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Morning Plenary Speakers Monday Morning
This is a laugh-while-you-learn presentation will explain what priming is, how and why it is influential, and teach you how to incorporate priming into your therapeutic dialogue and increase the impact of your counseling. An added bonus will be an in-depth discussion on how to incorporate the same scientific principles into your personal life and show how they are indispensable tools for breaking your bad habits and achieving of your personally desired goals. Clifton Mitchell Ph.D., Licensed Psychologist, has a love for teaching and over 20 years experience as a trainer and motivational speaker. He delivers practical, down-to-earth information in a uniquely entertaining, fast-paced style that is filled with examples from his years of experience in mental health. For the past 12 years, he has studied and presented seminars on methods for dealing with resistance in therapy. In his book, Effective Techniques for Dealing with Highly Resistant Clients, he presents the best cutting-edge approaches available for managing resistance. Dr. Mitchell has keynoted at conventions and spoken to hundreds of businesses and organizations on effective techniques for improving communications and for creating change through an understanding of priming. His ideas have also been used in Tennessee’s Families First welfare reform initiative to empower women to develop the skills and attitudes necessary for major life changes. Dr. Mitchell is currently a professor of counseling at East Tennessee State University in Johnson City, Tennessee, where he received the Teacher of the Year award in 2002. Tuesday Morning
This presentation will explore the kinds of evidence, qualitative as well as quantitative, that can help those interested gain a deeper and wider knowledge of the varieties of the experience of recovery from alcoholism. After a brief examination of the literature on modalities other than Alcoholics Anonymous and natural remission, it will focus on those two phenomena, which wide experience suggests are the most common modes of recovery. I will describe the present findings of a current research exploration of spirituality in recovery, a longitudinal study employing both quantitative measures and the qualitative analysis of the stories people tell in recovery. Dr. Kurtz taught American History and the History of Religion in America at the University of Georgia and Loyola University of Chicago. From 1978 to 1997, he served on the faculty of the Rutgers University Summer School of Alcohol Studies and from 1987 to 1997 as a lecturer at the University of Chicago, School of Social Service Administration. After a brief stint as Director of Research and Education at Guest House, Ernie retired to Ann Arbor, Michigan, where since 2002 he has served as Adjunct Assistant Research Scientist (than which rank there is no lower) in the Department of Psychiatry of the University of Michigan, School of Medicine. Thursday Morning
Main, Fonagy, Bebe, Stern, Schwartz, Fosha and other contemporary theorists have evolved sophisticated techniques for changing internal working models using the therapeutic relationship to create a secure attachment. In this workshop, we will identify common characteristics of the distorted internal working models of complex trauma survivors, focusing particularly on clients who present with eating disorders and dissociative symptomatology. We will show how specific relational interventions, arising from a rich body of attachment literature and research, can restructure attachment, starting with the therapeutic relationship, then extending to intra-relational dynamics between self-states, and finally interpersonal relationships in general. Mark F. Schwartz, Sc.D. earned his doctorate in Psychology and Mental Health from Johns Hopkins University. He is a licensed psychologist, an adjunct professor in the departments of Psychiatry and Neurology at St. Louis University School of Medicine, and formerly the Executive Director of the Masters and Johnson Institute and Inpatient treatment programs, nationally recognized for their innovative treatment with trauma survivors. Over the past 25 years, Dr. Schwartz has achieved national recognition for his contributions in a variety of clinical areas, including the treatment of intimacy disorders, marital and sexual dysfunction, sexual compulsivity, sexual trauma and eating disorders. He lectures nationally on these topics and has authored numerous articles and book chapters, including the books, Sexual Abuse and Eating Disorders and Gender and Sexuality. Dr. Schwartz is currently on the editorial board of the Journal of Eating Disorders. Currently, Dr. Schwartz is Director of Castlewood Treatment Center for Eating Disorders and Trauma and the Relational and Sexual Therapy Program of Missouri. |
From a clinical perspective, priming is a general, overarching term used to describe any type of statement that directly or indirectly introduces new ideas to clients and prepares them for new perspectives and behaviors. The research on the impact of priming is quite compelling (Bargh & Chartrand, 1999; Gollwitzer, 1999; and Kirsch & Lynn, 1999); yet, the research on this powerful linguistic tool has not been discussed with regard to its therapeutic implications.
The term “science teaches” having lost credibility, a new mantra has emerged: “evidence-based practice.” But what does this mean? At a time when the intellectual gold standard has become encapsulated in the term "evidence-based," it is appropriate to ask whether this shibboleth imported from particular aspects of medical practice is justifiably extended to all truth-seeking. We all value double-blind, placebo-controlled studies of randomly selected objects when such are ethically permissible, but is this the only kind of ‘evidence’? 
We have conceptualized sexually compulsive behavior as a manifestation of disorganized attachment pattern during childhood. In the absence of a stable, secure, trusted attachment figure to help dyadically regulate distress, survivors often resort to extreme strategies such as dissociation, sexual compulsion, self-harm and impulsivity to self-regulate and distract from their intense and overwhelming emotional experiences. Deeply entrenched, early rational templates based on past experiences of misattunement, neglect, shame and unpredictability with caregivers condemn survivors to interpersonal re-enactments. These patterns are not only recapitulated in external relationships; they also extend to internal relational exchanges between parts of the self, leading to chronic inner conflict, internal abandonments of meaningful parts of the self, and ruthless self-criticism.
