Workshops and Training

We find working with couples to be always exciting and often deeply gratifying. In our workshops about our relational approach to this work, we do our best to convey both the self-of-the-therapist demands and the in-the-moment creative possibilities available to couples therapists.

You can read more about our relational approach to working with couples, particularly in terms of addressing concerns, in Quickies.

Our sex therapy workshops include lots of humor, loads of provocative ideas about the inner workings of sexuality, sexual identity, and sexual relationships, and plenty of opportunities for participants to challenge their assumptions about how to initiate and support significant change.

A relational approach to suicide assessment privileges the therapeutic potential of the interview, and it stresses the importance of balance. Clinicians learn to continually engage in productive juxtaposition: risks with resources, the potential for danger with opportunities for safety, intra-and inter-personal complications and possibilities, understandings derived from an empathic grasp of the client’s desperation and a professional appreciation of key considerations.

Workshop options range from 1-hour keynotes and 2-hour introductions to 2-day in-depth trainings. I sometimes give these talks alone and sometimes with Dr. Gralnik.

For over 25 years, Douglas has taught a variety of hypnosis workshops nationally and internationally, introducing new clinicians to the logic and practice of hypnotherapy, and helping advanced clinicians refine their understanding and application of utilization, metaphor, therapeutic double binds, storytelling, and context suggestions. His annual in-person 50-hour (7-day) intensive in South Florida has now morphed into Zoom-based virtual training. Click here for more information and registration.

Empathy is the means by which therapists demonstrate, rather than simply claim, an insider’s understanding of their clients’ experience. This workshop distinguishes empathy not as a feeling that comes to therapists, like sympathy or compassion, but, rather, as a skill that they can develop and refine. Participants will learn how to construct and offer empathic comments that can improve rapport and help keep therapy on track.