New developments will be presented in the theory and technique of strategic therapy with individuals, families, and couples, including prescribing the metaphor and the use of confusional techniques with families. Concepts will be illustrated with videotaped examples.
Change in psychotherapy is a gradual process with predictable stages which can be understood and prepared for. Integrating new perspectives and behaviors requires attention to the needs of each of three phases: support, accommodation, and assimilation. These stages will be defined and demonstrated in work with volunteer workshop participants.
This approach is a short-term, focused psychotherapy that uses clear contracts for change, respect for the autonomy of the client, imaginative games, effective self-reparenting, and client redecision. Emphasized will be freeing the client from early "stuck" spots. Lecture, case presentation, and large-group exercises.
An introduction to the brief therapy techniques developed at Mental Research Institute; sound and videotaped examples of such interventions from actual therapy sessions.
Workshop 19 - Family Systems Therapy, featuring Murray Bowen, MD.
Some of the cardinal principles in Family Systems Theory will be presented. It is important to diagnose the emotional posture of principal family members. A videotape of family therapy will be presented and discussed.
Hypnosis continues as the "mother of the psychotherapies" by contributing new approaches to human facilitation. Specifically, we will learn to use the therapeutic
double bind, symptom prescription, and ideodynamic channeling to assess and facilitate a patient's inner resources.
An information processing model designed to clarify the biased and constricted thinking in depression will be described. The practical applications of the model use principles of guided discovery and collaborative empiricism. There will be a demonstration of specific strategies applied to dysfunctional cognitions and beliefs. A blending of cognitive and behavioral techniques are used for in vivo exercises.