Working with Kids and Their Parents Mitchell Greene Sports, even at the youngest developmental levels, has become a source of great stress for kids and their parents. The final results of games and kids’ individual statistics are immediately broadcast on the internet, and recruiting videos of middle school age athletes are all over YouTube. RecreationRead More…
Avoiding the Mistakes Therapists Often Make Patricia Papernow Although divorce and marriage rates are generally falling, they’re skyrocketing among those over 50. That’s why so many of us are seeing an influx of later-life uncouplers and recouplers in our offices. In this workshop, learn how to effectively manage the competing needs of all the players in these families: theRead More…
How to Help Our Clients Heal Anita Mandley Exposing the family secret of incest is a transgression that makes everyone deeply uncomfortable, both in the families in which it occurs and for the mental health professionals who try to help them. One reflection of this discomfort is the avoidance of even using the term itselfRead More…
A Fun, Pragmatic Approach to Mindfulness Susan Kaiser Greenland While mindfulness has become a buzzword in clinics, schools, and boardrooms, many people have a hard time incorporating it into their lives. Fortunately, you can make mindfulness more accessible by using games—simple enough to share with children—to coach clients in the themes, methods, and life skillsRead More…
An Introduction to Attachment-Based Family Therapy Guy Diamond Most of us have faced intense parent-adolescent conflict in sessions: no one listens, everyone blames, and some walk out. Or we’ve met adolescents who are silent, withdrawn, and indifferent. Often these teens struggle with trauma, depression, and/or suicide. This workshop will demonstrate how in the first sessionRead More…
Transforming the Sexual Narrative Suzanne Iasenza When couples come to therapy with problems involving desire, arousal, and orgasm, therapists often fall into the trap of thinking of them as somehow broken and in need of fixing. Instead, this workshop offers an approach that guides couples from a state of disconnection to becoming a sexual-discovery teamRead More…
Strategies for Change Terry Real We’ve all met troubled men who are irresponsible, oppressive, or emotionally absent. Treating them requires a range of strategies. In this workshop, you’ll learn how to effectively work with issues of shame and grandiosity, as well as toxic engagement and disengagement. You’ll focus on how to identify and develop differentRead More…
Strategies for Recognizing and Responding to Them Signe Whitson Young people who bully often master the art of blending in with the crowd, flying under an adult’s radar and wreaking havoc in subtle ways. In fact, many socially aggressive kids actually top an adult’s “what a nice kid!” list and make their way into their victims’Read More…
Using Emotionally Focused Therapy to Strengthen Sobriety Michael Barnett Even the most talented couples therapists are often unprepared to handle the explosive impasses and icy freeze-outs that present themselves when toxic addictive processes permeate already unstable relationships. The traditional “sledgehammer” approach of harsh, shame-based confrontation only tends to fuel the problem. And behavioral and insight-orientedRead More…
Enhancing Between-Session Interventions David Treadway Who ate the homework? While many couples therapists assign their clients homework, few couples comply. And too often, rather than engaging with their clients’ resistance, most therapists let the matter drop, ignoring the important insights and useful conversations homework can elicit. This workshop will demonstrate how to engage and motivateRead More…
Deciding When It’s Really the Issue Marty Klein Pornography use is a complex topic about which almost everyone has opinions. While many people fear and misunderstand porn, it’s important for therapists and clients alike to know the facts about its actual content, how it’s made, why people use it, and what the typical effects ofRead More…
Is It Gender . . . And/Or Something Else? Margaret Nichols & Laura Jacobs Transgender identity has achieved so much cultural support and affirmation that it may be easy to overlook—or miss—the fact that some young clients may be struggling with issues other than, or in addition to, gender dysphoria. With many of these childrenRead More…
How to Revive Erotic Passion Michele Weiner-Davis One out of every three couples struggles with mismatched sexual desire—a formula for marital disaster. When one spouse is sexually dissatisfied and the other is oblivious, unconcerned, or uncaring, sex isn’t the only casualty; a sense of emotional connection can also disappear. As therapists, we’ve been taught thatRead More…
It’s a Family Affair Lynn Lyons When obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) shows up in a child, it’s likely that other family members have it, too. OCD is the ultimate cult leader, demanding acceptance of a skewed view of reality and often ruling families for generations. This workshop demonstrates how to recognize OCD, the common pitfallsRead More…
A Practical Approach Christopher Willard For too many children or teens, talk and even play therapy feels unhelpful at best, and stigmatizing at worst. But when we can effectively introduce mindfulness into our sessions, we empower kids to transform themselves, allowing them to identify and regulate their emotions and attention with fun and effective exercises.Read More…
Gratitude and Meaning in Caring for Aging Parents Barry Jacobs & Julia Mayer While caring for aging parents is often portrayed as a physical, psychological, and financial burden, there’s a growing body of research suggesting that caregivers can derive important benefits from their role, including increased life satisfaction and even improved health. In fact, caregiversRead More…
How and When to Intervene Evan Imber-Black When couples come to us, they seldom present with one simple problem. Rather, they often enter therapy with multiple and layered dilemmas, requiring that the therapist make continual therapeutic choices regarding the shape of questions, direction of the interview, length of an interaction, time-frame for exploration (past, present,Read More…
How to Get Unhooked Martha Straus To work with troubled and traumatized adolescents, it’s crucial for therapists to first foster their own capacity for self-awareness and self-regulation. It’s not easy, especially when our young clients’ extreme reactions—ranging from angry arousal to frozen shutting down—can trigger our own sense of helplessness, failure, dissociation, and rejection. InRead More…
