Format: Audio MP3 file download

Presenter: David Patterson, PhD, ABPH

Zen, Hypnosis and Suffering

This workshop will focus on the presenter?s recent developments in combining Eastern Philosophy with Ericksonian hypnosis and motivational interviewing as an approach to facilitate living with suffering. Suffering is defined as resisting the inevitable pain that comes from life. The pain that will be addressed in this workshop will be that from emotional as well as physical sources. The workshop will follow the instructor?s model of conducting hypnosis workshops in that 1/3 of the workshop will be based on didactics that are intended to translate philosophy and neuroscience into clinical applications, 1/3 will involve demonstrations with individuals or the entire group, and 1/3 will involve participants practicing the concepts presented in small groups or dyads.

A primary teaching tenant espoused is that the presenter?s job is to break down the concepts to a level where they are easy to understand and practice for participants, and the attendees need to have the opportunity to verbalize the induction components ?out loud.?. The workshop will begin with an overview of how suffering can be addressed through Zen and other Eastern Philosophical principals. We will then focus on brief, direct hypnotic approaches based on dissociation for intense pain and suffering (for patients in crisis). The final half of the workshop will focus on teaching participants to perform non-linear hypnotic inductions that avoid the trappings of excessive cognitions and allow them to be present with pain, rather than resist it. In general, the workshop will be intended to be light-hearted, with the instructor intending to provide growth experiences for the participants, while releasing his inner comedian.