The suggestibility of children provides an opportunity to build the strengths for lifelong mental resiliency. We will explore clinical practices based on research from brief strategic approaches, positive psychology, and the study of resiliency which suggest that long term mental health can be promoted through specific therapeutic approaches in treating children.
Excessive anxiety in childhood is a significant predictor of eventual comorbid depression and other conditions. This presentation will identify the cognitive processes and coping strategies that help create a cycle of anxiety, psychosocial isolation, and depression in anxious children and families. Attention will be given to the development of specific, empirically supported Ericksonian strategies which can help shift the anxious individual and family toward malleability, creativity and adaptability.
Whether brief or long-term, the treatment of childhood trauma should include an opportunity for the youngster to abreact (express strong emotion), correct (find individual, community or even fantasized solutions), and to discover contexts (perspectives and understandings of the events that occurred). Dr. Terr will thoroughly discuss and exemplify these three modes of treatment, selecting brief therapies as the clinical examples.
Adolescent self-harming behavior is on the rise and is one of the most challenging presenting problems school professionals, healthcare providers, and therapists will face in their clinical practice settings. In this "hands-on" practice-oriented workshop, participants will learn several distress management tools and strategies to strengthen the adolescent's self-soothing and coping capacities and family connection building rituals and therapeutic experiments to foster closer and stronger parent-adolescent relationships. Parent management skills for constructively responding to their adolescents' inevitable self-harming slips will be presented.
The StoryPlay® model weaves together the elements of story/metaphors, creativity, expressive arts and play to form a unique and proven method of therapy to effect positive change, healing and problem-solving. Deriving its theoretical foundations from the principles of Milton H. Erickson and indigenous teachings, StoryPlay® emphasizes cultural diversity, natural healing abilities and creative solutions.
In this workshop, we will focus on the importance of self-esteem as an explanation for the problematic behavior of children and teenagers and discuss recent neurological research. We will show cases to apply some Ericksonian solutions in children who share negative self- esteem for their problematic behavior.
Ericksonian psychotherapy emphasizes the utilization of our resources. When I treat children with enuresis, I focus on resources and keep in mind that Ericksonian interventions should be brief because children may get tired of being in therapy for too long. Techniques tailored to a child and examples of inductions such as eye fixation utilizing toys will be presented. I will emphasize how to make several brief interventions quickly while utilizing "non human co-therapists" during home assignments, and the combination of conversational trance with tasks.
This workshop focuses on the practical applications of Milton Erickson's utilization approach and applications of hypnosis in working with children diagnosed with Asperger's and other high functioning autism spectrum disorders. There is evidence to suggest that more concrete and strategic applications of Erickson's utilization approach may better serve us when we treat ASD and other individuals with language, processing and attention disorders.