New Series - The Existential Moment: Begin Within

 

Welcome to The Existential Moment, EHI's email digest intended to inform and inspire your healing work and growth in a brief but evocative format. In therapy (and life!), we recognize a pearl of ancient wisdom: to move a mountain, begin by carrying away small stones.

Introductions complete, let us orient ourselves as we begin our journey. Maps are a useful tool. They tell us where we are and importantly, where we're going.

Theory and practice characterize the common pillars of the central psychotherapeutic modalities. Existential-Humanistic Therapy differentiates itself on those mainstays.

In terms of practice, EH Therapy is experiential and relational. It seeks to work squarely in the "here and now," deeming it unnecessary to go on a treasure hunt in the "there and then." It grounds work in presence and distinguishes between primary and secondary experience, process and content. It leverages micro-skills to help expand and deepen what is present toward helping clients discover what deeply matters about their lives. EH Therapy likewise holds that the therapeutic relationship is the principal vehicle for healing and growth. Therapy is then a journey of intimacy and honesty, where the therapist is a fellow-traveler, calling on curiosity and acceptance toward desired ends.

The "essentially human" is the foundation of EH Therapy theory. The four dimensions of encounter frame the therapeutic context: the client, the therapist, the relation, and the cosmological. Within that frame, self-world constructs, meaning-making, constriction/expansion, protective patterns and enactments, and core wounds deepen understanding. Likewise, the existential givens of life/death, freedom/destiny, meaning/absurdity, and community/separateness orient exploration.

This is a rough map of EH Therapy meant to serve as a touchstone as we venture forward. Still, as with any journey in life, the unexpected will arise. We will improvise, adapt, and embrace serendipity as it comes.

We hope you will find the journey enriching, personally and professionally.

Finally, as with the therapist-client journey itself, we are fellow travelers. And as we might then check-in with our clients, we check-in now with you: "how are we doing?" Please give us your feedback as we go. Let us know what you want to hear about, explore, or question, and tell us what you like and don't like. We are present, curious, and listening.

Links to additional resources:
Why Become an Existential Therapist? by Louis Hoffman, PhD, PsyD
The Case for Existential Psychotherapy by Kirk Schneider, PhD, PSY

February Workshop: Integrating the Self w/ Galia Schechter, PsyD

 SAVE THE DATE:

Saturday, February 20th, 2021

Integrating the Self: Helping Clients Depolarize and Cultivate Self-compassion

Developed and Facilitated by EHI Affiliate Instructor: Galia Schechter, PsyD

Date: Saturday, 2/20/2021

Time: 10am-1pm Pacific Time; via Zoom

Cost: $35 General/Professional; $20 Student/Elder
* We understand that COVID-19 has created economic stress for many, so if you are experiencing economic hardship due to COVID-19, the requested fee for webinars in this series is $10 (though no one will be turned away due to lack of funds-please contact Michelle for assistance at events@ehinstitute.org).

Series Discount Available: Attend a workshop in this series and we will send you a code for $7.50 off your next series workshop registration.

3 CE credits pending approval*.

Registration: Registration will open on Jan 15th

 

One of the greatest human paradoxes manifests in the way our deep longings for love, acceptance and belonging can actually lead us to suppress and contract against parts of our self that we feel might be "bad", "unwelcome" and "not O.K". And yet it is the process of self-judgment and contraction that unintentionally contribute to unnecessary human suffering in the forms of loneliness, existential emptiness and common alienation from self, others and even our planetary home.

Perhaps the greatest antidote and medicine to loneliness and alienation from self and others is the cultivation of deep experiences of self-compassion and awareness of common humanity. To authentically embody self-compassion is to awaken a direct knowing that our inner experiences, no matter how uncomfortable, scary, embarrassing or "dark", relate to and reveal fundamental universal longings for love, belonging and freedom.

