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.
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.
Volunteers from the audience will create one-act dramas and family sculptures from childhood scenes in order to understand their early decisions and make desired changes in their lives today.
Working with children requires adaptations of techniques that depend on language skills. This workshop will describe useful language techniques that help to work with children briefly.
Mental health experts are frequently called upon to work with parents and teachers. This workshop describes how most interventions are ineffective and will provide a brief procedure that works. The seven-step model will be discussed and videotaped examples will be provided.
Most therapy is verbal and logical; most troubled teens are neither! Brain scans now explain why, and we need to connect with kids where they are. Adolescents respond to experiential and behavioral approaches. Successful intervention with teens includes activities engaging the body, mind, emotion and creativity to accomplish far more than talk therapy alone. Come experience several fun, interactive strategies immediately useful with teenage clients, no matter how withdrawn, hostile, or defensive they appear to be.
Adolescent self-harming behavior is on the rise and one of the most challenging presenting problems therapists will face today in their clinical practice settings. Therapists referred these clients are often intimidated by their cutting and burning behaviors, the DSM IV labels they have been given, and the army of helping professionals involved with them and their families. many of these adolescents have experienced multiple treatment failures, feel emotionally disconnected from their parents, and come from families where there may be difficulties with marital or post-divorce conflicts, invalidating family interactions, gender power imbalance issues, or family secrets. In this hands-on, practice-oriented workshop, participants will learn a collaborative, strengths-based therapy approach that capitalizes on the strengths and resources of the adolescent, family members, concerned peers, adult inspirational others, and involved helpers from larger systems to rapidly co-construct solutions
Ignoring the impact of trauma on the client's family overlooks powerful dynamics that are crucial to treatment outcome. Participants in this workshop will learn how to involve the trauma sufferer's partner and other family members as resources in the healing process. Participants will learn how to better educate clients about the typical symptoms of trauma, the stages of trauma recovery, how to help family members both soothe and set limits with the traumatized person, and the typical pitfalls families encounter - including the depleting response of "enough already" as a family member tries to heal from a trauma.