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.  

• September 4-7, 2014 - ASCH Regional Workshop; Hyatt Regency Schaumburg, Schaumburg, IL (PDF Brochure) 

ADVANCED WORKSHOP: The Hows and Whys of the Mind/Body Connection: More effective healers, more precise tools with Sheryll Daniel, PhD and Mark Weisberg, PhD, ABPP

The field of integrative medicine is growing, and is increasingly becoming the frontier of conventional practice. Clinical hypnosis is a powerful tool in the treatment of many chronic and acute conditions, especially when used within an integrative approach. Research can now inform our hypnotic interventions to allow us to more precisely target specific psychophysiological responses. 

In this advanced workshop, led by two experts in the field of integrative medicine and psychoneuroimmunology (PNI), participants will expand their understanding of how the mind/body connection works, and will learn to translate that into specific clinical strategies. They will learn how this approach can increase their own confidence and competence.

Drs. Daniel and Weisberg will provide numerous examples of treatment of specific conditions from an integrative perspective. Participants will be invited to discover personal characteristics necessary to become more effective healers. This workshop is appropriate for practitioners from all disciplines represented in ASCH. Participants who have taken the previous workshop, Powerful Healing, from these instructors will find a compendium of more advanced tools and concepts in this presentation. 

Learning Objectives:
At the conclusion of this workshop, participants will be able to:
1) Describe and summarize the latest research on how specific hypnotic interventions target specific brain regions to facilitate psychophysiological change;
2) Demonstrate how to apply integrative concepts and skills in the treatment of three conditions commonly encountered in their practice, such as pain, digestive disorders, and treatment-resistant depression;
3) Articulate their own goals for their personal and professional development as an integrative clinician.

This Regional Workshop will be held at the Hyatt Regency Chicago Schaumburg, located at 1800 East Golf Street in Schaumburg, IL a northwest suburb of Chicago. 

Our hotel is located only 30 miles from the exceptional shops, restaurants and cultural attractions of downtown Chicago, and nine miles from the Chicago O’Hare International Airport. Enjoy a short, five minute drive to the Schaumburg Convention Center, and convenient access to the famous Woodfield Mall, the Midwest’s largest shopping center.

ASCH has contracted a limited number of rooms at a discounted room rate of $99 single/double per room per night, plus applicable taxes with complimentary guest room internet and complimentary parking for overnight guests.  You must book within the ASCH block to receive the complimentary internet and parking. 

The discounted group rate is available 3 days before and 3 days after the workshop on a space available basis. Reservations will be taken on a first-come first-serve basis until the contracted block is full. Any unbooked rooms will be released to the general public on August 14, 2014. So book early to receive the group rate.

Make reservations for this event online or call 1-800-233-1234.

• December 4-7, 2014 - ASCH Regional Workshop; Hilton Garden Inn Downtown Austin, Austin, TX (PDF Brochure)

ADVANCED WORKSHOP: Hypnotic Strategies for Psychophysiologic Disorders and Challenges to Health

On Thursday and Friday, Gary Elkins, PhD, ABPP, ABPH will present Advanced Hypnotherapy in Behavioral Medicine, which will focus on advanced methods of hypnotherapy in behavioral medicine and health related issues. Topics will include: advanced hypnotic inductions, pain management, smoking cessation, therapeutic assessment of hypnotizability and hypnotic relaxation therapy for hot flashes. The workshop will include multiple demonstrations, practice and case consultation in addition to didactic material. 

On Saturday, Ran D. Anbar, MD will offer an experiential patient-centered approach to therapy in his presentation Changing Body Responses Through Hypnosis.   This workshop will  include ways with which the clinician can help the patient be more receptive to therapy with hypnosis. Specific hypnosis techniques to be discussed include suggestions involving various forms of imagery, methods of accessing the subconscious to help develop insight, and use of hypnotic regression in order to achieve improvement and occasional resolution of physical symptoms.

Linda Thomson, MSN, CPNP, ABMH will present a half-day workshop titled Functional Symptoms: anatomical metaphors for psychological/emotional problems in which she will describe how metaphors and hypnosis can be used to diagnose functional disorders and help the individual, recognize inner strength, resiliency, and develop self-esteem that may ultimately lead to self-mastery over functional symptoms. The workshop will include experiential components. Cases will be discussed by the group where the presenting symptom of the patient was a physical expression of a psychological problem. The participants will also have the opportunity to work in groups to develop metaphors for a variety of conditions.

• April 23-26, 2015 - ASCH Regional Workshop; Hyatt Regency St. Louis at the Arch; St. Louis, MO 
• June 18-21, 2015 - ASCH Regional Workshop; Crowne Plaza Old Town Alexandria, Alexandria, VA
•  September 17-20, 2015 - ASCH Regional Workshop; Hyatt Regency Chicago-Schaumburg, Schaumburg, IL
•  October 1-4, 2015 - ASCH Regional Workshop; Doubletree by Hilton San Antonio Downtown, San Antonio, TX
•  December 17-20, 2015 - ASCH Regional Workshop; Sheraton Sand Key Resort, Clearwater Beach, FL