Narcissism is prevalent in our culture and consequently often met in our work. In this seminar we will discuss:
the clinical signs of narcissism,
specific forms of narcissism ( malignant narcissism, masochistic-narcissistic dynamics)
narcissistic issues in relationships
and the difficulties inherent in psychotherapy with this type of clients.
This workshop aims to help participants find the answers to common questions they often raise as they begin to train as therapists. We use case studies and role-playing to elucidate the nature of the issues raised in this workshop.
What makes therapy different from other relationships?
How long should therapy last?
What qualities constitute a “ healing” relationship?
What is the role of the therapist?
Is it possible to change through therapy?
Is it always beneficial to express our feelings?
Do I run the risk to feel worse if I start therapy?
What theoretical approach works best?
How do I know that I am suitable for therapy?
What do I need to do to become an efficient therapist?
For certain people life entails more than making a living, solving problems and managing daily affairs; for such people life should be passionate, heroic and meaningful. However, even the most down to earth persons start to realize as they grow older that certain event sequences and relationship patterns keep coming up in their lives, creating a personal and deeply engraved life scenario. In this workshop we will look into the myth of Hero as developed by Campbell and Jung and we will get a glimpse into our own life dynamics pertaining to the hero archetype.
Lay persons, as well as many therapists, believe that emotional expression is always beneficial. However, clinical experience indicates that this is not always so. Though appropriate expression of feelings is often crucial in therapy, some clients should not be encouraged to freely express their powerful emotions, since this has often adverse effects. In this workshop you will learn which clients under which circumstances can benefit from emotional expression and which cannot.
We often believe that all people who ask help are suitable for psychotherapy. However, in many cases, the problems confronting the person cannot be resolved through therapy alone. How do we investigate the suitability of a prospective client for psychotherapy?
What other resources should we look for to help this client? Are we the right person to help the specific client? What are the common mistakes made by therapists as they endeavour to help people?
Unfortunately, despite our best efforts, we occasionally fail our clients. We either get into a rut or the client, under the pretext of lack of money or time, leaves therapy prematurely.
In this workshop, we will examine the conditions indicating early in therapy that things may falter later on. Then we will see in actual clinical cases the impact of certain issues that are common in almost every treatment:
Self disclosure of the therapist
Client’s idealization of the therapist
The masochism of the therapist
Participants are welcome to bring their own cases for discussion.
Many therapists believe that ethical issues seldom rise in the course of a treatment. Furthermore, they believe that since they behave ethically in all aspects of their lives, naturally their behavior will not provoke ethical conflicts in their professional work.
However, many issues of ethics are so common and so subtle that they slip by unnoticed, having managed to corrode the therapy process. In this workshop we will discuss some of the more salient issues such as the therapist’s self-disclosure, boundary problems, confidentiality when working with more than one client; we will also discuss more subtle forms of ethics such as the conflict between the values of the therapist with those of the client.
Actual cases will be presented to highlight these points and you can bring your own for discussion.
