Audio recording

Presenter: George Glaser, MSW, DAHB, FASCH & David Alter, PhD

Our marvelous human ecosystem constantly transforms matter into energy and back again. Thought (energy) becomes matter (gene transcription and protein synthesis), which in turn gives rise to new thoughts and intentions that soon become new behaviors. The responsiveness of genes to environmental influences is called epigenetics. Hypnosis can support and direct this epigenetic change process by promoting energetic messages (i.e., mind states) that are incorporated by elements of the physical body. Talking to our genes effectively goes beyond theoretical orientations (e.g., psychodynamic, cognitive-behavioral, self-relations, etc.) or prized therapeutic techniques. Accessing a client's or patient's intuition involves a different way of knowing that animates and informs the interactive therapeutic relationship that has proven to be a key ingredient that determines the outcome of therapy. Epigenetically-fueled change can produce powerful transformations that shift a person's sense of internal resources. Clinical hypnosis is presented as an interactive, multi-level communication process that functions best when it effectively integrates intuitive skills. The workshop promotes experiential shifts: from a focus on technique to intentional focus from content-based knowledge to process-oriented knowing and from a detached observer stance to an emotionally attuned interactive relationship. This day-long workshop interweaves the neuroscience foundations of clinical intuition with experiential group practice and individual practices designed to access and cultivate each participant's intuitive prowess. The workshop's didactic focus emphasizes the foundations of intuition, emotional attunement, and embodied self-awareness. Didactic presentations, videotapes of sessions and lively discussion with attendees are utilized. The workshop's experiential focus involves exercises designed to enable attendees to access and cultivate their individual clinical intuitive resources, and to then apply these resources in a series of interactive practice sessions with other workshop participants.