In our first session, our demonstration subject has recently made a major life change. They have decided to change their career from being a priest, into becoming a therapist. Big life changes like these often induce anxiety in patients, and in this clinical demonstration we see Dr. Jeffrey Zeig exhibit a number of Ericksonian techniques to help the client be in harmony with themselves. Dr. Zeig utilizes some of Ginny’s religious history to help guide her towards transformation.
Demonstration subject Mette is struggling with issues trying to feel an emotional connection to her children. She describes her difficulty with being present for her children, and is looking for guidance. Dr. Zeig exhibits a few simple techniques that help create a powerful therapeutic relationship quickly, through the use of gestures and strategic interview questions. Dr. Zeig is able to utilize this information to create useful suggestions to help Mette with her situation.
Our demonstration subject for session three has two presenting issues - an undercurrent of sadness that seems to be everpresent, and a difficulty communicating about financial situations in her life. Dr. Zeig starts off the session by speaking Spanish, Karina’s native language. This simple technique puts Karina quickly at ease and sets the tone for the session. By inducing a hypnotic state Dr Zeig is able to do a quick age regression, and through utilizing a number of linguistic techniques - recursion, speaking in triplicate, altering tempo and tone of voice - he was able to seed therapeutic goals and create motivation for change.
For the final class in the Utilization series, Patricia joins us to discuss her preference for being in control, and how that relates to her struggles with intimacy. She also requests help alleviating a psychosomatic response from an earlier trauma. Dr. Zeig uses an interpersonal approach to this session, utilizing verbal and body language techniques to help communicate complex concepts. Zeig establishes the theme of appreciate as the through-line for this session.
A method will be presented for joining strategic assessment and intervention to create pattern disruption and elicit resources for change. Essentials of an Ericksonian method for tailoring approaches to habit control will be offered. Weight and smoking control will be emphasized.
An experiential orientation empowers therapeutic change. Dramatic experiential methods can be used by any clinician in every stage of the therapeutic process including assessment, in session treatment and homework assignments. Techniques to be demonstrated and practiced include therapist sculpting, symbolic assignments and analogical tasks.
This "playshop" will consist of experiential clinician development exercises. While it is widely agreed that the person of the therapist is central to patient change, there are limited methods for developing ways to BE a therapist. This program centers on eliciting and developing therapist acuity. Dr. Zeig will present a systemic modeling method that can be easily transferred to make therapy and supervision more powerfully experiential.