Workshops for the Psychotherapist with Bill O’Hanlon

THE ART OF THERAPEUTIC PROBLEM SOLVING

Depression, jealousy, couples conflicts, obsessive-compulsive disorder-such crypto gambling addiction and broad labels do very little to point a therapist quickly toward the rapid, effective interventions required in today’s clinical settings. This workshop will present a rapid and flexible means of characterizing presenting problems in ways that suggest functional solutions. By examining how clients do a problem and already do its solution elsewhere in their lives, therapists will learn how to help them apply existing skills and inner resources to resolving their difficulties. The model is applicable to many forms of therapy, from Gestalt to Jungian to solution-focused work and works well within the time limits of managed care. Bring your most confusing cases!

BRIEF SOLUTION-ORIENTED THERAPY:
Quality, Collaboration and Results in Therapy

Brief Solution-Oriented Therapy is an approach that focuses on eliciting strengths and solutions from people who seek therapy. Rather than having the therapist focus on pathology and deficiencies or search for hidden agendas and functions for symptoms, this approach creates a collaborative environment in which clients are partners in the treatment process. With its goal focus and relatively brief treatment length, this therapy is especially appropriate for an age of managed heath care. Through clear handouts and lectures, videotapes and practice exercises, participants will have the opportunity to master the basics of brief solution-oriented therapy.

BRIEF SOLUTION-ORIENTED FAMILY FOCUSED THERAPY:
Creating New Alternatives for Children and Families in Trouble

This workshop will detail a new approach in dealing with the problems of families, an approach which enlists the child’s and family’s resources, strengths, motivations and expertise in solving their problems, instead of trying to make them fit into a preconceived treatment model. With this approach, even resistant and acting-out kids and families can becomes willing partners and participants in the change process. Through clear handouts, lecture, demonstration, practice and video examples, participants will have the opportunity to learn to use this approach in their clinical settings.

EVEN FROM A BROKEN WEB:
Brief and Respectful Therapy with Adults who were Sexually Abused as Children

Many more people are remembering having been sexually abused and presenting with the aftereffects of this abuse for therapy. This workshop will not dwell, as many do, on the problems engendered by such traumatic experiences, but rather on the treatment of such clients. This is a non-pathology based model that serves to enlist the client’s partnership and resources in the treatment. This approach focuses on presenting concerns and goals to make therapy more brief and focused, providing an alternative to traditional, long-term, past-oriented and cathartic approaches. Extensive summary handouts, practice exercises and videos are included.

POSSIBILITY THERAPY:
Acknowledgment and Possibility in Therapy

Possibility Therapy is an approach that focuses on eliciting solutions and possibilities from people who seek therapy. Rather than having the therapist function as an expert who helps the client, this approach creates a collaborative environment in which clients are partners in the treatment process. Drawing on ideas common to the work of Michael White (Australia), Ben Furman and Tapi Ahola (Finland), David Epston (New Zealand), Steve de Shazer, Milton Erickson and Carl Rogers (United States), this approach constitutes a new, more respectful way of working with people in therapy. Using the basic components of acknowledgment and opening possibilities, this approach balances brief, strategic, systemic therapy ideas with those of individual, humanistic and transpersonal approaches. Videotaped examples and handouts will be used to illustrate the approach in a clear, understandable way.

RESOLVING TRAUMA WITHOUT DRAMA:
New, Brief and Effective Approaches to Treating
Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder

This workshop details a philosophy and method of working briefly and effectively with people who have been traumatized. An array of new methods have shown that previous conceptions and methods of working with trauma are unnecessarily long-term and retraumatizing. These approaches, rather than being based on the past and deterministic models, are oriented towards the present and future and a sense of possibilities. Through demonstrations, lecture, videotaped examples and handouts, participants will be equipped with new tools and ideas to work briefly, effectively and respectfully with even severe and long-standing traumas.

REWRITING LOVE STORIES:
Brief Solution-Oriented Therapy with Couples

Couples therapy can be one of the most challenging types of therapy. Often couples wait until a break-up is imminent before seeking treatment. At times, only one of the partners is motivated for treatment. Even when both seem motivated and eager for change, it is easy for the therapist and the couple to get bogged down with unproductive arguments and recriminations. This workshop will offer a clear, hopeful and respectful model for doing effective brief couples work. Handouts, videos, and practice exercises will be included.

WRESTLING WITH THE ANGEL:
Solution-Oriented Spirituality and Soul in Psychotherapy

Interest in spirituality is re-emerging, but spirituality is often seen as separate from psychotherapy. This workshop is an opportunity for therapists to examine their own spirituality and that of their clients. It will offer practical methods and a conceptual model for connecting with spirituality and using spiritual resources and methods in the service of change.

SOLUTION-ORIENTED HYPNOSIS:
An Empowering Approach to Inner Healing

Hypnosis has been viewed with suspicion and fear through the years, shrouded in many myths. It has been seen as mystical, manipulative or mystifying. Hypnosis, can, when used ethically, be a powerful tool for empowering clients to heal and to resolve problems untouched by usual therapeutic methods. In this workshop, Bill O’Hanlon presents clear, simple methods for learning and mastering the Solution-Oriented Hypnotic approach. The permissive nature of Solution-Oriented Hypnosis ensures that hypnosis can be used with a broad range of clients, even those who have been resistant to other approaches or are afraid of losing control. Through demonstrations, handouts, lectures and practice exercises, participants will be guided step by step through the process of hypnotic induction.

Keynote topics for psychotherapists

NO GURU, NO METHOD, NO TEACHER
OR
If You Meet Erickson on the Road, Kill Him

This talk is an invitation to therapists to find their unique voices and sensibilities and escape from the oppression and undermining influences of unhelpful teachers, training and supervision experiences. Through stories, simple guidelines, humor and poetry, Bill will trace the experiences he had, including a time being Milton Erickson’s gardener, that led to the development of his own voice as a therapist, providing inspiration for the audience to follow a similar path back to themselves.

KEEPING YOUR SOUL ALIVE AS A THERAPIST
IN THE ERA OF MANAGED CARE:
A personal and professional recharging

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