In this workshop, inspired by and based mainly on Process Experiential, Phenomenology, Humanistic-Existential and Mindfulness-based traditions, participants will learn how to help clients move from polarized, self-shaming and self-alienating states to states of self- and other-compassion. The benefits of these shifts include the emergence or deepening of authenticity, vitality, empathy, generosity and intra-psychic integration. Tapping also into Gestalt, Family Systems, Emotion- Focused and mind-body inquiry practices we will explore the following themes:

• • Principles of conscious healing, including families of mindfulness practices
• • Neo-Humanistic existential frameworks for understanding the ways we internalize a sense of the deficient self and contract against parts of the self, including brief discussion of Internal Family Systems (IFS), Process-Experiential Emotion Focused and Buddhist psychological frameworks
• • How to identify and work with our own living processes of contraction and rejection of parts of self as a means to gain a deeper understanding of client processes
• • How to identify and work with living processes for making contact with our own deep basic goodness and capacity to accept and integrate self toward congruence and wholeness
• •Awareness of collective resonance around basic vulnerability and basic existential longings that are at the heart of contracted and transforming self

Our Presenter

Dr. Galia Schechter is a licensed clinical psychologist and Buddhist practitioner. She has extensive training and experience in multiple mind-body modalities. Along with having been in private practice for 11 years, she has worked as a clinical director, a clinical supervisor, a clinical trainer and an organizational consultant.

Prior to getting her doctorate in clinical psychology from the Wright Institute and becoming a licensed psychologist, she received an MBA from Georgetown University and worked for organizations in the U.S. and abroad in governance, human rights and international development.

Our Online Workshops Include Experiential Work!

This workshop will be both didactic and experiential utilizing Zoom Meeting and Zoom Breakout Rooms.

This event is designed for both the general public and for licensed or pre-licensed professionals in the therapeutic fields, as well as master's and graduate students in therapeutic programs. Psychologists, MFTs, social workers, counselors, psychiatrists, nurse practitioners, doctors and interested persons are all encouraged to attend!

*Continuing Education Info

• The Existential-Humanistic Institute (EHI) collaborates with the Society for Humanistic Psychology (Division 32 of the American Psychological Association) to provide APA Continuing Education credit at approved EHI events.
  
  APA Division 32, Society for Humanistic Psychology is approved by the American Psychological Association to sponsor continuing education for psychologists. APA Division 32, Society for Humanistic Psychology maintains responsibility for this program and its content.
• 
  
• Accessibility: It is the policy of EHI to make every reasonable effort to provide attendees with disabilities with the opportunity to take full advantage of its programs. Please contact us ahead of time so we can work with you arrange programming to needs. Please contact us by phone at 415.689.1475 to make arrangements.

New Online Training: Core Skills in Existential-Humanistic Psychotherapy

Registration Now Open
Early-Bird Discounts Available!!

May 14 – 16, 2021
New Online Training: Core Skills in Existential-Humanistic Psychotherapy

EHI Faculty Facilitating

Workshop Host: Existential-Humanistic Institute

Dates: 15-Hour Intensive Starts Friday, May 14th - Sunday, May 16th, 2021

3 Day Schedule: Friday: 12 to 3pm PDT; Saturday the 15th & Sunday the 16th: 8am to 3pm PDT (each with 1-hour lunch break).

Fee Schedule: $659 Regular Licensed/Pre-Licensed Level or $609 Regular Elder/Student* Level
The following Early-bird offers are available:
The "Early early-bird" rates: $599 Licensed/Pre-Licensed or $549 Elder/Student-register & pay in full by 1/20/21
The "Regular early-bird" rates are $629 Licensed/Pre-Licensed or $579 Elder/Student-register & pay in full after 1/20/21 but by 3/01/21
*Elder/Student Eligibility: Elder=65+ and Student=Currently enrolled in a therapeutic Master's/PhD program.

Online: This is a Live Workshop via Zoom Meeting w/ Zoom Breakout Rooms

To maximize and facilitate the experience (even on Zoom), the number of participants will be limited - so please register early to ensure your spot!