The Path to Recovery Michele Weiner-Davis Without a concrete road map for helping couples heal from infidelity, it’s easy for therapists to get lost in the labyrinth of emotions. Using video clips, this workshop will provide a comprehensive, step-by-step plan for dealing with different phases of recovery, from the crisis of discovery through forgiveness. LearnRead More…
When Is Enough Enough? Parts 1 & 2 Terry Real We’ve all encountered couples for whom therapy is a last-ditch attempt before calling it quits. But how do we, as therapists, decide whether to throw our weight behind the relationship or let it end? This session explores the impact our own values, childhood experiences, and oldRead More…
How They’re Changing You and Therapy Forever Parts 1 & 2 Ron Taffel As the first generation brought up entirely in the digital age, millennials (18-35 years old) represent a sea change from previous generations of psychotherapy clients. Along with a review of the research on the distinctive lifestyle choices, diagnostic patterns, and self-regulatory issuesRead More…
How We Can Help Our Clients and the World at the Same Time Parts 1 & 2 William Doherty Let’s face it: we therapists have had an ambivalent relationship with commitment, often opting for Polonius’s individualistic admonition “to thine own self be true.” But now that we’re coming out of an historic era where weRead More…
Understanding Sensory Processing and Sensory Strategies in Treatment Tara Delaney More than 90 percent of children diagnosed with autism suffer from sensory processing difficulties that underlie their extreme, reactive behaviors. But typically, even in therapy, there’s not enough attention paid to these difficulties play in the academic struggles, behavioral problems, and coordination challenges that theseRead More…
The Changing Face of Committed Relationships Tammy Nelson More couples today than ever before are negotiating their monogamy in new and creative ways, including open marriage, polyamory, group marriages, transgender relationships, and a variety of intentional partnerships. As therapists, we need to understand these new developments, the challenges they bring, and the skills required ofRead More…
Overcoming the Challenges in Therapy Sandra Wartski Most therapists know that treating eating disorders (EDs) can be a very rocky journey. They also know that a culture awash with unrealistic ideals of body perfection can further exacerbate clients’ distorted relationships with food and body image. This workshop will provide therapists with a step-by-step approach to navigating these clientsRead More…
Succeeding with Our Most Reluctant Clients Janet Sasson Edgette Most teens are only in therapy because their parents, their teachers, the juvenile court judge, or some other authority has told them they must see a therapist—or else. Consequently, they often find standard therapeutic bromides and shrink-wrapped attempts to “engage” them artificial, even infuriating. This workshopRead More…
A Family Approach Jean Malpas Therapists working with the families of transgender and gender-expansive youth (TGEY) are facing questions for which there are no easy answers. What’s the best way to respond when parents of a transgender teenager refuse to give access to hormone therapy? Or when the parents of an 8-year-old gender nonconforming childRead More…
Strategies for Surviving and Thriving Patricia Papernow Stepfamilies begin with such high hopes, but all too often they find themselves stuck in toxic cycles of tension and conflict. Although 42 percent of Americans have a close stepfamily relationship, few therapists ever receive solid training in helping their clients in stepfamilies to meet their intense challenges.Read More…
The Brave New World of Relationship Dilemmas Alexandra Solomon Today’s emerging adults are navigating a brave new dating world of hookups, friends with benefits, and other ambiguous relationships, facilitated and amplified by new technologies and digital platforms. Often these digital natives crave connection and foresee marriage and children in their future, even if their currentRead More…
A Radical Approach to Healing Interpersonal Wounds Janis Abrahms Spring Forgiveness has been held up as the gold standard of recovery from interpersonal injuries, but in real life, hurt parties often find that they can’t or won’t forgive, particularly when the offender is unrepentant or dead. In this workshop, you’ll learn to reframe the healingRead More…
Changing the Family Dance Lynn Lyons Anxiety can be a very persistent master. When it moves into families, it takes over daily routines, schoolwork, and recreation. To make matters worse, the things adults (including many therapists and school staff) do to help anxious children can actually make the anxiety stronger. Fortunately, research shows that what weRead More…
An Emotionally Focused Approach Parts 1 & 2 Kathryn Rheem Volatile, emotionally escalated clients can be among the most challenging cases couples therapists regularly work with. Such clients can often be set off by seemingly negligible events, making sessions difficult for both partners and their therapist. Typically, core issues of attachment distress are at theRead More…
Challenging Some Common Myths Parts 1 & 2 Marty Klein If you ask clients what they want from sex, they’ll usually tell you pleasure and closeness. But that’s typically not what they actually focus on during sex. Instead, they’re thinking about how they look, what they sound or smell like, what their partner is thinking,Read More…
How Therapists Can Help Parts 1 & 2 Phyllis Booth & Dafna Lender Unlike teens, young children can’t readily talk about feelings, don’t sit in one place, and often can’t follow rules and directions, even when you’re playing a game. So how can you incorporate these crucial family members into your sessions in a wayRead More…
New Perspectives on Gender Diversity Parts 1 & 2 Margaret Nichols & Laura Jacobs Transgender and gender-expansive people are more visible today than they were in the past, and there’s been a corresponding acceptance of gender diversity as normal and varying along a continuum. Indeed, you’ve probably seen or heard of clients who describe themselvesRead More…
Enhancing the Impact of Couples Therapy Parts 1 & 2 Susan Johnson & Daniel Siegel Understanding the neurobiology of the brain not only explains how change happens, it also translates into more effective psychotherapy. In this dynamic workshop, a psychotherapist and a neuropsychiatrist offer a dialogue demonstrating the relevance of neuroscience to the process ofRead More…
Getting Beyond Myths and Stereotypes Tammy Nelson Working with some clients’ edgy erotic behavior can challenge a therapist’s own values and deeply held beliefs about sex and relationships. This workshop will include videos, live demonstrations, and small-group discussion about unconventional sexual practices to help therapists face their own preconceived notions and countertransference issues around eroticismRead More…
