Schedule

4.0 Law and Ethics credits

Difficulty: All Levels

Description:

This presentation outlines key legal and ethical information pertaining to maintaining clinical records, privacy regulations and confidentiality, and is designed for early career through senior professionals. The program begins with a review of recently enacted or modified laws in the State of California, which have implications for all jurisdictions in the United States. The program then turns to issues concerning record retention from a legal liability viewpoint rather than the simple statements of how long records must be kept, and websites that provide helpful information about liability and risk management for any/all mental health clinicians, and then turns to an analysis of record-keeping requirements.

The presentation then reviews situations in which clinicians are involved in the legal system and especially in courts of law, including witness categories. What follows is a review of practice formations, and ways to create and manage mental health practices, including how to cope with reputational problems. The program ends with information about developments for involuntary commitment, internet practice and a review of the best online training for child abuse reporting.

Educational Objectives:

1. List two legal developments in California law that impact Child abuse reporting;
2. Identify two major factors governing record retention;
3. State the three types of witness categories that clinicians may be assigned by the legal system;
4. Name at least two categories of practice formation List at least two legal underpinnings of involuntary hospital commitment.

4.0 Credits

Difficulty: Fundamental

Description:

Designed for participants with little or no previous exposure to Ericksonian hypnosis and psychotherapy, the course will familiarize attendees with essential tenets, terms, and principles of the approach. Topics covered include a historical perspective of Erickson’s work, important pre-hypnotic treatment considerations, and discussion of the typical course of a hypnotic session.

Educational Objectives:

1. Discuss the importance of expectancy in hypnosis.
2. Cite four ways in which attention can be focused in induction.
3. Identify which is typically the longest phase of a hypnotic session.
4. List at least five hypnotic phenomena.
5. State two reasons why full reorientation from hypnosis is important.

4.0 Multicultural Credits

Difficulty: All Levels

Description:

This 6 hour event is designed to educate professionals about the power of self- hypnosis. The workshop offers an experiential approach that is brought together by comparing and contrasting the learning backgrounds from the two co-presenters. Each bringing different life experiences, cultural elements are identified and utilized to facilitate participants’ individual creation of their own learning pathway.

Suitable for professionals who already use hypnosis as well as those who are not yet familiar with hypnosis, this workshop is experiential in nature and builds a step-by-step framework within which an individual can prepare for a process of self-discovery that goes beyond the workshop experience.

Proceeds from this event benefit the maintenance and development of the Erickson Historic Residence.

Educational Objectives:

1. Identify physiological hypnotic phenomena in the trance process.
2. Identify cultural barriers relevant to techniques.
3. Contrast specific stereotypes, perceptions and beliefs regarding culturally different groups.
4. Identify three cultural elements that contribute to similarities and differences in two models of self-hypnosis.
5. Identify five recurrent themes that unite multicultural perspectives on hypnosis.
6. Identify those traits that are involved with cultural encapsulation.

2.0 Law and Ethics credits

Difficulty: All Levels

Description:

This presentation outlines key legal and ethical information pertaining to maintaining clinical records, privacy regulations and confidentiality, and is designed for early career through senior professionals. The program begins with a review of recently enacted or modified laws in the State of California, which have implications for all jurisdictions in the United States. The program then turns to issues concerning record retention from a legal liability viewpoint rather than the simple statements of how long records must be kept, and websites that provide helpful information about liability and risk management for any/all mental health clinicians, and then turns to an analysis of record-keeping requirements.

The presentation then reviews situations in which clinicians are involved in the legal system and especially in courts of law, including witness categories. What follows is a review of practice formations, and ways to create and manage mental health practices, including how to cope with reputational problems. The program ends with information about developments for involuntary commitment, internet practice and a review of the best online training for child abuse reporting.

Educational Objectives:

1. List two legal developments in California law that impact Child abuse reporting;
2. Identify two major factors governing record retention;
3. State the three types of witness categories that clinicians may be assigned by the legal system;
4. Name at least two categories of practice formation List at least two legal underpinnings of involuntary hospital commitment.

2.0 Credits

Difficulty: Fundamental

Description:

Designed for participants with little or no previous exposure to Ericksonian hypnosis and psychotherapy, the course will familiarize attendees with essential tenets, terms, and principles of the approach. Topics covered include a historical perspective of Erickson’s work, important pre-hypnotic treatment considerations, and discussion of the typical course of a hypnotic session.

Educational Objectives:

1. Discuss the importance of expectancy in hypnosis.
2. Cite four ways in which attention can be focused in induction.
3. Identify which is typically the longest phase of a hypnotic session.
4. List at least five hypnotic phenomena.
5. State two reasons why full reorientation from hypnosis is important.

2.0 Multicultural Credits

Difficulty: All Levels

Description:

This 6 hour event is designed to educate professionals about the power of self- hypnosis. The workshop offers an experiential approach that is brought together by comparing and contrasting the learning backgrounds from the two co-presenters. Each bringing different life experiences, cultural elements are identified and utilized to facilitate participants’ individual creation of their own learning pathway.

Suitable for professionals who already use hypnosis as well as those who are not yet familiar with hypnosis, this workshop is experiential in nature and builds a step-by-step framework within which an individual can prepare for a process of self-discovery that goes beyond the workshop experience.

Proceeds from this event benefit the maintenance and development of the Erickson Historic Residence.

Educational Objectives:

1. Identify physiological hypnotic phenomena in the trance process.
2. Identify cultural barriers relevant to techniques.
3. Contrast specific stereotypes, perceptions and beliefs regarding culturally different groups.   
4. Identify three cultural elements that contribute to similarities and differences in two models of self-hypnosis.
5. Identify five recurrent themes that unite multicultural perspectives on hypnosis.
6. Identify those traits that are involved with cultural encapsulation.

1.0 Credit

Difficulty: All Levels

Description:

This Keynote event offers a historical perspective of how Milton Erickson’s views of hypnosis evolved over a lifetime. By reviewing publications from his early works in the 1920s over the next half century Roxanna summarizes shifts on style and emphasis and emphasis. Using this framework, attendees can gain a deeper appreciation for the evolution of Erickson’s ideas as we self-reflect on the professional growth process and our own development.

Educational Objectives:

1. Enumerate recurrent themes in Erickson’s publications about hypnosis.
2. Identify shifts in emphasis of Erickson’s teaching about hypnosis from one decade to the next.
3. List five key elements relevant to professional knowledge about hypnosis.

1.0 Credit

Difficulty: All Levels

Description:

A core element of the innovative psychotherapies of Milton Erickson was his emphasis on helping patients gradually shift from a focus on the unchangeable past to a focus on the positive potentials of the future. In recent years, substantial evidence has accumulated that makes it clear that a focus on the future is far more than just a philosophical preference. In fact, an orientation to the future has been associated with some of the most fundamental aspects of clinical practice ranging from an individual’s personality traits to his or her treatment response. In this address, then, we will consider some of the many facets of a future orientation and some of the ways Dr. Erickson was prescient in his encouraging a future focus in psychotherapy.

Educational Objectives:

1. Identify and discuss ways Dr. Erickson oriented therapy patients to future potentials.
2. List and discuss the consequences of a future orientation on different aspects of psychological functioning.

1.5 Credits

Difficulty: All Levels

Description:

Gaslighting is a term describing how people attempt to emotionally control by emphasizing the perceived negative attributes of their partners. This abusive behavior leads to severe self-esteem issues for the victims, including increased risk of isolation, depression and suicide. This seminar considers related questions: why do some people effectively gaslight themselves, and how can we assess and treat this problem?

Educational Objectives:

1. Identify clients who are effectively gaslighting themselves.
2. Identify therapeutic guidelines for dealing with such cases.

1.5 Credits

Difficulty: All Levels

Description:

This presentation will explore the utilization of brief experiential activities in helping clients to access and enhance their naturally occurring resources. Experiential activities help to increase client engagement and participation in therapy as well as connect them to aspect of self that are resourceful. In this session, participants will learn the philosophy behind utilizing in-session experiential activities and how these relate to bringing forth existing client resources. During the presentation, the presenter will explain the purpose of experiential activities and then will conduct a live demonstration of various experiential activities to help demonstrate the process of experiential techniques as well as the usefulness for clients.

Experiential activities can be used in any model and can be used as a means of integrating models. The presenter has engaged in developing various experiential techniques, which will be presented. By the end of the presentation, participants will have gained the philosophical underpinnings of using experiential activities as well as the fundamentals of several experiential techniques that have proven useful for the presenter in his work with supervisees, individuals, couples, and families

Educational Objectives:

1. List three reasons that experiential activities are useful for marriage and family therapists.
2. Describe how experiential activities can help clients to access existing resources.
3. List one or more experiential activities one could utilize with clients.

1.5 Credits

Difficulty: All Levels

Description:

Erickson was known by the efficiency of his treatments and how he was able to quickly treat difficult patients. He used different strategies and techniques with a unique style. However, he did not create a systematization of his strategies.

In this course you will learn the main contributions of Erickson to psychotherapy according to views from some of his main supporters, hypnosis specialist and Ericksonian colleagues around the world[1], all of them great personalities in the world of Ericksonian hypnosis and psychotherapy, many authors and creators of new approaches. In total, the opinion of more than 51 authors from 14 countries and 4 continents were gathered.

Educational Objectives:

1. Describe the main contributions of Milton Erickson to psychotherapy according to the point of view of experts around the world.
2. Describe the main strategies of Milton Erickson according to the point of view of experts around the world.
3. Describe the essence of Ericksonian philosophy.

1.5 Credits

Difficulty: All Levels

Description:

Advances in the priming research have validated the rationale and impact of Erickson’s linguistic techniques. To wit, the priming research has confirmed that we are controlled by an unconscious behavioral guidance system more than previously conceived and, once covertly activated, unconscious goals are just as powerful as or more powerful than conscious goals. To the surprise of many, goals do not require an act of will to be acquired. These findings suggest that the key to effective therapeutic dialogue may be the meticulous and artful use of semantic priming.

This presentation will introduce participants to the concept of priming, review selected research, and demonstrate its implications in resolving therapeutic roadblocks and creating therapeutic movement. Ultimately, attendees will learn what priming is, the theory behind what occurs in the brain when priming occurs, and how to incorporate priming into the therapeutic dialogue to minimize resistance and create movement. An added bonus will be a discussion on how to incorporate the same scientific principles into your personal life for self-improvement and habit control. The ideas and methods presented are readily integrated into all theoretical approaches and client problems. A detailed handout will be provided.

Educational Objectives:

1. Define what priming is and describe how and why it has such a significant impact on mental processing.
2. Utilize priming principles into the therapeutic dialogue in order to circumvent resistance and increase the impact of the therapeutic dialogue.

1.5 Credits

Difficulty: Intermediate – Advanced

Description:

Like much that is deeply imbedded and emergent in our psyches, the mastery of Milton Erickson often defies a simple explanation. Words may be descriptive but fall short of unpacking the exquisite intricacy of his work. With currents as deep as this it has taken years for Jeff Zeig, one of Erickson’s students, to come up with the potent phrase “Limbic Communication” to describe that crucial element that underpins the art and artistry of Erickson and all impactful experiential therapy.

This seminar will introduce you to the concept of limbic communication, explore why it is central to the work of Ericksonian Hypnosis and offer you a frame work for developing your skills in this area. Through lecture and accompanying experiential exercises you will learn how to talk to your clients limbic brain rather than their neocortex and in so doing improve outcomes and facilitate transformation.

Educational Objectives:

1. Demonstrate an understanding of the difference between cortical and limbic communication.
2. Given a clinical case, suggest 2 different ways of communicating with that client’s limbic system.

1.5 Credits

Difficulty: Beginner

Description:

This presentation will review the concept of dissociation and its evolution in modern Psychology and its relationship with hypnotic process, when it is described as a mind state of focused attention. We will explore the idea of dissociation between the conscious and unconscious mind during hypnosis and how it can lead to therapeutic success. Some practical exercises and demonstrations to provoke dissociate states.

Educational Objectives:

1. Describe the meaning of dissociative mind state.
2. Explain dissociation in hypnotic interventions.

1.5 Credits

Difficulty: All Levels

Description:

In this course, we are going to illustrate how Erickson’s classic Utilization principle can be translated into chrono-bio-genomic terms. For a long time now, we have known that this principle lies at the basis of Erickson’s amazing ability to facilitate the natural self-healing, growth and evolution processes that every patient possesses inside. To date, only few therapists have integrated the chro-bio-genomic dimensions that are inherent in the Utilization principle, in their clinical practice. For some time now, our research group has been working along this path to develop (Rossi et al., 2006) the possible chrono-bio-genomic implications (Cozzolino, & Celia, 2015) and translate them into therapeutic practice also in oncological context. These aspects have been integrated in the Psychosocial Genomics paradigm (Rossi, 2002) and in a specific treatment method called MBT-T. In this address, we will explain how the MBT-T method activates a mind-body-gene therapeutic transformation both in psychotherapy and with breast cancer patients. The innovative quality of MBT-T lies in its capacity – in a single session – to reduce stress, induce epigenetic effects and activate the genes associated with a reduction in inflammatory processes and with the strengthening of the immune system (Cozzolino et al. 2017). Among the advantages of MBT-T is the possibility to obtain these results even in medium sized and/or large groups.

Educational Objectives:

1. Explain how to translate the Ericksonian’s Utilization principle into terms of chrono-bio-genomics both in psychotherapy and with breast cancer patients.
2. Demonstrate that the change produced by Ericksonian therapies integrated with chrono-bio-genomics is so deep that it has epigenetic effects.
3. Define how the MBT-T method activates the genes associated with a reduction in inflammatory processes and with the strengthening of the immune system in psychotherapy.

1.5 Credits

Difficulty: Beginner – Intermediate

Description:

In this training you will learn the factors which lead to creating alive and inspired therapy sessions regardless of theoretical orientation. Drawing from such diverse sources as indigenous wisdom traditions and modern psychotherapy approaches, this training will demonstrate how embracing improvisation and utilization can revitalize and energize therapy sessions. By understanding how circular interaction, expectancy, humor, and imaginative performance can assist clients in obtaining treatment goals, one can learn to create effective, transformational, and “magical” experiences in therapy.

Educational Objectives:

1. Describe three processes in opening up interaction in counseling sessions.
2. Discuss the use of creative therapeutic applications in diverse settings.
3. Describe how to create attuned, synergistic relationships that are unique to each client.

1.5 Credits

Difficulty: All Levels

Description:

The ability that Dr. Milton Erickson had for “reading the patient” and get information from them in order to build a context in which change was easy to obtain is an area that has been often overlooked due to the difficulty to understand the process that he was using. In what way was he carefully observing the patient to gain personal information from them? Several techniques will be listed and demonstrated in order to become an observant and strategic therapist.

This capacity for “reading the patient” combined with one of the most valuable techniques in Ericksonian therapy which is the seeding technique, creates a powerful intervention tool that will allow the therapist to set a proper context for intervention and create a learning environment in which change is easily achievable. It will be explained how to combine them to guarantee success in therapy.

In addition to this, several techniques will be discussed to do predictions for the patient using all the information previously obtained to help create the perfect context for hypnotic induction and intervention.

Educational Objectives:

1. Demonstrate several techniques to obtain valuable information from the client.
2. Demonstrate the use of the seeding technique in order to set a proper context for intervention.
3. Define strategies to predict future outcomes for the client.

1.5 Credits

Difficulty: Intermediate

Description:

This interactive workshop utilizes the group to teach and apply highly effective trance methods, combined with evidenced-based research from Stanford, and drama therapy action methods, (i.e. sociometric scaling, role reversal to increase empathy and the empty chair), to address clients’ unwillingness to give up defensiveness, blame and other relationship problems.

This tool-based program will provide you with concrete skills to be a highly effective therapist when faced with a client’s anger to prevent pre-termination. Interactive Hypnotherapy and Action Methods help to assess and keep clients motivated, so that clients can ultimately give up self-sabotaging defensive behaviors and negative coping styles.

Educational Objectives:

1. Demonstrate overcoming fear of conflict around difficult clients while learning how to master 5 Essential Communication Tools.
2. Identify what is the primary mistake therapists repeatedly make when working with difficult clients.
3. Utilize Drama Therapy and Sociometric Tools to build motivation while creating safety and a cohesive group experience.

1.5 Credits

Difficulty: All Levels

Description:

What can we do for dying people and their families in addition to palliative care? What is helpful to communicate during the last hours of life?

In this workshop we bring integrate the millennium-old pictorial traditions of religion with techniques of hypnotherapy including pacing and leading, utilizing metaphors, and the evocation of values and convictions of dying patients with their families.

Using case examples, we will explore how hypnotherapeutic and spiritual support can be combined to meet the emotional and somatic needs of patients – even in non-religious contexts and by non-religious staff for patients without any identified religious background.

We will discuss and practice techniques for communication, developing rapport, and building metaphors with patients who are unable to speak or clearly show their needs.

Questions addressed are:

• How can we communicate with dying patients – verbally and nonverbally?
• Which words can we choose that they will understand and find relevant?
• How can we perceive and interpret nonverbal responses from coma patients?
• How can we ease the fears and griefs of dying patients?
• How can we reduce their pain or breathing problems while we speak?
• How can we help dying patients to peacefully let go of life and the struggle for survival?
• How can religious imagery (shepherd, heaven as a home) be used by helpers and for dying persons without any strong religious conviction?

