The traditional marriage of our parents, grandparents and before was the companionable marriage. This lecture introduces a new 21st Century skill-set, relationship empowerment, which enables women to stand up for increased closeness in their relationships, while helping men understand new demands and how to meet them successfully.
This presentation will cover the assessment and detection of spousal and partner abuse, as well as intervention strategies. Community resources, cultural factors and same gender abuse dynamics also will be discussed.
This lecture will posit that marriage is alive and well and evolving into a new form, replacing a personal, psychological marriage focused on the satisfaction of individual need with a partnership marriage that produces healing and evokes psychological and spiritual growth. This transition is an instance of a shift from the "individual paradigm "to the "relational paradigm."
This keynote address will offer an overview of the neural basis of mindful awareness and how this important way of being present and receptive to one's own inner processes creates enhanced capacity for emotional resonance and empathy.
Mindful awareness has been scientifically proven to promote social, emotional and physical well-being, and is an effective part of treatment to prevent relapse of drug addiction and chronic depression. Mindfulness also enhances empathy, and in that way may promote healthy interpersonal relationships. This ancient practice of being fully aware in the present moment, without grasping onto judgments, has been found in cultures around the world. At the heart of this proposal is that the state of mindful awareness harnesses specific social and emotional circuits in the brain. The development of these “resonance circuits” creates an integrated brain state that creates the benefits of improved immune and cardiac function, enhanced empathy and self-understanding, and a deeper connection to oneself and others.
Starting with a review of recent studies on the neurobiology of trauma, Dr. van der Kolk will examine the utility of approaches from the fields of hypnosis, body oriented therapies and EMDR, both with research data and videotaped clinical interventions. The integration of these approaches during different stages of treatment will be discussed.
This presentation will explore the expression of basic conflicts between love and aggression in a couple’s sexual life, their daily interactions, and their value systems. The analysis of chronic couples’ conflicts will be followed by the outline of an essentially psychoanalytic approach to their diagnostic assessment, and the characteristics of analytic and supportive strategies of treatment.
How do we forgive a partner who cheats, drinks, insults, abandons - and doesn't show a shred of remorse? This keynote will challenge common assumptions about what it means to forgive and will present a radical model that gives hurt parties the courage to forgive - and the freedom not to.