CE: CEs pending approval. CE Fee -TBA, Please contact us for more info regarding the course at program@ehinstitute.org.

 

Registration & Info

 

An Existential-Humanistic approach to psychotherapy can be a foundation for all therapists seeking to do deep and life-changing work with their clients. The E-H approach is based on core ways of being and working with clients that help facilitate greater awareness, greater sense of choice, increased agency and adaptiveness and a deeper connection to self and others – all in the service of healing and growing. There are core capacities and skills an E-H therapist uses to help clients effectively explore and work through their existential predicaments so they can more fully access what deeply matters to them.

In this 15-hour online training, leading instructors in the E-H field will provide theoretical explanation and experiential opportunities for the development and/or strengthening of skills and capacities that are not only core to the E-H approach but can also support therapists of many other modalities cultivate a foundation for optimizing their technical skills.

Topics covered include:

• The cultivation of presence as both the ground of therapy and one of its primary objectives
• The focus on the "living moment" in working with the "here-and-now" experience of clients – staying with what presents itself phenomenologically rather than employing theoretical interventions
• The differentiation between primary, direct experience and secondary, interpretive experience - and the emphasis on working with phenomenological experience
• The meaning-making process and the formation of the Self-and-World Construct – helping client and therapist understand identity construction and de-construction
• How to work with the client's ways of being in the world and how to utilize the therapist-client relationship to help shift unhelpful ways of being
• How to identify and work through clients' inner battles in order to support their longings to emerge, and feel more choice-ful and psychospiritually whole
• Integrating and embodying your theoretical beliefs and authentic sense of self in your work as a therapist

Who is This Training For?

This training is for licensed therapeutic professionals and those in Master's or Doctorate programs in related fields.

This training is ideal for those who have not yet had any intensive training in E-H therapy or for those who have and are seeking a refresher or reinforcement of what they've learned: this training works in and of itself but can also be a precursor to the longer residential training EHI holds or even a helpful follow-up to the residential training.

*Please Note: 

This is a 2-1/2 day mini-intensive workshop, not the longer course, "E-H Therapy: Principles of Practice," which is an experiential training course offered in our Certificate program and traditionally held as a residential retreat for 6 days. May's training workshop covers core skills and can be a precursor to the longer training course but it is not a substitute for "E-H Therapy: Principles of Practice"  which is a requirement towards earning EHI's Certificate in the Foundations of E-H Therapy Practice.

Our Online Workshops Include Experiential Work!

The upcoming workshop will be both didactic and experiential utilizing Zoom Meeting and Zoom Breakout Rooms.

This event is designed for both licensed/ pre-licensed professionals in the therapeutic fields and master's/graduate students in therapeutic programs.

Students, psychologists, MFTs, social workers, counselors, psychiatrists, nurse practitioners, and doctors are all encouraged to attend!

EHI Faculty Facilitating

EHI Faculty, emphasize the key ingredients of the E-H approach, including empathy, acceptance, and genuineness, to model how trainees can create safe, collaborative and life-changing therapeutic encounters. They demonstrate how the therapeutic relationship, in and of itself is a vehicle for healing and change and how therapeutic "presence" cultivates sensitivity and appropriate responsiveness to clients emotions, relational patterns and inner worlds. These two essential principles – working directly with the therapeutic relationship and working experientially in the "here and now" - are the foundational blocks of E-H therapy and EHI training.

Payment Information

There will minimum deposit option to hold one's spot when registering if you would like the option to pay the balance by the due date.The remainder needs to be paid by the above dates in order to get the relevant early-bird discount and registrant will be responsible for meeting the deadline. For those registering after 3/01/21, full payment is due by 4/15/21, and any registrants after that need to pay the total fee at once in order to register.

Refund policy: You'll receive a full refund, minus $25, if you withdraw by 1/20/21; and a full refund, minus $75, if withdrawn after 1/20/21 but by 4/15/21 (30 days prior to workshop). There are no refunds after that.