Educational Objectives:

1. Identify at least two common obstacles to maintaining rapport with comatose patients, i.e. creating a “deadly silence”.
2. List and model at least three criteria for helpful communication with patients who may be unable to speak or clearly show their needs.
3. Practice explaining and exemplify some of the potential benefits of three metaphors that can be used with dying patients and their relatives.
4. Demonstrate at least two other interventions suitable for reducing dying patients’ somatic and emotional suffering.

1.5 Credits

Difficulty: All Levels

Description:

This workshop emphasizes ways culture and religion can be integrated into the therapeutic discourse through the promotion of intercultural resiliency. Interculturalism allows for relationship building and learning from each other while taking the therapist deeper than multicultural or cross-cultural communication. Resiliency as a healing process allows for creating new meanings to unfortunate life events based on developing the self through mentorship and community, the building blocks of resiliency. In the development of intercultural resiliency all resources are respected and included while fostering a more diversified and pluralistic therapeutic practice. Intercultural resiliency encourages and cultivates the broadening of world views while deepening of the therapeutic process.

Educational Objectives:

1. Define the underlying ideals of intercultural resiliency, the components of culturally infused counseling and understanding the essential elements that define one’s worldview.
2. Identify ways the building blocks of resiliency and the resiliency process can be fostered across diverse religions and cultures.
3. Participate in activities to self-reflect on one’s worldview and how to use the become more diversified and pluralist in practice.

1.5 Credits

Difficulty: All Levels

Description:

This exercise allows people to park all of their problems without any disclosure of their problems. Complete privacy. There is no need to discuss thir problems at all. The micro-structure of the session will be explored to show the various safety devices used. This astonishing exercise can be used for PTSD, abuse, trauma, losing car keys, financial concerns, i.e. absolutely anything! It received a great reception at the ISH meeting in Montreal.

Educational Objectives:

1. Demonstration of the privacy aspect of the technique.
2. Micro-analyse the structure of the presentation.

1.5 Credits

Difficulty: All Levels

Description:

All of us are shaped from an essence, the stuff we are made of, the hero within.

With his numerous physical problems, Milton H. Erickson had to struggle for life and for every day life. His example is extraordinary in many ways and is, for many of us, a distinctive model; a hero. And Milton has also become a story teller.

Among our models, our heroes, and the stories that have been told to us, the ones we’ve built, the ones we’ve integrated, there are some that are metaphors deep within us. How do we refer to them? How do they structure and impact our lives? How do we utilize them? How do they impell our behaviors, our feelings, our sensations? How do we play with them? How do we pass them around among us?

Through a list of questions, we will construct in this workshop an inventory of the heroes that we’ve integrated into our selves, and the stories that are built of our deep metaphors. We will travel, and explore those resources that have contributed to our construction and our structure, in productive and unproductive ways. We will play with those heroes, those models we live out in unknown or ill-defined ways.

This workshop will offer ways to utilize heroes in our therapeutic goals for inner change and to help the patient build upon the hero within.

Educational Objectives:

1. Utilize our models of heroes, our deep metaphors, as resources for inner change;
2. Define how to use those heroes, those metaphors, in our therapeutic goals.

1.5 Credits

Difficulty: Beginner

Description:

Hypnotherapy and psychotherapy have been developing over time through various phases. Directive therapies with an intervention orientation have shifted over the years to suggestive and client centered approaches. More recently both research and practice has opened our minds to relational and responsive approaches. The concept of “client responsiveness” is discussed in my book with Ernest Rossi, The Practitioner’s Guide to Mirroring Hands. We are continuing the ideas and practices of Milton Erickson, who was ahead of his time. Many examples of Erickson’s prescience can be found throughout the 16 volumes of The Collected Works of Milton Erickson, edited by Rossi, Rossi and Erickson-Klein. This presentation explores the foundational elements of being client-responsive and how to utilize these concepts in a creative and emergent way. This session will explore i) language principles ii) sensitive observation and iii) improvisational responsiveness. We will both discuss and experience these qualities in a series of activities. These elements, and others we describe in our book, truly allow for the co-creation of a therapeutic experience that fully embraces both the qualities of the therapist and the implicit expertise within the client to mutually discover what needs to be done.

Educational Objectives:

1. List and demonstrate various language principles of client responsive therapy.
2. Describe and demonstrate practical activities that enhance the therapist’s sensitive observation of the client.
3. Describe and demonstrate how to be responsive to the client and co-create the therapeutic experience.

1.5 Credits

Difficulty: All Levels

Description:

How often do we notice our pain, and not our comfort?! Most people only notice pain. When we pay attention to the “sensation,” of pain we have a vocabulary that goes from A-Z to explain what we are feeling. For example, aching, biting, caustic, etc. However, when people think about the sensation of comfort, or attempt to describe how they are feeling without pain, they do not have descriptive language except for adjectives. For example, peaceful, relaxing or calm. In this presentation, participants, along with a demonstration client, will discover the language of ‘comfortable sensations’. For example, flowing, smooth and soft. Once we have explored this comfort language we will explore “sensation shifting” to teach the brain a new way to perceive previously identified chronic pain. When we learn to identify the sensations of comfort we create a new neural pathway for healing and feeling better. This will be an experiential presentation.

Educational Objectives:

1. Create a list of words that describe comfort using sensations descriptions.
2. Define subjective units of disturbance and subjective units of comfort.
3. Demonstrate how to do sensation shifting with a client.

1.5 Credits

Difficulty: All Levels

Description:

The author of this research and presentation will explore how Douglas Flemons, the developer of relational hypnosis, facilitated an enduring non-volitional shift with a client, “Grace,” who desired to have a baby but could not see or talk about blood, needles, or medical procedures without fainting. Using context-enriched conversation analysis (CECA), the author will describe how he embraced his understanding of Ericksonian and Neo-Ericksonian hypnosis methods as a guide to examine multiple sources of data, which included selected audio-recorded excerpts from Douglas and Grace’s hypnotherapeutic sessions; Grace’s descriptions of change in her email correspondence with Douglas; and Douglas’s case notes. Although there were a total of eight sessions, the author will discuss how his analysis revealed that the most influential and significant moments occurred during the first two sessions. He will demonstrate how Douglas’s initial interventions, or as he would say, intraventions, were inspired by Erickson’s (1959) notion of utilization, and how they laid the foundation for a shift in Grace’s identity, which helped her embrace a variety of resourceful skills and attributes to overcome her problem.

Educational Objectives:

1. Discuss the importance of utilizing the client’s strengths and resources in the resolution of a problem diagnosed as a phobia.
2. Describe the process of how a relational hypnotherapist communicates his therapeutic intentions in order to encourage his client to engage in, and experiment with, new behaviors.

1.5 Credits

Difficulty: Intermediate

Description:

During this presentation, the development of chronic pain syndromes and some practical interventions will be discussed. Specifically, assessing patient’s current functioning within a “whole-person approach” will allow clinicians better information about where to begin assisting with change. While using the “evidence-based treatments” as a starting point, finding ways to tailor the intervention to the individual will be reviewed. We will honor the long-history of hypnosis being used to treat chronic pain. Finally, we will review outcome research indicating what seems to make the most effect for patients with pain.

Attendees will learn about the multiple areas of patient’s lives needing to be evaluated when treating chronic pain.

Educational Objectives:

1. Demonstrate ability to evaluate patient’s level of functioning in physical realms, as well as mental and emotional realms.
2. Report ability to use 5 different types of interventions for chronic pain following this workshop.
3. Demonstrate the significant link between trauma and stress and chronic pain in treating this complex problem.

1.5 Credits

Difficulty: Intermediate

Description:

The American novelist William Faulkner stated, “The Past is never dead. In fact, it is not even past.” This presentation emphasizes the unconventional use of reality therapy that connects the past with the presents by helping clients realize that their current behaviors are normal responses to abnormal situations that they have experienced. It also operationalizes the Ericksonian principle: “The solution often appears unrelated to the problem.” The core of this session is a simulated demonstration illustrating a cluster of possible interventions focusing on the WDEP system of reality therapy. W indicates wants and perceptions. D searches for behaviors: actions, cognitions and emotions. E emphasizes implicit and explicit self-evaluation whereby the therapist assists clients to conduct a fearless inventory of helpful and hurtful behaviors. The P represents treatment planning based on at least 5 motivators identified in the underlying theory of reality therapy. The resulting client change culminates from having “seeded the plan” that takes place, especially through a detailed discussion of clients’ self-evaluations. Participants will gain practical, usable skills immediately implementable in their therapeutic relationships – skills that can be integrated into other theories and methodologies.

Educational Objectives:

1. Demonstrate one intervention that helps clients see the connection between past trauma and current behavior in a more positive light.
2. List 2 interventions that are pre-requisites for effective treatment planning.
3. Describe how reality therapy interventions can be efficacious for “seeding the plan” that leads to positive client change.

1.5 Credits

Difficulty: All Levels

Description:

Effective therapy, or coaching, is touching and moving clients. As professionals, we are providing an emotional service because all of our clients’ problems have to do with emotional self-regulation. Therefore, to make therapy effective the impact must be affective!

I will first provide an overview of the Person-System-Interactions theory of the personality-researcher Julius Kuhl. It represents a theoretical foundation for thinking about specific ways of self-regulation. Prof. Kuhl defined four interacting subsystems and specific interplays, e.g. the interplay between “self-confrontation & self-calming” or the the interplay between “self-motivation & self-braking”. How a person manages the interplay between these subsystems results in different ego states.

Coaching and therapy can be regarded as a service to enhance the client’s affective self-regulation, improving their resilience. That is why secondly we will take a look at resilience from an affective and process-oriented point of view using the PSI-theory. Viennese humor, short movies and case examples will make this course an affective journey, too.

On the basis of this knowledge we can:

• profile our clients concerning access to their different systems of personality,
• strategically think about the next affective step for our clients and also,
• figure out which specific method might be best for promoting resilience.

Educational Objectives:

1. Define the 4 subsystems of the PSI-Theory.
2. Create a profiling of clients with the PSI-Theory.
3. Utilize the PSI-Theory to plan the next affective step for enhancing resilience.

1.5 Credits

Difficulty: Intermediate – Advanced

Description:

Chronic pain is frequently encountered by healthcare professionals. The current treatment is primarily pharmaceutical intervention with Opioids or NSAIDS that create new problems and address a limited part of the pain. Pain, whether physical or mental/emotional, tends to be experienced as one. Anticipated pain and memories of past painful incidents also contribute to the experience of pain.

This presentation examines chronic pain over a broader cognitive, emotional, and behavior context. It goes beyond matching opiates to pain receptors, by including pain’s emotional and cognitive roots. Physical pain is exacerbated by emotional pain; and emotional pain is exacerbated by physical pain. Pain is generally addressed as a physical issue, and not as a emotional or cognitive issue. The narcotics have no impact on relieving emotional, or mental pain, but are the current ‘go to’ method of treatment.

This presentation presents a paradigm that chronic pain is not limited to a physical or somatic dysfunction, but has cognitive and emotional roots as well. This conceptualization empowers the healthcare provider, and individuals to look at the plethora of generally unacknowledged sources contributing to their experience of pain; and opens up other co-creative interventions.

To understand the difficulties of chronic pain its good to understand there are three faces of pain. One face is the pain in the present. Another face is memories of pain experienced in the past. The third face is the anticipation (fantasized) of pain in the future. Thoughts and emotions can become a neurological loop (habit) that feeds upon itself unless the supporting patterns are interrupted.

The presentation uses case studies and lecture to assist the clinician in seeing, and understanding the creation of chronic pain in order to effectively teach the patient to manage it.

Educational Objectives:

1. List two emotional or cognitive components of pain.
2. List two therapeutic hooks to help gain rapport, and direct the intervention.
3. List two words or phrases that connect physical pains to emotions and thoughts.

1.5 Credits

Difficulty: All Levels

Description:

The first factor that is of central importance is developing a strong therapeutic alliance with the client, mainly through empathically relating to him/her. Second, it will be shown how to guide adolescents and younger children to identify the specific Activating Event (AE) that is bringing about their unhealthy negative emotions through triggering self-defeating cognition(s). He/she will be guided in changing these through appropriate methods of transforming negative cognitions that are not empirically-based. This acquiring of a more positive and realistic thought will, often, immediately change the clients unhealthy negative emotion(s) to healthy, adaptive, and empowering ones, often right before the the therapists eyes! This process of changing a negative thought is sometimes very difficult, though, because their self-defeating cognition(s) is impermeable, as if set in stone. Thus, it will be shown how EMDR can be used to make cognitions become more fluid, pliable, and amenable to positive transformation. Then, such a cognition is often relatively easily to change into an adaptive, healthy emotion-producing cognition (ie, through the Externalizations of Voices method). Now comes the greatest innovation of this roadmap. An Ericksonian therapeutic transit is elicited. The clients new, happiness producing, and anxiety and depression reducing adaptive cognitions are interspersed in the therapeutic trance; within the therapeutic trance a future projection is facilitated, and the client experiences themselves in their optimal future, with these adaptive cognitions being an experiential reality. This solves the classical, and poignant problem of therapeutically changed cognitions not being remembered without extensive rehearsal, etc. Now, the newly created cognition(s) is experiential, remembered, and thus symptom reducing and happiness producing, for the rest of his/her life, preferably.

Educational Objectives:

1. List at list three of the benefits of using EMDR methods to “soften“ or “unthaw“ a deeply ingrained, depression and anxiety producing, self-defeating cognition that is keeping a child or adolescent client “stuck.”
2. Describe two methods of guiding a client to change a self-defeating cognition into a calmness, hopefulness, and productivity producing cognition, once it has been “unthawed,” if necessary.
3. List three methods of strengthening a transformed, self-enhancing cognition, once trance elicitation has taken place (usually at or near the end of the session).

1.5 Credits

Difficulty: All Levels

Description:

In our previous research we found that CBT-I (Cognitive-Behavior Therapy for insomnia) cannot effectively improve sleep in patients with anxiety or depression. Actually, most of insomnia patients are co-morbid with anxiety and depression. So we find a new way to add some hypnotic elements in CBT-I to supplement the limitation of CBT-I. We collects some data, the analytic conclusion showed that hypnosis combined with CBT-I can effectively improve sleep quality and anxiety in insomnia patients. So, this presentation will show what is the specific procedure and clinical practice of this treatment model.

Educational Objectives:

1. Explain the dangers and research status of insomnia co-morbid anxiety.
2. Compare the advantage and disadvantage of Cognitive Behavior Therapy for Insomnia (CBT-I) and CBT-I combined with hypnosis.
3. Explain the clinical application and specific procedure of hypnosis combined with CBT-I for insomnia co-morbid with anxiety.

1.5 Credits

Difficulty: All Levels

Description:

It has become increasingly documented that the vast majority of patients with adult pathology, reported experiences of severe childhood trauma. Early appropriate therapeutic intervention can relieve symptoms and prevent adjustment difficulties and pathology.

A theoretical overview of the effect of trauma will explain the process of dissociation as a coping mechanism to deal with overwhelming experiences. The child dissociates from feelings and memories associated with trauma in order to survive emotionally. The dissociation is initially helpful and enables the individual to cope, however eventually it can result in pathology and become destructive.

This presentation will focus on Ericksonian techniques; how to utilize the hypnotic phenomena to resolve trauma and allow healing not only for children but also for adults who experienced trauma during their childhood. The process of empowerment within a dysfunctional system where support lacks will be explained.

A case study of a six year old child with enuresis/encopresis will demonstrate the value of this treatment modality. Early intervention can prevent symptoms or pathology in later life.

Educational Objectives:

1. Explain the theoretical basis of trauma as well as the dissociation process.
2. Demonstrate skills to access severe trauma.
3. Describe facilitating the integration process.

1.5 Credits

Difficulty: All Levels

Description:

This short course will present the systemic, dialectic, multilevel, multifocal, model of group therapy utilized at the Institute of Anthropos in Athens, Greece. The approach is influenced by Ericksonian methods and additional techniques from other perspectives have been added.

The presentation will illustrate the manner in which the group therapeutic process, viewed as a sequence, can create a hypnotic script for the group. The goal is to utilize and reframe what is developed during the group session as a synthesis. This creates a higher level of abstraction that can be shared in common by the group as a whole. In turn, an emotional shift in each member is facilitated. The ultimate purpose is to promote group and individual therapeutic goals in a context of support and connection.

Educational Objectives:

1. Explain how use of the group session content and process can create an Ericksonian hypnotic induction that promotes changes in group members.
2. Cite important principles of the Systemic Dialectic, Multilevel Multifocal Group Therapy approach.

1.5 Credits

Difficulty: Intermediate – Advanced

Description:

Chronic anxiety and depression present significant challenges for those affected by these conditions. A behavioral treatment which accesses deep levels of mind-body functioning facilitates remission of these debilitating conditions. This treatment, conceptualized as essential neurobiological communication (ENBC), incorporates a form of body language known as ideomotor signaling. Because these are chronic conditions, the affected individual learns how to fully manage these states on their own. Also presented is a non-invasive, structured protocol for reducing the adverse influence of unresolved emotion on present experience. Essential to this model is a progressive ratification sequence intended to ground emotional adjustments in thought, perception and behavior. This brief procedure is a useful adjunct to other treatment modalities and instrumental in clarifying the focus of treatment. Given adequate time, a demonstration with a volunteer will illustrate this approach.

