Jeff Harris, Ph.D.

Human functioning is rooted in action and other parts of the behavioral system. Ineffective actions are both the cause and effect of psychological problems. Psychotherapy is only effective if it can foster tangible changes in behavior. When we help our clients enact more effective behaviors, it is likely to improve their well-being as well as support more functional thoughts and adaptive emotions.
 

This seminar will teach both behavioral conceptualization and intervention methods. Reinforcement and exposure will be highlighted as common factors as well as more technical interventions. Distinct methods of behavioral formulation will be introduced that allow us to understand different parts of the behavioral system. Reinforcement and operant conditioning will be highlighted as the most accessible way to approach cognitive conceptualization. Diversity is addressed in this seminar by describing the way cultural contexts shape clients’ behavior.
 

Video demonstrations of foundational behavioral skills drawn from Behavioral Activation will be used to help participants prepare for practice. These skills will address three general processes: (1) Exploration and functional analysis of current patterns, (2) Guided discovery to uncover more adaptive functioning, and (3) Enacting adaptation outside of psychotherapy. More advanced behavioral interventions will be previewed as possibilities for future professional development.
 

Although behavior change is often an essential part of treatment, there are times when actions cannot be easily modified. In some situations, clients may prefer to approach risky behaviors using a harm reduction approach rather than eliminating certain behaviors completely. This seminar will prepare psychotherapists to discuss with clients when to emphasize harm reduction and when to promote behavior change.
 

This seminar is part of Level One of Training in Unified Psychotherapy (TUP), focusing on working interactively with cognition, emotion, and behavior. Instead of exclusively focusing on behavior as a lever of change, TUP encourages psychotherapists to develop a wide repertoire of skills that can be adapted to the individual needs of each client.

While you can certainly take this seminar alone, this webinar is part of a six series on Unified Psychotherapy.  Strategic Psychotherapeutics is offering a certificate in Unified Psychotherapy for those that attend each of the six webinars.  Optional discussion groups are offered after each webinar to encourage application.  Go to the Strategic Psychotherapeutics website to see the schedule for the discussion groups and more details about how to earn your certificate in Unified Psychotherapy. 

This webinar is conducted by Jeff Harris, Ph.D. and Rachel Hershenberg, Ph.D.

The way people think and perceive the world is at the heart of the human experience. Psychological problems often include cognitive distortions, irrational beliefs, and cognitive fusion. Cognitive interventions have gained robust research support and should be included in the toolbox of any mental health professional. When we help our clients embrace more functional ways of thinking, this is also likely to impact emotions, behavior, and other dimensions of adaptive functioning. 

This seminar will teach both cognitive conceptualization and intervention methods.  Distinct methods of cognitive formulation will be introduced that allow us to understand different parts of the cognitive experience. Dysfunctional self-talk will be highlighted as the most accessible way to approach cognitive conceptualization.  Diversity is addressed in this webinar by describing the way cultural contexts shape clients’ cognitions.
 

Video demonstrations of foundational cognitive skills drawn from Beck’s Cognitive Therapy will be used to help participants prepare for practice. These skills will address three general processes: (1) Exploration and functional analysis of current patterns, (2) Guided discovery to uncover more adaptive functioning, and (3) Enacting adaptation outside of psychotherapy. More advanced cognitive interventions will be previewed as possibilities for future professional development.
 

Although cognitive change is often an essential part of treatment, there are times when thoughts and beliefs cannot be easily modified. In this case, more recently-developed strategies related to mindfulness and acceptance may be more helpful. This seminar will prepare psychotherapists to discuss with clients when to emphasize acceptance and when to promote change.
 

This seminar is part of Level One of Training in Unified Psychotherapy (TUP), focusing on working interactively with cognition, emotion, and behavior. Instead of exclusively focusing on cognition as a point of clinical leverage, TUP encourages psychotherapists to develop a wide repertoire of skills that can be adapted to the individual needs of each client.

While you can certainly take this seminar alone, this webinar is part of a six series on Unified Psychotherapy.  Strategic Psychotherapeutics is offering a certificate in Unified Psychotherapy for those that attend each of the six webinars.  Optional discussion groups are offered after each webinar to encourage application.  Go to the Strategic Psychotherapeutics website to see the schedule for the discussion groups and more details about how to earn your certificate in Unified Psychotherapy. 

This webinar is conducted by Jeff Harris, Ph.D. and Amy Dreier, Ph.D.

Psychological functioning is always embedded within a cultural context.  Maladaptive patterns that bring clients to psychotherapy are often learned in response to sociocultural macrosystems.  In order to promote a unified approach to treatment, this seminar will highlight how cultural contexts shape cognition, emotion, and behavior.  When clients move into a new culture or subculture, they engage in a process of adaptation that can be more or less successful.  Cultural adaptation will be described as a possible focus in psychotherapy.

This seminar will teach both cultural conceptualization and intervention methods.  Cultural conceptualization will be described as way to understand clients using the following concepts: (1) Ecological systems, (2) Social location, privilege, and oppression, (3) Multiple identities, (4) Identity development, and (5) Acculturation.

