The majority of seminars are eligible for continuing education credit for MFTs, LCSWs and a select number for Psychologists. Complete workshop decriptions are listed below.

Keynote and Workshop Descriptions

Keynote Speaker Jody Kussin, Ph.D.
Sane Parenting (Skills, Attitudes, Behaviors) for an Insane World* Jody Kussin, Ph.D. is the original author of Catch Them Being Good: A Guide to Positive Parenting, an award winning parent training program. Dr. Kussin was a founding Academic Chair and Director of the Clinical Psychology Doctoral Program at Phillips Graduate Institute. She has been mentoring and supervising students of mental health disciplines for decades. Her main research and educational areas are parenting, parent-child relations, and child, teen and adult development. She is currently working in an area near and dear to her ~ children’s community mental health, with Casa Pacifica, in Camarillo, California. In addition she works in the area of psychological assessment and forensic evaluation. Dr. Kussin has an active consulting practice,working with public school districts, independent schools, preschools, religious institutions, and community agencies throughout California. She is a frequent speaker and educator on the local and national scene. Of most significance Jody and husband/scientist, Dr. Steve Shoptaw, happily live together raising their three children and assorted dogs.
 
Ethnic Conflicts between Armenian and Latino Students
Harry Bedevian, A.B.D.
There have been steady increases in tensions between Armenian and Latino students in public schools. In May 2000, three Armenian students and two Latino students were involved in an altercation where a Latino student was murdered. This qualitative study asks students, staff, and parents their perceptions for the reasons behind these ethnic conflicts and ways to reduce them. This workshop is great for students majoring in education, sociology, family therapy, counseling, and school policy. I look forward to sharing my findings and engaging in a lively discussion with you. A video of one of the Armenian students convicted of the murder will also be shown.

Beyond Externalization: Contemporary Practices in Narrative Therapy with Families
Aaron Buckwater, M.A.,& Robert Santos, M.A.
Narrative Therapy, known most broadly for the practice of “externalization”, has matured over the last 25 years to encompass a broad diversity of approaches and perspectives. Where previously Narrative therapists acted to rigorously externalize problems and support clients in opposing them, recent trends have shifted the focus towards more sophisticated and fluid relational interactions. This workshop will focus on these new trends, both practical and theoretical, and explore how to use them within a family therapy context. It will include both didactic and experiential activities. Previous knowledge of Narrative therapy not required.
 
A Hands-On Introduction to Dreamwork
Sandy Ginsberg, M.S.
Beginning with an explanation of dreams and dreaming, this workshop is designed to help acquaint you with the significance of the dreaming process. Methods for enhancing memory and documenting these elusive night messages will be introduced. Mindful that the dreamer is the ultimate authority with their dream, we will explore ways to increase self-awareness by employing a variety of dreamwork tools. Those who would like to share a dream are invited to write them down and Sandy will demonstrate the value of various dreamwork techniques with psychotherapy clients.
 
An Introduction to Yoga Psychology and Its Clinical Applications
Deborah Redmond, M.A.
The ancient Yogis understood the challenges of the human condition and developed a system of psychology that is complete in its definition and understanding of the mind. They identified the causes of suffering and offered a holistic, timeless path to overcome obstacles and create a graceful, peaceful life of acceptance and strength. Drawing on classical texts including Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras, we will explore this ancient and cutting edge art and science to reveal how relevant, useful and transformative Yoga Psychology is in effecting lasting change. This sophisticated and multifaceted discipline has a multiplicity of tools applicable to any clinical population. Come share in this illuminating information and experience innovative ways to expand your practice and help your clients. 
When You Can You Will, What is “Resistance” and What to Do about It
Lynne Bernfield, M.A.
Even clients who are really motivated to change may not be able to. When this happens they are often thought to be resistant. By giving therapists a first hand understanding of the most common things that stop people from changing, this hands-on experiential presentation helps therapists design techniques to help their clients through the resistance.

Empathic Art in Action: Musing on Mirror Neurons; A presentation in Memory of Shirley Riley.*
Noah Hass-Cohen, M.A.ATR-BC
Salient art forms can simulate empathic wordless neurobiological mirror systems responses. The presentation shows how a sense of protection, affirmation and consolation derived from religious and secular art forms may be associated with the function of mirror neurons. Images from a healing cultural exploration exhibit at the LA Craft & Folk Art Museum show how the use of cultural and folk art artifacts for healing purposes is a widespread phenomenon. Altars and religious artifacts generate powerful therapeutic resonances that can help bridge the gap between contemporary art therapy approaches and how most people in the world use art.

