The American Society of Clinical Hypnosis-Education and Research Foundation (ASCH-ERF) sponsors three levels of  instruction through its professional training in clinical hypnosis. These Regional Workshops are held four to six times a year. ASCH-ERF makes every effort to hold workshops in all regions of the US.

Clinical hypnosis targets mind/body communication to create change. The targeted use of suggestions that occurs in hypnosis can influence the mind/body system in numerous ways including improving immune function, altering pain, improving the gut biome and reducing blood flow to a surgical site. For some, hypnosis is an alternative to anesthesia. It has been used successfully to improve both comfort and compliance in patient’s undergoing medical and dental procedures, saving thousands of dollars.

Hypnosis is equally beneficial in behavioral health with a broad range of applications including the treatment of anxiety, depression, habit disorders, trauma and behavioral aspects of many known medical problems.  As a therapeutic technique, hypnosis offers novelty of experience creating effective and deeply engaging experiences of change. While hypnosis engages the mind, it also activates imagination and the unconscious. Without being called such, hypnosis is a somatic therapy through its use of bridging mind/body communication.  In treating anxiety and depressive disorders, hypnosis has both rapid interventions aimed at improving self-regulation as well as interventions aimed at physiology, mind or behavior, allowing for tailoring to the individual. Hypnosis helps a patient tap into their inner strengths and resources. Patients are empowered as they develop skill-based techniques.  For those with a preference for a cognitive-behavioral therapy approach, research has shown that adding hypnosis into the treatment improves outcomes. These improved outcomes are seen in treating anxiety, depression, pain and more. 

Clinical hypnosis incorporates the science of neurobiology and brain plasticity. Its principles are trans-theoretical. For clinicians across medical and behavioral health disciplines, learning the use of hypnosis heightens attention to language and the use of communication skills to facilitate change in thinking, feeling, perception and behavior. Suggestion is an essential aspect of any treatment. Learning hypnosis allows one to understand better one’s use of language in treatment and how to increase and diversify skills in the implicit and explicit suggestion of therapeutic possibilities. We all know how something said in just the right way for a person can enable impactful change. As a clinician, unlike strategies that are problem specific, clinical hypnosis can transform the way one thinks about patient problems and the solutions one offers.

Fundamentals of Hypnosis Workshop
Why pursue training in Clinical Hypnosis? What are the benefits?

The Fundamentals of Clinical Hypnosis Workshop, the first part of a series of workshops in the certification program for clinical hypnosis, is intended for licensed health professionals including physicians, nurses, psychologists, dentists, counselors, social workers and those in related fields. 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.

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
• Empower clients and patients to build skills for better health
• Learn a highly creative, broad-ranging technique for use in integrative medicine

Refining Skills and Treatment Applications Workshop
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 Refining Skills & treatment Applications 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 Fundamentals of Clinical Hypnosis and Refining Skills & Treatment Applications Workshops are essential to fully benefiting from the advanced level workshops. 

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Regional Workshop Registration Fee Chart*:

Advanced Workshop $457 $657 $317 $272
 

All registration fees include a $37 printed handout fee. If you wish to receive your handouts electronically, you may subtract the $37 fee from your total amount due at registration. Handouts will be emailed approximately one week before the workshop.

Information on the Mutter Scholarship Fund for Student and Early Career Professional Training.
  

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*Due to increases in the number of participants at the most recent workshops, we strongly recommend registering for the workshop of your choice in advance, as we cannot guarantee the ability to accommodate walk-in registrants.

Regional Workshop Schedule

Each of the Regional Workshops will offer a Fundamentals of Clinical Hypnosis, Refining Skills & Treatment Applications and an Advanced Workshop and begin at 6:30 pm on Thursday and end at noon on Sunday unless otherwise stated. Call 630-980-4740 with any questions.

•  May 2-5, 2019    ASCH-ERF Regional Workshop; Seattle Marriott Bellevue; Bellevue, WA (Hotel Information) (on-line registration available) (Workshop Brochure)

In addition to offering the Fundamentals of Clinical Hypnosis and Refining Skills & Treatment Applications Workshops, ASCH -ERF will be offering the following Advanced Workshop in Bellevue, Hypnosis for Chronic Pain Management with Mark Jensen, PhD and David Patterson, PhD, ABPH.

