AN INTENSIVE PRE-CONFERENCE WORKSHOP AT THE ACBS WORLD CONFERENCE IN SEATTLE, WASHINGTON
For registration and information click here
Dr. Dennis Tirch & Dr. Laura Silberstein Tirch
Dates & Location:
The Westin Seattle, Washington, USA
9am-5:15pm on Tuesday, June 14, 2016
9am-5:15pm on Wednesday, June 15, 2016
Contact Hours/CE credits available: 13
Workshop Description:
During this workshop, participants will explore how the science of compassion can be used to enhance and expand our clinical work, using an ACT-consistent, Compassion Focused Therapy approach. Recent advances in psychological research, theory and practice have suggested that compassion may be a significant, active process in psychotherapy effectiveness. This two day clinical/experiential workshop is specifically designed to help ACT and other behavior therapy practitioners deepen their understanding and practice of compassion focused treatment of anxiety and mood disorders . Participants will learn a new evolutionary model of compassionate flexibility, that is grounded in Compassion Focused Therapy (CFT), ACT, and elements of Functional Analytic Psychotherapy (FAP). Direct, experiential exercises, including a range of compassion focused imagery practices, will invite participants into contact with their compassionate minds. Rather than being a soft option, the deliberate activation of our compassion system can generate the emotional strength and psychological flexibility we need to face life's challenges, and step forward into lives of meaning, purpose and vitality.
Human beings have evolved to have a fast acting, automatically triggered threat detection system that can fire up at a moment’s notice to help us survive. However, the power and efficiency of our threat detection leads to trouble, when a struggle with our feared experiences begins to dominate the ways that we approach our lives. Fortunately, we have also evolved to have powerful allies in facing life’s – our evolved capacity for mindfulness, wisdom and compassionate courage. This workshop will take an experiential journey into the foundations of CFT's compassionate imagery, meditation practices, and applications in exposure and behavioral activation. These methods can compliment and strengthen even a state of the art, ACT approach. Participants will learn how cultivating compassion can undermine fusion with shame based self-criticism, help address the narrowing influence of threat based behavioral patterns, and how the experience of compassionate courage can help to mobilize us to move towards lives of greater meaning and vitality.
About Dennis Tirch, Ph.D.:
Dr. Tirch is the Founder and Director of The Center for Compassion Focused Therapy in New York and President of The Compassionate Mind Foundation USA. Dr. Tirch is an author of 6 books, and numerous chapters and peer reviewed articles, including "The ACT Practitioner’s Guide to The Science of Compassion" and "Buddhist Psychology and CBT: A Clinician's Guide” with Dr. Laura Silberstein and colleagues. He has served on the faculty of Cornell Weill Medical College and Albert Einstein Medical School. Dr. Tirch regularly conducts Compassion Focused ACT (CFACT) and CFT trainings & workshops globally. He is a Diplomate, Fellow & Certified Consultant & Trainer for The Academy of Cognitive Therapy, Founding Fellow and the President of The NYC-CBT Association, & Founding President Emeritus of The New York City Chapter of ACBS. Dr. Tirch is an Associate Editor of The Journal of Contextual Behavioral Therapy.
About Laura Silberstein, Psy.D.:
Laura Silberstein, Psy.D. is the Associate Director of The Center for Compassion Focused Therapy in New York. Dr. Silberstein also serves as a Adjunct Assistant Professor and Consultant at Albert Einstein Medical College. She is the co-author of 3 books including Buddhist Psychology and Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, A Clinician’s Guide and The ACT Practitioner’s Guide to The Science of Compassion. Dr. Silberstein completed a 2 year externship at the American Institute for Cognitive Therapy, in Manhattan; a pre-doctoral internship at Wyoming State Hospital, and a two year Postdoctoral Fellowship in Cognitive Behavioral Therapy at the Cognitive Behavioral Institute of Albuquerque, New Mexico. Silberstein has advanced experience, and serves as a consultant and trainer in a range of 3rd Generation behavior therapies including CFT, ACT, and DBT.
Learning Objectives:
The attendee will be able to:
1) Help clients to better accept and effectively respond to anxiety and other difficult emotions; through the activation of their evolved capacity for mindful compassion.
2) Explain and apply the fundamentals of Compassionate Flexibility, including a contextual and evolutionary theory of emotion regulation, attachment, and cognition.
3) Integrate compassion focused methods into ACT-consistent practice
4) Practice and teach compassion focused imagery methods and guided meditations drawn from CFT, Buddhist Psychology and ACT
5) Develop and use of the concept of The Compassionate Self Imagery practice in the treatment of anxiety and depression
6) Adapt a compassion focused approach to evidence based techniques such as exposure and response prevention, defusion, and behavioral activation
7) Assess and formulate a compassion focused case conceptualization for people being treated for anxiety and mood disorders
8) Create and implement compassion focused interventions implementing self-as-process role plays and multiple chair work
9) Describe and apply the Three Circle Model of Emotions from CFT
10) Implement compassion focused interventions in the service of cultivating psychological flexibility
Target Audience: Beginner, Intermediate, Advanced, Clinical
Components: Conceptual analysis, Literature review, Experiential exercises, Didactic presentation, Case presentation, Role play
Package Includes: A general certificate of attendance, lunch, and AM & PM coffee/tea break on site.
