September 26-27, 2008

Friday September 26        

AFFECT REGULATION TOOLS: PRACTICAL STRATEGIES FOR INDIVIDUAL AND RELATIONSHIP THERAPY

Presented by

Carolyn Daitch, Ph.D., BCETS

Director of the Center for the Treatment of Anxiety Disorders in Farmington Hills, Michigan

This workshop offers an affect regulation toolbox of techniques that incorporate hypnosis and mindfulness. With the right tools, therapists can help highly reactive patients stay calm in stressful situations. Patients who are easily triggered can learn to tone down and manage their emotional responses. Therapists can dip into this toolbox for practial and effective interventions that can help patients mitigate anxiety, stress, psychosomatic symptoms and navigate conflicted relationships with spouses, adult children and co-workers. The workshop also teaches therapists to transfer therapeutic learning through easy-to-master at-home practice sessions.

Saturday September 27

The  Use  of  Hypnosis  in  a  Family Medicine Practice

Joseph Zastrow,  M.D.

This workshop will review the current anatomic and radiographic understanding of the black box we call hypnosis. Joe will review the literature for support of hypnosis in certain key medical conditions. He will review rapid induction techniques used in his office practice and bring his practical pearls of wisdom. His combined didactic and interactive approach to teaching should provide value to all types of practitioners.

Expanding Hypnotic Pain Management to the Affective Dimension of Pain - Brief Ericksonian Approach

Jeffrey B. Feldman, Ph.D., Assistant Professor Section of Neuropsychology, Department of Neurology

Wake Forest University School of Medicine

Neuroimaging studies have identified multiple interacting brain structures and pathways associated with the sensory, affective and cognitive dimensions of pain that are likely to be involved in individual differences in pain sensitivity. Hypnotic suggestion was used to differentially activate brain structures most associated with the sensory and affective dimensions of pain. It was found that the affective rather than the sensory dimension of pain was most predictive of autonomic arousal. Hypnotic approaches to pain management have to date focused primarily on the sensory aspects of pain. Explicitly incorporating the affective dimension of pain as a simultaneous focus of treatment greatly expands the role of hypnosis in pain management in a manner congruent with the way Erickson practiced. It generates a brief tool for increased coping in the high percentage of less responsive patients who do not get initial significant reduction of the sensation of pain through hypnotic procedures. The proposed workshop will involve a didactic presentation, clinical demonstration and individual exercises designed to enable participants to more effectively work with the affective dimension of pain.