Please join us in honoring and remembering our dear friend and colleague. As faculty at PGI’s art therapy department, Shirley Riley was instrumental in establishing our contemporary program. She conducted over forty presentations at the American Art Therapy Association National Conference, frequently contributed to the Journal of the American Art Therapy Association, authored three books and was the recipient of the 2000 art therapy association Honorary Lifetime Membership. With the generosity of the Riley family, Dr. Lisa Porche-Burke, and alums the Shirley Riley Memorial Scholarship award allows a PGI art therapy student at Phillips to attend AATA’s national conference. Please also visit the art therapy department exhibit “I am an Art therapist”. Proceeds from the exhibit and this workshop go towards the Scholarship Fund.

The Ins and Outs of a Dynamic School Counselor
Helen G. Meek, MA, MFT, PPS
This workshop is designed for students currently enrolled in a School Counseling or MFT program and those individuals interested in exploring a career in school counseling. We will discuss how to make the most of your internship, how to identify personal attributes that are highly desirable while working in a school setting, and keys to working with students, parents, and teachers. Helen Meek and her recent intern and now a colleague, Angela Villa, will share their personal experience as school counselors. Interactive conversation is encouraged.
 
Assessment, Diagnosis & Treatment of Adults Sexually Abused as Children*
Ellen Faulk, M.A.
The rate of sexual abuse in children is estimated at three in five females and two in five males, with a proportionately higher number presenting for treatment as adults due to the significant impact of the traumatic stressor. The sexual abuse of a child is a betrayal of relational ties and roles impacting intra-psychic and interpersonal effects on both female and male adult survivors of sexual abuse. This workshop provides treatment imperatives for this population. Therapeutic consideration for family members and adjunctive treatments are also offered.

Watch Your Language! How to Talk and Work with Grieving Kids, Teens, and Adults
Michelle Post, M.A.
Death is a universal truth and grief is the great equalizer. Yet, how many times have you heard kids, teens, and adults talk about what dumb or hurtful things people said to them after they had experienced the death of someone close? How many therapists have the training needed to support grieving clients? This interactive workshop is based on the research of J.William Worden, DVD: Codename: Simon, combined with the practical experiences of building and creating grief support programs in schools, agencies, private practice, and businesses. Learn what mistakes to avoid in serving grieving clients and how to utilize developmentally appropriate language, guidelines, and practical interventions with grieving kids, teens and adults.
 
Intensive Short-Term Dynamic Psychotherapy
Jonathan Brower, Ph.D., M.A.
Intensive Short-Term Dynamic Therapy (ISTDP) is an accelerated form of psychotherapy in which the therapist helps patients to overcome internal resistance to experiencing their true feelings and impulses that occurred at times of early traumas. The goal of therapy is to have patients experience the full complex emotions with feelings and impulses that result in the change of their psychoneurotic structure. Lecture and videotape of patients in this therapy will clearly illuminate moment-to-moment segments of patient’s defenses, anxieties, punitive superego and depression that immediately get addressed by the therapist.

Just Write!
Eve Brandstein M.A.
Gain insights shamelessly, painlessly and artistically. This experiential workshop will help groups as well as professionals facilitate clients in meaning making through the use of poetic writing for self-revelation. The written word can relieve anxiety, lighten depression, help externalize the “unspeakable” and further therapeutic conversations in groups. Experience the healing effects of poetry and writing in a group setting and how to facilitate a non-judgmental session. Using a series of writing exercises followed by conversations and meaning making that reflects the participant’s views and concerns. This is done in a creative and cooperative environment.

Psychotherapy through a Gender Lens
Erika Yomtobian, Psy. D., & Chen Z. Oren, Ph.D.
This interactive presentation is designed to help participants more fully utilize gender as a lens through which they conceptualize and treat clients. The presentation will focus on (a) understanding differences between the male and female brain described in recent brain research findings, (b) understanding and assessing the different ways males and females may experience and express depression, (c) increasing awareness of participant’s own gender schema and biases, and (d) understanding the impact of gender role socialization on relationships and intimacy. Creating a positive view of male and female clients and the clinical implications to psychotherapy will be discussed. Media clips will be used to stimulate discussion.

