Full Course Description

Addictive Behavior as the Problem

Program Information

Objectives

Utilize clinical strategies to alleviate symptoms of shame in clients.
Integrate Sensorimotor Psychotherapy interventions that teach clients how to regulate their nervous systems and alleviate symptoms of anxiety.
Analyze the efficacy of cognitive interventions to improve treatment outcomes.

Outline

Introduction to co-existence of substance abuse and mental health issues within clients

Introduction to trauma and addications in clients
Introduction to trauma' impact on children

Experiencing Sensorimotor Psychotherapy with trauma

Helping Clients Reduce Their Shame
In-depth overview of Sensorimotor Psychotherapy

Target Audience

Addiction Counselors, Counselors, Marriage and Family Therapists, Nurses, Psychologists, Social Workers, Other Professions

Copyright : 03/20/2016

The Neurophysiology of Addiction & Brain Based Relapse Prevention Part 1

The Neurophysiology of Addiction & Brain Based Relapse Prevention

Program Information

Target Audience

Psychologists, Counselors, Social Workers, Addiction Counselors, Marriage & Family Therapists, Nurses, and other Mental Health Professionals

Objectives

Explain to clients the fundamental brain changes that occur with addiction.
Develop a treatment approach that addresses the five fundamental tasks of recovery.
Practice a comprehensive systematic relapse prevention plan.
Implement the four essential strategies in the relapse prevention plan.
Utilize cognitive and experiential techniques to increase the client’s motivation to prevent relapse.
Identify clients who are likely to relapse from those that are not likely to relapse.

Outline

The Neurophysiology of Addiction

The continuum of abuse to dependence
Normal neuro-transmission
The neurophysiology of dependence
Addiction’s influence on co-occurring disorders such as depression and anxiety

The Neurophysiology of Motivation and Desire

Addiction’s hijacking of the reward and motivational system
The relationship between emotional dysregulation and relapse
The relationship between the frontal lobes, motivation and relapse

The Five Tasks of Recovery

Core emotional issues such as depression and anxiety that are driving the addiction
Strategies for day-to-day emotional regulation
Relapse prevention
Changing the Motivational System: Life satisfaction and dopamine
Structuring ongoing recovery support

Relapse Prevention From a Brain Perspective

Dopamine–driven triggers for relapse
Cognitive, behavioral, and emotional relapse prevention strategies
Motivational coping: the essence of a brain-based relapse prevention plan
Practice the feeling of not wanting to relapse

The Elements to Long-Term Relapse Prevention

Effectively assess relapse potential
Prepare for the dopamine spikes
Train the family/support system
Identity as a non-user without loss
The Life Plan: long-term life satisfaction free of addiction

Copyright : 01/15/2015

A Harm-Reduction Approach to Addictions

Program Information

Outline

Introduction

Addiction as a Dilemma
Valerie Case Study

Compassionate Pragmatism

Compassion
Pragmatism

Harm Reduction Principles

Curiosity, Respect, Acceptance
Small Incremental Change
Collaboration
Public Health/Medical Harm Reduction

Challenges & Diversity of People with Risky & Addictive Behavior

Clinical Challenges
Limitations in the U.S.
The Tyranny of “Abstinence-Only”
Motivational Stages of Change
Scientific Revolution/Paradigm Shift

Theoretical Models

Multiple Meanings Model
Relational Psychoanalysis & Meaning
Cyclical Psychodynamics
Psychobiosocial Model

Integrative Harm Reduction Psychotherapy

Seven Therapeutic Tasks of IHRP

Objectives

Assess how addictive behavior reflects the interplay of biology, meaning, habit, and social context.
Determine why the harm-reduction stance is essential to effective treatment across the spectrum of addictive severity.
Evaluate seven therapeutic tasks that combine relational psychodynamic, CBT, and mindfulness interventions to address addictive behaviors and the whole person.
Use strategies to address risky behaviors including Urge Surfing, Unwrapping the Urge, Microanalysis, Embracing Ambivalence, Decisional Balance, and the Ideal Use Plan.

Target Audience

Psychologists
Physicians
Addiction Counselors
Counselors
Social Workers
Marriage & Family Therapists
Nurses
Behavioral Health Professionals

Copyright : 03/22/2019

The iPorn Universe

Program Information

Objectives

Articulate for clients the differences between porn use and the signs and symptoms of addiction.
Characterize and address the trends of modern porn addiction that can negatively affect clients, such as interpersonal conflict, inability to become aroused by real sex, dysphoria, an increase in thrill-seeking behaviors, and self-isolation.
Analyze the neurobiological mechanisms of behavioral/process addictions, and integrate salient treatment approaches into your practice, including CBT-Internet Addiction, holistic lifestyle attunements, and elements of Mindfulness-based Stress Reduction.