Educational Objectives:

1. Explain the use of ideomotor questioning in resolving emotional experience.
2. Describe a method for accessing and quelling the source of chronic anxiety and depression.
3. Identify one clinical application of a parts model.

1.5 Credits

Difficulty: All Levels

Description:

Although there is a long tradition, especially in indigenous cultures, of healing with ritual and ceremony, the modern scientific world rather excluded spiritual components of healing for a long period of time.

It was the Cartesian revolution that includes the idea that all phenomena can be understood and thereby indicating that you can only trust that which can be explained. As a consequence the mind was separated from the intuitive wisdom of our body and spirit.

Ceremonies provide the structure though which we touch the spirit and promote our own healing as well as the healing of others.

What will be taught: In this workshop we will apply new research findings (like the brain´s plasticity) with ancient wisdom to expand our healing power. In the language of ceremony we will explore the factors that promote the healing process.

Relevance to the conference:

Learning more about ancient wisdom that can be applied in modern therapy not only enriches the therapeutic repertoire of each therapist or doctor but also helps creating a new balance in society. Honoring and applying spiritual components includes helping patients being connected within them and thereby strengthen their immanent healing powers.

Presentation Format: lecture, experiential

Educational Objectives:

1. Identify three elements of healing ceremonies.
2. Name the connections between the ordinary world and a ritual.
3. List 5 components of the indigenous health concept.

1.5 Credits

Difficulty: Intermediate

Description:

This workshop will teach participants skills  in using metaphors and stories to help patients experience a deep contact with themselves so that they can survive and even thrive following life-changing surgery. The material will focus on Ericksonian approaches that help patients heal, experience comfort, and restore body homeostasis. Clinical examples from patients undergoing transplantation – including face transplantation – will be presented. Face transplants are extremely complex and relatively rare. They usually require many months and even years of preparation. However, in May 2013, doctors in Poland performed the world’s first emergency life-saving face transplant. After the procedure, the patient began the rehabilitation process, including psychotherapeutic care. Ericksonian hypnosis helped this patient find body homeostasis and cope with the challenges of post-surgical recovery. Following the surgery, the patient stood right on the border between being and being, as well as how to be. For some patients, the therapeutic goal is to help them return to a state before the disease – as in the case in breast reconstruction after mastectomy. For other patients, such as those undergoing amputations or transplantations, healing is associated with developing a new and positive image of themselves. An Ericksonian perspective will guide the presentation, demonstrations, and practice opportunities. The focus will be on how to best adapting the psychotherapy to the individual patient’s needs, abilities, and healthy possibilities. Just as surgeons precisely reconstruct the patient’s body that is impacted by disease, so Ericksonian psychotherapists tailor-make treatment for each patient.

Educational Objectives:

1. List the elements of psychotherapeutic tale.
2. Create a psychotherapeutic story using informations from an interview with the patient.
3. Discuss three different ways to present a hypnotic story.

1.5 Credits

Difficulty: All Levels

Description:

According to research (Rashidian et al. 2015), Genito-Pelvic Pain/Penetration Disorder ‘Vaginismus’, causes significant sexual challenges for groups of sub-population women in the US. This workshop provides raw data and statistical analysis, supporting the hypothesis that these women experienced sexual pain as a manifestation of biopsychosocial conditions, resulting from cultural orientations. These include the cultural do’s and don’ts that shapes sub-population women’s sexual beliefs and attitudes, as a result of their life experiences within their cultures, impacting emotional and physical sexual experiences negatively. Culture, then, is shown as the etiology of sexual pain disorder among this population. According to research, Neuro-psychotherapy resolves many of these challenges and beliefs. Using this therapeutic modality, therapists can gain a microscopic insight into the activity of a specific neural network involved with women’s fear, and have a macroscopic view of clients’ interpersonal relationships and environment, in order to gain a thorough grasp of these women’s situations. With the knowledge that there is a dynamic and powerful influence between the mind, brain, and environment, therapists will be able to find valuable insight into women’s conditions, by understanding with more clarity what’s hidden within their neurology and biology.

Educational Objectives:

1. Explain the role of culture as an etiology to Genito-Pelvic Pain/Penetration Disorder ‘ Vaginismus’ among Sub-population women.
2. Review and practice specific Neuro-psychotherapy approaches used to assist therapists, in assessment and interventions for this disorder, within cultural contexts.

1.5 Credits

Difficulty: All Levels

Description:

Most descriptions of hypnotherapy come from clinicians. We talk about the ideas and techniques informing what we did with a case, and then we share what we observed and understood our client’s response to be. This workshop takes a different approach. The presenters—Drs. Eric Greenleaf and Jimena Castro—explore the creative synergy of Ericksonian hypnosis through the mutual participation and perspective of both therapist and patient. In December of 2017, Eric met with Jimena for a 80-minute hypnotherapy session. They video recorded it and then devoted five hours to walking through the recording together, stopping to talk about what each was experiencing—what Eric had in mind and how he was bringing theory into action, and how Jimena was responding in her body and imagination. In this presentation, we share what we learned, including the unique ways that Dr. Greenleaf brings Dr. Erickson’s methods alive and the authoritative voice of a patient—Dr. Castro—who herself is a licensed therapist and experienced hypnotherapist. Together, they will weave a story of Ericksonian hypnotherapy that will both illuminate and inspire.

Educational Objectives:

1. List three unique elements of Greenleaf’s approach to Ericksonian hypnosis.
2. Describe the added depth of perspective that comes from understanding hypnotherapy from both the therapist and the patient’s perspective.

1.5 Credits

Difficulty: All Levels

Description:

Often, being dubbed a “master” means that what the teacher does cannot be done by others. However, a cornerstone of Jeffrey Zeig’s lifelong quest has been to demystify, annotate, and democratize Milton H. Erickson’s work and then his own. In this session, the presenter will map the breadth and scope of Zeig’s work, which he has augmented by integrating a theoretical and experimental corpus with the most effective practices of the arts: film, music, theater, literature, and dance. This powerful weave, which Zeig calls “experiential psychotherapy,” is an especially powerful holistic approach to working with the broad range of clients.

Dr. Staffin, a “frequent flyer” in the NYC Master Class since its inception in 2002, will illuminate Dr. Zeig’s work by presenting aspects and examples of Utilization, Communication, Interpersonal factors, as well as Strategic design and intent. Using a combination of lecture, case examples, and group activities, he will highlight how therapists can apply these clinical tools and skills in their own work.

Educational Objectives:

1. Delineate 3 ways other than through speech that a therapist can communicate ideas to clients.
2. Explain how evoking experiential understanding versus delivering information can better help clients recognize and galvanize inner resources.
3. Outline 3 ways Dr. Zeig uses his own physical vocabulary to engender rapport with the client.

1.5 Credits

Difficulty: Intermediate

Description:

Excellent supervisors have a way of joining well with their supervisees. Supervisors build strong associations with supervisors, help supervisees extol their areas of incompetence to collaboratively build competencies, and supervisors learn to utilize what the supervisee brings to enhance the quality of the relationship. Through the supervisory relationship, supervisors/supervisees collaboratively generate approaches to working with clients, building appropriate treatment plans, and helping supervisees develop skills needed to work independently. In short, good clinical supervisors help trainees to become competent therapists.

The new Ericksonian Core Competencies offer possibilities for supervisors and supervisees to build resources for competent supervision and practice. They offer ways for supervisors to assess competency across several areas, give guidance on specific tasks/attributes/competencies to assess within their supervisees, and offer some guidance in assisting supervisees in becoming excellent therapists who work in Erickson informed ways.

However, the new Erickson informed competencies (like other core competencies developed by other organizations such as AAMFT) come with their own set of concerns (e.g., did we capture the essence of the work, did we leave something out, are we being reductionistic in our approach). Because of these types of concerns, the structure of the presentation will be:

1. Begin with a discussion related to what core competencies are/aren’t, looking at not just the Ericksonian ones, but ones from other disciplines groups.
2. Review the Ericksonian Core competencies in detail, looking at their value in supervision.
3. Discuss how supervision needs to transcend core competencies, even though it embraces them.

Educational Objectives:

1. Demonstrate how to access the Ericksonian Core Competencies and how to use them for guidance in assessing supervisees.
2. Articulate both the value and limitations in core competencies across disciplines and organizations.
3. Demonstrate how they can use the Ericksonian Core Competencies to enhance the development of supervisees as clinicians.

1.5 Credits

Difficulty: Intermediate

Description:

The effect of Traumas can persist throughout a person’s lifespan and across different areas such as work, finances, intimate relationship, sexuality, relationship with body, and people at large. Beside building resiliency to reenter life’s day to day activities, releasing of many beliefs that get created at the time of the trauma about the self and the world is necessary for the traumatic effect and impact to move from destructiveness to constructing life. Through the Awareness Integration®(AI), a multi-modality psychological model, a person learns to release their traumas by identifying and releasing the core belief that they associated to the self and the world and therefore not assigning or generalizing a victimized stance toward life, build resiliency, identify their strengths, envision a desired future, and create an action plan to fulfill a successful future. Awareness Integration® Model enhances self-awareness, releases past traumas and/or psychological blocks, and promotes clarity and a positive attitude to learn and implement new skills for an effective, productive, and successful life. AI model integrates cognitive, behavioral, emotional, hypnosis, and body-mind techniques to create more awareness into a person’s life patterns of thinking, feeling, and behaving toward self and others. The AI model is created in consideration of all the areas that one faces and relates to in one’s span of life. The questions are structured to entice awareness that leads to consciousness and a sense of ownership, responsibility, and accountability toward one’s creation of thoughts, emotions, behaviors, and results.

The presentation will begin with introducing the general aspects of the model, the 9 Principals of the AI model, and the 6 intervention phases will be discussed with participant’s engagement in an exercise related to each phase. The session will be completed with a general question and answer time.

Educational Objectives:

1. Explain the theoretical foundation of Awareness Integration Model.
2. Identify the principals of the model.
3. Practice intervention approach.

1.5 Credits

Difficulty: All Levels

Description:

There are many ways in which hypnosis can be used to assist clients in accessing and utilizing their internal resources in the service of change. One approach to hypnosis is to create “singles,” brief recordings of three to eight minutes in length, to provide clients with “fingertip resources” that can be accessed quickly and easily. Much like a song on the radio or track played on a phone, brief hypnotic experiences are invitations to clients for rapid absorption, which can facilitate shifts in emotion, cognition, and physiology. Further benefits are that well-constructed singles provide opportunities to evoke and utilize client capabilities and create new states and frames.

The purpose of this session is to learn how to structure brief hypnotic experiences, record such experiences, address common and potential audio issues, and manage consent and release of therapeutic material. At the end of the session, participants will have knowledge of how to create brief, focused recordings that serve as a resource to clients at virtually any place or time.

Educational Objectives:

1. Describe a structure for creating brief, focused hypnotic experiences;
2. List two methods for creating hypnosis recordings; and,
3. Describe two ways to increase the benefit of hypnosis recordings.

1.5 Credits

Difficulty: All Levels

Description:

Milton H. Erickson was a pioneer in understanding and managing chronic pain, even in his own life. He developed a variety of original and very effective hypnotic approaches to deal with pain. Acute pain is different from chronic pain, as recent research shows. The persistent of pain causes changes that permanently alter various areas in the brain and their communications. Chronic pain does not respond well to typical acute pain treatments and should be approached differently, with a more global and integrated approach. Research has validated most of Erickson´s strategies and recent findings offer new ways and possibilities to greatly improve and systematize the treatment of chronic pain.

In this workshop we will review Ericksonian hypnotic approaches, showing new ways to take advantage of latest research, such as brain imaging, expectations management or olfactory stimulus. Some techniques and considerations applied in and out of the hypnotic session, can have a great impact on client´s expectations, pain perception, anxiety level and perceived self-efficacy. Participants will learn some practical guidelines and techniques to treat chronic pain, that will help to increase client´s expectations and to better tailor hypnotic procedures and suggestions to each case.

Educational Objectives:

1. Define what are the differences between acute and chronic pain conditions and their implications in the treatment.
2. Describe effective hypnotic procedures and strategies for chronic pain treatment and how to tailored them to each case.
3. List at least three techniques to increase client´s expectations and perceived self-efficacy in chronic pain management.

1.5 Credits

Difficulty: Intermediate – Advanced

Description:

Music and rhythm find their way into the secret places of the soul. – Plato

The Greek philosopher Pythagoras was among the first to recognize the healing powers of music. Milton Erickson, the musician of mind, body and soul, was the first to structure communication for greatest effect so that clients could change many aspects of their life, not merely their presenting symptoms. Just as the cadence of voice and patterns of speech form the music of Ericksonian communication, repetition and rhythm create the emergence of a trance state in music, film, and in poetry. The utilization of art and creativity in a hypnotherapy model functions as a catalyst accentuating the nuances of core competencies such as tailoring, utilization, strategic approach, and destabilization. Elegantly gift-wrapped in landscapes of music, poetry, and film, participants will playfully learn how to cultivate a mutual process of discovery.

The format of the presentation will be didactic and experiential. Steeped in rhythmic components participants will explore how to invite dissonance and harmony and will experience how to awaken a natural process of growth to evoke curiosity and openness to new challenges and possibilities while fostering an innate capacity for healing and learning.

Educational Objectives:

1. Demonstrate and design a consistent method to add hypnotic rhythm to your voice.
2. List 3 songs as a tool to interrupt a pattern and transform a symptomatic state that you will add to your current medical or therapeutic practice.
3. Demonstrate and design a consistent method to attune to the rhythm of you and your client to increase rapport.

1.5 Credits

Difficulty: Intermediate

Description:

Warmth is essential to life itself and we have therefore been attracted to it since the beginning of time. Conversely cold, the absence of warmth is associated with conditions of a more precarious nature such as scarcity, isolation or even demise. The association also seems to hold true for human relationships: people who are able to signify the concept of warmth in the way they relate to others appear socially competent, trustworthy and charismatic. The presence of warmth positively enhances attachment experiences and therefore moments of significant emotional connection.

It is, therefore, an important part of the clinician’s job to help clients to discover the value of personal warmth in relationships and to develop the capacity for (self) compassion and emotional responsiveness. A useful assumption here is that these are innate abilities we are all born with and given the right set of conditions they will grow and flourish.

In attending this seminar, participants will experience new ways of eliciting and utilizing warmth in clients as well as within the clinician’s own person. They will learn how Ericksonian approaches for promoting and augmenting reference experiences can be combined with attachment-based concepts from emotion-focused therapy to achieve this goal.

Educational Objectives:

1. Metaphorically or symbolically express the significance and value of compassion.
2. Identify three techniques to cultivate and amplify warmth within/between clients.
3. Explain how to combine attachment-focused and Ericksonian therapy.

1.5 Credits

Difficulty: All Levels

Description:

Dr Erickson’s work with individuals, couples and families has been well explored, but what is often overlooked is his skill in information gathering and interventions that connected a client to their community. Communities are not what they were in his time and attempts to do this without first building a healing community can be fraught.

This workshop will explore ways that we can be leaders in our community and create groups that are inclusive, connecting and healing. The skills we already have as therapists are the skills that are needed, and this workshop will explore how we can translate those skills to build connection and empower others to be humanly available to their peers.

The term “Barefoot Therapist” was borrowed from Barefoot Doctors, an initiative developed in China in the 1930’s to address the inequity of health care between urban and rural communities. Farmers were trained in basic health care and disease prevention, with good effect.

Barefoot Therapy, distilled from an Ericksonian approach, can be taught to lay people simply and easily. The combination of these two arms bring a synergistic cohesion to build resources that allow communities to connect to their most vulnerable members.

Educational Objectives:

1. Name three skills therapists use that are essential for building communities.
2. Name three outcomes of the World Health Organization’s mental health Gap Action Program (mhGAP).
3. Describe the three elements of the Barefoot therapy approach.

1.5 Credits

Difficulty: All Levels

Description:

Created by Tim and Kris Hallbom, Dynamic Spin Release is a powerful set of processes that allows users to quickly release their negative thought patterns and emotions, limiting beliefs and physical pain – in just one brief session.

Dynamic Spin Release™ (DSR) was created using ideas delineated from the world famous psychiatrists, Carl Jung and Milton Erickson – and draws heavily from the psychology of metaphors, NLP, Ericksonian Hypnosis and creative visualization…

Just as the earth rotates around the sun, and the moon circles around the earth, your thoughts, feelings and beliefs have a certain spin quality to them as well. DSR™ powerfully blends the universal archetype of spin with the psychology of metaphors – and involves several techniques that can be applied to almost any problem state or negative thought pattern. These intuitive processes are practical, easy to use with yourself and others, and work well with children!

The Hallbom’s have been developing this powerful methodology since 2008 in their private coaching practices; and have been teaching it throughout Europe, Asia, Australia and North America ever since. In 2009, they were the Keynote Speakers at the International NLP Conference in London where they first introduced DSR to the worldwide NLP Community.

Educational Objectives:

1. Demonstrate shifting negative thought patterns and limiting beliefs in yourself and others in a matter minutes.
2. Explain how to quickly relieve the pain and discomfort of physical ailments such as headaches, colds or chronic injuries.
3. Define and demonstrate the role that metaphors, memes and archetypes play in transforming your thoughts, feelings and beliefs.