This 20-hour workshop will provide an overview of hypnotic strategies and suggestions for helping individuals better self-manage chronic pain conditions.  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., 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. Approaches to use when a patient is in high distress or anxiety will be described. A hypnotic cognitive therapy approach using open question and reflective listening that can be used to develop effective suggestions and enhance overall treatment benefits will also be introduced. Participants will learn how to do inductions that prepare patients for upcoming stressful medical procedures. An age progression technique for helping clients effectively manage pain will also be introduced. Participants will learn the basics of Ericksonian hypnotic approaches and how they can be used to construct complex, non-linear inductions for use with pain management. The workshop will end with a discussion of the specific hypnotic suggestions that can be used to target specific pain conditions. The emphasis of the workshop will be on applied clinical technique; demonstrations, brief exercises and the opportunity for consultation will be included.  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.

•  June 20-23, 2019   ASCH-ERF Regional Workshop; Alexandria, VA (on-line registration available) Workshop Brochure Book your group rate for ASCH Regional Meeting

In addition to offering the Fundamentals of Clinical Hypnosis and Refining Skills & Treatment Applications Workshops, ASCH-ERF will be offering the following Advanced Workshop in Alexandria. Advanced Workshop Title: "Hypnosis, Mindfulness and Meditation: Comparisons and Clinical Applications" Chair: Akira Otani, Ed.D, ABPH. Faculty Cheryl Beighle, MD, Sharon Spiegel, PhD, ABPP
Clinicians who integrate clinical hypnosis into their practices have frequently been asked by patients, colleagues, others, and perhaps themselves, “… what is the difference between hypnosis and mindfulness and/or meditation?”.  Very often in ASCH Level 1 workshops this question is also asked and an appropriate, adequate, though rather brief explanation regarding the similarities and differences among these intervention strategies is offered.  This workshop, taught by three highly respected and accomplished clinicians, researchers, and educators who are much appreciated and lauded clinical educators, will present a comprehensive and intensive review and explanation of those similarities and differences, not only from a didactic model but via accompanying demonstration and experiential and practice opportunities.

The workshop will begin with a comprehensive review of the nature and processes of hypnosis and meditation, including historical, theoretical, and neurophysiological comparisons and contrasts between hypnosis and contemplative processes such as meditation.  Mindfulness meditation, for example Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction (MBSR), will be described, demonstrated, experienced and learned within the context of comparison with clinical hypnosis. Transcendental Meditation, another comtemplative process will be discussed and demonstrated as it compares and differs from clinical hypnotic communication.  The characteristics, processes, and effects of clinical hypnosis will be the foundational context for a review of counterparts of a variety of specific meditative strategies followed by description of the active therapeutic integration of clinical hypnosis and meditation.

Moving from general to more specific, the uses of clinical hypnosis and meditation techniques in the treatment of anxiety and depression will be discussed and demonstrated, followed by consideration of the uses of clinical hypnosis and meditation in clinical intervention with trauma.

Final considerations and discussions will center on the evidence for, as well as potential risks and contraindications for, therapeutic uses of meditation and/or clinical hypnosis.  This will lead to consideration of ethical issues in the clinical use of hypnotic and/or meditative strategies.  This advanced workshop will close with a period of questions and answers, requested demonstrations, and discussion of ways to integrate these techniques into clinical practice.

Individualized Consultation Workshop IC Workshop Agenda

•  September 19-22, 2019 ASCH-ERF Regional Workshop; DoubleTree Hotel Chicago Oak Brook; Oak Brook, IL (on-line registration available) 

(Hotel Reservations)
Advanced Workshop Title: "Interface of Hypnosis in Behavioral Health and Medicine"

•  October 17-20, 2019 ASCH-ERF Regional Workshop; Embassy Suites by Hilton Dallas Park Central Area; Dallas, TX 
(on-line registration available) Hotel Reservations (use group code 'SCH')

In addition to offering the Fundamentals of Clinical Hypnosis and Refining Skills & Treatment Applications Workshops, ASCH -ERF will be offering the following Advanced Workshop in Dallas, “Mastering Informal Uses of Hypnosis a la Milton Erickson and Kay Thompson" with Holly Forester-Miller, PhD and Ron Havens, PhD.

This workshop was planned jointly by Holly Forester-Miller, PhD and Betty Alice Erickson, MS, LMFT to further the knowledge and awareness of the informal uses of hypnosis as masterfully implemented and taught by Milton Erickson, MD and Kay Thompson, DDS. Dr. Forester-Miller is honored to be able to present this workshop in Betty Alice Erickson’s memory.

The workshop will be interactive and experiential. There will be amble time for participant practice and case discussions. We will address Conversational Inductions, the Use of Language, Word Play, Metaphors, and Teaching Tales. Each of these uses of hypnosis or hypnotic language will be explained with examples based on the work of Drs. Erickson and Thompson. Each technique and approach will be demonstrated. We will process the demonstrations discussing the hows and whys of what was done and answering participants’ questions. The participants will then have the opportunity to practice each technique.

