Mental Health, A Vanishing but Critical Concept
Nancy McWilliams, PhD
Date: Saturday, January 29, 2011
Time: 9am-4pm
Location: Four Points Sheraton, 1010 Northgate Drive, San Rafael
The main goal of this presentation will be to expand the conceptual horizons of contemporary therapists. Despite being besieged by pressures to narrow their focus to the immediate relief of symptoms, they need to be able to formulate the needs of their clients at a more transcendent level. To prevent relapse, increase general life satisfaction, and set in motion a cycle of personal growth, it is critical to be able to have a concept of the elements of mental and emotional health.
It is currently fashionable to construe psychotherapy as about “behavioral” health or relief from target symptoms. Such a focus reflects the interests of the insurance and pharmaceutical industries, as well as the needs of researchers to operationalize outcomes via measures that are statistically manageable. Therapists of all orientations and specialties find, however, that to help clients in significant ways, they need to attend to goals that go beyond measurable symptom reduction. Dr. McWilliams will argue that a psychological research paradigm has been misapplied to the realm of clinical practice. Using clinical vignettes and relevant research material, she will review both traditional and more recently formulated components of mental and emotional wellness, with an emphasis on implications for both psychotherapy and health policy.
Nancy McWilliams teaches at Rutgers University’s Graduate School of Applied and Professional Psychology and practices in Flemington, New Jersey. Author of Psychoanalytic Diagnosis (1994), Psychoanalytic Case Formulation (1999), and Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy (2004), and associate editor of the Psychodynamic Diagnostic Manual (2006), she is past president of Division 39 of the American Psychological Association, and is on the editorial board of Psychoanalytic Psychology.
COST:
CIP Members: $100 or $120 after January 15, 2011
Non-Members: $120 or $140 after January 15, 2011
CEUs: 6 CEUs approved for MFTs and LCSWs and 6 CEUs submitted for approval by the MCEPAA for Psychologists
Date: Saturday, January 29, 2011
Time: 9am-4pm
Location: Four Points Sheraton, 1010 Northgate Drive, San Rafael
The main goal of this presentation will be to expand the conceptual horizons of contemporary therapists. Despite being besieged by pressures to narrow their focus to the immediate relief of symptoms, they need to be able to formulate the needs of their clients at a more transcendent level. To prevent relapse, increase general life satisfaction, and set in motion a cycle of personal growth, it is critical to be able to have a concept of the elements of mental and emotional health.
It is currently fashionable to construe psychotherapy as about “behavioral” health or relief from target symptoms. Such a focus reflects the interests of the insurance and pharmaceutical industries, as well as the needs of researchers to operationalize outcomes via measures that are statistically manageable. Therapists of all orientations and specialties find, however, that to help clients in significant ways, they need to attend to goals that go beyond measurable symptom reduction. Dr. McWilliams will argue that a psychological research paradigm has been misapplied to the realm of clinical practice. Using clinical vignettes and relevant research material, she will review both traditional and more recently formulated components of mental and emotional wellness, with an emphasis on implications for both psychotherapy and health policy.
Nancy McWilliams teaches at Rutgers University’s Graduate School of Applied and Professional Psychology and practices in Flemington, New Jersey. Author of Psychoanalytic Diagnosis (1994), Psychoanalytic Case Formulation (1999), and Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy (2004), and associate editor of the Psychodynamic Diagnostic Manual (2006), she is past president of Division 39 of the American Psychological Association, and is on the editorial board of Psychoanalytic Psychology.
COST:
CIP Members: $100 or $120 after January 15, 2011
Non-Members: $120 or $140 after January 15, 2011
CEUs: 6 CEUs approved for MFTs and LCSWs and 6 CEUs submitted for approval by the MCEPAA for Psychologists