1.5 Credits

Difficulty: All Levels

Description:

Ericksonian Psychotherapy emphasizes the importance of utilization. When treating children, as therapists, we need to keep in mind that we also need to utilize whatever happens during therapy whether that can be a given behavior, if the child brings a toy for the consultation, their likes and also provide them with a wide array of resources they can access during therapy. In this short course, there will be reference to how children were treated when experiencing life challenging events such as serious diseases, family conflicts, and behavioral issues. During this course, attendants will also learn how Narrative Therapy was combined with Ericksonian techniques. There will also be reference to how “sung trances” were included as a part of the treatment where interspersed suggestions are part of the treatment with children sick with cancer as well as with autistic spectrum disorders. The use of toys as a means to build bridges between the therapy and the client’s home will be explained too. Attendants will also see how the use of toys during conversational trances can enhance the outcome of the therapeutic process where they were incorporated whilst working with children.

You will:

1. Experiencing an Ericksonian Tai-Chi trance.
2. Experiencing modern Satir stance dance.
3. Learning exercises from Ericksonian, Virginia Satir, and Lao Tzu perspectives that help you to be flexible and transform anxiety into resources.

Germany language is about the precision of proper naming the experiences, Chinese language is about poetic feelings and relative context. Combined both, you will have abundant colors in your palette to deal with anxiety.

Educational Objectives:

1. Demonstrate how Ericksonian psychotherapy can be combined with Narrative therapy to improve the outcome of the therapeutic process.
2. Demonstrate how “sung trances” can be used during therapy with special populations such as autistic children.
3. List examples of how toys were included during hypnosis and conversational trances as well as for building bridges between therapy and clients’ homes.

Not for Credit

Difficulty:All Levels

Description:

1.0 Credit

Difficulty: All Levels

Description:

Dr. Milton Erickson graduated from the University of Wisconsin’s School of Medicine in 1925. During the ensuing 55 years of his career, Erickson was devoted to researching, practicing, learning, refining, teaching, and publishing the lessons borne of his creative intuition and experience. And over the years his practices evolved. The last two decades of his life, and even more so in the 40 years since his death, through the efforts of those he influenced the number of ideas and interventions attributed to Erickson proliferated abundantly. His influence enriched the Palo Alto Mental Research Institute, Haley, de Shazer, Solution Focused Therapy, and drew attention to permissive and indirect hypnosis. There was also self-psychology, magic questions, possibility therapy, tools of intention, and more. Explanations of his work ranged from second-ordered learning, ultradian rhythms, baseball diamonds, butterflies, neurolinguistics, aesthetic art, building happiness, genomics, and even forays into speculative quantum consciousness.

Erickson cultivated and enriched our field. Yet, on this 40th conference, it is fitting to set these creative trappings aside. This is a keynote about his legacy, so we will rediscover what Erickson thought to be essential in his work. In his own words, beginning with his invariant definition of “change,” we will examine his conceptual evolution in three areas: (1) etiology of symptoms, (2) forms of suggestion, and (3) evocation of metaphors. Perhaps most importantly, this presentation will cover, and include clinical examples, of what he explained to me to be the 5 key elements upon which he built his approach: 1) utilization, 2) speaking the client’s experiential language, 3) reordering clients’ experiential resources, 4) conscious/unconscious dissociation, and 5) the power of ambiguity. In this, we will unlock the essence of what has made Milton Erickson’s contributions enduring.

Educational Objectives:

1. Define a cure in Ericksonian terms.
2. Describe implementing utilization techniques.
3. Explain an ambiguous function assignment in treatment.

1.0 Credit

Difficulty: All Levels

Description:

What can mental health professionals do to enhance their performance? Available evidence makes clear that clear that attending a typical continuing education workshop, specializing in the treatment of a particular problem, or learning a new treatment model does little to improve effectiveness. In fact, studies to date indicate clinical effectiveness actually declines with time and experience in the field. The key to improved performance is engaging in deliberate practice. In this address, the latest research on deliberate practice will be presented and translated into concrete steps all clinicians can immediately apply in their efforts to achieve better results.

Educational Objectives:

1. Explain evidence showing that traditional training and the use of standardized treatments do not improve outcome;
2. Define deliberate practice for psychotherapists;
3. Identify three steps for implementing deliberate practice.

2.0 Credits

Difficulty: Beginner

Description:

This workshop will cover approaches for initiating hypnotic processes through various forms of induction. Topics will include pre-hypnotic considerations, expectancy, the use observations and suggestions, truisms, and rapport.

Educational Objectives:

1. Describe the purpose of using truisms in hypnotic induction.
2. Discuss the importance of rapport in facilitating absorption into hypnotic trance.
3. Demonstrate a pattern of three observations followed by a suggestion.

2.0 Credits

Difficulty: Intermediate

Description:

Immediately after earthquakes in center and southern Mexico in 2017, crisis intervention were done by Mexican navy health care professionals to solve crisis and prevent PTSD. Groups of patients were structured for crisis intervention with Ericksonian hypnotherapy, ranging from 50 to 200 patients. Methodology will be presented along with recorded interviews to two captains head of Mexican navy health care system. One powerful proven group technique will be taught.

Educational Objectives:

1. Demonstrate the importance of the systematization of interventions in disasters with Ericksonian hypnosis for training of specialists belonging to organizations such as the Mexican Navy.
2. Demonstrate a crisis intervention can be structured to handle suicidal ideas or death ideas, with automatic writing.
3. Explain the advantages of the use of Classic hypnotic techniques blended with Ericksonian hypnosis.

2.0 Credits

Difficulty: All Levels

Description:

A “double bind” is a special type of conflict which creates a “no-win” situation; i.e., a situation in which one is “damned if you do, and damned if you don’t.” According to anthropologist Gregory Bateson, who originally defined the notion of the double bind, such conflicts are at the root of both creativity and psychosis. The difference is whether or not one is able to identify and transcend the bind in an appropriate way. This workshop will cover some of the key skills necessary to identify the underlying conditions which create conflicts double binds, and thus to resolve them.

Educational Objectives:

1. Describe the conditions that create conflicts and double binds.
2. Present the key skills necessary to identify and resolve conflicts and double binds in the therapeutic context.
3. Demonstrate and discuss the five steps for resolving conflicts and double binds.

2.0 Credits

Difficulty: All Levels

Description:

Training cancer patients in Stress Management and Dialectic Behavior Therapy methods to challenge worries, ineffective self-management, and ambivalence, using Motivational Interviewing: 

1. Positive Inner dialogue [e.g., messages of safety and choice] to decrease physical stress, heal mind-body alienation, and replace passive compliance with active participation.
2. Dispelling negative image of the body as weak and cancer as “spreading,” with images of the body holding cancer in place in lymph nodes and in the blood’s filtering system, the lungs – “99% of you is healthy and working with treatment to remove the weak and confused cancer cells that make up less than 1% of your body.”
3. Presenting chemotherapy (and medical treatment) as a “strong ally” capable of destroying rapidly dividing cells, such as hair and cancer cells. Temporary hair loss, therefore, becomes a sign that the medication is working. “Your healthy hair cells will recover, but the weak, confused cancer cells will be destroyed and removed from your body.”
4. Deep relaxation and Self-Hypnosis to decrease the stress response and to keep patients in a state similar to the most recuperative phases of REM sleep.
5. Shifting to a protective role toward one’s body that evokes compassion, gratitude, acceptance, and worth, “no matter what happens and regardless of what anyone says.”
6. Encouraging the expression of feelings [in writing, art, and speech] to facilitate the processing of emotions through higher brain functions, reduce stress, and enhance immuno-competency.

Educational Objectives:

1. Describe the key words/phrases that contribute to patient stress, resistance, and depression.
2. Demonstrate the ability to help patients replace negative hypnotic statements/self-talk/images with statements that lower stress and increase empowerment.
3. State at least two images that acknowledge the body’s ability to cope with medical treatment.

2.0 Credits

Difficulty: All Levels

Description:

This workshop will go to the heart of Ericksonian hypnotherapy, in both senses of the word. We’ll use Gregory Bateson’s ideas about mind to illuminate the core or essence of an Ericksonian approach, exploring key principles and signature practices, such as utilization, metaphoric communication, and therapeutic double binds. But we’ll also explore the beating heart of this way of working—the application of empathy, the invitation of trance, and the evocation and facilitation of therapeutic change, all guided by a deep respect for and understanding of the mindfulness of the body and the embodiment of the mind.

Educational Objectives:

1. Describe how hypnosis accesses the mind-body communication system.
2. List 3 key components of an Ericksonian approach.
3. State 2 similarities between inviting trance and inviting therapeutic change.

2.0 Credits

Difficulty: Intermediate – Advanced

Description:

This workshop will explore how the processes and variables of quantum physics can be integrated with mind-body hypnotherapy in the treatment of couples and organizations. The intention of the workshop is to support the expansion of trust within professionals to contain resistance and creatively focus attention, facilitating novelty, rapport, and opportunities for learning. The Erickson Resistance Protocol and Poincare’s four stage creative process will be utilized to provide a template to develop internal yes sets for quantum principles, processes and variables. Emphasis will be placed on how the grandiosity and victim subsets of resistance, and the appreciation of intent and accountability are related to the quantum variables of momentum, motion, time, space and position.

Educational Objectives:

1. Describe two ways to integrate quantum variables in the treatment of couples.
2. Demonstrate two ways the uncertainty principles can be utilized to expand trust and facilitate the integration of opposites.
3. Describe three ways the grandiosity and victim complexes can be contained.

2.0 Credits

Difficulty: All Levels

Description:

Utilization of Dr. Erickson’s approaches can be daunting. They are both meticulously planned and rehearsed, as with his Induction for Resistant Patients, and spontaneous and intuitive, responding at the moment to his patient. Dr. Greenleaf will present 7 of his own brief cases, each of which required spontaneous, intuitive response to patient needs. They are called: 2 Promises: Postcards, Death Grip; 2 Threats: Bust, “I Like That Wall”; 2 Doorways to Reality: “You Wonned”, “I’d Like to Have That Desk” and “3 Counter Tenors”. Discussion will be followed by an exercise intended to help participants respond to difficult problems in their Erickson-influenced practices.

Educational Objectives:

1. Describe a workable approach to suicide threats in therapy.
2. Describe a spontaneous approach to physical threats in therapy.
3. Describe a utilization approach to fantasy expressions in therapy.

2.0 Credits

Difficulty: All Levels

Description:

Transparent hypnotherapy instead of indirectness- how clients as active co-hypnotherapist with all their senses can be invited to utilize symptoms as competent messengers of needs.

In the Ericksonian tradition on the one side it is assumed that the knowledge and competences are already existent within the clients but on the other side many hypnotherapeutic interventions are structured as rather indirect and intransparent for the conscious mind of the clients. Although this can be very effective it also implies often significant disadvantages on the level of the co-creation of the relationship between therapist and clients and also often is experienced as a discount of the competences oft he conscious mind. In the workshop it will be shown theoretically and practically how with strategies of transparent metacommunication the clients with their competent conscious minds can be won for effective and the whole person dignifying cooperation. So clients can also learn how they create unconsciously (autopietically) their own experience- also their problems- and how they can transform them in constructive solution. Even interspersal techniques can so be utilized with overt preparation as priming interventions which make them even more effective. Also so the clients can understand that their symptoms and problems are mostly attempted solutions for covert needs and can so be utilized as reminders oft he needs and how one can do also on a conscious level something for their fulfillment.

Educational Objectives:

1. Describe important premises of Ericksonian approaches of hypnotherapy and their implications and some possible Problems for the creation of relationships between Clients and therapists.
2. Discuss concepts which enable to consequently build up processes which strengthen the internal cooperation of conscious mind and of involuntary and unconscious processes.
3. Demonstrate how with very transparent communication and of explicit explanations of every step of the offers of therapists the clients can learn to be their own hypnotherapists who utilize their experiences-also their symptoms- as competent signals about their needs.

2.0 Credits

Difficulty: All Levels

Description:

Is peace within really possible? We propose Erickson’s naturalistic-utilization therapy and Rossi’s 4-Stage Creative Process are consistent with yoga’s science of self-inquiry, mental dexterity and Buddha’s 4 Noble Truths. We will practice gentle yoga exercise for all fitness levels and share transformational ancient stories of our new neuroscience of mind-body therapy.

Educational Objectives:

1. Describe the 4 stages of the creative process with Buddha’s 4 Noble Truths.
2. Describe the 8 tenants of yoga in relationship with higher consciousness.
3. Demonstrate where story fits within psychotherapy and therapeutic hypnosis.

2.0 Credits

Difficulty: Intermediate

Description:

Most people live in survival based thinking and feeling by repeating the same reactions to similar triggers, and have forgotten what it means to live in harmony and connection with themselves and each other. Chronic depression, anxiety, rumination, and other psychological problems are not natural states. As science explodes new findings of how to live more often in states of resilience and thriving, these tools can be easily learned and taught to clients. Through a process of “Neural Synchrony Activation and Training” the workshop demonstrates the latest research on how to biohack the human brain and body and wake up the SuperConscious Mind. This level of mind opens more optimal mental states that block anxiety and depression, and turns on healing systems in the body. With this approach, you will learn how to increase your range of therapeutic outcomes by bridging the gap between research and practice. Come and learn the secret code to living a worry-depression-anxiety-free life with more joy and super-effectiveness.

Educational Objectives:

1. Discuss the process of Neural Synchrony Activation and Training.
2. Describe how to stimulate the neural chemicals that drive motivation.
3. Demonstrate how to turn on the state of Gamma to maximize client engagement and turn curiosity into passion and purpose.

2.0 Credits

Difficulty: Basic – Intermediate

Description:

The rationale and basic research regarding the use of indirection will be presented. Participants will be guided through several exercises to help them learn and practice the construction of 4 fundamental forms of suggestions and 3 therapeutic binds. A demonstration using these forms will illustrate the implementation of these language techniques for both the induction and therapy.

Educational Objectives:

1. Explain the use of the rule of three, yes-sets, and ambiguity in hypnosis.
2. Formulate and utilize presuppositions, 4 indirect suggestions in induction and treatment. 
3. Formulate and utilize 3 therapeutic binds to facilitate induction and treatment.

2.0 Credits

Difficulty: All Levels

Description:

This experiential workshop promises to provide attendees with techniques which can be adopted or adapted for their patients whose response to stress is problematic. Their patients can benefit from learning select techniques which have the power to guide them in the direction of mental and physical ease. These coping interventions are easy to learn and easy to teach.

Educational Objectives:

1. Demonstrate an array of techniques which mitigate the impact of life’s stressors.
2. Demonstrate these experiential options for stress reduction.
3. Demonstrate these solutions for stress reductions.

2.0 Credits

Difficulty: All Levels

Description:

Mr. Miyagi (The Karate Kid, 1984) taught his student, Daniel many things. Among them, things are not always as they seem and about functionality. Simple day-to-day activities can also be karate moves, which Daniel wanted to learn. Milton Erickson, a Western version of Mr. Miyagi, introduced us to his concept of utilization in psychotherapy, or functionality. So important was this discovery that the concept of utilization is now a part of virtually every form of talk therapy and healthcare fields in general; it is now common sense. This presentation will focus on applying the utilization principle in hypnosis and psychotherapy to enhance the alliance, focus on strengths rather than pathology, reinforce the patient’s sense of competence, and encourage hope. The presentation will include various therapeutic and educational stories aimed at meeting the patient’s needs and the student/clinician’s needs as they evolve. I will address how to create such stories and how to apply them to achieve the above goals. For example, Mr. Miyagi shows Daniel how to trim a Bonsai tree. He tells Daniel to close his eyes, picture the tree, open your eyes and make the picture. This is how I teach karate skills – you know how the skill is supposed to end up, picture that, now let your body make the picture. This is also how I create therapeutic stories. I know the outcome I’m looking for based on the patient’s presentation, then I search for a story to tell that completes the picture.

Educational Objectives:

1. Explain and demonstrate a method for creating educational or therapeutic stories.
2. Explain the various sources of their stories.
3. Explain some differences between a seasoned practitioner and a novice and how they can move down the continuum toward mastery.
4. Demonstrate/explain how utilization applies to both the clinician as well as their client/patient.

2.0 Credits

Difficulty: Intermediate – Advanced

Description:

During our entire life – from adolescence to old age- we face transition phases, changes and passages going towards the future. During life passages hypnosis can help to harmonize the process of losses and winnings, change and adaptation, crisis and opportunity. The workshop will show a hypnotherapeutic model based on the identification of the resources of the present with which to revisit the traumas of the past and then turn to the future with hope and resiliency.

Educational Objectives:

1. Describe the process of helping the patient to elicit his/her current resources.
2. Demonstrate how to bring those resources into the past trauma.
3. Discuss the validity of the Post Traumatic Growth process.

2.0 Credits

Difficulty: All Levels

Description:

Dissociation can be described as the failure to integrate information and self-attributions that should ordinarily be integrated, and as alterations of consciousness characterized by a sense of detachment from the self and/or the environment. The strong connection between Hypnosis and Dissociation is known since the time of Pierre Janet’s pioneer work. Dissociative hypnotic intervention demonstrated to be very useful in treating pain, anxiety disorders and many other conditions. But hypnosis can as well reactivate the natural process of mind, to link differential parts (distinct modes of information processing) into a functional and unified self, particularly after traumatic experiences. Rapport, the special relationship that is able to create intense interpersonal links, and at the same time profound disconnections with the non hypnotic reality, is a crucial aspect of the therapeutic approach to dissociative conditions. How to use rapport as well as other new specific therapeutic interventions to reestablish the natural integrative links in a dissociative mind system will be outlined in this presentation.