Memory in Learning and Love
Richard Carr, Psy. D.
Engaging memory processes is critical while facilitating learning, therapeutic change, or loving. Two intrinsically different systems shape memory usage. This presentation discusses what affects how they operate, the neurobiology involved, and ways to dynamically access and enhance them.
 
How to Facilitate a Support Group
Rob Kaufman, MSW, J.D., LLM
Life transformations (e.g. divorce, death, retirement, illness) can be difficult at best. At worst, they can lead to isolation and depression. Offering a support group to those struggling with life transitions will help them on their journey toward healing. You will learn a unique treatment model created by Rob Kaufman, LCSW who has facilitated the longest running divorce support group in Los Angeles (Divorce Dialogue) for over 25 years.
 
Solution-Oriented Couple Therapy: Helping Clients and Managing Clinic Resources
Frank Baird, M.A.
Though MFT’s are licensed to work with couples and families, many therapists are reluctant to work with more than one person in a session. Worries about emotional volatility and managing therapeutic experience can curtail or stifle therapist interests and efforts to help, often resulting in a referral to “someone who does couple’s counseling.” This workshop will help you become more comfortable with, and interested in, working with couples, increase your work satisfaction, positive outcomes and increase your income.

Mastering MFT Competencies: Assessment, Treatment Planning, and Documentation
Diane Gehart, Ph.D., LMFT
What does it take to be a competent therapist? What is it that you really need to know? In 2004, the American Association of Marriage and Family Therapy developed a comprehensive list of 128 Core Competencies or skills that MFTs must master. In this workshop, participants will learn about the advantages of competency-based training and will be introduced to a series of clinical documentation based on the newly defined set of MFT Core Competencies. Students, practicing clinicians, supervisors, and educators are invited to learn about the state-of- the-art and science in case conceptualization, clinical assessment, case management, evaluation, and progress notes. The advantages of using this approach with new BBS curriculum requirements will also be discussed.

Keynote Speaker Jody Kussin, Ph.D.
Sane Parenting (Skills, Attitudes, Behaviors) for an Insane World*
A three hour presentation to mental health professionals and students in the mental health fields will be presented with an emphasis on teaching health service staff and students how to work with parents to enhance parent sense of self, which in turn, enhances child-parent relations. The lifespan developmental cycle of parenting will be covered and relevant research on the role of parents in child development will be explored. In addition, outcome data on parent training will be covered to give participants a sense of ‘what works’ and what may or may not work. The presentation will include didactic, applied, and experiential aspects. Participants will listen to a lecture and participate in both dyadic and individual exercises to practice skills that can be used with a parent population. Focus on diversity issues and parenting will also be provided.
 
If the Brain is Truly Like a Muscle, Then …?*
Bill Rolfe, Ph.D.
If the brain is truly like a muscle then physiology could accurately inform the field of psychology (and vice versa), and psychotherapy could be physical therapy for the mind. The brain as a muscle is a concept derived from research findings supporting neuroplasticity. Practical applications of these findings in medicine have already yielded fantastic results, like stroke victims regaining the use of paralyzed limbs. Since the same brain that regulates the body also regulates mental processes, the muscle metaphor is a relevant construct for psychotherapy. This workshop will demonstrate how, by integrating this construct, psychotherapists can open up innovative pathways to change. We’ll struggle with how to integrate the brain as a muscle into theory and practice such that not only will we be learning about neuroplasticity, we will be demonstrating it.

The Spectrum of Self Injury: Co-Morbid Disorders, Divergent Populations, Integrative Treatment
Stacy Simone, M.A.
Self-injurious behavior (SIB) is an intentional act of self harm to one’s own body. Diagnosing SIB includes consideration from multiple etiologies, such as neurobiological, socioeconomic, intrapsychic and inter-relational factors. SIB may be assessed as a separate disorder but appears in co-morbid disorders such as Childhood Sexual Abuse (CSA), Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), Borderline Personality Disorder (PTSD), Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD), Major Depressive Disorder (MDD), Substance Abuse and Eating Disorders. Newer research has discovered SIB among males and females of divergent ethnic and socioeconomic populations worldwide, although the primary age cohort is adolescents to young adults (15-24 years of age). The recommendation for multimodal, flexible treatment strategies which are tailored to the specific needs of each client and invite a community-based treatment team will be explored.
 