CEs will be offered, pending sponsorship approval. Fee: TBA.

Continuing Education Information

• The Existential-Humanistic Institute (EHI) collaborates with the Society for Humanistic Psychology (Division 32 of the American Psychological Association) to provide APA Continuing Education credit at approved EHI events.
  
  APA Division 32, Society for Humanistic Psychology is approved by the American Psychological Association to sponsor continuing education for psychologists. APA Division 32, Society for Humanistic Psychology maintains responsibility for this program and its content.
•  
• Accessibility: It is the policy of EHI to make every reasonable effort to provide attendees with disabilities with the opportunity to take full advantage of its programs. Please contact us ahead of time so we can work with you arrange programming to needs. Please contact our Admin, Michelle by email at program@ehinstitute.org or by phone at 415.689.1475 for accessibility arrangements.

 

 

Register Today

New Interview w/ Kirk Schneider on the Mad in America Podcast

Justin Karter of Mad in America podcast speaks with Kirk Schneider in an interview that Kirk describes as "one of the most personal and substantive discussions I've experienced on social media to date." 

In this interview, Schneider discusses his path into psychology, including his own struggles and growth, his approach to psychotherapy, and his scholarship on the psychology of awe and the polarized mind. Then we turn to his vision for psychology; a “whole-person” approach to healthcare, a “Psychologist General” of the United States, and the development of dialogue groups that address polarization and division.

Listen to Leading Psychology in Existential Times: An Interview with Kirk Schneider on the Mad in America website.

Workshop: What Disturbs Me Most About You...Is Me

How Deepening Understanding of the Other, Deepens Understanding of the Self

Developed and Facilitated by: Nader Shabahangi, PhD

Date: Saturday, 10/03/2020

Time: 10am-1pm; via Zoom

Cost: $35 General/Professional; $20 Student/Elder
* We understand that COVID-19 has created economic stress for many, so if you are experiencing economic hardship due to COVID-19, the requested fee for webinars in this series is $10 (though no one will be turned away due to lack of funds-please contact Michelle for assistance at events@ehinstitute.org).

Series Discount Available: Attend a workshop in this series and we will send you a code for $7.50 off your next series workshop registration.

 

Registration

 

How do we learn to live in these times? How do we prioritize in our life during such a period of upheaval? Our world is undergoing so much change on a daily basis, so many people on earth are suffering, live in poverty, are dying due to the effects of climate change, of hunger, of disease. Where do we turn for awareness so we can stop and think, perhaps avert the calamity, perhaps an extinction we are about to face? We need a different way of understanding ourselves. We need a different perception of how we can live together on this planet.

To find such a way, we turn to those who have always been – at least until recently – the shepherds of human civilizations: our wise elders and thinkers. To stop the destructive path of polarization, of us versus them, we shift into a fundamentally different attitude to life and living. This attitude follows ancient wisdom that knows that everything is connected and united. This wisdom emphasizes that as we do to our outer nature, we also do to our inner nature. It believes that if we do harm to what lives outside of us, we also harm what lives inside of us.

Old wisdom traditions, and now also Quantum Theories, point to the observer participating in the observed, being the observed. What disturbs me about others who have a different perspective from me thus also points to something inside me - else I could not 'see' it. This fundamental shift in attitude looks at all that manifests as being part of a whole. We cannot discard certain parts of life thinking we do not desire them, while we preference other parts as acceptable. We move beyond like and dislike, we move beyond good and evil. With such a change in attitude, we look differently at what disturbs, irritates, and angers us in others. Rather than thinking that the other is wrong, we look at the other as teacher. As Carl Jung pointed out, everything that irritates us can lead to a deeper self-understanding. The more we understand, the more we become truly who we are. We are proposing that it is in accepting our disturbances and irritations, we become whole. As whole beings, we can create an opportunity to live in harmony with each other and with mother Earth.

