Many clinicians deal with resistance and hostility with confrontation to “break through denial”, or passive styles of psychotherapy to explore psychodynamics and internal conflicts. This presentation suggests concepts and strategies to “engage” people into participatory treatment and finesse counseling skills to prepare people for change.

David Mee-Lee, M.D.
Psychiatrist who trains and consults full-time (www.DMLM.com), Chief Editor, ASAM Patient Placement Criteria for the Treatment of Substance-Related Disorders.

This workshop helps participants to truly collaborate with the clients to define the focus of treatment and develop accountable, person-centered services. It will teach skills that help retain people in treatment and encourage honesty, not game playing; accountability, not arguing and confrontation.

This presentation focuses on intervention points, and issues for the very bright, highly intellectualizing substance abuser. The dynamics of “engagement” are illustrated using film and case examples. The role of “optimism” in recovery is also explored.

Richard Fields, Ph.D.
Author, Drugs in Perspective, 5th edition, McGraw Hill, 2003. Private Counseling Practice, Tucson, AZ & Bellevue, WA.

Recent advances in attachment theory, affective neuroscience and developmental research are radically reshaping our understanding of how brain and psyche work. This keynote focuses on the implications of these developments for clinical practice and will use videotapes of actual therapy sessions to illustrate the experiential therapeutic work where emotion and relatedness are front and center.

Diana Fosha, Ph.D.
Associate Professor of Psychology, Adelphi University, The Derner Institute of Advanced Psychological Studies, New York, N.Y., Author, The Transforming Power of Affect: A Model of Accelerated Change, Basic Books, 2000, Developer, Accelerated Experiential- Dynamic Psychotherapy (AEDP).

When people have therapeutic experiences, they feel seen, understood and valued. It is in this realm that we find a crucial frontier to the healing of trauma – restoring not only the capacity to love, but also the capacity to feel loved. The full experience of this, in turn, gives rise to the “core state”, a state where vitality, ease, calm, and relaxation prevail.

Dr. Yalom presents material from his last work “The Gift of Therapy” as well as presenting new material on the therapeutic characteristics of the therapist patient relationship, therapy and patient self disclosure, the pragmatic use of dreams in therapy and how to beware the Occupational Hazards & cherish the Occupational Privileges of our profession.

Irvin D. Yalom, M.D.
Professor Emeritus of Psychiatry Stanford University, Author, Existential Psychotherapy. Author, Group Psychotherapy. Newest book, The Gift of Therapy, 2002.

Dr. Yalom will present a biography of a novel. The theme of the novel is an outpatient therapy group meeting for a year in which one of the members is a Schopenhauerian and attempts to apply his philosophical perspective to the process of therapy. Group therapy principles will be discussed to include: self-disclosure, the use of the here and now, death anxiety, meaning in life, adaptive conflict, the genuineness of the therapy relationship.

Two to three weeks after Dylan Klebold and Eric Harris attacked Columbine High School on April 20, 1999, students in the Columbine junior class wrote essays about how they were experiencing it. These 111 essays illustrate 3 mechanisms young people employ in order to overcome trauma. These 3 mechanisms abreaction (emotional expression of the experience), context (understanding and finding perspective) and correction (fixing or preventing the experience) are illustrated.

Lenore Terr, M.D.
Clinical Professor of Psychiatry, University of California, San Francisco School of Medicine, San Francisco, CA, Author, Too Scared to Cry; Author, Unchained Memories: The Stories of Traumatic Memories: Lost and Found; Author, Beyond Love and Work: Why Adults Need to Play.

Personal myth is the lens through which we evaluate everything we encounter and determine how we will respond. Hendrika discusses the archetypal symbolism in our lived narratives and looks at the power of mythic imagination to transform obstacles and conflicts into events of meaning and possibility. The interdependence of personal, family, and cultural mythology is addressed.

Hendrika de Vries, M.T.S., M.F.T.
Teacher Mythology & Personal Transformation, Pacifica Institute, Carpenteria, CA, Licensed M.F.T., Santa Barbara, CA.

Through didactic presentation and structured learning experiences increases awareness and skill level in understanding and managing Anger, Hostility, and Aggression (AHA) with children and adults.

Michael Leeds, Ph.D.
International and Community Mental Health Trainer and Consultant, Eugene, OR.

Americans report that disrespect, lack of consideration and rudeness are serious, pervasive problems that affect them on a personal, gut level. This workshop examines the dynamics of anger and hostility and the risks they present. This workshop explores successful methods for coping with uncivil behavior, and therapeutic methods for dealing with the angry student/client.

This presentation is designed to demonstrate the power of working with archetypal patterns and motifs in couples’ conflicts. Drawing on the ancient wisdom of the human imagination, we look at dreams and mythic imagination as powerful therapeutic tools that can help reveal both the problems and the possibilities in couples’ issues and create a safe container for developing new relational patterns. Michael Leeds, Ph.D.