Introduction to Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP)
Ronald Soderquist, Ph.D., Th.M.
This introduction to a developmental-psychobiological approach for working with personality disordered couples will provide attendees with a powerful new method that continues to show good success. This approach focuses on a two-person psychobiological model using attachment, developmental neuroscience, and arousal regulation. This moves the clinician from a conflict-content model to a deficit-process model focusing on real-time enactments of dysregulation.

Eating Disorders: Understanding, Assessing and Treating your Client
Jodi Poretskin, M.A.
Eating disorders are a growing concern in today’s society. As professionals, it is our duty to understand the world of our clients enough to provide an empathetic and safe environment. This presentation will cover a deeper understanding of eating disorders including: contributing factors, assessment, treatment, interventions, and resources. After this presentation you will have gained a deeper understanding of those struggling with anorexia, bulimia, and binge eating disorder. 

Maternal Depression and Disrupted Attachment
Diana Lynne Barnes, Psy.D.
For more than 15% of new mothers, the birth of a child is nothing short of a nightmare as confusion, memory loss, agitation and anxiety threaten their physical and emotional stamina during the already stressful postpartum period. This workshop looks at postpartum depression within the context of attachment theory. Learn how to recognize the symptoms of a postpartum mood disorder, explore treatment alternatives and identify the risk factors that predispose a woman to these potentially life-threatening illnesses. This workshop explores the systemic implications of postpartum depression on the developmental life of the family, and looks at the consequences of disrupted attachment on the psychological growth of the infant.

An Experiential Approach to the Fundamentals of Law and Ethics
Gwen S. Barry, M.A.,& Renne Leff, M.A., J.D.
Why not experience the feelings of dealing with legal and ethical dilemmas, while simultaneously integrating the cognitive material? Presenters will offer a holistic, right brain and left brain approach to law and ethics. This didactic and experiential presentation will fulfill the six continuing education units of legal and ethical requirements mandated by the state of California and will exceed your expectation by addressing concerns in a supportive, interactive group environment. The combinations of Renee’s experience with law and ethics as both an LMFT and Juris Doctor in Law, and Gwen Barry’s experience as a nationally board certified Art Therapist and LMFT will ensure a fresh and novel approach that will provide an educational and exhilarating day. The didactic material will include a review of the law and a presentation of its most current additions and the experiential learning will incorporate the use of art materials, Virgina Satir-type body sculpting and lively legal and ethical discussion. No artistic ability is required, but bring your creativity. A $10 lab fee will be collected the day of the workshop to cover all art supplies provided by instructors.
 
The Living Stage: An Introduction to Psychodrama & Sociometry*
Elizabeth Plummer, Ph.D.
Research on memory indicates that as we grow and change, the stories of our lives are continually being revised and rewritten. Consciously or not, most of us use imagination to elaborate on and even reinvent our past, adding new layers of meaning and expanding not only who we are but what we can become. The stories which we share with others provide the interpersonal glue that creates and maintains our relationships. This largely experiential workshop will introduce participants to powerful techniques from the field of sociometry which can build a sense of connection and cohesiveness within a therapeutic community. Within the containing space of the group, stories will be seen, shared, experienced, and perhaps re-imagined. This group will explore the central role creativity, imagination, and action play in the therapeutic process. Participants will learn the fundamental elements of the psychodramatic method and its theoretical underpinnings as they explore issues from their own lives.
 
Brain Talk and Psychotherapy: Clinical Applications of Interpersonal Neurobiology
Joan I. Rosenberg, Ph.D.
This interactive workshop will focus on the integration of concepts drawn from cognitive neuroscience / interpersonal neurobiology with a communication skills framework (attuning process) and psychotherapy treatment paradigm. Discussion will center on the application of these concepts as they relate to promoting congruence and connection within the self and within others in psychotherapy.

I Am My Art: The Art of the Visual Journal
Ginny Fleming, M.A.
Throughout history, visual journaling has been used as a process of reflective thinking, and as a record of image making. Like Leonardo DaVinci, you can turn your personal journal into a canvas for your imagination, feelings, and dreams. Through experiential exercises, various mediums, and the freedom of spontaneous artistic expression, come on this creative journey as a visual storyteller of your inner world. This isn’t your grandmother’s diary! No prior art experience is necessary. A $15 lab fee will be collected the day of the workshop to cover all art supplies (for you to keep) provided by instructor.