At the end of this activity attendees will be able to:

• Demonstrate developing metaphors and embedded metaphors.
• Enhance their use of hypnotic language.
• Understand the value and purpose of word play.
• Be able to conduct a conversational induction.
• Understand the purpose and proper use of teaching tales.

•  December 5-8, 2019 ASCH-ERF Regional Workshop; Rosen Plaza; Orlando, FL (on-line registration available)
Hotel Reservations

In addition to offering the Fundamentals of Clinical Hypnosis and Refining Skills & Treatment Applications Workshops, ASCH -ERF will be offering the following Advanced Workshop in Orlando, "Wake Up to Better Sleep: Hypnosis, Neuroscience, and the Role of Sleep in Common and Uncommon Clinical Conditions" with David Alter, PhD, ABPP, ABPH and Mary Wells, PhD.

Centuries before de Cuvillers and Braid popularized the term hypnosis, the association between sleep and evocation of people’s deep reservoir of change-enabling states of mind and body was well established. The term hypnosis harkens to ancient Greece mythology, where Hypnos (god of sleep) and his twin brother, Thanatos, lived as neighbors, personifying humanity’s timeless struggle with individual mortality, fate, and how the choices and actions we take in life alter our destiny. Contemporary neuroscience makes clear the considerable differences between the experience of trance and sleep, and the role that hypnosis plays in accessing both. Nevertheless, popular conceptualizations of hypnosis continue to perpetuate unwarranted mischaracterizations of hypnosis, trance, and sleep. This workshop is a great opportunity to debunk hurtful myths while simultaneously enriching your sense of the wonder and potential of directing restful sleep toward healthful therapeutic ends.

This multi-day immersive workshop will guide participants along a journey of professional enrichment and personal discovery. Together, we will delve into mysteries of sleep from evolutionary, biological, cognitive, affective, interpersonal, and social perspectives. Through interweaving didactic presentation, group discussion, and active small group practice, we will come to appreciate sleep’s role as a healing buffer against our daily stressors and as a potentiator of our life’s highest aspirations. When sleep rhythms are intact, health flourishes. When de-synchronized, as in insomnia, and a variety of parasomnias, a cascade of illness patterns begins to emerge. Therefore, the workshop will devote ample practice time for acquiring methods of using hypnosis to re-establish optimal sleep rhythms, thereby unleashing sleep’s capacity to reduce anxiety, stabilize mood, reduce pain, regulate behavior, improve memory and cognitive functioning, metabolize post-traumatic patterns, ease physiological distress, and support client’s ability to use dreams to build motivation to align their lives with a deeper purpose.

Join us for this exciting multi-day adventure tour through the fascinating world that lies just beneath our conscious awareness. You’ll leave the workshop prepared to incorporate sleep-work into your clinical practice. So, ease off the snooze button, open your eyes, and discover a new vista on the world of sleep, our single greatest, naturally occurring, psychobiological reboot process.

Dr. Mary Wells is a licensed clinical psychologist and Assistant Professor at VCU Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation where she is actively involved in program development of an interdisciplinary approach to treating chronic pain. She has been in this role since June 2018, having left an 18 year stint with Sheltering Arms Rehabilitation Centers, first as a front line clinician and for the last 10 years as director of the medical psychology department. She began her work with hypnosis early in her career as a staff psychologist with the Washington Pain and Rehab Center in Washington, DC where she learned to incorporate hypnosis, relaxation training and biofeedback into an integrated pain treatment program. She began training with ASCH approved programs in 2001 and has been certified since 2008 and later achieved approved consultant status when she began teaching workshops for ASCH in 2012. She has been faculty with a number of ASCH training workshops, focusing her skills on training clinicians new to the use of hypnosis in medical and mental health settings. Her primary clinical interest is chronic pain management where she has concentrated her efforts for the last 30 years in a variety of medical and private practice settings.

David Alter, PhD, ABPP, ABPH is a clinical psychologist with advanced training in hypnosis, neuropsychology, and clinical psychology. Addressing the challenges and creative possibilities that arise when minds, brains, bodies intersect has been his clinical focus for more than 30 years. In addition to managing Partners in Healing, the holistic health clinic he created 20 years ago, Dr. Alter is an author, teacher, active blogger, and the creator of MyRelevium, a company that designs online educational/therapeutic programs for individuals suffering from a variety of health challenges. He is a past member of the ASCH Executive Committee and is board certified in psychological hypnosis through ABPH. Dr. Alter is described as an engaging and adroit teacher of naturalistic methods of training clinicians in the theory, methodology, and practice of clinical hypnosis.