You can join the training groups at any time, space permitting. Call 212-228-3467 or email me at drsehl@aol.com if you are interested in attending. There are a few spaces left. It may be possible to attend through teleconference. Click Dr. Sehl's bio to view details about his training and experience.

"For the things we have to learn before we can do them,

we learn by doing them" Aristotle

Effective Interventions in Psychotherapy 

Dr. Sehl's workshops combine learning through theory, case discussion, and experience. Total cost per month - $50 for one group, $100/month for both groups. Taking both groups is recommended but not required.
 

Supervisory/Educational Group (every other Tuesday starting Sept. 28, 2010)
Fee: $25        Time: 7:00 to 8:00 PM  

• Working with the * “difficult” client. Interventions that help clients stay in treatment. How do we help patients get to a place where affects can be tolerated? How can we help someone reduce self attacks?  Case examples will illustrate interventions that can resolve resistances and avert patient acting-out and premature termination.
• Which interventions help patients feel connected to the therapist? Which ones can disturb this connection? What are the best interventions with preoedipal patients?
• We will look at the positive and negative impact of interpretations, particularly with preoedipal patients. Also how can we respond to personal questions and have the best therapeutic outcome?
• Harm reduction and modern analytic approaches for people with drug & alcohol problems will be discussed. We address such questions as: If opioids serve an anti-rage function, what interventions help a client deal with rage as they cut down on their use?

    Transference/Resistance Group   (meets every other Tuesday following the Supervisory/Educational Group) Call or email Mark Sehl to discuss this.

Fee: $25        Time 8:00 to 9:00 PM

* To understand our patient's hesitancy to talk freely we need to understand our own motives behind a resistance to speak openly. When working with the "difficult client" therapists often get stuck, resulting in a treatment stalemate. This is often due to the therapist's lack of awareness of attitudes and feelings toward patients and can occur with clinicians at any level of experience. The consequences often culminate in abrupt termination of treatment. It is challenging for therapists to resolve a resistance in a group, yet it is one of the most effective learning experiences a therapist can have. Taking risks in a supportive accepting environment is how we grow as therapists, and how we develop courage to help clients take risks. If we can't take risks how can we help our patients do the same? See link below for workshop details.

Join workshop at any time, space permitting. 
Time and place: Every other Tuesday. Groups resume Tuesday, Sept. 28, 2010

59 West 9th St., Bell #2 
One-time fee waiver for first-time attendance of Dr. Sehl's workshops!

(212) 228-3467 or drsehl@aol.com  to register and reserve a place.   
  for workshop details. 

    Comments from a workshop participant

James McKracken was telling me of client's reactions to his work with them and I asked him if he could write them up. He gave me permission to publish them.

"On the Modern Analytic Approach with a "difficult" or "resistant"
client/patient:
As I was leaving my last job a few of my clients shared with me their
experience of the therapeutic relationship and process with me during
the last 9 months that I was their social worker in their day
treatment facility, and I found their expression of this as evidence
of the validity and appropriateness of what I've been learning through
supervision with you in the modern analytic approach.

One client, an older woman in her late 60s, had come to be on my
caseload about 7 months ago, having been discharged from another day
treatment program within the agency because of violent behavior
towards another client and "total disregard" for "professional opinion
and intervention."  Apparently, many other staff had experience with
her in the past, and she was known to explode in rages at the staff,
refuse treatment interventions, and apparently this was a big problem
for the staff.  I was warned by my supervisors that this client was
going to be incredibly challenging.  Well, during our 7 months of work
together, she did explode into a few rages with me, and she was
crystal clear that never would she accept any suggestion of mine if I
were to offer any.  Through our supervision/training sessions, I took
to my sessions with her that I needed to remember a few things: 1) she
experienced people as intrusive and disrespectful and rage was what
she knew to do to manage her boundaries, 2) she had no reason to trust
me or any other professional, 3) I was not going to change her, nor
was this my job... my job was to show interest, try to understand her,
and give her the space to develop.  Keeping these points in mind was
very helpful in managing my own stuff that I brought to the sessions
and stuff that got stirred up.  At any rate, upon my termination with
her I got something I didn't expect.  On the day which was to be my
last day where I was encounter her in the program, she came in dressed
quite nicely: different wig on, very lovely dress, make up, etc (this
was all very rare for her).  Other clients were commenting on her
presentation, and I overheard her say that she had dressed up for me,
and that she wanted me to know how special I was to her.  So, later in
the day we had our final session together, and she said to me that she
found our work together very unique.  Not much had changed in her
life, nor her personality, but she felt like she finally had a space
where she could "just be me," without having to worry about being
kicked out of an office or cajoled into doing things she found to be
senseless.  She had said that if all the other workers she was
encountering in the day treatment programs had a similar style of
working with her, she would have been less likely to be triggered into
her rages, her rebelliousness, and would have been able to monitor her
self better.  I really think that my focus on truly being with her,
showing genuine interest in her at her pace, and not focusing on
"making her insightful" or having to have some sort of behavioral
change really made this possible for her.

In terms of illustrating transference to an early caregiving object, I
held a final group for all of my clients on my caseload to reflect on
what changes had come about in their lives during the past 9 months of
working with me, things they liked/disliked and found
helpful/unhelpful about me and our work together, and what hopes they
had for themselves in the future.  About 20 of my 40 clients showed up
to the group, and during the group many shared that they were quite
bereft about my leaving my post despite it being for noble and "good"
reasons (i.e. moving to support my wife while she's in school).  In
the middle of the group, one of the group members stands up and, with
the group's permission, proceeds to give me a card that they had
prepared for me.  It was a Father's Day card.  I thought at first that
perhaps they had selected this because Father's Day was right around
the corner and the availability of such a card was convenient, and
besides, I was anywhere from 10 to 30 years younger than most of these
clients (most of them men perhaps old enough to be my father).  Before
I asked about the meaning of the card the group members stated that
they selected this card purposefully because they all felt like they
had received something in our relationships that scratched some
emotional itch they couldn't quite put their finger on.  They said
that my "tolerance, patience, and genuineness" created a safe space
they hadn't felt other places and that talking with me was "like
having a good mirror to see ourselves in," and the closest thing they
could equate that relationship with was like being with a "good"
father that they hadn't had.  I really think that this is testament to
the power of a therapeutic relationship, and I think the modern
analytic approach captures and transfers these qualities very well.
While I know that certainly I have many qualities that have allowed me
to provide such a relationship to clients, I credit much of what they
said to the training I've had with you on this approach and therapy in
general."

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Call or email ASAP to reserve a space. You can join the workshop at any time space permitting.