romantic love to explain frustration attraction, abandonment, rage, the despair response, love, addiction, stalking, love, suicide and other phenomena associated with romantic rejection. She concludes that long term use of serotonin-enhancing antidepressants can jeopardize romantic love and attachment to a mate.
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.
Therapists sometimes get stuck trying to change a couple's interactional patterns without understanding the underlying belief systems that maintain the patterns. By zeroing in on the core beliefs and expectations of each partner, the therapist is able to address multiple levels of experience and help the couple change pivotal aspects of their relationship in a short period of time. Conflicting beliefs around money, sex, power, gender, responsibility and intimacy will be examined within this therapeutic framework.
CC05 Workshop 11 - High Impact Couples Therapy: A Developmental Model to Start and Sustain Effective Treatment and Confrontation with Difficult Couples - Part II - Ellyn Bader, PhD
This workshop focuses on the specific use of cognitive-behavioral strategies as an adjunct to the many treatment modalities of couples therapy. It offers a basic overview of the theories of cognitive-behavioral therapy, particularly as it applies to couples. Participants will learn first-hand techniques and strategies for working with difficult couples and how to integrate these strategies with their respective modes of treatment. The presentation is followed by a videotape showing how to implement techniques.
This workshop will outline the EFT model of intervention while focusing on the key elements of competent practice and the challenges identified in EFT practice.
Covered in this workshop will be an overview of issues in sex counseling; demographic information; issues in assessment; a phenomenological model; Ericksonian assumptions; and couples exercises for enhancing intimacy.