Therapist Roundtable - Psychotherapy in this Time of Existential Threat: How can FOTs meet today’s challenges?

Wednesday, July 19, 2023  from 1:00 pm to 3:00 pm Eastern Time

Live attendance required - no recording.

Times worldwide: convert to your time zone

The TIFI Membership Committee is pleased to offer Therapist Roundtables, a Roundtable series designed especially for members who work with clients in therapeutic settings. If you are not a member, please join at this link and then return to this page to register.

Program Description

We are living in a time of great danger and uncertainty which is affecting all of us in multiple and profound ways.  Climate change, already impacting us globally with natural disasters and fires, will cause more upheaval and unknown challenges in the future. Civil unrest, war, even the threat of nuclear extinction loom. Political polarization is on the rise around the world. Questions abound about how we can work together to meet the urgency of now.

The combination of these stressors is taking a severe toll on our collective mental health. There is growing awareness and concern about this problem. The World Health Organization reported in 2019 that 1 in 8 people in the world live with a mental disorder, with anxiety and depressive disorders the most common. In the US, the American Psychiatric Association’s 2020 poll found that 55% of Americans are anxious about their own mental health and noted an increase in symptoms including mild to severe distress, sleep disturbances, nervousness, high-risk coping behaviors, depression, anxiety and post-traumatic stress. By 2022, a poll revealed that 90% of US adults say the US is experiencing a mental health crisis. (2022 CNN-Kaiser Family Foundation polI).

What does this mean for us, as therapists?  At a minimum we should anticipate increasing demand for our services and a rise in the number of clients with more serious conditions. How can we as FOTs respond to this mental health crisis in ways that are helpful to our clients, ourselves and our world? How do we foster resilience in the face of challenges of such magnitude? Do we have a responsibility to help our clients to turn towards their anxiety and explore ways to direct its energy into more creative and productive responses? What do we need for ourselves to rise to these new challenges? Do we need to think in new ways about our role as FOTs?

At the Roundtable we will have an opportunity to explore together how the impact of these challenges is (or is not) showing up in our therapy rooms and what we can do about it. Questions we might consider together are:

• How are these challenges showing up in our therapy rooms?
• How is this whole situation affecting us personally? What do we need for ourselves and our clients to face the challenges of such complexity and proportions?
• How can we bring our FOT knowledge and skills to meet the urgency of now? Are there new practices, skills or methods we need to develop?
• Is traditional therapy as we’ve known it enough or do we need to create new paradigms and ways of working?

Who might be particularly interested in attending this Circle?

Therapist Roundtables are intended to serve the needs and interests of a specialized subset of our membership community who use or have used therapeutic modalities deepened by Focusing. Current and former therapists are welcome, including psychotherapists, counselors, coaches, somatic practitioners, spiritual directors, occupational or physical therapists, nurses and the like.

Regardless of modality, therapists hold in common the ethical and professional accountability and responsibility for our clients’ healing and growth. It is with this understanding that we come together to explore both the challenges of our work and the opportunities that arise through bringing a Focusing orientation to our practices. These conversations are not intended to be professional supervision sessions, but rather an opportunity to share ideas and experiences with like-minded professionals.

If you have an area of interest, curiosity or passion that you would like to explore in a future Circle, please let us know.

CONNECTION>CONVERSATION>COMMUNITY

What to expect from Therapist Rountables:  Each Therapist Roundtable is designed to promote informal peer-to-peer conversation. Rather than acting as expert presenters, the Hosts will serve as conversation moderators to encourage sharing and exploration of the topics from the participants’ own perspectives. All participants’ sharings are welcome and valuable, no matter what level of experience or knowledge you have on the topic. To preserve the nature of informal conversation, the program will be offered live only and no recordings will be available. Registration is limited and on a first-come, first served basis. Participants are encouraged to create follow up opportunities for connection among themselves after the Roundtable.

About your hosts:

Steve Moscovitch, MSW is a therapist in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. He has been a Certified Focusing Trainer since 2002 and has integrated Focusing and a Focusing orientation into his work in individual, couples and family therapy for 20 years of his 38-year career. Other significant recent trainings are Emotion Focused Couple Therapy and Internal Family Systems.

Julie Ramsey, LICSW, FOT, is a Focusing Coordinator and psychotherapist in private practice in Wellesley, MA. She works with adolescents and adults in individual and couples therapy. She also teaches Focusing in small groups and enjoys bringing Focusing to all aspects of her work and life.

Mary Anne Schleinich, MPS, BScOT is a counselling body psychotherapist in private practice in Calgary and online. She is certified with the Canadian Counselling and Psychotherapy Association and The International Focusing Institute as a Focusing Oriented Therapist. She integrates 14 years of work as an Occupational Therapist in palliative care, somatic psychotherapy with Bill Bowen and Internal Family Systems classes and group work.

Susan Lennox, PhD, CPC, is a psychotherapist and coach in private practice in Westminster, Colorado. She is a Focusing Coordinator and has been a Certified Focusing Professional since 2000. In her practice Susan integrates Focusing and Internal Family Systems into her work with clients with developmental trauma.