Outline

For the Purposes of Psychoeducation, Articulate for Clients the Differences Between Porn Use and the Signs and Symptoms of Addiction

Identify when usage become problematic.
Examine how non-problematic usage can be tracked to prevent a slip into addiction.

For Assessment and Treatment Planning, Identify Which Modern Porn Addiction Trends Are Most Affecting Your Clients’ Well-Being

Recognize what deficiencies in lifestyle may be contributing to problematic levels of porn usage for your clients.
Identify inflamed emotional needs which may be fueling problematic porn for your clients.
Discover the common trends of porn addiction, based on Mark Griffiths’ research into the Domains of Behavioral Addictions (Salience, Mood Modification, Tolerance, Withdrawal, Conflict, and Relapse).

Outline the Neurobiological Mechanisms of Behavioral/Process Addictions and Their Treatment Implications

Explore how behavioral/process addictions affect the brains reward circuits.
Discover how behavioral/process addictions affect brain development.
Examine how behavioral/process addictions differ from substance-based addictions.
Limitations of current research – case study model and paucity of research base

Utilize Clinical Strategies That Integrate Modern Treatments for Porn Addiction

Explore the effectiveness of traditional relational approaches on the underlying causes of behavioral/process addictions.
Discover Cognitive Behavioral Therapy-Internet Addiction (CBT-IA) as the first direct treatment for behavioral/process addictions.
Review Holistic lifestyle attunement strategies.
Integrate Mindfulness-based Stress Reduction (MBSR) into a behavioral/process addiction treatment program.

Target Audience

Psychologists
Physicians
Addiction Counselors
Social Workers
Marriage & Family Therapists
Nurses
Other Behavioral Health Professionals

Addiction Treatment and Couples Therapy: Using Emotionally Focused Therapy to Strengthen Sobriety

Program Information

Target Audience

Psychologists, Physicians, Addiction Counselors, Counselors, Social Workers, Marriage & Family Therapists, Nurses, and other Behavioral Health Professionals

Outline

The Medical Model and Addiction
1. Key Figures in Modern Treatment
Emotion Focused Therapy
1. Emotion Focused Therapy for PTSD
2. Definition of Trauma
3. The Power of Treating Trauma Within the Context of the Couple Relationship
Neuroplasticity and Change
1. Importance of Heightened Emotion in Change
2. How Emotion is More Powerful than Cognition
Adverse Childhood Experiences
1. Adverse Childhood Experiences and Addiction
2. Attachment and Trauma is Key to Working with Addiction
3. Importance of Context in a Person’s Life
Cycle of Trauma Attachment and Addiction
1. How the Couple System Hijacks Attachment Fluidity
2. The Relationship between Attachment and Emotion in Systemic Change
3. How Partner’s Stress Strategies Become the Other Partner’s Negative Trigger
The Process of EFT
1. Five Basic Moves of EFT
2. Addressing the Addiction through Attachment Style
3. Experientially Engage Client with the Underlying Emotion that Addiction Regulates

Objectives

Discover how to use micro-tracking to identify and make explicit the rigid negative attachment-based patterns that perpetuate relational distress in addictive relationships
Discover how to systematically engage emotion to create bonding moments that support the addict in reaching out to their partner rather than their substance/behavior of choice
Discover how to apply powerful attachment-based interventions as an effective alternative to the familiar modes of confronting denial that often fail and trigger relapse

BONUS: Grief and Addiction

Program Information

Objectives

Determine why addiction grief is often weighted in self-blame and guilt
Determine how to help loved ones sort through the shame, isolation, and the roles they played in an addiction death
Assess tools for helping clients deal with addiction grief and the “if only’s” that accompany it, such as responsibility clarification and separating out the loved one’s voice from the addiction

Outline

The Opioid Epidemic

Medicine got it wrong

Substance Related Causes of Death

Death Shapes Grief

Types of grief

Tools

Validate
Minimization

Pure Grief versus External Triggers

Seligman’s 3 P’s

Understanding Survivors Guilt

Sudden Death versus Suicide

Three most common challenges

The 3 C’s of Addiction

Target Audience

Psychologists
Physicians
Addiction Counselors
Counselors
Social Workers
Marriage & Family Therapists
Nurses
Other Behavioral Health Professionals