Educational Objectives:

1. Distinguish dysfunctional dissociation from therapeutic hypnotic dissociation.
2. Explain different hypnotic techniques to treat traumatic and non traumatic dissociation.
3. Utilize hypnotic rapport to integrate dissociated parts.

2.0 Credits

Difficulty: All Levels

Description:

You will learn the core strategies of a cognitive therapy intervention that radically and swiftly shifts the client’s point of view regarding both their relationship with OCD and the tactics of change. The principles will be illustrated by brief video clips of a 45-minute initial treatment session from the author’s live demonstration at the 2018 Brief Therapy Conference. These will include establishing rapport, developing placebo, generating an outcome picture, dismantling their dysfunctional logical system, and persuading them to adopt the paradoxical frame of reference. The therapist “sets the hook” by ensuring that the client can collaborate on designing paradoxical behavioral experiments as their first homework assignments.

Educational Objectives:

1. Describe how to instruct a client in logically dismantling the common dysfunctional frames of reference of OCD.
2. Describe how to establish a new, internally-consistent paradoxical frame of reference.
3. Explain how to activate “approach” emotions toward anxious uncertainty during exposure.

2.0 Credits

Difficulty: Intermediate

Description:

Energy Psychology (EP) techniques are easy to learn, safe/non-abreactive, evidenced-based, brief approaches, used for everything from bullying to rape to PTSD in veterans to survivors of genocide in Rwanda. Ericksonian Hypnosis and Energy Psychology are brief mind body approaches for treating trauma that both utilize interpersonal neurobiology and memory reconsolidation. We will rapidly review the research and theory supporting them. Then we will focus on teaching you the basics of using emotional freedom techniques (EFT-tapping) within a trauma informed framework and integrating it with Ericksonian principles.

Educational Objectives:

1. Describe at least one way Energy psychology and Ericksonian Hypnosis use memory reconsolidation.
2. List the 4 basic steps of emotional freedom techniques. 
3. Describe at least 3 pieces of outcome research that supports the effectiveness of energy psychology techniques for treating trauma.

2.0 Credits

Difficulty: Intermediate – Advanced

Description:

Self-efficacy is an essential topic throughout life. Even babies like to control their environment, for example by moving a mobile by a wire attached to their foot. During school years and later on self-efficacy is very important. The contrary is helplessness, the opposite, which can lead to hopelessness and depression. While in certain situations we are able to influence our environment (or processes) directly, such as learning harder in order to get better math marks, this is not always possible. For example a girl losing sight as a result of an illness cannot directly influence this process, but she can learn Braille to gain some control over her situation. It is often important to determine whether a situation itself can be influenced or whether it is necessary to learn how to deal with the situation and the circumstances. In psychotherapy or consulting, hypnotic methods are very useful to take an adequate influence on one’s own life.

Educational Objectives:

1. Describe in which situations may help the patients to increase their self-efficacy.
2. Explain different kinds of interventions in order to prevent taking on a “victim-attitude”.
3. Explain different interventions to enhance self-efficacy.

2.0 Credits

Difficulty: Advanced

Description:

“Traumatophobia” is fear of fear itself, sensitizing people to the psychological effects of stressors such as crime, terror, and hurtful communications.  Paradoxically, increasing knowledge of trauma has not empowered, but sensitized us to it — thereby amplifying its effects.  The Institute of Medicine challenged society to examine this process, and redirect our knowledge toward building resilience.  Data for this are well-established, but under-attended.  Neutral third parties play a pivotal role, by modulating trauma’s effects through mutual suggestion.  Sensitizing interactions foster traumatic re-enactment, and polarize people against one another.  Appeasing and counter-traumatizing lead to escalation of traumatic coercion.  Validating victimhood and rescuing its targets can regressively destabilize them by unintendedly undermining their agency.  Social trends further amplify through enabling, media, selective non-responsibility, and coercive information control.  Mitigating interactions shift emphasis from victimhood toward active agency without denying the former, and promote abstaining from re-enactment.  Also pivotal are standing firm at one’s locus of control, seeking alternate narratives, and optimizing all parties’ accountability.  Promoting constructive discourse over trauma-driven suppression is a fundamental precondition for building resilience.

Educational Objectives:

2.0 Credits

Difficulty: Advanced

Description:

Hypnosis is often regarded as complex and difficult. In this workshop we will build on Milton Erickson’s concept of “The common everyday trance” to create an experience that is respectful of each client’s individuality. We will explore what a client likes as a way of accessing their resources and 4 methods of connecting them with their resources so they can resolve their problem and heal. There will be a blend of lecture, demonstration and opportunities to practice this easy and effective approach.

Educational Objectives:

1. Describe and demonstrate a series of questions to give focus to an effective hypnotic session.
2. Describe and demonstrate a respectful way of inviting anyone into hypnosis.
3. Describe and demonstrate a process of connecting a client with a resource that they have lost contact with and create a resolution of their problem.

Difficulty: Beginner

Description:

An Ericksonian induction structure will be presented and demonstrated. Utilization, a foundation of Ericksonian hypnosis and psychotherapy, will be incorporated and demonstrated. Practice sessions are included.

Educational Objectives:

1. Define utilization.
2. Describe the induction structure.
3. List the phenomenology that underlies induction.

2.0 Credits

Difficulty: All Levels

Description:

Guided imagery (GI) was used initially to help people with life-challenging diseases, yet it is also highly applicable to psychotherapy. A brief history of GI will be presented. The presenter has used it successfully in brief therapy for almost all of his recent clients. Hypnosis is an essential part of GI sessions. The requirements for using GI will be described. It is necessary to tailor the session to the client’s individual background and needs, and this will be discussed. The attendees will have the opportunity experience this via a group guided imagery session. And, the session will end with a GI healing meditation.

Educational Objectives:

1. Describe the three pieces of information needed for a guided imagery session.
2. Describe the necessity of individually tailoring these pieces of information to the individual client. 
3. Describe the role of hypnosis in a guided imagery session.

2.0 Credits

Difficulty: All Levels

Description:

We can understand how Erickson did therapy by studying his tools. But there’s something more important than that; what and why he did so. We need to understand the dynamics he used and we need to understand them systemically. In this workshop I’ll try to explain main change models of OBM and its relationships with system thinking and Ericksonian approach. So what Erickson did could be visible by identifying background system dynamics of his therapy. I’ll also show some techniques of OBM which can be used in therapy room with great impact.

Educational Objectives:

1. Describe the layers of the structure of human nature according to OBM.
2. Describe the structure of a problem as a system.
3. Demonstrate the steps of a change process in OBM psychotherapy.

2.0 Credits

Difficulty: All Levels

Description:

Zonefulness is the integration of mindfulness mediation, hypnotic zone exercises, and solution-oriented / strategic therapy. This workshop will enable participants to learn How To Become Smart Enough To Know When To Stop Thinking; How To Dismantle Atomic What-Ifs; and how to seamlessly access their peak performance zone. This workshop will afford participants to experience group hypnotic zone exercises, a live client demonstration, as well as a discussion of case studies. The work and influence of Dr. Milton H. Erickson will be highlighted throughout the entirety of the presentation.

Educational Objectives:

1. Utilize anxiety symptomology as positive triggers to create calm and comfort.
2. Explain how to create and experience a 1-3 minute power zone to facilitate peak performance.

2.0 Credits

Difficulty: All Levels

Description:

This primarily experiential workshop will guide participants through two related hand focusing hypnotic induction techniques that utilize both Western and Eastern concepts of energy balance. This will include Western concepts of nerve conduction, hemispheric functional differences, cybernetics, resonance, coherence and entrainment, with Eastern concepts of polarities and the unblocking, flow and balance of energy (Chi, Prana). From an hypnotic perspective, manifestations of sympathetic nervous system arousal (e.g. psychomotor agitation) or energy imbalance are utilized as a source of initial focus, thereby transforming (“trance forming”) symptoms into a therapeutic resource for healing. The hand focusing techniques will further be used as a bridge to therapeutic resource retrieval (“you have a wealth of life experience at your fingertips”), including experiences of mastery (“handling things easily”), flow (“moving effortlessly without thinking”), coping (“getting a handle on things”), positive emotions (“in touch with what you appreciate”) and positive future pacing (“getting your life back in your own hands”). A bihemispheric autonomic model (BHAM) will be introduced as an hypothesized explanatory model connecting the balancing of sympathetic and parasympathetic functioning with Eastern concepts of polarities and energy balance.

Educational Objectives:

1. Demonstrate two hand focusing hypnotic induction techniques with patients and for self-hypnosis.
2. Explain the parallel between parasympathetic and sympathetic nervous system functioning and Eastern concepts of polarities and energy balance.
3. Demonstrate the use hand focused language for resource retrieval in four areas.

2.0 Credits

Difficulty: All Levels

Description:

This workshop will teach six positive techniques that actually make Ericksonian experiential hypnosis successful. Dysfunctional families fail to teach children how to use their experiences to succeed. Consequently, clients learn dozens of self-defeating habits and later present in our offices as adults with depression, anxiety, phobias, etc. The desire to change, insight, and motivation do not counteract those habits – nor does hypnotic suggestion create such change. Experience is the key to cure. The “Tools of Intention” protocols are designed to teach clients exactly that. Using these tools with, and teaching them to, clients is valuable for their overcoming learned limitations and achieving self-mastery in various desired situations. Therapy may proceed without them, but with them, the therapeutic process is more efficient and focused. These procedures can be conducted within or without hypnosis.

Educational Objectives:

1. Demonstrate the protocol and indications for Chunking Logic.
2. Demonstrate the protocol for Vivid Symbolic Imagery.
3. Demonstrate the protocol for Self-Image Thinking.
4. Demonstrate the protocol Emanated Imagery.
5. Demonstrate the protocol the ‘Heart-Joy’ exercise.

2.0 Credits

Difficulty: All Levels

Description:

After decades of working with anxious children and teens, I have two unshakable truths: families MUST be involved in treatment and anxious patterns are shifted through experiential learning. Working with the FOUR critical concepts to manage anxiety in families and the SIX patterns that must be interrupted, this workshop will describe HOW to create active, engaging assignments for families to do between sessions and describe the TEN favorites that I return to again and again.

Educational Objectives:

1. Describe the four critical concepts of anxiety treatment in families.
2. Create at least 3 assignments for families that support the critical concepts through experiential learning. 
3. Utilize homework assignments in a first session with anxious families to create momentum and positive expectancy.

2.0 Credits

Difficulty: All Levels

Description:

Thanks to a number of recent studies, there is now solid empirical evidence for what distinguishes highly effective from average therapists. The best engage in significantly more deliberate practice. In this workshop, participants will learn three specific strategies for implementing deliberate practice in their professional development efforts. Participants will also learn a simple method for measuring success rates that can be used to develop a profile of their most and least effective moments in therapy—what works and what doesn’t. Not only will attendees get a far more exact idea of their clinical strengths and weaknesses and how to use the findings in to improve their own practice, but they will also come away with concrete tools that will immediately boost clinical abilities and effectiveness.

Educational Objectives:

1. Demonstrate learning of the evidence-base supporting the use of deliberate practice to improve therapeutic effectiveness.
2. Discuss a valid and reliable method for assessing their baseline level of effectiveness.
3. Discuss a valid and reliable method for identifying performance improvement opportunities unique to their own clinical practice.

1.5 Credits

Difficulty: All Levels

Description:

Known as The Wizard of the Desert, Dr. Milton Erickson is revered for his therapeutic genius, his brilliance as a hypnotist, and his encouragement for therapists to utilize all available resources, both their own and the clients’. One of those resources described by Dr. Erickson as a level of perception not necessarily conscious is what typically we call intuition.

In this didactic and experiential workshop we will examine the therapeutic utilization of intuition from the perspective of three clinical phenomena of an Ericksonian approach.

1. The therapist’s state of receptivity to his/her own intuitive ideas, sensations, images and mini-thoughts.
2. The therapist’s intuitive state of readiness to utilize significant material from the client’s personal story.
3. Intuitive utilization of metaphors, re-imagined stories, and dissociation in the service of creating re-associative experiential moments.

Participants will be introduced to The ACE Schema, an innovative 3-step model that can guide the development of the therapist’s archaeopsychic, i.e. intuitive, faculties, provide tools for assisting clients to develop their own intuitive resources, and facilitate the evolution of psychosocial effectiveness into creative dimensions of clinical Wizardry.

Educational Objectives:

1. Identify one clinical use of intuition from the perspective of an Ericksonian approach.
2. List the three features of the ACE Schema for developing intuition.
3. Given an individual client, utilize an intuitive metaphor, story or dissociative experience to create a dynamic integrative moment.

1.5 Credits

Difficulty: All Levels

Description:

Hypnotic conversations explore, evoke, engage and reallocate and experiential resources. Having hypnotic conversations with young people who meet criteria for autism spectrum disorder (ASD), presents challenges both in relating and accessing resources. The challenge extends to helping their parents to better parent by seeing them as resourceful and capable. Recent research supports viewing ASD through an autonomic diversity lens such that restrictive and repetitive behaviors (RRB) are self-regulatory efforts to moderate sympathetic arousal and increase vagal (parasympathetic) tone. In practice this means that, rather than teaching young people with ASD to suppress RRB, we can help them utilize them for comfort and competence. In this workshop, we will identify and apply skills for hypnotic conversations that open opportunities for growth and change by building rapport, helping young people with ASD to self-regulate in creative ways, and supporting parents at their growing edge. The lessons learned in this role-playing and discussion broadly apply.

Educational Objectives:

1. List four fundamental skills for having hypnotic conversations.
2. Identify at least three caveats for clinicians using therapeutic communication with young people who meet criteria for autism spectrum disorder.
3. Delineate steps in a therapeutic interaction that can help young people with autism spectrum disorder access and utilize restrictive and repetitive behaviors more adaptively.
4. List three parenting practices that can be conveyed and modeled in hypnotic conversation.

1.0 Credit

Difficulty: All Levels

Description:

This talk will outline the view that chronic suffering is maintained by the twin maladies of human disconnection and neuromuscular lock. We will see how Erickson’s great insight was that what comes into human experience can equally be a symptom or a solution, depending on the contextual connection, and how the skillful use of trance can transform long-standing problems into resources. This method cannot be reduced to a technique, it requires a deeply connected, humanizing relationship. The talk will overview what we need to understand and practice to master this Ericksonian legacy.

Educational Objectives:

1. Describe the core patterns by which experiences become problems or resources.
2. Discuss how therapeutic trance allows the deconstruction and reconstructions of problems into resources

1.0 Credit

Difficulty: All Levels

Description:

The core focus in Generative Change is creativity: How do you create a positive relationship with others and yourself—your body, your past, your future, your wounds, and your gifts? To accomplish this, a person’s state of consciousness is the difference that makes the difference. Generative Change work involves building the generative states, for yourself and others, needed to make significant change. It then focuses on how to maintain these states in order to reach meaningful goals and transform challenging obstacles. This presentation will explore how the six steps of Generative Change may be applied to Psychotherapy.

Educational Objectives:

1. Describe the three core principles of Generative Change.
2. Describe the six steps of Generative Change.
3. Discuss how generative change can be used to enrich and accelerate the process of psychotherapy.

1.0 Credit

Difficulty: All Levels

Description:

Clients progress by the realizations they achieve in treatment. Evocative methods prompt conceptual realizations that prompt adaptive states and identities. Experiential methods derived from hypnosis can be applied with and without formal trance.

Educational Objectives:

1. Define an evocative orientation.
2. Given a patient devise an evocative treatment pan.
3. List three evocative methods.

1.0 Credit

Difficulty: All Levels

Description:

Stories can be a gentle, non-impositional way to respect clients and create change, as well as avoiding cross-cultural mistakes. Come hear a master of therapeutic storytelling who was trained directly by Milton Erickson, use stories in a way that may surprise and delight you.

Educational Objectives:

1. Identify two elements of effective therapeutic storytelling.
2. Use stories in therapy.
3. Identify the right story for the right client.

1.0 Credit

Difficulty: All Levels

Description:

The use of guided imagery using hypnosis will be demonstrated with a volunteer as a method of doing brief therapy. The volunteer may present a physical or behavioral difficulty for this demonstration. Also demonstrated will be the use of physical anchors.

Educational Objectives:

1. Describe the three elements needed for a guided imagery session.
2. Explain the necessity of tailoring these three elements to the individual client.
3. Discuss how hypnosis is a central part of guided imagery.

1.0 Credit

Difficulty: All Levels

Description:

Posttraumatic stress disorder consists of a complex of symptoms including hyper arousal, social withdrawal and intrusions. The panelists will describe commonalities and differences in their approach to PTSD.

Educational Objectives:

1. Difference between acute stress disorder and post-traumatic stress disorder.
2. Describe three different approaches to working with PTSD.
3. Given a patient with PTSD, outline a treatment program.

1.0 Credit

Difficulty: All Levels

Description:

Hypnosis has an extensive history and research findings about its use with functional problems. Panelists will describe their experience in the medical applications of hypnosis.

