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.

A lively, thought provoking application of motivational interviewing (MI) to enhance readiness to change and commitment to treatment. This talk focuses on the spirit of MI, and how to understand crucial components including motivation, confidence, resistance, and commitment to change.

Allan Zuckoff, Ph.D.
Research Instructor in Psychiatry and Co-Director of Training, Center for Psychiatric & Chemical Dependency Services, Western Psychiatric Institute and Clinic, University of Pittsburgh Medical Center. Co-Author, Improving Treatment Compliance (Hazelden).

These seminars provide an overview of a neurobiological and interpersonal understanding of the human mind and how it develops from early years onward. Practical suggestions are woven throughout the seminar for therapists working with children, adolescents, adults, couples and families.

Daniel J. Siegel, M.D.
Director, Center for Human Development, L.A., CA, Associate Clinical Professor, UCLA, Author, The Developing Mind, Author, Parenting from the Inside Out.

This presentation explores: Mind, Brain and Experience, Memory, Attachment, Emotion, Self-Regulation, Mental Representation and States of Mind.

Interpersonal Connections — This presentation provides a view of how relationships directly shape and are shaped by the neural processes that give rise to the mind.

Self-Understanding — The most robust predictor of a child’s security of attachment is the caregivers’ autobiographical narrative coherence (i.e. how they have made sense of their life). Deepening self-understanding in the context of interpersonal relationships that reinforce authentic emotional relating can help transform an adult’s attachment to a free, flexible form of security.

Neural Integration — This presentation examines the ways in which the disparate functions within one brain, or between two or more brains, can be functionally linked. Neural integration can be seen as the fundamental process by which coherent narratives emerge during the resolution of trauma.

Intervention & Discussion — The seminar concludes with an interactive process that offers a review and practical suggestions to help individuals deepen their own self-understanding and interpersonal relationships.

The reflex to connectedness rescues the person from fragmentation. This connectedness may be therapeutically restored along four pathways of experience: moment to moment, person to person, event to event and one part of the person to other parts. Dr. Polster spells out the techniques used to enhance connectedness along each pathway.

Erving Polster, Ph.D.
Director, Gestalt Training Center, San Diego, CA, Clinical Professor, Dept. of Psychiatry, University of California, San Diego, Author, A Population of Selves From the Radical Center (with Miriam Polster).

Psychotherapy was invented as a medical tool for the treatment of neurosis. A people’s therapy takes the next step, leaving the confines of the office to enter into the lifetime process of every interested person. With religion as a precedent and large group formation as an instrument, therapy would address natural, nonpathological psychological needs within the framework of lifelong communal procedures. Dr. Polster spells out some of these procedures an their theoretical underpinnings.

Erving Polster, Ph.D.

Dr. Yalom presents material on the nature of existential therapy, the influence of an existential perspective on the therapist-client relationship, the characteristics of the healing therapeutic relationship, the use of the here and now, letting the client matter, and considerable material on self-disclosure. The session includes a question and answer period.

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

More tips to include empathy in psychotherapy, guidelines for effective, pragmatic use of dreams in therapy, and the Occupational Hazards & the Occupational Privileges of our profession. Dr. Yalom presents work in progress a new teaching novel (Schopenhauer’s Group) on the subject of group psychotherapy and the life of Arthur Schopenhauer, and his contribution to our field. A brief synopsis of the novel and then focus on important group therapy themes - the therapists search for meaning and confrontation with death, the group therapist as a model-setter, use of the here-and-now in group, the addition of a new and difficult member to the group, action group, extra-group contact, and group as a dress rehearsal for life. The session will conclude with a question and answer period.

Post-Conference Workshop - Approved For 6 Ceu Hours Meeting Ethics Requirement

How To Stay Out Of Trouble With Everyone: A Workshop On Law And Ethics For The Mental Health Provider

Stephen R. Feldman, J.D., Ph.D.
Clinical Professor, Department of Psychiatry & Behavioral Science, School of Medicine, University of Washington, Author, Law & Mental Health Professionals (Washington), published by APA, 1995 (Supp 1998).

What it is, How it Works, Courts and Torts, Boards and Complaints, Codes of Ethics, Areas of Danger, Avoiding it All.