Becoming a Smarter Therapist

Once we’re past the early stages of our training, the accumulating evidence suggests that, despite our own favorable impression of our increasing therapeutic savvy, most of us don’t improve our clinical skills. With so many smart, devoted, hard-working practitioners in the field, how could this be? In “Is Psychotherapy Getting Better?” a provocative article by Diane Cole in the March issue of the Networker, Bill Doherty observed:

This year’s 35th-Anniversary Symposium will not only offer an up-to-the-minute perspective on the field’s recent innovations and advances, but a vision of its future. We'll be exploring how all the ferment of the moment--the exciting possibilities opened up by brain science, the growing understanding of the mind-body connection, the clinical influence of mindfulness practice, the emerging science of human performance--will shape therapeutic practice in the years to come.

In his Symposium keynote address, "The Vision of Integrative Mental Health," Andrew Weil, world-famous pioneer in the development of complementary medicine, will explore the new skills and knowledge the practitioner of tomorrow will need.  We interviewed him recently and here's what he had to say:
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Explore RAIN, a simple but powerful technique for directing attention to one’s inner world, with Tara Brach, a leading Western teacher of Buddhism, known for her ability to integrate psychotherapy with meditative and mindfulness practices.

Understanding and learning how to implement RAIN into your clinical practice will allow you to help clients discover the thoughts, emotions, and feelings that make up their true inner experiences, and will open the door for deconditioning unconscious patterns.

After the session, please take a few minutes to engage in the Comment Board and let us know your reflections. What do you think about this technique and how it might be implemented into your professional or personal life? Do you have any specific questions for the presenter or for your peers? We invite you to share your thoughts, questions, and revelations, as well as including your name and hometown with your comments. If you have any technical questions, please feel free to contact support@psychotherapynetworker.org. Thanks for your participation.

As the final, bonus session in the “Handling Today’s Hidden Ethical Dilemmas” series, Marlene Maheu, a leader and pioneer in telehealth, will discuss how to effectively provide online therapy while maintaining ethical boundaries. She’ll explore such tools as Skype, Google, virtual self-help products, and more.

After this presentation, please take a few minutes to reflect on what was striking to you about this particular session, how it fits in with the series in its entirety, and what you’re thinking after participating in this ethics course and hearing perspectives on a variety of applicable topics. What do you think was most interesting or made the most sense to your practice? What questions remain for you? Do you have any relevant experiences to share?

We encourage you to comment on this session and about the series as a whole. Thank you for your participation, and we hope you come away from this course with a clearer vision of how to handle challenging ethics issues.  If you have any technical questions, please feel free to email support@psychotherapynetworker.org and they'll assist you.

Don Meichenbaum, the founder of Cognitive Behavioral Modification, will lead you in this Bonus Session, “What Expert Therapists Do,” on learning how to master the core tasks of psychotherapy and how to enhance your practice and expertise using web-based training procedures. Discover how to use new computer technology as an adjunctive tool in the psychotherapeutic relationship to improve your outcome and better help your clients.

We encourage you to take a few minutes after this session to comment on what you’ve learned from this presentation, and from the course as a whole. What was most striking or most relevant to you? What questions do you have? As always, if you ever have any technical issues, just email support@psychotherapynetworker.org for help!

“Do you trust me?” What a question to propose to a significant other or a friend. Maybe they’ll respond with “Yes, of course,” but when it really comes down a situation that requires absolute trust, they won’t. John Gottman’s keynote speech, based on research published in his most recent book The Science of Trust, covered the scientific data behind trusting one another—something that’s vital to the success of a romantic relationship, and that impacts so much else in daily life.

“Trust is the number one issue with struggling couples,” Gottman said, “And trustworthiness is the number one most desirable trait.”

Today’s lunch with Don Meichenbaum, Ph.D., the renowned founder of Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy and current Research Director at the Melissa Institute for Violence Prevention and Treatment, was the perfect complement to Sherry Turkle’s morning’s keynote. This morning, Turkle spoke about how our relationships with technology may be harmful to our relationships with each other. Meichenbaum’s presentation, “Technology and the Future of Psychotherapy,” told the other side of the story: how our digital gadgets can be extremely helpful as part of therapy.

Throughout his presentation, he gave us examples of how, through his specific work and through future possibilities, technology can be a key to improving mental health. His work on the Melissa Institute is all available on their website for free, for any mental health professional, educator—or anybody at all—to learn from and use.

This morning’s keynote, “Cyber Intimacy and Cyber Solitude” with Sherry Turkle, perfectly fit the theme of this year’s Symposium, “Braving New Worlds”—and Rich Simon’s musical production of Journey’s “Don’t Stop Believin’” also appropriately fit the theme of exploration. Turkle, the director of MIT’s Initiative on Technology and Self and a clinical psychologist, spoke about the evolution of our relationships with technology, as illustrated by her extensive studies, as well as her own, changed perspectives and understanding of our beloved electronics.

In the 1970s, she was hired by MIT to teach sociology, but was so struck by the “love affair” she reported students having with computers that she decided to change her role at MIT to instead study and track these shifting relationships.

It turns out that we’re not the only ones talking about MIT psychologist Sherry Turkle, our Symposium keynote speaker. Her new book, Alone Together, an insightful look at our shifting relationship with technology, has gotten a lot of press recently, earning glowing reviews from both Newsweek and Time.

Have you ever text messaged someone who’s in the same room or e-mailed people in your office rather talking face-to-face? While our beloved new gadgets make our lives more efficient—and entertaining—are they actually separating us, instead of connecting us? Turkle says they are. This week, she appeared on the Colbert Report to discuss it.

More than 1,200 attendees have already signed up--our largest registration ever! So this is a good time to see which Symposium topics are inspiring therapists the most.

Here are the five most popular sessions so far, in reverse order:

5. Paper Tiger Paranoia:  Transforming the Fearful Brain: Rick Hanson will demonstrate that, while evolution may have hard-wired us to overestimate threat--favoring chronic anxiety--we can use our own neuroplasticity to override this evolutionary heritage. Read more.

4. Treating PTSD and Complex PTSD: 101 Ways to Bolster Resilience: Amidst all the competing claims of different approaches, Donald Meichenbaum, one of the founders of psychotherapy’s “cognitive revolution,” will separate myth from reality in  the treatment of trauma. Read more.

3. The Therapist Under the Microscope: “In Treatment” and the Ethical Challenge of Practice: William Doherty will use clips from the popular HBO series to illustrate the ethical complexities of modern therapeutic practice. Read more.

2. The Attuned Couple: John Gottman, famous for his groundbreaking research on everyday couples interactions, will provide a practical roadmap through even the most densely overgrown marital jungle. Read more.

1. Creating a Beautiful Mind: Symposium keynoter and poet David Whyte will lead a journey through the uncharted challenges of 21st-century life. Read more.

Another workshop in particular that’s worth noting is the new The Hero’s Journey: A Special Two-Day Transformation Retreat. Come to the Symposium a day early for this newly created, two-day session. This popular workshop is filling up fast, as it'll be an unforgettable enrichment to your personal growth. Read more.

Of course, as more registrations come in, these Fabulous Five could find their stars eclipsed by yet newer wonders--after all, the Symposium season is young and we have 175 different events and workshops to choose from. Just click here to explore what workshops are likeliest to float your boat.

Let us know what inspires you the most about the upcoming Symposium.

Sincerely,

Rich Simon
Editor, Psychotherapy Networker