Educational Objectives:

1. Describe the use of hypnotic procedures for treating psychosomatic illness.
2. List three principles of hypnotic methods that are applicable for treating mind/body problems.

1.0 Credit

Difficulty: All Levels

Description:

Utilization is a state of response readiness in which the clinician stands ready to utilize whatever exists in therapeutic situation to advance clinical goals.

Educational Objectives:

1. Describe the utilization approach.
2. Given the patient’s situation, indicate possible avenues for utilization.

1.0 Credit

Difficulty: All Levels

Description:

Participants will discuss the place of emotional expression in the conduct of modern brief, strategic and hypnotic psychotherapies.

Educational Objectives:

1. Discuss the place of emotion in modern therapies.
2. Describe utilization approaches to emotion.
3. Describe strategies of brief, expressive therapies.

1.0 Credit

Difficulty: All Levels

Description:

In this hour-long discussion, participants will have an opportunity to address questions regarding deliberate practice and their use of routine outcome measures in clinical practice.

Educational Objectives:

1. Demonstrate the use of two evidence-based scales for assessing progress and the quality of the therapeutic alliance;
2. Demonstrate how to fine a therapists “zone of proximal development”;
3. Demonstrate how to engage in deliberate practice.

1.0 Credit

Difficulty: All Levels

Description:

This clinical demonstration will explore how the skillful use of therapeutic trance can produce positive change. A six step model will be demonstrated: (1) Opening a positive connection, (2) goal setting, (3) cultivating a relational trance field, (4) including client parts into field, (5) transforming identify patterns, (6) bringing changes into real world.

Educational Objectives:

1. Demonstrate how client patterns, both positive and negative, are the ingredients for a therapeutic trance.
2. Demonstrate how the relational connection between therapist and client is the key to generative trance.
3. Demonstrate a 6-step model for a Generative Trance session.

1.0 Credit

Difficulty: All Levels

Description:

As suggested by Milton Erickson, naturalistic hypnosis seems to be one of the best way of utilizing couple’s resources. Frequently couples fail in reaching a deep mutual exchange and complain of being unable to satisfy their needs for intimacy. Hypnotic experience is able by itself to produce a deep contact that rarely develops when disturbed by their habitual patterns. Specific couple’s responses to hypnotic induction that can be utilized to produce contact and intimacy will be demonstrated. In some other cases couples are caught by conflicts they are unable to solve. A couple hypnotherapist can extend to both couple members rapport and succeed in obtaining a special relationship that produces more syntonic and attuned behaviors, in which conflict intensity decreases and a greater ability to listen to each other and negotiate conflicts develops.

Educational Objectives:

1. List five hypnotic couple’s responses that can help to developing contact and intimacy.
2. Explain how to extend rapport to the couple and to reduce conflicts intensity.
3. Explain how to create with hypnosis, mutual synchrony in the couple.

1.0 Credit

Difficulty: All Levels

Description:

Individuals are often referred for mind-body oriented pain management services concerned that the referring physician thinks that their pain is not real or that it is “all in my head”. The way in which such concerns are addressed and the relationship between mind and body is explained to patients will be demonstrated. Further demonstrated will be a seemingly simple relaxation technique that primarily focuses upon diaphragmatic breathing and counting one’s breaths as an initial focus, with patients then invited to go, if they choose, somewhere in their mind that they enjoy being. Multiple ways in which a “yes set” is established will be illustrated. Interspersed throughout the process will be multiple suggestions for deepening, relaxation, pain reduction, self-efficacy, affect regulation, and the accessing of positive state dependent memory and experience. An emphasis upon reducing associated affective distress, as opposed to the degree that pain is reduced, will also be presented.

Educational Objectives:

1. Explain to patients how their increased sensitivity to pain reflects normal sympathetic nervous system arousal, and how activating the relaxation response will likely be of help to them.
2. Describe three components of a relaxation response that patients can readily identify with.
3. Explain focused diaphragmatic breathing as a means of guiding patients into a relaxed state.

1.0 Credit

Difficulty: All Levels

Description:

Milton Erickson contributed extensively to the health sciences, and many of his innovations have been researched empirically. Erickson was also the architect of the wounded healer used his disabilities to advance the lives of others.

Educational Objectives:

1. Describe three fundamental contributions that Erickson added to the health sciences.
2. Describe relational factors learned from Erickson that can be used to advance healing.

1.0 Credit

Difficulty: All Levels

Description:

There are similarities between meditation and hypnosis. Both approaches can be used in the health/mental health sciences.

Educational Objectives:

1. Describe differences between meditation and hypnosis.
2. Indicate how meditation hypnosis can be used in clinical practice

Difficulty: All Levels

Description:

Therapy happens in life, not just in the consulting room. Assignments facilitate treatment goals.

Educational Objectives:

1. Describe an effective process for creating client homework.
2. Given the presenting problem describe three different methods for affecting treatment through homework.

1.0 Credit

Difficulty: All Levels

Description:

For many, Erickson set the prototypical example of how to be creative and often evoked a You Said What?! (YSW?!) reaction from clients and students. As we describe in the new book, Creative Therapy in Challenging Situations: Unusual Interventions to Help Clients (Hoyt & Bobele, 2019), such YSW?! interventions are particularly useful and effective when approaching unusual client problems. These interventions are characterized by: (1) respect and empathy, (2) surprise and attention-grabbing, (3) humor, (4) context-specific, (5) acceptability, and (6) memorable. This conversation hour will present several clinical examples as a starting point for a discussion about participants’ own experiences with such interventions, and as a launch point for their own creativity in therapy. Other issues, including ethics and originality, will also be discussed.

Educational Objectives:

1. Describe the concept of a You Said What?! (YSW?!) intervention.
2. Identify several characteristics of such interventions, including potential risks and benefits.
3. Identify ways to use YSW?! with attendees’ own clients.

1.0 Credit

Difficulty: All Levels

Description:

In Turkey I had the opportunity to research the resources about Sufism (for example Rumi is the most well known sufi in the world and he lived in Turkey) and I studied it both as a student and as a therapist about 15 years. Sufism has actually two big steps. Understanding yourself and life first by mind than by heart. While I was creating the Optimum Balance Model (OBM) I think I did the first part. During this conversation I’ll try to explain steps of the inner journey of a Sufi, I’ll share my experiences and the story of how they try to tame their Ego.

Educational Objectives:

1. Describe the stages of development of Ego.
2. Demonstrate some techniques they use.
3. Explain the first phases of the students’ journey as a therapy model in OBM.

1.0 Credit

Difficulty: All Levels

Description:

This demonstration will show how to apply principles of Generative Change to creatively transform and integrate symptoms that emerge in the form of interference or resistance. By combining somatic modeling with the three positive connections of a generative state, obstacles and resistances can be transformed into a more resourceful expression and brought into alignment with therapeutic goals.

Educational Objectives:

1. Describe the three positive connections necessary to produce a generative state.
2. Demonstrate how to elicit somatic models of goal states and symptoms.
3. Demonstrate how to use the three positive connections of the generative state to reshape the somatic model of the symptom into a more resourceful and supportive expression.

1.0 Credit

Difficulty: All Levels

Description:

A volunteer panel of five or six will enter trance by passing a crystal from one to the next. The audience, in light trance states, will describe an impossible problem, in the form of dream imagery. There panel will pass the image of the problem from one to the next, adding something helpful at each interaction, until the transformed image is passed back to the audience member who offered the problem.

Educational Objectives:

1. Describe the place of representation in problem solving.
2. Discuss human problems in an imagistic form.
3. Demonstrate an imaginal method in hypnotherapy.

1.0 Credit

Difficulty: All Levels

Description:

Using a conversational trance induction and developing a deeper level of self-differentiation and autonomy with confidence building.

Educational Objectives:

1. Discuss the power of language in trance induction.
2. Describe the visible changes in the subject’s response.
3. Identify the words that elicited the most obvious changes in the subject’s responses.

1.0 Credit

Difficulty: All Levels

Description:

Dissociation is a critical element in hypnosis. But its converse, association, is highly useful in generating individualized hypnotic therapy. This demonstration will illustrate the importance of utilizing associations of both the subject and the hypnotist.

Educational Objectives:

1. Identify two elements of the pre-hypnotic interview that were utilized in the hypnotic session.
2. Discuss the relevance of hypnotist associations from a utilization perspective.
3. Describe the importance of considering association in hypnotic therapy.

1.0 Credit

Difficulty: All Levels

Description:

Psychotherapy did not start with Freud.  Although largely forgotten, its origins can be directly traced to traditional healing practices (e.g., mesmerism, mind curers, the occult).  In the age of science, healing has been reduced to prescriptions for changing people’s thoughts, feelings, behaviors, emotions, or brain chemistry.  Lost in translation are the many ways clients’ cultural and spiritual beliefs and practices can, according to research, improve engagement and outcomes.  At this (workshop/panel discussion), ways for integrating alternative approaches into your own clinical work will be explored.  Whatever your perspective – whether secular and scientific or esoteric and spiritual – you will discover how the secrets of ancient and alternative healers can make your psychotherapy practice more effective, creative, and fun.

Educational Objectives:

1. Cite two reasons for broadening their views about what constitutes effective psychotherapy;
2. List two sources of empirical support for integrating alternative healing traditions into practice;
3. Utilize at least one ancient healing practice congruent with client beliefs, values, and spiritual orientations.

1.0 Credit

Difficulty: All Levels

Description:

The panelist will compare and contrast their approaches to working with children and adolescents. Fundamental principles will be offered. Relevant research will be outlined.

Educational Objectives:

1. Describe three fundamental principals of working with children and adolescents.
2. Given a patient who is a child, create an Ericksonian treatment plan.
3. List two research studies relevant to the treatment of children and adolescents using a brief therapy model.

1.0 Credit

Difficulty: All Levels

Description:

Eating Disorders are a good example of massive interdependence among family members. Salvador Minuchin described families with Anorexia Nervosa as enmeshed families, and the interdependence it is certainly the base for enmeshment. Recent studies as well as more extended clinical experiences demonstrate that although bulimia appears to produce less reciprocal involvement, and some other form of apparent disengagement, we really can say that reciprocal interdependence in the family it always present, even if it assumes more hidden and complex forms.

The workshop deals with how to intervene in a effective therapeutic way both with Anorexia and Bulimia Nervosa in order to reduce and redefine the powerful traps of interdependence.

Educational Objectives:

1. Explain the main forms of reciprocal interdependence in Anorexia and Bulimia Nervosa families.
2. Describe the special form of hypnotic inductions and treatment to be used with Eating Disorders.
3. Explain some specific therapeutic problems that arise most frequently when working with Eating Disorders families.

1.0 Credit

Difficulty: All Levels

Description:

Great strides have been made in PsychoSocial Genomics as well as the placebo effects in psychotherapy. We will share our views of how these new state-of-the-arts sciences can gently be integrated into psychotherapy sessions and improve outcomes.

Educational Objectives:

1. Describe PsychoSocial Genomics.
2. Describe modern-day Placebo effects.
3. Demonstrate efficacy of Psychosocial Genomics in brief psychotherapy.

1.0 Credit

Difficulty: Intermediate

Description:

The modern perspective of hypnosis considers the role of attention and absorption in catalyzing adaptive responses. Hypnosis provides a context for developing new associations on multiple levels that have therapeutic potential. In this clinical demonstration, a hypnosis session will be conducted to assist the client in evolving resources that may be helpful to facilitate personal growth.

Educational Objectives:

1. Describe the merits of hypnosis in catalyzing therapeutic goals.
2. Demonstrate the use of hypnosis as a means of empowering clients.
3. Demonstrate the role of guided discovery in the therapy process.

1.0 Credit

Difficulty: All Levels

Description:

Most anxiety sufferers create patterns over time that focus on avoidance of anxiety while preventing them from updating old and powerful anxious narratives. Hypnosis provides the opportunity to identify these patterns, question them in interesting ways, and plant the seeds for different stories and responses in the future. While many who use hypnosis for anxiety focus on relaxation and physical calmness (both great things!) the potential to shake up the often ingrained patterns shouldn’t be missed.

Educational Objectives:

1. Create a hypnotic intervention that focuses on changing the narrative and patterns of the client’s anxiety disorder.
2. Utilize induction techniques and response sets to establish treatment targets.
3. Discuss the connection between hypnotic intervention for anxious clients and the use of experiential homework assignments.

1.0 Credit

Difficulty: All Levels

Description:

Come see and experience how to move seamlessly and effortlessly into a conversational trance induction while introducing clients to meditation. You will learn how to dissolve the difference between description (“Here’s what meditation is and how you do it”) and invitation (“You can just notice and note the feel, . . . the sense . . . of your breath”). The method will be demonstrated with a volunteer, but everyone in the audience will have an opportunity, if they wish, to participate in the experiential part of the process.

Educational Objectives:

1. Distinguish 2 similarities and differences between hypnosis and meditation.
2. State 3 key aspects of breath-based meditation.
3. Describe how to shift between description and invitation.

1.0 Credit

Difficulty: All Levels

Description:

A well-known self-hypnosis technique will be taught in a way that it is at the same time a first trance induction for a client. There will be one demonstration client but at the same the whole group can learn the approach too. This includes an old oriental story of the lion who saw his face in the water. At the end it will be discussed how this approach can be tailored for individual clients and modified for many goals: treating chronic pain, phobias, sleeping disorders, etc.

Educational Objectives:

1. Demonstrate a self-hypnosis technique.
2. Describe 3 clinical problems the technique can used.
3. Describe 3 possiblities to modify a basic story for individual clients.

1.0 Credit

Difficulty: All Levels

Description:

Based on their extensive experience, the panelists will present via anecdotes, suggestions, and their delivery styles a host of ideas for being an effective presenter at psychotherapy conferences. Many of the tips will also be applicable to other presentation situations, such as clinical consultations and case study meetings.

Educational Objectives:

1. Identify three ways to speak effectively.
2. Identify three ways to select and work with demonstration volunteers.
3. Identify three ways to involve audiences.

1.0 Credit

Difficulty: All Levels

Description:

Understanding the clients spiritual predilections can be important in helping some clients to achieve therapeutic results. Panelists will discuss how they use spiritual orientations in medical/psychological practice.

Educational Objectives:

1. Describe how to utilize the patient’s spiritual orientation.
2. List ways in which the patient’s spiritual orientation can be used to effect treatment goals.

1.0 Credit

Difficulty: Intermediate

Description:

Explore the latest research in optimal functioning, creativity, and flow and how to help clients achieve this state more frequently.

Educational Objectives:

1. Discuss what optimal functioning is.
2. Describe the deep hypnotic state to achieve optimal functioning.
3. Discuss the process for stacking motivators to achieve creativity and the eureka moment.
4. Discuss the less travelled route to reach the state of creativity.

1.0 Credit

Difficulty: All Levels

Description:

Educational Objectives:

1. Learn Ericksonian principals for encouraging men to participate and enjoy psychotherapy.
2. Utilize strategies for dealing with their own biases regarding difficult men.
3. Expand definitions of healthy masculinity.

1.0 Credit

Difficulty: All Levels

Description:

Those suffering from generalized anxiety disorder scan their world for potential catastrophes they feel incapable of facing. The noise of worry can be like a boombox in their heads with no off-switch. They’re in too aroused a state—hearts pumping, mouths dry, brains unable to think clearly—to settle down and meditate. Paradoxically, they can turn that anxious energy into an action plan for confronting their anxiety by using direct self-commands that override competing instructions to escape. Dr. Wilson will demonstrate how to help clients face the unneeded worries of GAD head-on and dispatch with them rather than trying to avoid them.

Educational Objectives:

1. Identify the common frames of reference and ensuing actions that limit anxious clients’ ability to generate change.
2. Collaboratively create a therapeutic frame of reference for an anxiously worried client.
3. Discuss and practice how to train any anxiously worried client in activating a new attitude during behavioral practice.

1.0 Credit

Difficulty: All Levels

Description:

Versatile therapists know how to access and utilize all dimensions of time, thereby enabling their clients to learn from the past, embrace the present, and create their future.

Educational Objectives:

1. Discuss how to access and utilize material form the client’s past experiences.
2. Discuss how to access and utilize material form the client’s present experience.
3. Discuss how to access and utilize material form the client’s future opportunities.

1.0 Credit

Difficulty: Advanced

Description:

In this demonstration I will explore what the client likes, creating a respectful access to resources. I will clarify with the client what resource would be useful and then invite the client into hypnosis by focusing and becoming absorbed in the experience of what they like, support them in discovering the missing resource and then assist them to bring this resource to the problem experience, creating a respectful and permanent resolution.

Educational Objectives:

1. Demonstrate a series of questions to give focus to an effective hypnotic session.
2. Demonstrate a respectful way of inviting anyone into hypnosis.
3. Demonstrate a process of connecting a client with a resource that they have lost contact with and create a resolution of their problem.

1.0 Credit

Difficulty: Intermediate – Advanced

Description:

This demonstration will focus on using Emotional Freedom Techniques to treat the negative affect of a traumatic or stressful incident followed by using Narrative approaches and imagery to integrate changes into the clients life and identity.

