This course offers a practical step-by-step approach to overcoming vicious circles and addictions. The foundation of this comprehensive treatment is based on learning research and Ericksonian ideas. For example, what is learned can be unlearned and helping your patient target small changes eventually progresses into lasting change. An addiction effects all the areas of a patient's life; mental, emotional, physical, spiritual, behavioral and social. Six Ericksonian hypnotic protocols are given to help you help your patient create changes in these six areas.
Adolescents go through very deep changes, and go through them more rapidly than their parents did. Many adolescents find that they cannot elaborate these changes. Finding a "safe place" where teens can talk about these processes in group therapy normalizes their feelings; eases tension and may help them regain their inner resources by using Ericksonian hypnosis. The oppositional defiant teenager may find ways to be helped solving their most common problems easily.
A key idea in Milton Erickson's work was that a person's problematic experiences and behaviors can be skillfully accepted and utilized as the basis for therapeutic change. Self-relations psychotherapy develops this idea further, emphasizing symptoms as indicating the death of an old identity and the impending birth of a new identity. In this workshop, we will see how a therapist can generate a ritual space where symptoms and other disturbing experiences can be "midwifed" into new identities.
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.
Supervisors often find themselves in the role of "supervisor" because they have been identified as good clinicians, but typically have little formal training in supervision. While clinical skills are essential, the application of those skills in supervision can be quite unique. This workshop will focus on the application of Ericksonian principles to the practice of supervision at various levels of clinical development. Practical and ethical aspects of supervision also will be discussed.
A key idea in Milton Erickson's work was that a person's problematic experiences and behaviors can be skillfully accepted and utilized as the basis for therapeutic change. Self-relations psychotherapy develops this idea further, emphasizing symptoms as indicating the death of an old identity and the impending birth of a new identity. Thus, we don't try to "get rid of" depression, anxiety, or "acting out/acting in" expressions, but instead invite them into a human relationship of "sponsorship", where their healing and helpful nature may be realized. We will see how a therapist can generate a ritual space where symptoms and other disturbing experiences can be "midwifed" into new identities.
The Basic Foot Print is a process model of change in therapy that represents and identifies Erickson's method for change. It is a general umbrella under which we should be able to place any step of change or intervention. Encounters that follow the Basic Foot Print create change and any therapy that steps through these stages reflects Dr. Erickson's approach and echoes his legacy. The steps are: matching/connecting, blending, utilizing, introducing ambiguity (disrupting stasis), reframing and co-creating outcomes. An in-depth understanding of steps within the Basic Footprint will be taught, demonstrated and practiced.
Gestalt therapy and Ericksonian hypnotherapy are experiential methods of change. In combination they can be synergistic. Psychotherapy is best when clients have a first hand experience of an alive therapeutic process. Such dynamic, empowering experiences pave the way for dynamic understandings. Drs. Polster and Zeig will offer brief introductions to their approaches. They will demonstrate their methods through live therapeutic sessions and they will engage with each other and the participants to examine commonalities and differences in their work.