"The Journey of the Therapist" is a full-day conference, with a special preconference offering, to explore the ways we are impacted by our clients across the course of our careers. Using case examples, stories, lectures, and interactive exercises, participants will have the opportunity to examine some of the constructive and challenging ways we are transformed by our work with our clients.
There is considerable research about the ways that therapists are impacted negatively by their work, including studies about compassion fatigue, burnout, and counter-transference, all of which warn us to be on guard against the toxic side effects that can result. Yet we rarely talk about the positive and constructive transformations that take place for the therapist as a result of these encounters. Research conducted with 100 of the most prominent theoreticians in the field inform participants about the personal and professional transformations that take place as a result of being a therapist.
Based on several of Kottler’s books, including On Being a Therapist, The Client Who Changed Me, Bad Therapy, Changing People’s Lives While Transforming Your Own, this workshop will encourage participants to explore instances when they have been changed, for better or worse, as a result of their relationships with clients. Themes will be identified that will enable practitioners to be more intentional in their efforts to foster their own growth and development as therapists and human beings over the course of a clinical career. Clinical applications will be highlighted for improving the quality of therapeutic work, as well as examining the ways these changes influence our development as clinicians over the course of our careers.
Learning Objectives:
The attendee will:
• Understand the developmental phases of our career span as clinicians and how our clients influence this development.
• Develop a better understanding of how the intimate work between therapist and client has a mutually transformative effect, and how we can utilize this process to maximize healing in therapy and our development as clinicians and people.
• Understand what the various positive and negative impacts that result from the decision to become a professional agent of change, looking at the interplay between client and therapist and between life and work.
• Learn the essential elements in the therapy process that effect change, including knowledge of the role of the therapist as a model and the relationship between personal and professional effectiveness.
• Provided with practical ways they can revitalize and take better care of themselves regarding their personal and professional development.
Faculty: Jeffrey A. Kottler, PhD, is one of the most prolific authors in the field of psychotherapy, having written 80 books about a wide range of subjects during the past 30 years. He has authored a dozen texts for counselors and therapists that are used in universities around the world and a dozen books each for practicing therapists and educators.
Some of his most highly regarded works include On Being a Therapist, The Imperfect Therapist, Compassionate Therapy, Making Changes Last, Divine Madness, Learning Group Therapy, Changing Peoples Lives While Transforming Your Own, The Client Who Changed Me, Bad Therapy, and Creative Breakthroughs in Therapy.
Dr. Kottler has been an educator for 35 years. He has worked as a teacher, counselor, and therapist in preschool, middle school, mental health center, crisis center, university, community college and private practice settings. He has served as a Fulbright scholar and senior lecturer in Peru (1980) and Iceland (2000), as
well as worked as a visiting professor in New Zealand, Australia, Hong Kong, Singapore, and Nepal. Dr. Kottler is currently professor of counseling at California State University, Fullerton, and cofounder of the Empower Nepali Girls (http://empowernepaligirls.org/wordpress/) which provides scholarships for lower caste girls in Nepal who would otherwise be unable to attend school.
Who: Beginning and experienced therapists, as well as students.
Continuing Education: 6 hours approved CE credits for full day conference
What is Included: Continental breakfast, coffee, tea, water, and mid-afternoon snacks. Lunch is on your own at one of the many restaurants near the SPU campus.
An optional lunch may be ordered through SPU catering, for an additional fee, available only to those who register online. Full menu descriptions can be found on our website under 'Clinical Conferences' in the Professional Development section.
Where: Seattle Pacific University
Upper Gwin Conference Ctr.
3310 Sixth Ave., Seattle 98119
Cancellation Policy: Fees may be refunded, minus a $50 administrative charge, up to April 29, 2011. No refunds will be allowed after April 29, 2011.
