Two cases in which dream work played important roles will be presented and illustrated with videotaped sessions. The first is a case of a young single man with premature ejaculation, wherein the active, psychodynamic use of dream work "broke through'' the patient's intense resistance. The other is that of a married man with primary retarded ejaculations in which dreams were used to guide the behavioral aspects of therapy.
Educational Objectives:
To demonstrate that Reality Therapy can be successfully applied to any type of client.
To demonstrate that it can be applied to a couple.
The application of Control Theory to the problem of selecting a compatible mate and/or staying happily married to an existing mate. To do this there will be considerable interaction with the audience.
Strategies developed in cognitive therapy of depression are readily applied to couples' problems. Assessment of conflicting perspectives, thinking disorder, escalation of distortions and cognitive interference with communication. Reducing hostility, reinforcing pleasure, increasing collaboration and improving sexual satisfaction through cognitive interventions.
The various aspects that contribute to low self-esteem in young women having a difficult relationship with their partner are helped with two Ericksonian techniques - - metaphors and symbolization. These aspects include healing emotional wounds, remaining at peace with their partner, learning to love themselves, working with social beliefs, limiting ideas and cultural prejudices and being responsible for their own well-being.
The main root cause of mental illness is relationships which are not working effectively. Violence, abuse, injustice, neglect and power struggles lead to most individuals' symptoms. This workshop will teach how to change and heal individuals by using their families, no matter how family is defined, to achieve a successful therapy in a brief time period. Attendees will learn specific Ericksonian strategies and healing rituals to which Dr. Erickson would give a "thumbs-up."
Any life crisis can render a person metaphorically infertile. Using the frenzy of literal infertility as a springboard, this workshop will offer participants the opportunity, in trance, to explore personal circumstances and universal elements of infertility of any kind. The hypnotic process will aim to facilitate the creation of the eye of the storm, and aim to locate the powerful presence of the "I" which often gets shattered in the frenzied state.
In this workshop, attendees will learn how to recognize couple symptoms as shared or separate-track trances and it will be demonstrated that symptom inductions in couples are something we can observe. Dr. Ritterman will teach, through entrancing role plays, methods to counter destructive couples suggestions with beneficial hypnotherapeutic counter-inductions. She will focus on the use of synchronicity and reciprocity in couples development. Attendees will gain an understanding of trance and hypnotic happenings in couples and receive supervisory input for innovative ways to help couples heal each other and love again.
People slip in and out of trance every day. Couples evoke each other into positive trances (falling in love) and negative trances (reenacting family-of-origin, unresolved issues and identifications). In this workshop we will work with five hypnotic tools to help couples transform their relationship.
Couples constantly exchange messages. Tone of voice, inflection and non-verbal behavior often imply meaning contradictory to overt messages. Making covert implications explicit is a technique that, when done with sensitivity, promotes healing. A method of using this fundamental of communication theory to promote change in couples therapy will be demonstrated.