Mastering the Neurobiological Waltz Janina Fisher Clients raised by neglectful and frightening caregivers may as adults find themselves living with an unconscious somatic legacy of early traumatic attachment, yearning for closeness but unable to tolerate or sustain intimacy. Even their nervous systems rebel against physical proximity to others, or can’t tolerate being without proximity. AsRead More…
It’s Not What You Think Martin Seif & Sally Winston Recent evidence suggests that unwanted intrusive thoughts (UITs) represent an unreported epidemic affecting as many as 6 million people in the US. People with UITs fear that they might act on their intrusive thoughts, or come to believe that their thoughts represent significant defects inRead More…
A Mindful Approach to Value-Based Action DJ Moran Despite the popularity of mindfulness, not all our clients want to embrace an Eastern philosophy and sit on a meditation cushion every day. Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) offers a way to use the power of contemplative practice while promoting concrete and quantifiable change. In this workshop,Read 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…
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…
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…
Busting the Common Myths Sally Winston & Martin Seif Almost everything we learned about OCD in graduate school prior to 2000 was just plain wrong: it’s not rare, obvious, hard to treat, or a manifestation of deep underlying conflict. We now know it’s common, often unrecognized, and that it’s far more helpful to treat whatRead More…
Uplifting Interventions to Heal the Heart and Rewire the Brain Parts 1 & 2 Courtney Armstrong Research from brain science and positive psychology shows that activating positive emotional states is the fastest route to instilling hope, stimulating creativity, spurring motivation, and empowering our clients. But how do you help clients access resourceful states when they’reRead More…
What Works and What Doesn’t Jonah Paquette While the field of positive psychology emphasizes building on clients’ internal strengths rather than their “pathology,” many therapists remain unsure of how to put its emphasis on gratitude and optimism to practical use in the consulting room. In addition, they often don’t know how to present positive psychologyRead More…
Who Says It’s Always Toxic? George Faller As a society, we often appear to be waging a war on stress, but it’s time to reconsider our one-sided view. We have a choice about whether to view stressful situations as being invariably toxic or as opportunities to face a healthy challenge. This experiential workshop will presentRead More…
How to Create a Sustainable Mindfulness Practice Plan Caroline Welch The biggest challenge to creating a sustainable mindfulness practice is changing the ingrained habits that get us off track. For many women those distractions come in the form of the nonstop, converging demands of work, clients, family, friends, etc. So how do we put limitsRead More…
A Pathway to Fuller Awareness Jessica Dibb We live, therefore we breathe—yet few of us are aware of the profound implications of how the way we breathe shapes our daily experience. In this session, we’ll explore how to use conscious breathing to regulate our emotional state, relax our overstimulated brains, increase our energy, improve ourRead More…
Learning to Live from the Self Amy Weintraub This day of LifeForce Yoga practices will nourish your physical, emotional, and mental body, and prepare you to take full advantage of your Symposium experience. You’ll learn unique breathing, meditation, and movement practices, adapted for clinical settings, that will enhance your capacity for openness and authentic connection.Read More…
Discovering Inner Peace and Freedom Elana Rosenbaum No other method has had more influence on bringing self-care and awareness training into the mainstream of healthcare today than Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR). Originally developed by Jon Kabat-Zinn and now taught at more than 250 medical centers around the world, it offers simple and powerful practices such as bodyRead More…
Loving Others without Losing Ourselves Chris Germer Imagine if we spoke to ourselves in the same tone and with as much wisdom as we address clients. What if we ourselves stopped to regularly take a deep breath, the way we advise our clients to do? This workshop will teach you how to make self-compassion real in yourRead More…