Foundational cultural skills will be described and demonstrated with role-play videos.  These skills will address three general processes: (1) Exploration and functional analysis of cultural expereinces, (2) Guided discovery to uncover more adaptive functioning, and (3) Enacting adaptation outside of psychotherapy. 

At a more advanced level, this seminar will introduce the concepts of cultural humility and decolonization.  Participants will be encouraged to consider how these ideas can inform the practice of psychotherapy with diverse clients.

This seminar is part of Level Two of Training in Unified Psychotherapy (TUP), focusing on working contextually with external contexts and internal influences.  An essential part of a unified approach to treatment is understanding the impact of cultural contexts on dysfunctional thoughts, feelings, and actions and fostering more adaptive responses.

Psychological functioning is shaped by experiences throughout the life span. The way each individual responds to life and internalizes these experiences represents their developmental trajectory. Incorporating a developmental perspective into treatment includes considering normal stages of development—as described by Erik Erikson—as well as disruptions such as adverse childhood events or traumatic experiences. This seminar will teach both developmental conceptualization and intervention  methods. Development can become the focus in psychotherapy in three different ways: (a) Life experiences impact current functioning; (b) Normal developmental challenges and transitions are the current focus; and (c) Developmental disruptions impact functioning.
 

In order to promote a unified approach to treatment, the seminar will highlight the way behaviors, cognitions, or emotions interact in the treatment of trauma and other developmental issues. Trauma and adverse childhood experiences can be described as disruptions to normal development. Trauma will be described on a continuum and a distinction will be made between shock trauma and stress trauma. Another distinction will be made between PTSD and complex trauma. Post-traumatic growth will be highlighted as a way of embracing adaptive thoughts, feeling, and actions after an adverse life event.
 

Psychotherapists cannot change the life experiences or developmental challenges that our clients have faced. However, psychotherapy can help clients respond to these events with more adaptive cognitions, emotions, and behaviors. Video demonstrations will show how a psychotherapist can explore the impact of a developmental disruption and foster more functional ways of thinking, feeling, and acting. 

This seminar is part of Level One of Training in Unified Psychotherapy (TUP), focusing on working interactively with cognition, emotion, and behavior. An essential part of a unified approach to treatment is understanding the developmental origin of dysfunctional thoughts, feelings, and actions and fostering more adaptive responses.

Fundamental human emotions like fear, sadness, anger, and shame underlie psychological problems but are also the key to healing and growth. Experiential and emotion-focused interventions have a rich background in humanistic and existential approaches like gestalt and person-centered therapies. When we help our clients embrace more adaptive emotions, we reduce suffering and enhance human potential. This seminar will teach both experiential conceptualization and intervention methods. Formulating an emotion-based conceptualization involves distinguishing between primary, secondary, and instrumental emotions. Exploration can help distinguish between adaptive and maladaptive emotions. Diversity is addressed in this webinar by describing the way cultural contexts shape clients’ emotional experiences.
 

Video demonstrations of foundational experiential skills drawn from Emotion-Focused Therapy will be used to help participants prepare for practice. These skills will address three general processes: (1) Exploration and functional analysis of current patterns, (2) Guided discovery to uncover more adaptive functioning, and (3) Enacting adaptation outside of psychotherapy. More advanced experiential interventions—like chair work and focusing—will be previewed as possibilities for future professional development.
 

Although emotional transformation is often an essential part of treatment, there are time when emotions cannot be changed. Many people use experiential avoidance and defense mechanisms to evade uncomfortable emotions. When emotions cannot be changed, it is important to help clients accept difficult parts of the human experience and to increase distress tolerance and emotional regulation. This seminar will prepare psychotherapists to discuss with clients when to emphasize acceptance of emotions and when to promote change.
 

This webinar is part of Level One of Training in Unified Psychotherapy (TUP), focusing on working interactively with cognition, emotion, and behavior. Instead of exclusively focusing on emotion as a lever of change, TUP encourages psychotherapists to develop a wide repertoire of skills that can be adapted to the individual needs of each client.

Psychological functioning is always embedded within the context of interpersonal relationships.  Maladaptive patterns that bring clients to psychotherapy are often learned in early attachment relationships.  The interpersonal context of psychotherapy can help clients explore and understand relational patterns.  Clients can practice new ways of relating in therapy and, hopefully, these more effective ways of being can be generalized to new contexts.

This seminar will teach both interpersonal conceptualization and intervention methods.  Interpersonal conceptualization will be described as way to understand interpersonal patterns in the present.  In order to promote a unified approach to treatment, the seminar will highlight how relational patterns shape cognition, emotion, and behavior.  Diversity is addressed in this seminar by describing the way cultural contexts shape relationships. 

Foundational interpersonal skills will be described and demonstrated with role-play videos.  These skills will address three general processes: (1) Exploration and functional analysis of current patterns, (2) Guided discovery to uncover more adaptive functioning, and (3) Enacting adaptation outside of psychotherapy. 

At a more advanced level, this seminar will explore the source of interpersonal patterns.  This section will use attachment theory to understand the roots of internalized relational models.  A video demonstration of exploring deeper patterns will be used to illustrate how this idea can be enacted with clients.  Both transference and countertransference will be explored as they are practiced within a contemporary interpersonal approach. 

