ASCH and its affiliate, the ASCH-Education and Research Foundation, jointly sponsor basic, intermediate and advanced level instruction through our professional training in clinical hypnosis. These Regional Workshops are held four to six times a year. ASCH makes every effort to hold workshops in all regions of the US.

Basic Workshop: Fundamentals of Hypnosis

Why pursue training in Clinical Hypnosis? What are the benefits?

Clinicians who are trained in clinical hypnosis learn a range of communication skills that facilitate reaching the therapeutic goal through more effective utilization of the patient’s or client’s innate resources. Clinical hypnosis incorporates the science of neurobiology and brain plasticity, and its principles are trans-theoretical. Suggestion is an inevitable part of any treatment. Learning hypnosis allows you to better understand how you currently use suggestive language in your treatment approaches and how to increase and diversify your range of skills in suggesting therapeutic possibilities.

Benefits:
• Rapidly establish rapport and the hypnotic relationship across developmental ages;
• Facilitate change, Ego-strengthen and reduce impediments to change;
• Cost-effective, collaborative, person centered treatment; and
• Provide clients and patients with life-long skills for better health.

The Basic clinical hypnosis training is the first part of a series of workshops in the certification program for clinical hypnosis. A diverse faculty from a range of health disciplines will teach you the principles and process of hypnotic inductions, suggestions and treatment. The workshop is a mix of didactic presentations, demonstrations, experiential exercises and faculty-led small group practice tailored to the specific needs and learning style of each participant. At the conclusion of the workshop you will have been taught the basic skills required to utilize clinical hypnosis and begin to apply it to your practice.

Intermediate Workshop: Refining Skills and Treatment Applications
What are the advantages of more training in Clinical Hypnosis?

The second step in certification training is to strengthen your skills, strategies and applications of clinical hypnosis. Part one taught you “how to” do clinical hypnosis, and part two builds on this skill set and refines and furthers your development so you add the when, why and where to the “how to”.

Advantages:

• Introduction to a wider range of topics on the utility of clinical hypnosis (e.g., Pain Management; Irritable Bowel Syndrome; Anxiety and Sleep Disorders; Habit Disorders; Dissociative Identify Disorder); 
• Learn more techniques for the creative use of the language of suggestion to facilitate change;
• Learn specific tools (complex inductions and intensification techniques) for specific populations (children; procedural hypnosis; PTSD); and 
• More practice with the feedback of expert faculty.

The Intermediate Workshop increases your skills and builds confidence in your use of hypnosis. It prepares you to move on to the Advanced Workshop level and Individual Consultation with a strong basis of skills and understanding of the principles and practice of clinical hypnosis.

Advanced level workshops are topical. Recent professional training workshops have focused on behavioral medicine, health psychology, hypnosis and pediatrics, and mind-body medicine.

Participants are encouraged to attend these workshops in sequence in order to make the most of each workshop. Skills mastered in the basic and intermediate levels are essential to fully benefiting from the advanced level workshops. 

2014-2015 Regional Workshop Schedule - Each of the following locations will offer a Basic, Intermediate and an Advanced Workshop.  

• April 23-26, 2015 - ASCH Regional Workshop; Hyatt Regency St. Louis at the Arch; St. Louis, MO

Integrating Hypnosis and Health Psychology (Advanced Workshop)
This Advanced Workshop focuses on health related psychological problems encountered in many mental health and medical practices. D. Corydon Hammond, PhD, ABPH will introduce participants to the science and practice utilizing hypnotic training protocols for the management of irritable bowel syndrome and inflammatory bowel diseases such as Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis.  Detailed scripts will be provided (for those who bring USB thumb drives).  During a half-day session Dr. Hammond will introduce attendees to 17 specific hypnotic techniques for pain and headache problems, and will provide a clinical demonstration.  Instruction will also focus on the use of hypnosis for hyperemesis gravidarum (nausea and vomiting associated with pregnancy) and symptom management in cancer patients.  Clinical hypnosis demonstrations of unconscious exploration for recalcitrant health problems will be provided as well as hypnotic preparation for surgical procedures.   Hypnotic techniques for treatment of sexual dysfunctions such as inhibited sexual desire, erectile dysfunction, ejaculatory inhibition, and orgasmic dysfunction will also be presented.

Louis Damis, PhD, ABPP will focus on medical conditions generated and exacerbated by the physiological aspects of psychological stress during his one-day workshop. Mechanisms of mind-body interactions will be reviewed and utilized in this treatment model. This comprehensive model promotes stabilization of the autonomic nervous system (ANS) which has been demonstrated to supports health and healing.  Hypnotic strategies for optimization of ANS and immune system function will be discussed and demonstrated, as well as specific treatment strategies for select disorders. 

Daniel Handel, MD will conclude the workshop by focusing on a sequential, hypnosis-based, therapeutic approach for insomnia. Patients with chronic illness experience symptoms and distress at rates far higher than the general population. This half-day presentation will focus on a step-wise approach to skill-building, focusing initially on the commonly bothersome and sometimes challenging symptom of insomnia. Patients with chronic health problems, particularly chronic pain, frequently describe chronic and severe sleep disorders. These sleep problems reinforce a sense of helplessness, lessen resiliency, and add to depression and anxiety.

• June 7-14, 2015 - ASCH Workshop at Sea; Holland America Lines, Alaska Inside Passage - (Short Schedule) 

There will only be a 12-hour Advanced Workshop offered during this cruise.  This workshop is limited to the first twenty paid registrants. 

Hypnosis and Pain Management Through Self-hypnosis Training with Mark P. Jensen, PhD
This 12-hour workshop, which is limited to the first 20 registrants, will provide an overview of hypnotic strategies and suggestions for helping individuals better self-manage chronic pain conditions and health behaviors. It will begin with a discussion of the neurophysiology of nociception and pain, focusing on nine specific processes and physiological structures involved in pain perception, and that can be influenced by hypnotic suggestions. Evidence regarding pain’s impact on other functioning domains (e.g., diet, activity level, sleep, mood) will be discussed, and ideas for hypnotic suggestions and approaches for addressing all of these domains and processes will be generated. A model for performing a complete evaluation of the outcome domains that hypnosis can benefit in persons with chronic pain will be presented, and methods for developing a pain treatment plan based on this evaluation will be discussed. Strategies for integrating hypnosis with other approaches with proven efficacy (e.g., cognitive therapy and Motivational Interviewing) to enhance overall treatment benefits will also be introduced. The emphasis of the workshop will be on applied clinical technique; demonstrations, brief exercises and the opportunity for consultation will be included. Participants will also have the opportunity to learn about the neurophysiological basis of behavior change, and practice self-hypnosis strategies for addressing their own health behavior goals. After participating in the workshop, participants will have the resources and skills to evaluate a patient with chronic pain for hypnosis treatment, and design a treatment intervention that addresses the various problems identified.