All levels

Family unconscious: Archetypes, family secrets and a child’s ‘destiny’
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Family unconscious: Archetypes, family secrets and a child’s ‘destiny’

In this workshop we will investigate the legacy of the family to its offspring. Not only talents but also traumas, secrets and unresolved conflicts passed down from one generation to the next.

These unresolved issues play a significant role in the formation of current family relations and the « destiny» of each individual family member.

Specifically we will examine:

  •   The archetypes emerging from the father and mother imagos
  •   The archetype of the black sheep and the scapegoat
  •   Incestuous themes in the family
  •   Motifs regarding jealousy, envy and death wishes aimed at the child
  •   Ways to deal with unresolved issues in our own family

Several clinical vignettes will  be presented and you can bring your own cases for discussion.

Ethical dilemmas in psychotherapy
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Ethical dilemmas in psychotherapy

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.

Crisis intervention
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Crisis intervention

We often need to deal with crises in our private office. Situations such as severe physical abuse,
self -destructive behaviors, suicidal ideation, or psychotic breakdown call for a different intervention than the usual « psychotherapeutic» approach.
In this workshop we will examine common examples of crisis intervention through case studies and role playing. You are welcome to bring your own cases for discussion.

Clinical Management
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Clinical Management

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?

Emotional expression in psychotherapy: Is it always beneficial?
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Emotional expression in psychotherapy: Is it always beneficial?

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.

Psyche and soma: Mission Impossible?
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Psyche and soma: Mission Impossible?

Many individuals, because of difficult neonatal and infantile experiences,  have not been able to ‘enter’ their body. Their physical ego, the kernel of the self, has been formed in a problematic way lasting till adult life and appearing as body dysphoria, physical distress, organic disease or psychosomatic disorders.

In this workshop we will examine the formation of the invisible membrane embracing the psychosoma during the first months of life and we will reflect on the negative outcome of an inadequate body-mind integration during childhood and adult life.

The puzzle of psychosomatics
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The puzzle of psychosomatics

Why do we fall ill? Why do we get the specific disease? This seminar will provide answers to these questions based on different theoretical perspectives: psychoanalysis (Franz Alexander, Francoise Dolto, Joyce McDougall) alternative medicine ( acupuncture and homeopathy) and contemporary research findings with patients.
The following diseases will be explored from a psychological perspective: coronary heart disease and hypertension, rheumatoid arthritis, asthma, ulcerative colitis, ulcer migraine headaches and cancer.
The participants will also have the opportunity to explore experientially their personal symptoms.

Clinical Health Psychology
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Clinical Health Psychology

This workshop is an introduction to the area of clinical health psychology and addresses issues encountered by psychologists working with an inpatient or outpatient medical population. It explicates the common problems encountered when we work with physically ill patients; it provides a framework to formulate diagnosis and intervention with the physically ill; it offers practical skills useful in the area of clinical health psychology.