This seminar is part of Level Two of Training in Unified Psychotherapy (TUP), focusing on working contextually with external contexts and internal influences.  An essential part of a unified approach to treatment is understanding the impact of interpersonal patterns on dysfunctional thoughts, feelings, and actions and fostering more adaptive responses.

Most psychotherapists combine ideas and strategies from different theoretical sources in order to meet the needs of each individual client. However, most therapists do so in an informal or intuitive manner. The purpose of this seminar is to teach a practical method of unified treatment planning that allows psychotherapists and clients to make intentional choices together.
 

Unified treatment planning includes four distinct steps. The first step involves conducting a multidimensional survey of cognitions, emotions, and behaviors that contribute to distress. This survey includes the exploration of sources of this pattern. The source of a maladaptive patterns may include external influences (like family systems or cultural contexts) or internal influences (like intrapsychic conflicts or biological health). Second, a psychotherapist can work with clients to establish an interactive focus on two or three dimensions of functioning. Third, a multitheoretical conceptualization can be formulated using constructs from theories that correspond to focal dimensions. Fourth, based on this case conceptualization, intervention strategies can be chosen that promote change within the focal dimensions chosen.
 

The outcome of unified treatment planning is a comprehensive description of a client’s problem as well as a defined place to initiate change. This unified approach to treatment assumes that working interactively with cognition, emotion, and behavior is ideal for most clients. Understanding the contextual influences of current functioning will support the process of multidimensional change. This seminar is the final part of Level One of Training in Unified Psychotherapy (TUP) and will prepare participants to put this integrative model into practice.

While you can certainly take this seminar alone, this webinar is part of a six series on Unified Psychotherapy.  Strategic Psychotherapeutics is offering a certificate in Unified Psychotherapy for those that attend each of the six webinars.  Optional discussion groups are offered after each webinar to encourage application.  Go to the Strategic Psychotherapeutics website to see the schedule for the discussion groups and more details about how to earn your certificate in Unified Psychotherapy. 

Psychological functioning is always embedded within the context of social systems.  Maladaptive patterns that bring clients to psychotherapy are often learned within the family-of-origin.  Psychotherapy can help clients explore and understand systemic patterns and social roles that may contribute to current psychological distress.  Clients can learn to recognize and modify maladaptive cognitions, emotions, and behaviors that may have been learned within their families. A systemic focus in individual psychotherapy can help clients function in new social systems in more effective ways.

This seminar will teach both systemic conceptualization and intervention methods that can be used in individual psychotherapy.  Systemic conceptualization will include looking at family structure, roles, and beliefs systems.  Webinar participants will learn to consider how homeostasis, family life cycle, and multigenerational patterns shape individual functioning over time.  In order to promote a unified approach to treatment, the webinar will highlight how families and other microsystems shape the way people think, feel, and act.

Foundational interpersonal skills will be described and demonstrated with role-play videos.  These skills will address three general processes: (1) Exploration and functional analysis of systemic patterns, (2) Guided discovery to uncover more adaptive social functioning, and (3) Enacting systemic adaptation outside of psychotherapy.  Practical skills that can be learned and utilized with clients will be described for each of these three phases of treatment.

At a more advanced level, this seminar will explore the way clients internalize aspects of the people who raised them in ways that continue to influence current functioning and affective states.  Current dysfunction is often related to the way family members and family experiences have been internalized in a manner that shapes schema modes.  Diversity is addressed in this seminar by describing the way cultural contexts shape families and other social systems and how families serve as a conduit for cultural socialization.

This seminar is part of Level Two of Training in Unified Psychotherapy (TUP), focusing on working contextually with external and internal influences.  An essential part of a unified approach to treatment is understanding the impact of systemic patterns on dysfunctional thoughts, feelings, and actions and fostering more adaptive responses.

Most psychotherapists would like to draw from different theoretical sources in order to serve the individual needs of each client. However, this is a difficult goal to accomplish without training and structure. Unified Psychotherapy (UP) is a comprehensive approach to integration that enhances a therapist’s capacity to draw from diverse approaches by providing a holistic framework. This structure can be used to guide both conceptualization and intervention.
 

This seminar will introduce a three-tiered model of psychological functioning that distinguishes between immediate psychological functioning, external influences, and internal influences. (A) Psychological functioning focuses on the dynamic interaction between (1) cognition, (2) emotion, and (3) behavior. (B) External influences include (4) development across life experiences, (5) interpersonal patterns, (6) families and other microsystems, as well as (7) sociocultural macrosystems. (C) Internal influences include (8) intrapsychic processes and (9) biological health.
 

This seminar will include a video demonstration of a multidimensional survey of cognition, emotion, and behavior. This survey is the foundation for the process of unified treatment planning which will be elaborated upon in a later seminar (TUP 1-6). This seminar will encourage active learning by including activities and worksheets related to reflection and application. This is the first webinar in Level One of Training in Unified Psychotherapy (TUP), focusing on working interactively with cognition, emotion, and behavior.