Workshop: Integrating Mindful Self-Esteem Practices with Process Group Therapy (Sep 26, 2015)

Nancy Wesson, Ph.D. and Janetti Marotta, Ph.D.

Presented By: Center for the Study of Group Psychotherapy
Date: Saturday, September 26, 2015  9:30 A.M.-5:00 P.M.
Place: 2665 Marine Way, Bayside Business Plaza, Mountain View
Fee: $115 – class size limited to 12
CE Credits: 6 CE credits for LMFTs, LCSWs, LPCCs, & Psychologists

What You Will Learn

Through experiential and didactic methods you will learn how mindful self-esteem practices can enhance group psychotherapy.  Participants will learn mindful self-esteem practices and also develop group psychotherapy skills to process the group experience.

Learning Objectives:

This workshop is designed to help participants:

1. Describe the concept of mindful self-esteem.
2. Utilize mindful self-esteem practices that enhance self-acceptance and self-compassion in psychotherapy.
3. Integrate a mindfulness-based psychoeducational and process group approach to group psychotherapy.
4. Apply methods for increasing the therapeutic alliance and safety in psychotherapy groups.
5. Create strategies for shaping the culture of a psychotherapy group and increasing group cohesiveness.
6. Utilize “group as a whole” methods to increase the therapeutic effectiveness of group psychotherapy.

Workshop Leaders

Nancy Wesson, Ph.D., CGP, (Psy9621) has been in private practice and leading psychotherapy groups for over 25 years. She has been teaching group psychotherapy courses for 16 years. She is the founder of the Center for the Study of Group Psychotherapy (CSGP.org).

Janetti Marotta, Ph.D., has been leading psychotherapy and support groups over 25 years and mindfulness-based groups over 10 years. Along with her private practice, she is Coordinator of the Mind-Body Program at PAMF Fertility and author of the book: 50 Mindful Steps to Self-Esteem.

Course Overview

This course integrates group psychotherapy concepts and leadership skills with a mindfulness-based model of self-esteem development, as described in the book, 50 Mindful Steps to Self-Esteem: Everyday Practices for Cultivating Self-Acceptance and Self-Compassion by co-presenter Janetti Marotta (Marotta, 2013). Participants will learn mindful self-esteem practices and effective group psychotherapy skills to process the group experience. This workshop will be both experiential and didactic.

Rather than being externally focused and seeking conditional acceptance to gain approval from others, mindful self-esteem emerges from cultivating qualities of self-acceptance and self-compassion. When psychological well-being is based on mindfulness (Brown & Ryan 2003) and self-compassion (Neff, Rude, & Kirkpatrick 2007; Neff & Vonk 2009), it is stable, strengthens a sense of openness, and lessens defensive reacting.

Mindfulness practices can be taught to enhance the therapeutic benefits of psychotherapy (Germer, Siegel & Fulton, 2013). Practices and exercises to cultivate self-acceptance and self-compassion will be taught in this course, as a way to enrich the therapeutic process among group members and enhance the therapeutic benefits of psychotherapy. The group psychotherapy concepts that will be taught include: developing safety and therapeutic alliance in a psychotherapy group (Tasca, Balfour, Ritchie, & Bissada, 2007), shaping the culture of a psychotherapy group (Yalom & Leszcz, 2006), and the therapeutic benefits of using “group as a whole” methods in a psychotherapy group (Yalom, & Leszcz, 2006).

This course will increase the knowledge and skill level of clinicians, who offer group psychotherapy and incorporate, or wish to incorporate, a mindfulness-based approach into clinical practice.

References:

Castonguay, L., Constantino, M., & Holtforth, M. (2006). The working alliance: Where are we and where should we go? Psychotherapy: Theory, Research, Practice, Training, 43(3), 271-279.

Germer, C., Siegel, R., & Fulton, P. (Eds.) (2013).  Mindfulness and Psychotherapy. New York:  Guilford Press.

Marotta, J. (2013). 50 Mindful Steps to Self-Esteem: Everyday Practices for Cultivating Self-Acceptance and Self-Compassion. Oakland, CA: New Harbinger Publications.
Neff, K. (2011). Self-Compassion: Stop Beating Yourself Up and Leave Insecurity Behind. New York: Harper Collins.

Tasca, G., Balfour, L., Ritchie, K., & Bissada, H. (2007). The relationship between attachment scales and group therapy alliance growth differs by treatment type for women with binge-eating disorder. Group Dynamics: Theory, Research, and Practice, 11(1), 1-14.

Wesson, N. (2007). Becoming a true member of a psychotherapy group. The California Psychologist. June/July, 21.

Wheelan, D. (1997). Group Development and the Practice of Group Psychotherapy. Group Dynamics: Theory, Research, and Practice, 1, 288-293.

Yalom, I., & Leszcz, M. (2006). The Theory and Practice of Group Psychotherapy. (5th Ed.). New York: Basic Books.

CSGP is approved by the California Psychological Association to provide continuing professional education for psychologists as well as MFTs, LPPC’s, and LCSWs. CSGP maintains responsibility for this program and its content. Provider No. PCE5391. For further info: CSGP.org.