THE SAN FRANCISCO PSYCHOTHERAPY RESEARCH GROUP

19th Annual International March Workshop

Feb 27 - March 4, 2006

Registration flyer here (pdf format) (use 8.5" x 14" legal size paper to print out)

Click here for info on places to stay.

For information on our 1 day intensive Introduction to Control Mastery Theory on Feb 25 click here.
(6 CEUs for $50)

Individual 2 hour classes may be taken for $45.members $50 non-members

This 6-day conference provides an intensive, in-depth experience in control-mastery theory, its clinical applications, and its research methods. It provides both a core curriculum consisting of a required 10 hour course offered at two levels of experience with control-mastery theory and practice, and a selection among diverse clinical, theoretical, and research courses. The latter group of courses enables participants to individualize their training experiences on the basis of their own special interests and experience level.

Background
This workshop has been offered each spring since 1987 (with one exception in 1996). It was originally offered only to professionals from outside the San Francisco Bay Area, and it drew most of its participants from around the country and from clinical and research centers in Europe. Recently, we have made this workshop available to local participants, and the number of Californians participating has begun to increase.

What is Offered
Participants attend a 2-hour seminar each Monday-Friday (10 hours). They are assigned to one of two groups on the basis of their level of knowledge (new vs. returning participants) about control-mastery theory and practice. Each participant is required to attend some morning seminar group all week.

The introductory level morning group studies transcripts of oa brief psychotherapy case, including follow-up (post-therapy interviews by clinicians other than the therapist at termination and six months later. The use of transcripts requires and enables the participants to test their hypotheses about the case and about the value of particular therapist interventions with a unique and instructive rigor. The use of follow-up post-therapy interviews and research data (questionnaires, rating scales, symptom checklists, and independent evaluations) also enables participants to test their ideas rigorously, and to follow the therapeutic process and outcome much more closely than is possible in ordinary clinical work.

The alternative morning group for participants who are already highly knowledgeable about control-mastery theory and practice may use some of the case material from verbatim therapy transcripts, but primarily studies presentations by participants of cases, which are posing difficulties for them. This 10-hour course focuses on advanced clinical issues.

Each participant has the opportunity to attend two 2-hour courses each afternoon. The afternoon sessions offer participants the opportunity to pursue their individual interests. There are three interest areas: theory, clinical applications, and research methods and findings. Theoretical courses take up core Control Mastery questions about how therapy works, about techniques, about the concept unique to control mastery theory stating that patients work according to a conscious or unconscious plan, the nature of the therapeutic process, plan formulations, assessment of therapeutic change, dreams, as well as a comparison of control-mastery theory to other past and contemporary theories. Clinical applications will be studies in small case conferences concerning the treatment of children and adolescents, of couples and families, of difficult adult cases, of chemically-dependant clients, and of adults abused as children. Participants in these courses are encouraged to present their own cases. Participants may also elect to have one individual consultation with an experiences control-mastery teacher to assure an opportunity to see how control-mastery theory may be applied to a case of their own. Participants in research courses will learn about our research methods and findings, Research courses will also include discussions with colleagues and investigators interested in pursuing related lines of research. There will also be an opportunity to plan research studies with investigators in our group.

Objectives
Participants are encouraged to pursue their own individual objectives through the individualized assignment of afternoon courses congruent with their specific interests. All participants however, will deepen their knowledge (intuitive as well as explicit) about:

Control-mastery theory and its clinical applications. 2. The relation of control-mastery theory to other theories and clinical approaches. 3. The empirical basis of control-mastery theory in clinical observation and in research. This deepening of knowledge takes place through hearing basic concepts applied to a range of cases and of therapeutic sequences within cases and taught by a variety of experienced teachers with their own unique perspectives and teaching styles, as well as through discussions of issues both within the courses and in informal settings throughout the week.

Administrative Procedures:
Self-Assessment: Self-assessment procedures will be applied to each course. In addition, a broad self-assessment questionnaire for the workshop as a whole will be used.
Course evaluations: Similarly, course evaluations will be obtained for each course, as well as an overall evaluation for the entire workshop.
Monitoring of attendance: Sign-in and sign-out sheets will be obtained by the instructors at each course meeting.
Education level of courses: All courses are designed for post-doctoral participants, and specific course assignments may take into account the specific educational and experiential level of the participant.