Educational Objectives:

1. Demonstrate the steps of Emotional Freedom Techniques to reduce negative affect associated with a traumatic or stressful event.
2. Describe how to use narrative questions or imagery to change the meaning of an event.
3. Discuss how to integrate the resolution of a negative memory/event with a person’s identity.

1.0 Credit

Difficulty: All Levels

Description:

Jokes can be used as a vehicle in which therapeutic messages can be couched. Humor can enliven the therapeutic situation.

Educational Objectives:

1. Describe how to use a joke to gift-wrap the therapeutic directive.
2. Describe research findings about the use of humor in therapy.

1.0 Credit

Difficulty: All Levels

Description:

Milton Erickson contributed extensively to the health sciences, and many of his innovations have been researched empirically. Erickson was also the architect of the wounded healer used his disabilities to advance the lives of others.

Educational Objectives:

1. Describe three fundamental contributions that Erickson added to the health sciences.
2. Describe relational factors learned from Erickson that can be used to advance healing.

1.0 Credit

Difficulty: All Levels

Description:

Often students use hypnosis as a context for creating a safe or comfortable state of mind, suggesting away symptoms, or uncomplicated ego-strengthening by bolstering encouragement. This is little more than psycho-education done in trance. But hypnosis offers opportunities for far more therapeutic intervention. This open discussion format will help participants dig into this area and develop some expanded possibilities for therapy during hypnosis.

Educational Objectives:

1. Formulate eco-systemic interventions when appropriate.
2. Formulate and use experience retrieval within hypnotic interventions.
3. Explain ideomotor feedback as a guide during interventions.

1.0 Credit

Difficulty: All Levels

Description:

Many clinicians focus on breathing, calming, or other distraction techniques when dealing with anxious children. However, focusing on “getting rid of the worry” often backfires, and leaves children and teens feeling more hopeless than engaged. But, when we use short “relaxation” practices with children to shift their patterns and beliefs–when we use this time of focus to deliver and seed valuable information–we create great opportunities for change, engagement, and skill-building. In this hour, I’ll describe the tricks to getting the most out these exercises, without stepping into the trap of elimination.

Educational Objectives:

1. Describe the risks of using elimination strategies with anxious kids and teens.
2. Create short and focused experiential recordings to use with anxious clients.
3. Utilize relaxation as a way for anxious children to step toward active exposure practice in treatment.

1.0 Credit

Difficulty: All Levels

Description:

Throughout his career Erickson maintained that a cure is a matter of having the required experiential resources in each situation. This demonstration examines what that means for hypnosis and therapy.

Educational Objectives:

1. Demonstrate the approaches of Utilization for resource retrieval.
2. Demonstrate Conscious/Unconscious Dissociation for resource retrieval.
3. Explain the use of Ambiguity for resource retrieval.

1.0 Credit

Difficulty: All Levels

Description:

This demonstration entails identification of desired change, assessment and enhancement of motivation, and implementation of a solution oriented, strategic intervention. This approach utilizes client strengths and experiences to improve outcome through accessing prior success experiences.

Educational Objectives:

1. Demonstrate enhancement of motivation.
2. Demonstrate strategic evocative intervention development.
3. Demonstrate ratification (enhancement) of commitment to follow through.

1.0 Credit

Difficulty: All Levels

Description:

If somebody experiences a problem this can be described as self-made constructions of reality (not wanted, on an involuntary and mostly unconscious level) which expresses a discrepancy between what is experienced as “it is just happening“ and “what should be“. Suffering evolves when the conscious mind is fighting the unwanted involuntary reactions to tries to escape from them or erase them because all these attempted solutions fail.

In other words: at least two different parts oft he experience interact, namely the conscious mind which wants a certain experience and the unconscious part which reacts as if it would live in an other world/context with other conditions and the involuntary “problem reaction“ can be understood as reaction towards those unconsciously experienced conditions. So the unconscious knowledge about needs gives signals like a competent feedback-instrument. And the problem reaction (e.g. suffering) can be understood as competent information about the needs in the unconsciously experienced context.

In “translating“ symptoms and problems on the basis of this understanding clients can be dignified in a holistic way about their intuitive knowledge and it can be developed a peaceful and curious cooperation between conscious and unconscious involuntary processes with utilizing the wisdom of the body and the unconscious abilities of awareness of context conditions and how to cope successfully with them. This can be intensively supported by the use of parts models, systemic context-related questions, pseudo-orientation of time and of metaphorical and symbolic interventions.

Educational Objectives:

1. Describe the autopoietic creation of experiences on an autonomous internal unconscious level as the creation of networks of sensory elements of experiences which interact with each other in a circular way.
2. Demonstrate how clients can change their experience autonomously in creating differences into their experiential networks.
3. Demonstrate how clients can translate their symptoms into helpful messages, how they can build up helpful distance to suffering processes and how they can successfully associate (also consciously directing their focus of attention) with competent experiences of feeling protected and at the same time being able to act in a wanted way and to utilize unwanted inner reactions to fulfill their needs.

1.0 Credit

Difficulty: All Levels

Description:

In this demonstration I will present how to introduce to the client the concept of Universal Wisdom and how to utilize it during the session. We are going to work with the minimum information about the problem because we are going to work with what I call Universal Topics that underly the problem. The problem will be treated with several different mini trances that trigger processes that will continue in the hands of Universal Wisdom.

Educational Objectives:

1. Discuss the concept of Universal Wisdom and how to induce it to the client.
2. Demonstrate how to create instantaneously a trance through dissociation.
3. Describe how to work with Universal topics.

1.0 Credit

Difficulty: All Levels

Description:

Metaphors activate processes in the limbic system. Since patients tell therapist stories, therapists can use anecdotes to promote clinical goals.

Educational Objectives:

1. Describe verbal and conceptual metaphors that can be used therapeutically.
2. Given a patient and a therapeutic goal, construct an anecdote that advances adaptive processes within the patient.

1.0 Credit

Difficulty: All Levels

Description:

Anxiety disorders are among the most common reasons that patients seek therapy. Hypnotic processes have been empirically validated to treat anxiety disorders including obsessive-compulsive illness.

Educational Objectives:

1. Describe research findings about the use of hypnosis with the panoply of anxiety disorders.
2. Given a patient, described the use of hypnosis to treat anxiety.

1.0 Credit

Difficulty: All Levels

Description:

Post-traumatic stress disorder consists of a complex of symptoms including hyper arousal, social withdrawal and intrusions. The panelists will describe commonalities and differences in their approach to PTSD.

Educational Objectives:

1. Difference between acute stress disorder and post-traumatic stress disorder.
2. Describe three different approaches to working with PTSD.
3. Given a patient with PTSD, outline a treatment program.

1.0 Credit

Difficulty: All Levels

Description:

Various kinds of traumatic experiences that prove to be especially detrimental in children and adolescents (such as child neglect, sexual abuse, domestic violence) are inflicted upon the children/adolescents by their families or persons close to them. The perpetrators are mostly well known by the child/adolescent victims. This might either be the child’s parents or siblings (e.g. in cases of sexual abuse by siblings), further relatives, new partners (in cases of separated or divorced parents) or close persons respected by the child (such as teachers, trainers etc.). Considering the facts that (1) trauma experienced in childhood is particularly harmful since the traumatic stress interferes with the child’s development and (2) repeated interpersonal trauma is known to have the most detrimental effects (especially if the perpetrator is a person who should protect the child from harm), there is a special need in developing treatment-approaches for children encompassing the whole system in which trauma occurs (and sometimes might even be ongoing).

The authors present their hypno-systems therapy approach, derived from evidence-based therapeutic approaches to treating trauma in children and adolescents. This approach combines the advantages of hypnotherapy with children and adolescents with a systems-approach to treating trauma.

Educational Objectives:

1. Explain hypnotherapeutic and systems-therapy tools to be used to enrich trauma-therapeutic approaches.
2. List different kinds of traumatic experiences in children/adolescents will be presented as well as their effects (on the children’s mental and physical health).
3. Describe special topics of interest to consider within a hypno-systems trauma-therapy approach.

2.0 Credits

Difficulty: Intermediate

Description:

Erickson resisted standardized hypnotic protocols because he found that everyone responded to hypnosis uniquely. Rather than seeking to force his preferred hypnotic phenomena, he cultivated whatever came naturally. Fortunately, clinical objectives, such as pain relief, can be achieved using a variety of hypnotic phenomena. This session will identify three broad classes of hypnotic experiencing and provide guidance on how to identify natural predispositions.

Educational Objectives:

1. State the central characteristics of hypnotherapy that distinguish it from other forms of mental therapy.
2. State the three major types of hypnotic responsiveness, as supported by current research.
3. Identify which types of hypnotic phenomena are likely to succeed with a given client.

2.0 Credits

Difficulty: All Levels

Description:

This workshop will address the treatment of trauma by utilizing Ericksonian Hypnosis, Somatic Experiencing and Mindfulness practices for accessing the unconscious and activating inner resources with somatic experiencing, mindfulness and trance. These three unique orientations emphasize a unified mind body healing approach that appreciates utilization as an orientation that understands the importance of the symptom as a pathway to inner healing. We will review the clinical tracking skills for: orientation, resourcing states, titration, pendulation, containment and the witnessing awareness as well as learning to pace and follow the patient’s nervous system. A step by step model will be taught how to navigate the complexity and chaos of energy wells through containment and resourcing. Participants will learn tools for tracking coherency and creating comfort, safety and resiliency within the body and nervous systems. Clinical Hypnosis, Neuroscience and Polyvagal theory for clinical adaptions for working with an activated nervous system and shuttling towards trauma deactivation and integration and settling of experience will be demonstrated.

The course will highlight both Milton Erickson’s use of metaphor and rapid trance induction as well as the work of Peter Levine’s models of Trauma and Healing Vortex states of experiences, including mindfulness practice for framing, re-framing and de-framing the immediate reorganization of transforming somatic-affective experience into new healing rhythms in the body. These methods allow the body to open healthier pathways for rapid new somatic recoveries. We will also emphasize the use of naturalistic hypnotic trance, guided mindfulness practice, and somatic breath tools for generating new therapeutic skills in fostering trauma healing, coherency and Resiliency.

Educational Objectives:

1. Identify the two styles of trance induction used in the demonstration.
2. Explain Guided Mindfulness meditations which will be demonstrated for clinical use in the treatment of trauma.
3. Utilize new clinical skills from Ericksonian Hypnosis and Somatic Experiencing for tracking, pacing and reframing somatic symptoms into healing pathways for trauma healing and mind-body resolution.

2.0 Credits

Difficulty: All Levels

Description:

Eastern spiritual teachings tell us that “suffering” goes away when we dissolve the ego. But what is the ‘ego’ and how does one dissolve it? You’ll be introduced to a new way of doing inner work, offering a precise way of dissolving the everyday sense of the ego. Used both to resolve problems, and as a gentle personal practice, typical results include, • deep relaxation of the nervous system, • transformation of many emotional and behavioral issues, • greater access to creativity, problem-solving, and humor, • increased wellbeing, • sleep issues often resolve. The Wholeness Work has been described as a precise and accessible way of getting the results Mindfulness is going for (and perhaps more), in a way that follows the experience of each individual.

Educational Objectives:

1. Describe a simple way to find what can be considered “ego” or “self” in experience.
2. Explain how to access another way of experiencing “self.”
3. Describe the demonstration of a specific process for “dissolving the ego” that also changes our life issues.

2.0 Credits

Difficulty: Intermediate – Advanced

Description:

Ratifying victimhood often paradoxically sensitizes to trauma’s effects, and is heavily reinforced socially. Therapists are challenged to help victims restore personal agency and accountability, without denying victimhood. Contracting for roles and boundaries precedes efforts to interdict traumatic re-enactment, redefine personal and social identity, access locus of control, and restore accountability.

Educational Objectives:

1. Demonstrate how ratifying victimhood can paradoxically sensitize to traumatization.
2. Describe roadblocks to identifying and interdicting traumatic reenactment.
3. Discuss how reframing personal identity can shift from helplessness to agency.

Difficulty: All Levels

Description:

Anxiety destroys the normal enjoyment of life through the fear, worry, obsessive thinking and avoidant behavior that anxious people experience. Simple activities like going to the grocery store, taking a child to her first day of school, or meeting a friend for lunch trigger a barrage of frantic “what ifs.” This demonstration will explore the subtleties of working with this pervasive category of disorders, and will introduce a powerful, integrative therapy model. Using this integrative therapy model, attendees will learn practical interventions that are applicable to the treatment of generalized anxiety disorder, managing uncertainty. A special component of this workshop is a focus on performance anxiety. The presenter will introduce a powerful, integrative therapy model that combines CBT, hypnosis and mindfulness.

Educational Objectives:

1. Delineate and demonstrate a treatment protocol using mindfulness, CBT, and hypnosis to manage worry.
2. Describe two techniques for tolerating uncertainty.
3. Identify two interventions that can help clients manage performance anxiety.

2.0 Credits

Difficulty: All Levels

Description:

Hypnosis can interrupt dysfunctional loops, breaking negative patterns. With the skillful addition of sound that process is often speeded up and has a profound effect physiologically as well as psychologically, influencing and entraining the biological state of the subject. Participants will be shown how to enhance their awareness of tonality, volume, and the power inherent in vowel sounds. Using frequencies to deepen trance will be part of the group experience.

Educational Objectives:

1. Describe the changes they experience when specific sounds are added to hypnosis.
2. Distinguish the different levels of sound and the effect they have.
3. Discuss their personal experience of the sounds used in the workshop.
4. Identify instruments which can be used as an adjunct to hypnotherapy.

2.0 Credits

Difficulty: All Levels

Description:

This workshop presents Dr. Gilligan’s latest work of Systemic Trance, which describes how we generate our realities via the (mostly unconscious) maps of who we are, and what the world is. These systemic filters can be held negatively (in neuro-muscular lock) or generatively (in creative flow), resulting in either problems or positive solutions. To transform problems into resources, Systemic Trance first identifies the key parts of a performance map, then uses generative trance to open a fluid conversational space where each part is positive valued and integrated into a resource pattern. Lecture, demonstration, case examples, and exercises will be included.

Educational Objectives:

1. Describe the hypnotherapy approach of Systemic Trance Work.
2. Identify the general steps of implementing this therapeutic approach.
3. Demonstrate and have students practice 3 core techniques of the approach.

1.5 Credits

Difficulty: Intermediate – Advanced

Description:

Smartphones have become a part of our new gestalt, and our flying thumbs take the constant pulse on global connections and experiences. From online trance phenomena, to practicing ego states and relationship, our evolutionary need for social connection finds us on multiple social media sites that can range from highly satisfying to deeply disturbing, painful, or even traumatic. What predicating factors point us one way or another? How do we manage being present and mindful when the very nature of social media dissociates us from real life? This workshop will focus on the balance and synergy required between digital and real life, how to assess online health and/or trouble, predicating factors of vulnerability (especially, but not exclusively, in young people), and increasing resiliency factors that integrate both. Using approaches from Ericksonian, Ego State, and Somatic Experiencing alongside the artful languages of connecting in digital time and its social mimicry (like emojis, memes, gifs, etc), participants will learn how to increase experiential impact while maximizing a client’s resource states. This workshop will include experiential exercises, videos, and current research studies.

Educational Objectives:

1. Identify how each part of trance phenomena is strongly indicated in constant online use.
2. Assess predicating factors of vulnerability to painful or traumatic social media experiences.
3. Discern how online languages, like emojis, are increasing the impact of connection with others.
4. Utilize the elements necessary to create an effective method for integration of online/real life use with an intervention and treatment technique using trancework, ego states and somatic experiencing.

2.0 Credits

Difficulty: All Levels

Description:

The emotional mystique between gay sons and their mothers has long been unexplored, but now new evidence suggests that a mother’s response to her son’s sexuality isn’t the only factor in his future success. How she nurtures him based on his interests, rather than his sexual preferences, is key, especially in a society with narrow definitions of masculinity. A mother’s indirect acceptance can be more powerful than heroic measures and is a principal source of her son’s self-esteem, using an Ericksonian approach without her knowing it!

This workshop provides a strength-based perspective of hope for mothers and sons, including theory, research and anecdotal learning from video interviews. Woven in a historical timeline of gay rights are the interpersonal interactions between mothers and sons throughout various eras. Interviews will highlight various struggles based on religion, culture and ethnicity.

Educational Objectives:

1. Recite how the bond between gay sons and mothers is crucial for the sons’ psychological development.
2. Differentiate cultural implications of acceptance for African Americans, Latinos, and Caucasian men.
3. Identify significant events in gay history that have that have contributed to increased freedom.

2.0 Credits

Difficulty: All Levels

Description:

During the first hour of this workshop the specific treatment ideas targeting Eating Disorders will be presented. Also, the workshop will delineate how an eating disorder is an addiction and present the underlying issues, which need to be addressed because of an addiction’s multi-dimensional infiltration. The remaining hour will be a demonstration of Ericksonian Hypnosis on a volunteer who wants to lose or gain any amount of weight. You will see: a Ericksonian diagnostic interview which focuses on the present where the solutions can be found; an Ericksonian induction using conscious/unconscious dissociation; a Ericksonian suggestion phase tailored to fit the patient; and a reorientation out of trance. There will be some time for questions and discussion.

Educational Objectives:

1. List three specific treatments for Eating Disorders;
2. Describe the six dimensions of a person’s life that eating disorders and all addictions infiltrate;
3. Discuss the Ericksonian approach to a conscious/unconscious induction and a tailored suggestion phase of hypnosis.

