|
May 2013
The Institute Insider
Keeping you connected ~ Nurturing your professional growth
|
|
Meet Our Faculty
Neil is a licensed psychologist and a certified EFT therapist. Dr. Weissman is a staff psychologist at the Veterans Affairs Maryland Health Care System-Baltimore VAMC for the past 17 years and is a Clinical Associate Professor in Psychiatry at the University of Maryland Medical School. He also has a private practice specializing in couples therapy. Dr. Weissman has trained and supervised psychiatry, psychology and social work staff, interns and residents in couples therapy for many years. He is currently the sole clinician on a pilot study using EFT couples therapy for veterans with PTSD and their partners.
Neil will facilitate a training on Friday, May 24 entitled "The Use of EFT in Couples with PTSD: Healing Relationships in the Shadow of Trauma."
|
|
|
Message from Lisa Ferentz, LCSW-C, DAPA
Founder and President
Dear Friends,
So much has happened, recently, to again test our faith in the goodness of people and the possibility of living with a sustained sense of peace and safety. I am choosing to focus on the positive, partly because it is how I live my life both professionally and personally, and partly because we need to be reminded that in addition to Post-Traumatic Stress there is always the possibility to get to Post-Traumatic Growth. In this newsletter we will explore how traumatic events can yield a new, positive state of mind and an enhanced way of living in the world.
And as we focus on ways to grow, I invite you to keep in mind the wonderful trainings we continue to offer at the Institute. It's more than just meeting your continuing education requirements. It's going more deeply into topics you love, so you keep growing. And it's going outside of your comfort zone and embracing new ways of effectively and creatively helping your clients so they can keeping growing and healing.
Warmest Regards,
Lisa Ferentz
|
|
|
 | | Life-changing experiences can ultimately mean life-changing for the better. |
One of the more hopeful and optimistic paradigms in our field comes from Positive Psychology. The concept of Post-Traumatic Growth, based on the work of Tedeschi and Calhout, teaches us that despite the fact that pain, loss, and suffering are associated with traumatic events, as we process and reflect upon the experience we can begin to gain wisdom, insight and resiliency. Through optimism, extroversion, positive affect and a willingness to stay open to experiences, we can manifest post-traumatic growth in arenas including: interpersonal relationships; the belief in new possibilities; personal strength; spiritual and religious growth; and a deeper appreciation for life.
|
How Extreme Changes Lead to Post Traumatic Growth
by Cheryl Cran
Recently I read an article in a recent issue of Marie Claire on an amazing woman who was injured in a parachuting accident. She was told she would never walk again among many other major changes in her life. Prior to the accident this woman was an adventurer who took after her dare devil father, she began base jumping in her early twenties.
She proved the doctors wrong and walks, talks and thrives today as a role model to others who have experienced a major traumatic event in their life.
|
Clinician Resources
Publications
-
Exploring how traumatic events can become catalysts for positive change
- Post Traumatic Growth in Clinical Practice,
by Lawrence Calhoun and Richard Tedeschi
How to assess for Post-Traumatic Growth, and how to address it in treatment.
Video
Additional Resource
|
|
|
|
|
|
Featured Spring 2013 Trainings
|
- Click here to see our Calendar of Classes and to register online.
-
Don't miss our Master Class Consultations: Working With Trauma and Dissociative Identity Disorder. This special series is designed to help you safely process difficult cases involving child, adolescent or adult trauma survivors that evoke feelings of 'being stuck,' angry, frustrated, anxious, overwhelmed or afraid. You are welcome to register for one or more of the various classes. Learn more here >>
|
|
Counseling and Self-Care Tips
|
COUNSELING:
As the Positive Psychology movement suggests, it is just as important to assess for and work with PTG as it is to assess for and treat PTSD. We often ask questions about depression, anxiety, addiction, and sleep disturbance in response to trauma. Remember to include a version of the following questions to explore the possibility that trauma has led to enhanced resiliency and personal growth. These questions are adapted from Stephen Joseph, an expert in the field of Post-Traumatic Growth. Have your close relationships and friendships deepened as a result of the trauma? Has the traumatic experience given you new ways to look at your life and your goals? Has the fact that you've survived the experience connected you to inner strengths and abilities you didn't realize you possessed? Have you noticed an increased sense of gratitude and a difference in your life priorities?
SELF-CARE:
As we look for signs of PTG in our clients, it's just as important to look for those signs in ourselves. We often read about the impact that vicarious traumatization has on clinicians including: feelings of hopelessness and helplessness; depression and anxiety; self-doubt and feelings of inadequacy, and professional burn-out. We, too, can tap into a greater sense of strength, courage, and resiliency as we process the experiences that we bear witness to every week in our offices. When we consciously choose to do so, we can experience enhanced feelings of gratitude, remind ourselves of what's really important in life, make more of an effort to connect with loved ones, recognize that life is short, therefore, push ourselves to take healthy risks, go out of our comfort zones and live life fully.
|
|
NEW - Talk Radio with Lisa Ferentz
|
"What Me Worry? How to Transcend Anxiety, Panic and Fear"
Along with special guest, Daniel Lerner, PsyD, we will describe the main symptoms associated with anxiety, panic and fear and look at both the productive and debilitating impact that these experiences have on us. Dr. Lerner will share his personal struggles with panic and how his healing journey led him to create a highly effective treatment model that has changed his life and the lives of his clients. We will discuss why people grapple with these emotional states and how they influence our thoughts, feelings and behavioral choices. We will learn about differences between men and women as they experience panic, and whether age or other demographics are factors. As we explore the specific treatment approaches that are most effective, we will also discuss the responses that are the least effective and inadvertently wind up adding to and prolonging our discomfort. |
|
The Institute for Advanced Psychotherapy Training and Education, Inc. is an approved sponsor of the Maryland Board of Social Work Examiners for continuing education credits for licensed social workers in Maryland. CEU approval for all trainings is also granted to Psychologists, LCPC's and MFT's. In addition, reciprocity has been granted for clinicians in Washington, D.C., Virginia, and West Virginia.
|
|
|
|
|
