GPSCH HypNewsNewsletter of The Greater Philadelphia Society of Clinical Hypnosis Volume 3 Number 4 Fall 2007 FROM THE PRESIDENT – Judith S. Berman, M.A. |
| Dear Colleagues, As we finalize the program schedule for the coming year, I reflect on last year’s array of presentations. Our Program Chair, Adrienne Mendell, M.A., has done a yeoman’s job with the presentations… that led me to the dictionary to double check the meaning… and yes, from Webster’s Third International Dictionary: "laborious effort and great usefulness," not, however, "a man of large build." Last year was a delight. Adrienne’s efforts were wonderfully supportive and I benefited, with all of us, from the diversity and quality of programs: seven Monthly Presentations; two all-day Workshops; and Beginning and Intermediate Level Workshops in Clinical Hypnosis, each 20 hours of training over a 3-day weekend. Actually, we’ve had two "yeomen" at work here: our Training Chair, Reinhild Draeger-Muenke, Psy.D., LMFT, engineered the 20-hour training programs. We began last fall with Dr. Scott Fried and a surgeon’s perspective on hypnosis; his warmth and wisdom were a jump start to the year. The next program, an innovative variant of EMDR, Harriet Hollander’s ECEM ( eye closure, eye movements ), was informative and thought provoking. I know that many of us have added EMDR to our skill set. December’s program on working with the hypnotic language of couples was, in my opinion, a much needed presentation dealing with couples, understanding, utilizing, and re-framing their skills in shifting each other out of the negative roles they absorbed during childhood in their families of origin. Jane Parsons-Fein, Ph.D., skillfully addressed how to bring these unconscious and unresolved imprints from childhood into awareness and transform the couple’s experience of each other. For January’s meeting I presented my own mini-workshop on inductions and had everyone practice the Reverse Arm Levitation. I was surprised at how few people had ever done or experienced it. It was well received and precipitated discussion among the Board of Governors with a consensus to do more of similar workshops – a "back-to-basics" array of techniques with time to practice. The next program brought Phillip Accaria, Ph.D. and his expertise using muscle testing as ideomotor signals in the service of bypassing dissociation, ratifying EMDR protocols and assessing covert ego states. Many of you know I am an old proponent of the use of ideomotor signaling. Next, Reinhild Draeger- Muenke, Psy.D., LMFT presented on accessing the unconscious through metaphor and indirect suggestion, thoughtfully and playfully engaging the entire group and increasing awareness of the pervasive presence of metaphor in our everyday lives. The year ended with our Annual Dinner Meeting and a presentation by ASCH President, Julie H. Linden, Ph.D., whose presentation was titled "Ms-Merism – Women Leaders in Hypnosis" and was, in part, a lovely tribute to Clorinda Margolois, Ph.D., past president of GPSCH and a renowned teacher of hypnosis. Dr. Linden presented an array of dynamic women who have contributed to the history of our field and added a Feminist perspective. The Dinner Meeting allows for lively conversation over good food. Michele Fadel-Lyons, LCSW, our Treasurer, adds her baking skills to mine for a mouth-watering display of desserts. This evening is but one of the many benefits of GPSCH membership, a free dinner for members and a guest, hopefully a colleague who will become interested in hypnosis and our local Society. Our November all-day Workshop, brought Canadian teacher Assen Alladin, Ph.D. and his skills with cognitive hypnotherapy in the treatment of depression. Our spring Workshop, which offered CME’s to physicians as well as CE’s for psychologists and social workers, featured Dr. Richard Kluft’s program on techniques with trauma and dissociation. This full day of teaching can hardly be quickly summarized, but in review of my notes, I pulled this quote: "Hypnotic techniques are designed to teach control." Our intensive 20-hour training programs that are ASCH-Approved feature careful course planning by a variety of skilled teachers and supervised practice time. I’m very proud that GPSCH plans to offer a Beginning Hypnosis Training every fall and Intermediate Training every spring. I urge all who have not taken Intermediate Training to do so, or if your Beginning or Intermediate Training was many years ago, you might consider a refresher course. I’m very proud of the ambitious training that GPSCH provides to its members and the professional community at large. This coming year we plan to develop a program in Ethics and Hypnosis. This will most likely be a 3-hour/3 CE course offered every other year, in keeping with health care professionals’ licensing requirements. Our upcoming program calendar is listed elsewhere in this newsletter – and on our website: www.GPSCH.org. And so