The Healing Power of Emotion

Session 1) Harnessing the Power of Emotion in Couples Therapy with Susan Johnson, Ed.D.

Discover how to work more experientially and effectively with couples by learning to:

• Distinguish between primary and secondary emotions
• Understand attachment styles and use attachment theory as a road map for your couples work
• Identify power struggles, soften them, and reestablish felt connection between partners
• Encourage vulnerability by incorporating the 3 S’s—Slow, Soft, Simple—into your therapeutic style
• Use focused empathic reflection to reconnect, repair, and rebuild their bonds

Session 2) Bringing the Felt Sense into the Consulting Room with Joan Klagsbrun, Ph.D.

Learn how focusing can bring a new dimension of emotional exploration and effectiveness into your work by:

• Mastering the 6 steps of Focusing
• Developing clients’ capacity for self-acceptance and body awareness
• Helping clients find a verbal handle for their nonverbal states
• Accessing and recognizing positive emotion
• Using focusing to access wisdom and creative intelligence

Session 3) When Your Client Cries: Do’s and Don’ts with Jay Efran, Ph.D.

Explore a new two-stage approach to working with tears based on:

• Going beyond the steam-kettle theory to understand the physiology and psychobiology of tears
• Recognizing the connection between tears and parasympathetic recovery
• Incorporating techniques that support the function of crying without being intrusive
• Focusing on the thoughts and memories that induce tears, not the feelings

Session 4) Our Brain’s Negativity Bias: Taking in the Good with Rick Hanson, Ph.D.

Learn how to mobilize clients’ underutilized resources and fortify their resilience by:

• Understanding how evolution biases us toward negative emotion
• Teaching clients how to savor positive experiences
• Developing methods for turning positive states into traits
• Assessing what resources and antidote experiences a client needs
• Maximizing brain change through self-directed neuroplasticity

Session 5) Healing the Angry Brain with Ron Potter-Efron, Ph.D.

Apply the principles of neuroplasticity with anger problems by:

• Understanding the distortions of the angry brain
• Teaching clients how to recognize their blame triggers and avoid ‘tripping’ them
• Learning how to help clients create a step-by-step brain change plan
• Exploring the effectiveness of tools and approaches such as journaling and group process
• Discovering how to get angry clients to sustain their commitment to change

Session 6) Using Mindfulness to Accept Emotionality with Diana Fosha, Ph.D.

Explore how to use the therapeutic relationship to help bring enhanced vitality and awareness to your clients’ feeling states by:

• Learning ways to witness and accept emotional processes
• Discovering the glimmers of growth in the midst of a trauma narrative
• Tracking moment-to-moment shifts in emotional connection through dyadic mindfulness
• Deepening the therapeutic alliance through meta-processing
• Recognizing emergent transformational experiences in the consulting room