Center For Optimal Living Fall Newsletter 2012

Dear Colleagues and Friends,

I am excited to invite you to participate in the first three day training in the Fundamentals of Integrative Harm Reduction Psychotherapy (IHRP) for substance use problems and other risky behaviors that I will give in New York City this October/November, 2012. This is the second training the Center for Optimal Living is giving in collaboration with the New School for Social Responsibility.

I have described IHRP in my book, Harm Reduction Psychotherapy: A New Treatment for Drug and Alcohol Problems, and a series of papers and book chapters. I have offered versions of this training nationally and internationally so you will be joining an international community of practitioners in many parts of the world including Chile, Poland, Ukraine, Russia, China, Ireland, Austria, Ohio, Chicago, North Carolina and more. IHRP emerged out of my 30 years of working in the field and brings together harm reduction principles with the wisdom and technique of relational psychoanalysis, cognitive-behavioral therapy and the humanistic and mindfulness traditions.

The training will cover basic definitions and philosophy of harm reduction psychotherapy, clinical challenges of working with people engaging in substance use and other risky behaviors such as eating, cutting, shopping, sex, etc., theoretical models for understanding these behaviors and the seven therapeutic tasks of IHRP with didactic material, demonstration of technique, skill-building exercises for each task and case discussion. This training lays the groundwork for future trainings that will support participants in developing mastery in IHRP.

The training is appropriate for psychologists, social workers, psychiatrists, medical providers, counselors and graduate students in these disciplines.

I hope you will join us in the collaborative process that will emerge in the training.

Andrew Tatarsky, PhD
Center for Optimal Living
303 Fifth Avenue. Suite 1403
New York, NY 10016
212-633-8157

Essentials of Integrative Harm Reduction Psychotherapy Andrew Tatarsky,  PhD

Friday, October 26th, 2012
Overview & Introduction of  Integrative Harm Reduction Psychotherapy Principles
9:00 a.m. – 4:00 p.m. (80 5th Ave., Room 529)

Friday, November 2nd, 2012
Therapeutic Alliance, Engagement Skills, Self-Management Skills
9:00 a.m. – 4:00 p.m. at Wolff Conference Room6 East 16th St., Room 1103

Saturday, November 3rd, 2012
Assessment, Embracing Ambivalence, Treatment Planning
9:00 a.m. – 4:00 p.m. at Wolff Conference Room 6 East 16th St., Room 1103

Training Objectives:

• Overview of the history, evolution, and clinical rationale of the Integrative Harm Reduction Psychotherapy (IHRP) model for treating substance misuse and other risky behaviors
• Discussion of IHRP’s seven therapeutic tasks and specific techniques, including:o Managing the therapeutic alliance, therapeutic relationship as healing agent, development of self-management skills for “urge surfing”, assessment as treatment, embracing ambivalence, goal-setting and active strategies for positive change
• Skills and strategies will be demonstrated and participants will have opportunities to practice them with role-play exercises
• Participants are encouraged to bring case material and clinical challenges for discussion
• This training is approved by NYS-OASAS for 18 clock hours of Renewal and Initial credit

REGISTRATION DOCUMENT: ADOBE PDF or WORD DOCUMENT

Dr. Andrew Tatarsky is a specialist in the field of substance use treatment as a psychologist, supervisor, program director, lecturer and author.  He is the Director of The Center for Optimal Living, a treatment and training center in New York City. He author of Harm Reduction Psychotherapy: A New Treatment for Drug and Alcohol Problems. For more information about IHRP, please visit www.andrewtatarsky.com and click the Media tab.

Sponsored by The New School for Social Research, Department of Psychology Concentration in Mental Health & Substance Abuse Counseling 646. 504.6595; MHSAC@newschool.edu

Women’s Harm Reduction Group is starting at The Center for Optimal Living
tentatively scheduled for Tuesdays from 6 to 7:30 pm

This group is designed to be a supportive and safe environment for women at various points on the continuum of change to explore the function and meaning behind substance use and other problematic behaviors.  As part of this group, members will gain a more nuanced understanding of how certain thought patterns, emotional states, and relationships may be impacting their decisions to engage in potentially harmful behaviors. Skills to identify and manage urges to use will also be incorporated, along with relaxation techniques and positive coping statements.  Through the development of these skills, members will learn how to cultivate a more compassionate stance towards themselves and others.

for more information, please contact:
Jenifer Talley, Ph.D.  at (917) 740-3277 or jenifertalley327@gmail.com

The Center for Optimal Living
303 5th Avenue, Suite 1407
New York, NY  10016

The training I led yesterday on applying Integrative Harm Reduction Psychotherapy to the treatment of adolescents and their families in Skokie, Ill. was an amazing experience of exploration and discovery. Organized by Dr. Eugene Isyanov, Director of Behavioral Services Center, the training brought together 35 clinicians of various backgrounds who exchanged ideas, tackled thorny issues, shared the very personal aspects of doing this work and engaged in skill-building exercises with gusto. Some of the themes we particularly focused on: clinical challenges presented by adolescents at various developmental phases and their families, the paradigm shift in the addictive behaviors field from the old “disease concept” to a psychobiosocial/multiple meanings process model and its implications for treatment, is addiction a substance-related disordered or a trauma-related one?, how problems of self-regulation represent vulnerability to addictive behavior, if substances are used to manage symptoms of trauma in adolescence are they adaptive?, the important of integrating self-management skills-building, exploration of meaning and body-oriented interventions into psychotherapy and addiction treatment, establishing and alliance with the patient around compassionate curiosity (Donnel Stern), engagement skills of empathic listening, collaborative exploration and empathic reflection and the therapeutic expression of the harm reduction principle of “starting where the patient is”, embracing ambivalence as a motivational intervention and support of the patient’s integration of dissociated aspects of self expressed through addictive behavior, urge-surfing and unwrapping the urge as techniques for self-managing behavior change and integrative the dissociated aspects of self contained in the urge, social and personal countertransference as the major obstacles to therapeutic engagement, presumptions about “addict”-”addiction”-patient’s goals as important aspects of countertransference to be alert to, dealing with mandating agencies that have unrealistic expectations about the patient’s progress, the need to help patients deal with these realities in empowered ways, the need for clinicians to see themselves as political/social change agents, and more!

Dr Isyanov and his colleagues contributed much of value to the day as did Dan and Karen Bigg of Chicago Recovery Alliance, one of the first trail-blazing harm reduction organizations in the country based in Chicago.

There is an exciting international community working to learn and integrate these ideas and strategies into their work and settings and the community just became a little larger and richer yesterday. I am honored to have been a part of the process and look forward to next one.

I and the Center for Optimal Living are currently planning a three day intensive training in collaboration with the mental Health and Substance Use Masters Program at the New School in New York City in September. The three days will enable us to cover all the didactic and skills-building exercises of the Seven Psychotherapeutic Tasks of Integrative Harm Reduction Psychotherapy. Stayed tuned for more details.

I hope you can participate.

Best, Andrew Tatarsky

Chicago, April 27, 2012
Integrative Harm Reduction Psychotherapy-Advanced One-Day Training, Application Adolescents and Families

8 CEU Credits will be offered to LPCs, LCPCs, LSWs, LCSWs, CADCs, and CPAIP

CLICK HERE FOR REGISTRATION PDF

The Center for Optimal Living is presenting:
A Free Workshop on Monday February 27th on Creating a Path to Tobacco-Free Living
By Dr. Marlene Reil