I must mention another yeoman – Dr. Bernardo Merizalde who will be writing a book on the saga of the website. It will include a large cast of characters and a number of time distortion techniques. Please visit the website, take note of upcoming meetings and join us. I hope this brief review of last year’s programs will wet your appetites for the coming year. Our Monthly Meetings continue to be a free benefit to members along with coffee, tea and treats for nibbling. I look forward to our membership continuing to grow and diversify. I look forward to increasing my own understanding and skill with the uses of hypnosis in psychotherapy. As I struggle with the limitations of managed care while maintaining a psychodynamic orientation, I especially look forward to our spring Workshop with Dr. Elgan Baker. I know you all know that treating an Axis I only person with Generalized Anxiety Disorder is not at all like the treatment trajectory of a person with an Axis II diagnosis. I’ve attended several workshops with Dr. Baker many years ago. He is a superb teacher and his material on working with the developmental blocks in borderline psychopathology is most valuable. I look forward to seeing all of you at meetings and having good conversation during coffee breaks. Judith S. Berman, President Judith S. Berman, President |
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Please submit items of interest to Stephen.Glass@crozer.org. "YOU'VE GOT MAIL" Who Cures Your Pain? I am amazed at the number of articles lately in the magazines about pain and how it can be treated. When I say I am amazed, it is that all the articles talk about how the medical system can do things to you to help your pain such as: injections; new medications; implanted nerve stimulators; and surgeries. If you read the articles carefully, they all say that these are new ways modern medicine can cure you, but it only works for some and many patients are not better or worse. Left out of these articles is the fact that patients can often help themselves, and if not completely, they can at least enhance the effectiveness of the medications or surgeries. We have used relaxation and biofeedback, tai chi, yoga and hypnosis in our practice for close to 20 years. I used to wonder why my patients required surgery so much less than my colleagues. I know that they have been just as happy and often have avoided the pain and complications that come with surgery or extensive medication use. Now I don’t wonder anymore; it is because our patients are self empowered. They maintain control over their healing and their bodies. In many cases of pain or medical disease, no one is considering the PEOPLE and from where their pain or pathology is coming. There are many causes for pain: from a splinter; nerve injury; cancer; broken bones; to stress and suffering brought on us all from the daily stresses of life. Many times, if left unchecked, these stresses cause real physiologic effects and pain. Headaches are often brought on by stress, muscle tightness about the back of the neck and pressure on the nerves. If we relax, get a hot shower,massage, Jacuzzi or meditate, it often addresses the problem. The use of medical hypnosis, yoga, tai chi, meditation, prayer and other self healing techniques simply allows them to place their bodies and minds in a relaxed state, and the body knows how to heal itself. This is the key to healing. Not what is done to you or your body, but rather whether or not what Candice Pert refers to as the "mind-body," can be placed in a state that allows your body to heal itself. This is no different from how your body heals a cut or gets rid of a cold. It knows how to take care of you so long as you let your mind-body rest and get quiet. When you rest and take care of you, eat right, and exercise, the healing has no choice but to happen. For the rest of this story and my personal experience, please visit our website at www.nervepain.com. Best regards, Dr. Scott Fried Dr. Fried is Member-at-Large, GPSCH Board of Governors. – SGG ABOUT APA and ASCH CREDITS GPSCH continues to offer APA CE credits through the co-sponsor relationship with Margolis Berman Byrne Health Psychology, P.C. In the interest of simplifying things, obtaining APA credits will be a flat rate, $20 for GPSCH members and $40 for nonmembers for each Monthly Meeting. When you sign in for each meeting, please indicate if you want APA credits and leave a check with the person at the registration desk. Please do not pay cash. Certificates will be handed out at the end of the program per APA requirements. – Judith Berman, President GPSCH ACADEMIC CALENDAR 2007
GPSCH Training and Workshops are at Thomas Jefferson University FROM THE EDITOR - Stephen G. Glass, ED.M. FOR YOUR CONSIDERATION July 2, 2007 Seated on the bench at the end of the dock"Sit in reverie, and watch the changing color of the waves that break upon the idle seashore of the mind." - H. W. Longfellow |