Hypnosis will be presented within a system perspective, as a circular and evolving process, while couples and families will be considered as a source of natural healing resources that the therapist should discover and activate. Specific direct and indirect techniques required to induce a deep and meaningful change of the most rigid family patterns will be introduced. The demonstration of a family hypnotic session will give a clear idea of the powerful and subtle resistances families can develop in the course of the hypnotic treatment as well as of how naturalistic systemic hypnosis can transform these resistances in the required solutions.
Effective clinicians draw on various sources of external knowledge to inform practice. One source can be found in the models of today which are popularized in numerous books and training opportunities. A second source is comprised of discoveries in fields such as medicine, education, philosophy, art, spirituality, and the sciences. Although these two sources provide a wealth of knowledge, effective practitioners also rely on a third source that not only serves as a foundation for practice but also informs treatment strategies. The third source is rooted in traditional psychotherapy theories and the contributions of early pioneers.
Just as human beings are not generic, so, too, trauma is an event that is affected by and interacts with people's intersectional identities. This workshop will introduce participants to a mindful model for understanding how to move towards cultural competence in practice with trauma survivors. We will pay particular attention to therapist countertransference/fragility, and to the effects of shame, guilt, privilege, and dominant culture narratives on trauma treatment. Some experience working with trauma survivors is assumed.
This one-hour speech focuses on what all couple therapists should at least consider: social justice and fairness agreements between partners. The human primate is warlike, self-centered, mostly automatic, and given to flights of fancy, moodiness, and other unpredictable feelings, thoughts, and behaviors. Thus, the social science predicate of civilization dictates that, to hold human beings accountable, there must be agreements between individuals that protect them from one another. Shared principles of governance points to the matter of partners governing each other and everyone else as the couple is the smallest unit of a society. Principles are hierarchically more personal and self-governing than rules or laws. In other words, principles speak to character.
Neuroscience research has established why it is that trauma results in a fragmented narrative along with a ‘living legacy’ of enduring effects. The survival responses that preserve life and integrity under threat do not diminish once safety is obtained. Meant to warn us of impending danger, these easily re-activated survival responses continue to re-evoke the events of long ago decades after they are over. Once baffling and frustrating to treat, the evolution of new neurobiologically-informed treatments offers new, hopeful answers to the aftermath of trauma: the chronic fear of danger, dread of impending doom, loss of hope or energy, the longing for human connection, and self-destructive and addictive behavior.
Dissociative hypnotic intervention demonstrated to be very useful in treating pain, anxiety disorders and many other conditions. But hypnosis can as well reactivate the natural mind processes, contributing to reconnect different parts (distinct modes of information processing) into a functional and unified self, particularly after traumatic experiences. Rapport, the special relationship that produces intense interpersonal links and connections, as well as profound disconnections with non-hypnotic reality, can be considered a crucial factor of brief therapeutic approach to dissociative conditions and trauma. How to use rapport as well as other new specific therapeutic interventions to reestablish the natural integrative links in a dissociative mind and relationship will be outlined in this presentation.
The Solution Focused Approach is a widely accepted way of conducted psychotherapy sessions. Over the past 40 years this approach has come to be known for its brevity, pragmatism and positive stance. However, many inaccurate myths about this approach exist which impact many clinicians' ability to understand, and subsequently use, this approach. There is one misunderstanding that stands above all others, and this workshop will directly address this common misunderstanding while showing to not succumb to this idea and how to follow the true essence of Solution Focused work.
One way of modeling Milton Erickson is to consider the states that he commonly inhabited when he was conducting psychotherapy. Erickson "states" will be described and examples will be provided.