Training
Are you representing a professional society or graduate/training program interested in scheduling a presenter for your meeting or training?
I offer workshops on a variety of subjects. Workshop lengths are negotiable, but can range from brief (e.g. 1-2 hours) to longer (1 & 2 day workshops).
Some recent examples include:
Healing the Wounds of Development: Attachment Theory & Hypnosis, An Integrated Approach to Psychotherapeutic Treatment (2 day workshop)
Workshop description:
In this workshop, we will consider the role that hypnosis can play in a relationally attuned therapeutic relationship towards facilitating attachment repair in patients with developmental arrests (e.g. affect dysregulation, lack of identity formation, boundary difficulties, etc.). The relational and psychological functions of attunement, representation, and mentalization are essential components of a secure attachment experience. The presenter will review the literature and describe how hypnosis can be applied in working with each of these areas of attachment. In its’ utilization of shared attention, tone of voice, pacing, language, and imagery, clinical hypnosis as a state, relationship, and technique offers psychotherapists a way of introducing a healthy attachment experience and renewing appropriate developmental functioning in these patients. Through a mixture of didactic and experiential (demonstration, role play and small group training) approaches, participants will develop increased competency in (1) understanding how the therapeutic relationship in general, and clinical hypnosis from an attachment frame in particular, can be utilized to re-build developmental structure and re-engage reflective functioning and (2) utilizing specific applications of clinical hypnosis towards this aim.
Learning objectives:
At the end of this workshop, participants should be capable of:
- Conceptualizing and describing how a hypnotherapeutic attachment approach could be utilized for the purposes of developmental repair.
- Integrating attachment and hypnosis into the psychotherapeutic treatment of borderline and narcissistic spectrum developmental arrests.
- Articulating how the hypnotic elements of attunement, representation, mentalization can be used to facilitate developmental repair.
- Formulating and delivering 3 hypnotic suggestions which advance the attachment goals of enhancing attunement in the hypnotherapeutic relationship, developing mental representation of a secure attachment figure or ego state, and increasing the capacity for reflective awareness about mental states in developmentally arrested patients.
Utilizing Hypnosis in the Treatment of Narcissistic Wounds in Psychotherapy: A Relational Approach (Half day workshop)
Workshop description:
The dimension of narcissism influences a wide-range of character presentations and treatment issues occurring in psychotherapy in our modern age. Although clinical and public attention is often focused on the categorically-derived DSM-V diagnosis of Narcissistic Personality Disorder, narcissistic wounds stemming from attachment failures are a more frequent occurrence in the development of the self. These arrests in the full formation of the self and their subsequent re-appearance in later relationship interactions are often referenced in a wide range of treatments.
In this workshop, we will consider how Kohut’s self psychology and current innovations in attachment theory can help us understand narcissistic wounds and treatment issues across the dimension of narcissism. Further, we will focus on the role that hypnosis can play in a relationally attuned therapeutic relationship towards facilitating attachment repair in patients with developmental arrests associated with narcissistic wounds (e.g. false-self identify formation, affect dysregulation, boundary difficulties, etc.). Through a mixture of didactic and experiential training, participants will develop increased competency in (1) understanding how the therapeutic relationship in general, and clinical hypnosis from an attachment frame in particular, can be utilized to re-build developmental structure and re-engage reflective functioning in this population of patients and (2) utilizing specific applications of clinical hypnosis towards this aim.
Learning objectives:
At the end of this workshop, participants should be capable of:
- Recognizing the diagnostic features of narcissistic wounds
- Conceptualizing and implementing a relational approach featuring hypnosis towards treating narcissistic wounds
- Utilizing 3 hypnotic interventions to regulate affect during “triggers” of narcissistic wounds
- Developing 3 hypnotic scenes that fit narcissistic identity presentation (e.g. false self) and facilitate developmental repair
Group Therapy Seminar (Two 1.5 hour interactive workshops)
Workshop description:
This 2-session training will focus on didactic information regarding issues in the developmental cycle of group therapy from formation to termination. In particular, we will focus on dynamics of group process. We will also emphasize the role of attachment in group therapy, including the effects of anxious and avoidant attachment on the group process.
Learning objectives:
At the end of this seminar, participants will be capable of:
- Identifying different types of therapy groups, and the particular experiences associated with each type.
- Familiarizing trainees with the basics of attachment theory, and how it applies to group therapy
- Learning how to identify challenging clients and clinical interactions, and how to work with them
in a group setting - Experientially exploring the affective experience of the group leader and working with co-leaders
