THURSDAY PROGRAM DESCRIPTIONS

KEYNOTE ADDRESS

Thursday, 9:15—10:45

Bruce Ecker

John F. Kennedy University

THE EFFECTIVENESS OF PSYCHOTHERAPY: CONSTRUCTIVISM TO THE RESCUE!

There is bad news, and there is good news. The bad news is truly bad. The many meta-analyses of psychotherapy efficacy studies to date have a clear conclusion: Shockingly, with investigator bias taken into account, no modality or technique of therapy has been significantly more effective than placebos. The good news, however, is truly good. Constructivism allows fundamentally different questions to be asked about symptom production, change, and clinical effectiveness than the placebo-matching methods consider. One of constructivism’s distinctive concepts has emerged as a master key to therapeutic effectiveness: the concept of coherence, the view that a therapy client’s presenting symptom is a coherent expression of the person’s existing, tacit constructions of self and world, not a “disorder.” A twenty-year study by the speaker and his collaborator, examining thousands of in-session, deep change events that resulted in symptom cessation, has found that (a) the coherence of a vast range of symptoms is empirically confirmed virtually without exception, using phenomenological methods of discovery, (b) symptoms cease to occur as of the moment when there no longer exists any construction in which the symptom is necessary to have, and (c) transformation of symptom-requiring constructs occurs reliably and verifiably not through counteractive methods, which the placebo-matching therapies use, but by cooperating closely with the mind-brain-body system’s native processes and built-in rules for change. The question, then, becomes: What if psychotherapy were redesigned wholly along those lines for utilizing the coherence of symptom production—for prompting native processes that find and transform all personal constructs requiring the symptom—and nothing else? What are the active ingredients of such a therapy—its essential elements of methodology—and do they differ fundamentally from those of therapies that are no better than placebos? Does this therapy have enhanced, verifiable effectiveness in a limited number of sessions? Does the coherence perspective reveal why the established modalities fail to improve upon placebos? The answers to these questions, emerging from the speaker’s study and from neuropsychological and clinical research, are highly promising and exciting for both clinicians and researchers.

PAPER

Thursday, 12:05—12:45

Center for Accessible Living

PERCEPTIONS OF PEERS DIFFERING IN DISCLOSURE OF CHILD SEXUAL ABUSE OR BEREAVEMENT

This study investigates college students’ perceptions of hypothetical peers based on disclosure of childhood history. Disclosure of sexual abuse is compared to disclosures of death of a mother (traumatic control) or death of a pet (normative control). Results are discussed in terms of possible influences of social constructions on self-construction.

PAPER

Thursday, 12:05—12:45

Widener University

A CONSTRUCTIVIST RESEARCH PROJECT: WOMEN’S NARRATIVES OF THE TRANSITION TO MOTHERHOOD AND POSTPARTUM DEPRESSION

Results from a longitudinal, mixed-methods study of 43 women who were at-risk for postpartum depression are presented. Narratives were obtained from the women during pregnancy, coded for coherence, and then related to postpartum depression status. The presentation will highlight the advantages and disadvantages of utilizing a constructivist approach to research.

PAPER

Thursday, 12:05—12:45

University of Washinton

CONNECTING SELF-THEORY, BUDDHISM & CONSTRUCTIVISM

Participants can discuss a paper and/or a poster that connects three major theoretical paradigms: self-theory, Buddhist meditation, and constructivism. Ideas from George Herbert Mead, Eckhart Tolle, and George Kelly will be connected and contrasted. Mead’s ideas of “I vs. Me” will be related to Tolle’s being present and Kelly’s construing.

