In this four-hour workshop, we will combine hands-on technique demonstration with psychobiological theory concerning the state-of-the-art psychotherapeutic treatment of trauma and related somatization disorders.
Learning Objectives
(1) Understand the significance and evolution of the Power
Therapies, i.e., those new or little known trauma psychotherapy
techniques that offer significant improvements over traditional methods in terms of the speed, depth and permanence of trauma symptom
reduction while minimizing client retraumatization or destabilization. The original Power Therapies categorization was developed by traumatologist Dr. Charles Figley and involves four cutting edge trauma psychotherapy techniques, Eye Movement
Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR), Thought Field
therapy (an accupressure-based desensitization tool) , Traumatic Incident Reduction and Neurolingusitic Programming's Visual-Kinesthetic Dissociation. Protocols for all four methods will be reviewed.
(2) Achieve introductory-level working knowledge of both the techniques, their underlying theoretical rationale and suspected neurophysiological mechanisms of action.
(3) Learn Power Therapy
integration strategies and explore their
clinical utility.
(4) Become familiar with the concept of the
Neurodevelopmental Power Therapy integration strategies, it's roots in the work of Allen Schore, Bruce Perry and Bessel Van der Kolk and it's implications for Neurotherapy and the Neurosciences as a whole.
(5) Review the field experiments of Dr. Schneider combining EMDR with the crossover point in alpha-theta training and the possible therapeutic/ scientific synergies between EEG Brainmapping and neurotherapy on the one hand and the neurodevelopmental power therapies on the other.
Michael Gismondi, MA, LPC
Mr. Gismondi has been a psychotherapist since 1976, licensed as a Psychologist in 1982 and as a Licensed Professional Counselor in 1992. He has received graduate-level training in clinical and educational psychology, as well as Information Science, Artificial
Intelligence and the modeling of human information processing. He was the lead organizer of the first Power Therapies Integration Conference in Denver (1997) and was more recently asked by Professor Charles Figley to help develop an advanced traumatology certification program for Florida State University. Mr. Gismondi specializes in innovative
approaches to trauma work and Behavioral Medicine