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…
Taking Charge of Your Practice Casey Truffo Many private practitioners think the only answer to increasing income is seeing more clients. But it takes more than marketing and good clinical work to have a financially viable practice. This workshop will offer a model for approaching your practice as a small business of which you areRead More…
How to Embrace Somatic Wisdom Daniel Leven Too often our focus as therapists is on our client’s verbal narrative. What happened? Where? When? We tend to neglect another powerful storyteller: the client’s body. In fact, the body records our emotional experience as adeptly as our mind. Our viscera, muscles, and nervous systems record trauma, whichRead 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…
Going Beyond Acceptance to Self-Compassion Richard Schwartz Mindfulness has become a popular and useful tool in psychotherapy, but therapists too often encourage clients to adopt a passive-observer stance in therapy, as if it’s enough to just observe thoughts and emotions from a place of separation. This workshop will provide a comprehensive overview of how toRead 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…
How to Match Clients with the Right Methods Amy Weintraub Have you ever had clients try a mindfulness exercise that made them more anxious, or get emotionally flooded when you asked them to breathe deeply? What about clients who are quick to tell you, “I don’t like that breathing stuff!”? If you’re applying mind-body practicesRead 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…
Enhancing Your Practice and Enriching Your Life Barbara Van Dahlen Most of us enter the field with a desire to help those who are struggling in life and suffering emotionally, but we may not always see the opportunities to contribute to the broader issues that affect all of our communities. This workshop offers an opportunityRead 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…
IFS and Our Relationships with Food and the Body Jeanne Catanzaro Mindful eating has become an increasingly popular antidote to dieting, seen as a helpful strategy for differentiating emotional from physical hunger and for encouraging self-acceptance. But eating mindfully by itself often isn’t enough to fully address the extreme beliefs and emotions about food andRead More…
Gentle Protocols for Rewiring the Brain Courtney Armstrong Hypnosis is making a comeback as research demonstrates its effectiveness in relieving anxiety, resolving traumatic memories, breaking habitual patterns, and reducing chronic pain. In this workshop, you’ll learn how to safely guide your clients into hypnotic states, effectively frame suggestions, clear subconscious blocks, and activate the client’sRead 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…
Harnessing an Underutilized Therapeutic Resource Joan Klagsbrun The “felt sense”—our implicit body wisdom—is a resource in each of us that typically lies at the edge of awareness but has the capacity to accelerate the healing process and make therapy more effective. When therapists welcome and encourage exploration of the felt sense, clients speak from theirRead More…
We’re Older. Are We Better? Daniel Siegel & Bessel van der Kolk On the occasion of the Symposium’s 40th anniversary, two of the most influential figures in our field reflect on the most important advances of the past four decades as well as the prospects for improving our therapeutic effectiveness in the future, with aRead More…
Applying Dyadic Mindfulness in Your Work Parts 1 & 2 Halko Weiss & Maci Daye While traditional talk therapy relies largely on conscious awareness, research shows that explicit brain functions have only limited impact on our feelings and behaviors. In this experiential workshop, we’ll explore how to use Hakomi’s mind-body approach to transform limiting beliefsRead More…
Overcoming Internal Attachment Disorder Parts 1 & 2 Janina Fisher Many therapists believe the primary antidote to clients’ feelings of self-loathing, shame, and worthlessness is total acceptance and unconditional positive regard. But unfortunately, clients alienated from traumatized, disowned, or despised parts of themselves can’t internalize that message, no matter how hard the therapist tries. ThisRead More…
Four Core Skills Parts 1 & 2 Deany Laliotis How does a therapist know how to navigate the emotional landscape with a client when the present is more about the past? How do we help the client whose motivation for change is compromised? This workshop offers a conceptual framework from contemporary models of psychotherapy andRead More…
How to Stay Steady and Sturdy Parts 1 & 2 Wendy Behary When anger enters the treatment room, whether or not it’s directed at us, it can often take us by surprise, rattle our composure, sidetrack the therapy session, and overwhelm us with fear, fury, humiliation, or other triggered emotions. If we allow our clients’Read More…
A Therapy for the 21st Century Parts 1 & 2 Eric Gentry What if there was a simple, efficient, and effective way to treat clients’ traumatic stress that didn’t involve them revisiting the painful memories of the past? Forward-Facing Trauma Therapy (FFTT) is a method of trauma treatment that combines components of CBT and brainRead More…
Clarifying Boundaries in 21st-Century Practice Parts 1 & 2 Mary Jo Barrett & Linda Stone Fish The ethical rules for therapists used to be straightforward and unambiguous: no gifts, no dual relationships, and no out-of-session contact. But the ease of digital connection and the shift in our profession’s norms have introduced new questions about professionalRead More…
Exploring Our Untold Stories Parts 1 & 2 Kenneth Hardy For all the progress we’ve made since the Civil Rights movement, racism is woven into the very fabric of our economic, social, and political institutions. And despite the progressive political attitudes of most therapists, people of color still experience special challenges in the mental healthRead More…
Memory Reconsolidation in Everyday Practice Parts 1 & 2 Bruce Ecker & Sara Bridges Neuroscientific advances in memory reconsolidation enable us to achieve therapeutic breakthroughs with previously unheard of consistency. In this workshop, you’ll learn how to engage the neural process that decommissions implicit learnings that drive PTSD, compulsive behaviors, and insecure attachment. You’ll seeRead More…
A Road Map for Complex Chronic Problems Parts 1 & 2 Lane Pederson Originally developed as a therapy to help borderline clients, dialectical behavior therapy (DBT) is a structured model that helps streamline clinical decision-making with difficult-to-treat clients, including those with eating disorders, alcoholism, and a range of self-injurious behaviors. DBT integrates mindfulness, motivational techniques,Read 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 to make Therapy More Portable Parts 1 & 2 Chris Germer From depression and anxiety to addiction and trauma, a lack of self-compassion lies at the core of nearly every presenting problem. When therapy is effective, the therapist’s compassionate attitude seems to rub off on the client. Luckily, self-compassion exercises can also be taughtRead More…
A Dialogue with Salvador Minuchin Parts 1 & 2 Salvador Minuchin, Jeffrey Zeig & Susan Johnson At 95 years old, Salvador Minuchin is the world’s most famous living family therapist and probably the most imitated practitioner ever. In this special workshop, he’ll show a series of excerpts from some of the most memorable therapy sessionsRead More…
Processing Trauma without Talking about It Parts 1 & 2 David Grand Symptoms of unprocessed trauma—including dissociation, numbing, and chronic anxiety—are notoriously difficult to eliminate through talk therapy. The reason: the overwhelmed brain is unable to process verbal information about the events. But Brainspotting, a brain-based method for clearing trauma blockage without clients having toRead 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…