In this webinar, we will engage in concrete exercises that allow us to feel into the essence of the 'other's' position and viewpoint. This will allow us to not only 'see' the 'other' but also to deepen our own self-understanding. This way we can experience as much our unity as our differences. All is one; one is all.

Our Online Workshops Include Experiential Work!

The October 3rd workshop will be both didactic and experiential utilizing Zoom Meeting and Zoom Breakout Rooms.

This event is designed for both the general public and for licensed or pre-licensed professionals in the therapeutic fields, as well as master's and graduate students in therapeutic programs. Psychologists, MFTs, social workers, counselors, psychiatrists, nurse practitioners, doctors and interested persons are all encouraged to attend!

Accessibility: It is the policy of EHI to make every reasonable effort to provide attendees with disabilities with the opportunity to take full advantage of its programs.

Please contact us in advance so we can work with you arrange programming to needs. Please contact our Admin, Michelle at program@ehinstitute.org or call us at 415.689.1475 to discuss arrangements.

 

Requested Requirements

A Zoom Account with Zoom Desktop Client or Mobile App are needed. Due to the format of this particular event these are both needed to be assigned to a breakout room to engage in the experiential exercise.

 

Our Presenter

Nader R. Shabahangi, Ph.D., RCFE, received his doctorate from Stanford University and is a licensed psychotherapist. His multicultural background has made him an advocate for different marginalized groups of society throughout his adult life. In the 1980's he worked with abused children and teenagers and led anticipatory bereavement groups for Coming Home Hospice. In 1992 he founded the non-profit organization Pacific Institute with the purpose of training psychotherapists in a multicultural, humanistic approach to counseling and to provide affordable therapy services to the many diverse groups living in San Francisco.

In 1994, noticing the often inhumane treatment of the elderly living in institutions, he started to develop an innovative Gerontological Wellness Program in order to provide emotional support and mental health care services for the elderly. In 1997, together with his two brothers, Nader opened a residential care home for the elderly in San Francisco called Hayes Valley Care, where he could, along with the Pacific Institute Internship team, implement the Gerontological Wellness Program. He continues this work in both the Elder Ashram Community in Oakland, as well as leading workshops and training in eldership through the Eldership Academy.

Registration Now Open for Upcoming Workshop: Meeting Across the Divide on Sept 12th!

Saturday, September 12th, 2020

EHI Presents

Meeting Across the Divide:
Depolarizing America for Ourselves and Our Fellow Citizens
Kirk Schneider, PhD

This webinar is the next in EHI's series of webinars on depolarization:

Depolarizing Our Minds, Our Hearts & Our Nation

Date: Saturday, September 12, 2020

Time: 10am -2pm, PST; w/ a 30 min break from 12-12:30pm

Facilitated by: EHI Core Instructor, Kirk Schneider, PhD , PSY

Location: Online via Zoom Meeting w/ Zoom Breakout Rooms

Fee: $40 General/Professional; $25 Student/Elder
* We understand that COVID-19 has created economic stress for many, so if you are experiencing economic hardship due to COVID-19, the requested fee for webinars in this series is $10 (though no one will be turned away due to lack of funds-please contact our admin assistant, Michelle, for assistance .

CE*: 3.5 CE credits pending approval*; additional fee:$22.50

 

Registration Now Open!

 

 

Explore the use of the Experiential Democracy Dialogue for 2 to depolarize difficult conversations, mediate conflict, and facilitate social healing.

In the wake of the pandemic, racial unrest, and political polarization in our society, the engagement of supportive structured dialogue groups has become an increasingly appealing option for the many people who yearn to promote social healing but are at a loss with regard to the means by which to do so.  

