Treating Depression with Hypnosis:
Integrating Cognitive-Behavioral and Strategic Approaches

7 Continuing Education Hours

Michael D. Yapko, Ph.D.

Courtyard Marriott
in Sherman Oaks, CA

• Overview of Workshop:
  Depression is the most common mood disorder affecting Americans, a problem that is still growing steadily across all age groups. Depression is also one of the more treatable disorders, as long-term therapy and follow-up studies indicate. Despite the overstated and oversimplified view that suggests depression is caused by a neurochemical imbalance in the brain, the clinical and research evidence make it quite clear that depression is about much more than just “bad chemistry.” In fact, depression can have many causes, and there are many factors, including psychosocial ones, that can influence its course and prognosis.
  
  Our knowledge of depression has greatly improved in recent years, firmly establishing the essential role of psychotherapy in treatment. Simply put, there are things therapy can do that no medication will ever be able to do. Whenever psychotherapy is indicated, so are specific identifiable patterns of hypnotic influence, since the two are fundamentally inseparable. Hypnosis is a means for absorbing clients in new and different ways of thinking about and relating to their own internal experience. Thus, integrating hypnosis with empirically validated treatments for depression (such as cognitive-behavioral and interpersonal therapies) is not only possible, but desirable. In this one day clinical training, we will consider those treatment issues and approaches most relevant to individual approaches to therapy, including cognitive, behavioral and strategic approaches to treatment. Our focus will be on integrating hypnosis into the treatment process, emphasizing the merits of hypnosis as a vehicle of teaching those skills known to reduce and even prevent depression. Approaches will be modeled, and there will be some opportunity for structured practice of specific techniques.
  
  This skill-building workshop reaffirms the value of good psychotherapy employing hypnotic and strategic approaches. Depression has proven to be highly treatable with directive, active, and experiential interventions, like hypnosis.
  
  Some of the Topics to be Addressed
  •Models of depression, models of hypnosis
  •Biology and psychology on a collision course
  • Epidemiology as an informant
  •Content, process, solutions
  •Patterns of depression and therapy as pattern interruption
  •Rigidity as the problem, flexibility as the solution
  •Video Demonstration: Hypnosis and proactive interventions for depression
  •Accessing client resources as a means of empowerment
  •Coping styles and depression
  •Attributional styles and negative expectancy
  •Temporal orientation, hypnosis and depression
  • Hypnotically building expectancy
  •Designing hypnotic and strategic interventions
  •Hypnosis as a means of “seeding” homework
  •Learning to think in terms of risk factors and prevention
  

• Objectives of Workshop:
  Attend Treating Depression With Hypnosis and enhance your ability to:
  
  Identify key patterns that cause and maintain depression
  
  List and describe the role of attributional style patterns as depressive risk factors
  
  Develop specific active hypnotically based intervention strategies for facilitating recovery
  
  Design structured homework assignments to facilitate the development of life-enhancing skills to reduce relapses
  
  Identify opportunities for hypnotically implementing preventive strategies
  

• About the Presenter:
  Michael D. Yapko, Ph.D., is a clinical psychologist and marriage and family therapist residing in Fallbrook, California. He is internationally recognized for his work in depression and outcome-focused psychotherapy, routinely teaching to professional audiences all over the world. To date, he has been invited to present his ideas and methods to colleagues in 28 countries across six continents, and all over the United States.
  
  Dr. Yapko has had a special interest which spans more than a quarter century in the intricacies of brief therapy, the clinical applications of hypnosis and directive methods, and treating the disorder of major depression. He is the author of numerous books, book chapters, and articles on the subjects of the brief therapy of depression and the use of strategic psychotherapies. These include his newest book, Hypnosis and Treating Depression: Applications in Clinical Practice, his classic hypnosis textbook, Trancework: An Introduction to the Practice of Clinical Hypnosis (3rd edition), the award winning Treating Depression With Hypnosis, as well as these other well known works: Hand-Me-Down Blues: How to Stop Depression From Spreading in Families; Breaking the Patterns of Depression, and, Hypnosis and the Treatment of Depressions.
  
  Dr. Yapko is a member of the American Psychological Association, a clinical member of the American Association for Marriage and Family Therapy, a past Fellow of the Royal Society of Medicine’s Division of Hypnosis and Psychosomatic Medicine (in England), a member of the International Society of Hypnosis, and a Fellow of the American Society of Clinical Hypnosis. He is a recipient of The Milton H. Erickson Award of Scientific Excellence for Writing in Hypnosis and the Pierre Janet Award for Clinical Excellence from the International Society of Hypnosis, a lifetime achievement award for his contributions to the field.

  Fees:

  Member: $175

  Non-Member: $210

  Student: $100

  To make reservations or for more information contact: 

  Call: 1-888-32-SCSCH
  or
  Email: administrator@scsch.org
  or
  Click here for downloadable registration form

  Mail registration form with your check to:

  SCSCH, 10921 Wilshire Blvd., Suite 504, Los Angeles, CA 90024-4001