2.0 Credits

Difficulty: Beginner

Description:

A primary feature of hypnosis is dissociation, defined as the breaking of global experiences into their component parts. Dissociation gives rise to some of the most fascinating practical aspects of hypnosis in clinical contexts, such as pain management and the revivification of memories. Dissociation also paves the way for suggested responses to arise seemingly spontaneously, an enormously advantageous phenomenon called automaticity. In this workshop, we will consider the therapeutic roles of dissociation and automaticity and conduct an exercise in generating an “automatic” response.

Educational Objectives:

1. Define and discuss the role of dissociation in hypnotic responding.
2. Describe the experience of therapeutic dissociations to automaticity in clinical responsiveness.
3. Sequence a hypnosis session to generate an automatic response.

2.0 Credits

Difficulty: All Levels

Description:

This workshop presents a 3-Step Model for creating effective corrective experiences for traumatized clients. These steps are Hypnosomatic Resourcing, Re-regulating Nervous System Responses to Post-traumatic Triggering, and Repairing and Rewiring through Enduring Self-integration and Secure Attachment with Self and Others for Permanent Change. We will explore how to help clients shift from more passive responses in their lives to the use of action systems. Polyvagal theory is offered as a solution to unresolved trauma effects, and participants will learn how to move into the ventral vagal system to create safety, secure attachment, and self-connection. The workshop will include experiential exercises, demonstration, and clinical consultation.

Educational Objectives:

1. List three ways of helping clients embody their experience and discover resources to expand.
2. Explain re-regulation and how this process is connected with co-regulation.
3. Explain how to develop secure attachment and complete developmental repair to stabilize wholeness and enhance resilience.

2.0 Credits

Difficulty:All Levels

Description:

Educational Objectives:

1. Describe how recovering from infantile paralysis (which Erickson got when he was a teen-ager) affected the his professional life.
2. Discuss how Erickson helped his client in the “Nude Dancing Men” case be able to live an useful life even though she was a schizophrenic (Erickson’s diagnosis).
3. Describe how Erickson was able to help “The African Violet Queen of Milwaukee” change the direction of her life and recover from a deep depression in one session.

2.0 Credits

Difficulty: Intermediate – Advanced

Description:

Loved ones leave us, couples and friends separate, we suffer physical changes as we grow up during adolescence and as we grow old, work changes happen, as well as our mood, which evolves throughout our lives.

Knowing how to manage all these emotions is not always easy, that is the reason why people usually go to a therapist asking for help, especially when a relative has died or there is a very serious loss. However, being able to have a good attitude towards the permanent change that living means is something that can be trained.

The use of Ericksonian psychotherapy, hypnosis and conversational hypnosis facilitates a flexible attitude towards life changes, recovering from difficult moments promptly and allowing clients to be open to new opportunities that life brings. Because … the sun rises after the storm, and it does not have to catch you hidden under the umbrella of the sadness!

Educational Objectives:

1. Discuss when symptoms are covering grief.
2. Identify grief in “small losses” (moving to a new house, a habit, loss of a pet) as well as in serious separations or passing.
3. Describe possible psychotherapeutic treatment and hypnotic intervention.

2.0 Credits

Difficulty: Intermediate

Description:

Much of this Workshop will address issues of culture, race, sexual orientation, diversity and social justice and equality, etc.  A major premise is the idea that all therapy is multicultural therapy.  This means that every client brings to therapy a unique world and therefore the challenge for every therapy is for the therapist to be able to enter the unique world of each client.  This therapy method is especially adept at working with cultural differences as it is highly adaptable and therefore able to work within the unique world of the client.

This workshop will introduce the Strength Based Culturally Sensitive Strategic Therapy. There will be a discussion of the theory of this approach. Then different innovative interventions will be presented. The Workshop will also focus on using the method to work with family problems as well as couples problems. The presentation is designed to help you:

Educational Objectives:

1. Describe basic theory and techniques of Strength Based Culturally Sensitive Strategic Therapy.
2. Demonstrate the ability to work within a client’s cultural context.
3. Demonstrate activating client’s strengths and use these strengths to help the client solve the presenting problems.

2.0 Credits

Difficulty: Intermediate – Advanced

Description:

OCD is a rather chronic illness affecting about 2.5% of adults. Its diagnosis is perceived as a demanding and challenging one. Trance phenomena can be described as natural behavioral manifestations of the trance state. They can be observed in individuals as well as in family communication patterns. In OCD families, one of the most powerful and widely present trance phenomena are the posthypnotic suggestions. They are invisible, deeply hidden, mighty and long lasting.

In this workshop, systemic ideas increasing effectiveness of therapy will be stressed. Attendees will learn how to increase therapeutic sensitivity to observe, diagnose, understand and therapeutically remodel these phenomena.

Educational Objectives:

1. Indicate the most common posthypnotic suggestions circulating between relatives in OCD families.
2. Describe the significance of posthypnotic suggestions in OCD treatment.
3. List 3 hypnotic strategies of remodeling family posthypnotic suggestions in a therapeutic way.

2.0 Credits

Difficulty: All Levels

Description:

People have holistic, mind-body-brain interactions, an inherent predisposition to grow, individuate and actualize their potential. But sometimes people get stuck due to their concurrent need for human affiliations. A sense of unresolved loss between the two effects their ability to develop a healthy balance of affiliated-individuation which is needed to negotiate the multiple epigenetic developmental tasks from birth to death. As a result, morbid grief affects the epigenetic-processes, creating a fertile ground for the development of psychophysiological problems. Unfortunately, the associated biomedical symptoms are usually the focus of treatment with little understanding that the root of the problem lies in difficulties negotiating psychosocial epigenetic processes.This happens because the root of the problem, unresolved loss, often gets overlooked because it is obfuscated by morbid grief, a normal sequalae to unresolved loss, and other secondary outcomes due to morbid grief. To address these issues, it is necessary to untangle the themes embedded in their worldview. This presentation discusses the use of Ericksonian naturalistic approaches to model the worldview, interpret the embedded themes, analyze the patterns and intervene accordingly. Case examples will be used to illustrate the value of Ericksonian approaches when working with persons with psychophysiological conditions.

Educational Objectives:

1. Describe three inter-relating, epigenetic processes that affect humans’ biophysical wellbeing.
2. Describe how the themes in the individual’s worldview can be used to determine the status of his need for affiliated -individuation.
3. Describe how the individual’s worldview-themes point to the root of the problem.

2.0 Credits

Difficulty: Intermediate

Description:

Whether it is a deep state of trance, a phenomenon of awe-ness, a psychedelic induced expansion, and/or a break through or breakdown of perception, therein lays a greater and “deeper” experience of change. From a neuroplastic or biological state there is the activation of the midbrain, such as the amygdale, cingulate gyrus, nucleus accumbens, which then alter the perceptions of the neocortex.
This workshop will outline the theory and practical application of such transformations. Methods will be discussed and taught to recognize and stimulate midbrain functions.

developed the methods for utilizing the internal powers and resources that each individual has to greatly improve the quality of life. With time, it has become evident that Dr. Erickson’s brilliance was taping into the vast levels within the interactions of brain activity. This facilitated the congruency of harmony and resonance of frequency, all highly associated with the alignment of mind, body and spirit.

The PET scan, fMRI and Brainmapping all have demonstrated this process of deep change that goes beyond logic and language. Join us in the experiential transformation of the midbrain activity. For without it, we change our language but not our being.

Educational Objectives:

1. Describe how the pathways to the midbrain are relevant for conscious expansion.
2. Discuss the value of non-verbal therapies and how they enhance transformational change.
3. Demonstrate the expansion of consciousness through strategic meditative mindfulness intervention.

2.0 Credits

Difficulty: All Levels

Description:

Many therapies involve very brief lengths of treatment, including one session. A structure will be presented for organizing the tasks and skills involved in different phases (pre-, early, middle, late, follow-through) of therapy. Numerous case examples, including some on video, will illustrate brief therapy techniques applicable in both initial sessions and in the course of longer treatments.

Educational Objectives:

1. Describe the tasks and skills of a single-session-at-a-time therapy associated with different phases of treatment;
2. Describe brief single-session therapy techniques that may be useful I different clinical situations;
3. Discuss application of one-session principles to participants’ own clinical cases.

2.0 Credits

Difficulty: Advanced

Description:

This workshop clarifies the Hypnotic aspects of Bipolar and Borderline Personality Disorder, and demonstrates easy ways to alter the trances that perpetuate the disorder. It begins by destabilizing the beliefs and behaviors that perpetuate the disorders and replaces those behaviors with more effective ones arising from the natural relationship and who the person is.

Educational Objectives:

1. Discuss how that Bipolar and Borderline personality disorders are perpetuated by trances.
2. Discuss 3 ways of destabilizing current trances and behaviors that perpetuate Bipolar and Borderline disorders.
3. Demonstrate at least two ways that they can use this approach to augment their own work and style.

2.0 Credits

Difficulty: All Levels

Description:

In therapeutic trance, a person releases from rigid ego positions, thereby opening to the resources and healing capacities of the creative unconscious. In this process, nonverbal communications—such as limbic resonance, felt sense, somatic centering, and musicality—are of central importance. The workshop explores how therapists may attune to these nonverbal patterns and utilize them to develop and guide creative trance work.

Educational Objectives:

1. List 4 different nonverbal techniques for effective hypnotherapy.
2. Demonstrate how these nonverbal techniques empower the verbal conversation of psychotherapy.

2.0 Credits

Difficulty: All Levels

Description:

This workshop presents young Erickson’s transformative voyage of discovery – ostensibly to improve his physical health and muscular strength after poliomyelitis. This experience significantly influenced his outlook on life, paving the way for his future therapeutic strategies. This seventy-four-day canoe journey contains, in my view, the fundamentals of “the hero’s journey” as described by Joseph Campbell. Three dimensions are presented for discussion: 1) Young Erickson’s pathways toward heightened self-knowledge through mastery over ordeals; 2) His indisputable triumph over physical limitations due to sequelae from polio; and, 3) the roots of adult Erickson’s clinical approaches, as evidenced by strategies such as observation, distraction, utilization, task assignments, and action metaphors. Participants are invited to reflect upon their own life transitions, and share with others.

Educational Objectives:

1. Describe human developmental stages: adolescence, youth, young adulthood, maturity, and old age as transitions toward higher levels of consciousness.
2. Discuss the roots of some of Milton Erickson’s approaches as a clinician, such as observation, distraction, utilization, and action metaphors.

2.0 Credits

Difficulty: All Levels

Description:

This lecture presentation will include an overview of biological, nutritional, and herbal approaches in mental health. This will include up-to-date research on these topics, including evidence for dietary and nutraceutical treatments that can be useful to complement psychotherapy for mental illness. In addition the presentation will highlight recent understanding on the gut/brain connection, including protocols for modulating the microbiome to influence mental health. Specific biological insights into various mental health concerns such as anxiety-panic, depression, bipolar, and schizophrenia will be discussed.

Educational Objectives:

1. Describe common modifiable life-style and dietary influences on mood and mental health.
2. Identify specific herbal remedies that show promise in treating specific mental health concerns.
3. Discuss the influence of gut flora and the microbiome on various mood and psychiatric disorders.
4. Describe specific dietary factors, pre- and pro-biotics, and over-the-counter supplements with evidence for improving gut flora, brain, and mood.

2.0 Credits

Difficulty: All Levels

Description:

Teaching since 12 years in China I also learned techniques from leading Chinese colleagues. In this workshop I will demonstrate an old Chinese technique used originally for preparing mentally for meditation in a way, so it can be used for psychotherapeutic purposes.

Additionally variations of the Chinese technique using elements of EMDR,EMI, tapping techniques and Ericksonian Hypnosis will be demonstrated and discussed with case examples.

Educational Objectives:

1. Describe one old Chinese technique for meditation useful for psychotherapy.
2. Discuss 3 variations of this technique combining it with EMDR, EMI and Tapping techniques.
3. Exercise and experience this technique in small group exercise.

1.5 Credits

Difficulty: All Levels

Description:

In this workshop, East and West blend, intertwine, and approach anxiety symptoms in a creative way. Eva from Germany, with her masterful practice in Satir somatic modeling, combined with Wei Kai from Taiwan, with his mindful practice in Tai Chi and Taoism hypnotherapy, will create a new model in treating anxiety. We both learned Ericksonian approach for years, and utilized various somatic movements to help self regulation, and increase self steering competencies in challenging times. You will learn to create a collaborative relationship between involuntary processes of anxiety and voluntary use of somatic resources. In this workshop, we will hold the opposites and allow a new third to emerge. Once you learn it, experience it, and you can use it to treat anxiety internally and externally.

Educational Objectives:

1. Describe an Ericksonian Tai-Chi trance.
2. Explain modern Satir stance dance.
3. Demonstrate exercises from Ericksonian, Virginia Satir, and Lao Tzu perspectives that help you to be flexible and transform anxiety into resources.

2.0 Credits

Difficulty: Intermediate

Description:

Recently a set of core competencies was identified and endorsed by a majority of the leading figures in Ericksonian therapy. These key concepts have been subjected to empirical testing and found to be pivotal to the identity of this unique form of therapy. Dan Short, author of the recently released Core Competencies Manual for Ericksonian Therapy, will provide an overview of this wealth of information.

Educational Objectives:

1. List the six core competencies of Ericksonian hypnotherapy.
2. Utilize a device for measuring these competencies.
3. Demonstrate a readiness to measure progress in treatment.

2.0 Credits

Difficulty: All Levels

Description:

This workshop provides a framework for assessing clients along two important dimensions that impact therapeutic outcome: motivation and sense of agency (one’s perception of their ability to create change in their own lives). This assessment fosters interventions that enhance the capacity for strategic interventions to be truly brief and solution focused. The participant in this workshop will have the opportunity to observe and practice this approach.

Educational Objectives:

1. Assess and enhance clients motivation for change.
2. Discuss a technique to help clarify and improve therapeutic outcome.

2.0 Credits

Difficulty: All Levels

Description:

Most therapy orients to the past. This session will offer an alternative, using “future pull,” a method of engaging people in compelling preferred futures and working backwards to the near future to create change in therapy.

Educational Objectives:

1. Use three methods of future pull.
2. Give three examples of positive presuppositional language.
3. Provide one example of future pull in therapy.

2.0 Credits

Difficulty: All Levels

Description:

Dr. Erickson proposed that all our life experiences were learnings and resources registered in our Unconscious Mind. He considered Unconscious Mind as a Wise Part. For Quantum Physics in the same way that all the information about each person is in its DNA, the information of the Whole Universe is present in each one of its parts. I call that information our Universal Wisdom. Wisdom, because it is all the information and Universal because it is the same everywhere. For me Universal Wisdom is the Creative Force, and so, Almighty. That is not a question of beliefs but a question of imagining. What we imagine for our brain is stronger than what it recognizes as reality.

Participants will learn to contact their Universal Wisdom and to utilize it for making their practice more efficient. But, Universal Wisdom, knows whatever the client needs. It has the resources of the complete Universe and the power for utilizing them. Participants will learn a five steps exercise for utilizing Universal Wisdom in their practice. Presenter will:

• Offer a brief presentation about Ericksonian Therapy Based on Universal Wisdom;
• Do a demonstration;
• Analyse the work;
• Present an schema for working with it.

Participants – Will practice the exercise under supervision of the presenter, then comment it and propose questions about the technique.

Educational Objectives:

1. Discuss the concept of Universal Wisdom.
2. Demonstrate a five steps exercise.
3. Discuss how to utilize Universal Wisdom for improving their work.

2.0 Credits

Difficulty: All Levels

Description:

To present the integration of Ericksonian Hypnosis, the Kashmir Shaivism meditation of Gurumayi Chidvilasananda, the Hindu self-inquiry practice of Gangaji, and the interpersonal humanism of me. I call this method HMDSI: Hypnotic Meditative Directive Self-inquiry. Also presented will be the application of HMDSI for couples: The Accountability Method of Communication. Not originally planned, life has determined a focus for this workshop will be trauma. Ten months ago, this presenter survived a horrific work related traumatic experience. This was a challenge to utilize every learning, skill, and practice of 35 years for my own symptoms and suddenly counseling was not theoretical any longer. The goal of the workshop will be to teach and demonstrate how to trust the intelligent thought of core experience vs attaching to constructed story thinking; to teach how to enter the state of open waiting as a means of change and healing. To support change by not knowing how or trying to know. I will offer this methodology to those who may need healing themselves in order to serve clients during the most difficult times of their client’s lives.

Educational Objectives:

1. Describe the origins of “story thinking” and explain its difference from “intelligent thought.”
2. Apply “the alien question” to rapidly identify a client’s “story thinking.”
3. Explain why thought vs open waiting will fail to be effective in treating trauma.

1.0 Credit

Difficulty: All Levels

Description:

In this provocative session, Bill O’Hanlon will make the case that Ericksonian Hypnosis does not involve suggestion but instead involves evocation of already existing resources, and that Ericksonian Therapy involves a radical departure from the usual diagnostic, pathological-oriented approach that strives to fix or correct the client’s or patient’s deficits and brokenness.

Educational Objectives:

1. Articulate what evocation is.
2. List at least one way to evoke in therapy.
3. Use two methods of evocation.

Not for Credit