This webinar is one effort to provide the means and resources to promote social healing through the time-tested one-on-one approach of the Experiential Democracy Dialogue, which incorporates elements of the group process developed by the increasingly popular and reputable organization Braver Angels Network. Through the use of a demonstration with two Braver Angel volunteers to illustrate the approach as well as dyad work with the audience, this webinar will provide the introductory means for participants to learn the principles, format, and application of the approach in their communities, households, and professions.

This webinar will illustrate the “Experiential Democracy Dialogue for 2,” which is a conflict mediation model that draws from over a decade of experience facilitating the Dialogue combined with my experience as a trained moderator for the national organization “Braver Angels.”  Braver Angels is a citizens group that offers supportive structured dialogues to self-identified liberals and conservatives to learn about and understand each other with the prospect for achieving common ground.

This webinar will provide the introductory means for participants to learn the principles, format, and application of the approach in their communities, households, and professions.

During the webinar we will:

Introduce and provide the context for the Experiential Democracy Dialogue;

Offer a demonstration of its six-phase approach with two volunteers from the Braver Angels Network, a liberal and conservative (both self-identified) discussing a timely topic;

We will invite the audience to form dyads to practice the skills comprising the approach;  

Offer a range of timely topics for participants to engage in a dialogue;

Ample time will be provided for audience discussion following the dyad groups.

The webinar will also draw from my new book on this topic—The Depolarizing of America:  A Guidebook for Social Healing, which audience members will be encouraged to read to optimize their application of the Experiential Democracy Dialogue.

Our Online Workshops Include Experiential Work!

The September 12th workshop will be both didactic and experiential utilizing Zoom Meeting and Zoom Breakout Rooms; a format that will include attendees being assigned to a dyad for the experiential exercise.

The demonstration of the Experiential Democracy Dialogue will feature two volunteers from the Braver Angels Network, representing opposite sides of the political spectrum, self-identified as liberal and conservative.

This event is designed to for both the general public and for licensed or pre-licensed professionals in the therapeutic fields, as well as master's and graduate students in therapeutic programs. Interested persons, psychologists, MFTs, social workers, counselors, psychiatrists, nurse practitioners and doctors are all encouraged to attend!

Continuing Education Info

CE: 3.5 CEs pending approval*
Additional CE Fee of $22.50 (To be submitted during registration); Contact us for more continuing education information.

 

• *APA Division 32, Society for Humanistic Psychology is approved by the American Psychological Association to sponsor continuing education for psychologists. APA Division 32, Society for Humanistic Psychology maintains responsibility for this program and its content.
   
• Accessibility: It is the policy of EHI to make every reasonable effort to provide attendees with disabilities with the opportunity to take full advantage of its programs.
• Please contact us in advance so we can work with you arrange programming to needs. Please contact our admin assistant, Michelle, for arrangements.

 

Requested Requirements

A Zoom Account with Zoom Desktop Client or Mobile App are needed. Due to the format of this particular event these are both needed to be assigned to a dyad to engage in the experiential exercise.

 

Our Presenter

Kirk Schneider, PhD, is a licensed psychologist and leading spokesperson for contemporary existential-humanistic/integrative psychology. Dr. Schneider is a cofounder and current president of the Existential-Humanistic Institute (an award-winning psychotherapy training center), Council Member of the American Psychological Association (APA), past president (2015-2016) of the Society for Humanistic Psychology (Division 32) of the APA, and current candidate for president of the APA. He is also a moderator for Braver Angels and an adjunct faculty member at Saybrook University and Teachers College, Columbia University. A Fellow of five Divisions of the APA, Dr. Schneider has published over 200 articles, interviews and chapters and has authored or edited 13 books including The Spirituality of Awe, The Polarized Mind, Awakening to Awe, The Handbook of Humanistic Psychology, Existential-Humanistic therapy, Existential-Integrative Psychotherapy, The Wiley World Handbook of Existential Therapy, and The Depolarizing of America:  A Guidebook for Social Healing. Dr. Schneider’s work has been featured in Scientific American, the New York Times, Psychology Today and many other health and psychology outlets.

 

Register Today