Hope Research and Practice Institute

We had a great workshop group last Saturday on the topic of "Couple Therapy: A Focus on Differentiation and Attachment". Participants offered many insightful questions and comments. I will be advertising some new online self-directed short courses in the near future, so watch this space.

If you are a counsellor or psychotherapist you know that working with couples can be both deeply rewarding and challenging. Of course, our aim is always to provide the most effective service possible for our clients. In this half-day professional development workshop, the key relationship issues of differentiation, attachment, expectations, and emotions will be examined to help you better assess relationship dynamics and a range of therapeutic strategies will be highlighted. The aim of this half-day workshop is to provide therapists with a comprehensive and practical framework for understanding couples work.

Date:
Sat, 6 February 2021
Time:
9:00 AM – 12:30 PM AEST
10:00 - 1:30 (EDST)
9:30 -1:00 (SA)
7:00 -10:30am (WA)

Registration: https://hoperpi.com/education-training/continuing-professional-development-cpd-workshops/couples-therapy-focus

“Trauma affects the entire human organism—body, mind, and brain. In PTSD the body continues to defend against a threat that belongs to the past.”
— Bessel Van Der Kolk, The Body Keeps the Score: Brain, Mind, and Body in the Healing of Trauma

Counsellors and family therapists are often asked to help couples resolve relationship difficulties, often at a stage when their issues have become entrenched and the couple is ‘stuck’. Working with couples is highly rewarding but can also be very demanding, as we seek to journey with them through the ups and downs of their relationship. We need to have a solid framework for understanding the nature of intimate relationships and the problematic dynamics that often arise. In this 2-hr professional development workshop the key relationship issues of differentiation, attachment, expectations, and emotions will be explored.

See web link below for registration.
https://hoperpi.com/education-training/continuing-professional-development-cpd-workshops/working-couples-integrative

Last professional development opportunity of the year - 'Working with Couples: An Integrative Approach.

- A live 2hr online workshop
Date: 17th December
Register:
https://www.hoperpi.com/education-training/continuing-professional-development-cpd-workshops/working-couples-integrative

When working with people struggling with ‘problems in living’, sometimes called ‘mental health problems’, it is important that the provider of psychological services consider whether they are working with a ‘condition’ or a person. A ‘condition’ is a constructed idea, a person is real. As mental health professionals we will always be most effective when we engage the real person in front of us, not a label.

There is an increase in mental health issues within the Australian community and certainly the corona virus has contributed to this increase. As mental health issues place a large burden on individuals and on the community, it is important that we understand the nature of mental illness as our conceptualisation of it largely determines our response. Unfortunately, the tendency is to think of mental illness as a medical problem, when, in fact, mental illness is predominantly a psycho-social-spiritual problem. It is essential that we address the causes of problems accurately. Imagine prescribing cancer medication for diabetes. The majority of psychiatric medication does not address the cause of mental health issues because the majority of causes aren’t organic. Of course, when there is irrefutable evidence that a problem is organic, we should prescribe appropriate medication. If the majority of mental health problems are psycho-social-spiritual in nature, then we should provide psycho-social-spiritual support. The community needs to be disabused of this confusion.

As therapists and mental health professionals we all want to increase our effectiveness in helping people recover from traumatic experiences. Trauma responses are varied, being expressed in many forms such as emotional shut down, aggression, hypervigilance, distractibility and more. It is important that we are keenly aware of these responses and know how to provide appropriate care which meets the needs of people in the here-and-now. In this live online workshop, the nature of trauma and the range of accompanying symptoms will be identified and approaches to treatment will be explored. In particular, there will be a focus on the body’s neurological/physiological and psychological responses and how treatment which attunes to the body's reactions and also seeks to enable memory reconsolidation, can be highly effective in reducing the effects of trauma.

Registration: http://hoperpi.com/education-training/continuing-professional-development-cpd-workshops/working-trauma-experiences

No matter one's approach to counselling and psychotherapy, there are fundamental principles of human change that effective therapy always activates. For a short time 'Hope Research and Practice Institute' is offering a four-week online short course exploring some of these key change principles at a reduced price of $60. More details about the course can be found via the following link http://hoperpi.com/.../key-principles-therapeutic-change

The recovery model of mental health normalises the fact that human beings naturally struggle with living in the world, and therefore that such struggles do not need to be medicalised. To struggle is not to have a disease, but a problem in living. The recovery model highlights five important factors in mental health recovery:
1. Connectedness and supportive relationships
2. Hope
3. Identity
4. Meaning
5. Empowerment and building a secure base
The role of mental health practitioners is to join with people in their struggle and support them in engaging with these five factors. What an amazing privilege!!

An often-neglected quality is hope. Hope enables us to imagine a different way of being, to look to the horizon with positive expectancy. Genuine hope grounds us in the present while drawing is us to our future.