WORKSHOP

Thursday, 2:15—3:45

Private Practice, New Jersey

THE APPLICATION OF PERSONAL CONSTRUCT PSYCHOLOGY TO UNDERSTANDING THE ETIOLOGY AND EFFECTIVE TREATMENT OF PANIC ATTACKS

Panic is not in itself a problem, though it certainly feels like one to the client, instead it signals the most personal of problems: threat to the self at the level of core constructs. Panic is designed to be extremely uncomfortable to cause the individual to take stock of how life events are impacting core self-constructs. When panic strikes, major structural change is needed. This program will address how to help clients reorganize self-structures so changing environmental realities can be faced without panic.

Thursday, 2:15—2:45

Western Illinois University

THE EMPEROR HAS NO CODES: DIAGNOSIS AS CRADLE AND CAGE

Psychiatric diagnosis has become increasingly central in clinical practice and the culture at large. Through a review of relevant literature and analyses of client narratives, I will explore the positive and negative effects of the act of diagnosis—on both client and therapist—and discuss the implications for clinical practice.

PAPER

Thursday, 2:15—2:45

The University of Texas at Arlington

CONSTRUCTIVIST TREATMENT OF DIVORCE

This paper is focused on the postdivorce recovery stage of divorce (post decision-making) during which the client is involved in pervasive change including redefinition of self and object loss trauma; role loss, disorientation and revisioning; and lifestyle adjustment. Constructivist content will focus on cognitive elaboration methods, use of narratives, enactment techniques and use of rituals.

PAPER

Thursday, 2:45—3:15

Department of Psychology Miami University

VALUES IN DIAGNOSTIC LABELING: A COMPARISON OF CLIENT PERCEPTIONS OF DSM AND EPCP DIAGNOSES

This presentation will focus on critical perspectives in relation to diagnostic labeling. Preliminary results from a research project will be presented in the hope to elucidate how individuals create personal meanings of their own psychological struggles, in comparison to socially prescribed understandings.

PAPER

Thursday, 3:15—3:45

University of Victoria

ETHICAL DILEMMAS IN SUPERVISING GRADUATE STUDENT RESEARCH

Often when working with graduate students there is a fine line between acting as a counselor and acting as an academic supervisor. This presentation focuses on some of the ethical dilemmas for supervisors that arise when working with the kind of research that requires students to explore their own subjectivity with the topic.

PAPER

Thursday, 3:15—3:45

State University of New York at New Paltz

A PERSONAL CONSTRUCT PSYCHOLOGY PERSPECTIVE ON MODELS OF HOMOSEXUAL IDENTITY FORMATION

PCP offers flexibility in understanding sexual identity formation and gives clinicians a lens through which to view sexual identity. It also offers techniques to use with clients who are questioning their sexual identity or coming out. This paper examines models of sexual identity formation from a PCP perspective.

CLINICAL CASE

Thursday, 4:15—5:45

Temple University

COMPARING CBT AND CONTEXT-CENTERED PSYCHOTHERAPY: A DEMONSTRATION OF MIND VS. SELF

A therapy session with a teacher (who had received negative evaluations) will be role-played twice—from the perspective of cognitive-behavioral treatment and then as an example of context-centered psychotherapy. The differences between these two approaches will be highlighted, particularly in terms of how therapy goals are established and implemented.

WORKSHOP

Thursday, 4:15—5:45

University of Victoria

VALUES AND VULNERABILITIES: ETHICAL ENGAGEMENT IN CROSS-CULTURAL COUNSELING PRACTICE AND RESEARCH

This interactive session describes principles, techniques, and tools the author and colleagues have found to be ethical and effective when working across cultures. Participants will experience activities that have been developed to assist in the exploration of identity and transitions with counseling clients and research participants.

SYMPOSIUM

Thursday, 4:15—5:45

The University of Texas at Austin

PERSONALITY DISORDERS: A DEVELOPMENTAL-CONSTRUCTIVIST PERSPECTIVE

In this presentation, a developmental framework for the etiology of personality disorders will be offered. Drawing from attachment theory and constructivist theory, each of the 10 major personality disorders are suggested to reflect a unique composite of prototypical insecure attachment dimensions, working models of self and others, and feed-forward beliefs.