Core Program | Adult Track
Program Director: Dr. Lehi Belson-
First year
Fundamentals of Psychotherapy Integration in Adults - Dr. Yael Perry Herzovich
The course will review the history of the field and the development of the movement to promote the integration of psychotherapy, engage in in-depth study of various models of integration and their clinical applications, examine the research findings and challenges in the field, and invite course participants to reflect on the significance of the material learned for their therapeutic work. The course serves as a gateway to the world of integration of psychotherapy.
The psychodynamic approach, mapping currents and models from a historical perspective –
Ms. Naama Greenwald and Ms. Maayan Pekhat are twins.
A course common to both tracks, divided into beginner and advanced levels. The course will deal with a historical overview of the development of currents within the psychodynamic approach, emphasizing their central ideas, fundamental concepts, and perceptions of therapeutic processes. Drive theory, ego psychology, object relations current, self psychology, relational and intersubjective psychoanalysis will be studied and mapped on a developmental timeline through an in-depth comparative discussion, a mapping that will serve as a basis for discussing the therapeutic relationship as both a platform for change and a space for change from the perspectives of the various currents in psychoanalysis.
Integrative Applications of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy - Dr. Lihi Hamel Belson and Dr. Ella Oren
A common course for both tracks, divided into beginner and advanced levels. The course will deal with the use of cognitive and behavioral models and tools from an integrative position. In the first part of the course, basic concepts and key techniques in cognitive-behavioral therapy will be studied in depth. The distinction between thinking and therapeutic work in the spirit of the first and second waves of CBT compared to the third wave will be clarified. In the continuation of the course, it will be demonstrated and explained how cognitive and behavioral tools can be used through various models of integration in psychotherapy. In addition, a specific work model will be presented and demonstrated, based on the creation of a common therapeutic language that combines a relational psychodynamic approach and a cognitive-behavioral approach in the spirit of the third wave of CBT. The course combines guest lectures by first-class expert clinicians who treat CBT from an integrative position in the spirit of the first, second and third waves, with adults and children and youth.
Elective course 1 of 2:
1. Mentalization-Based Therapy (MBT) - Ms. Naama Greenwald
Mentalization is the ability to give meaning to and interpret the behavior of oneself and others, explicitly or implicitly, in terms of internal states and mental processes. The course will introduce participants to the theory of mentalization, which has been one of the main contemporary psychodynamic theories in the last decade. Its main developer is Prof. Peter Ponghi, a psychoanalyst who heads the Anna Freud Center in London. The theory has an integrative aspect in that it is related to developmental, neuropsychological and cognitive theories and is backed by research, and also offers a wide range of applications. The theory was originally developed for the treatment of severe personality disorders, mainly borderline personality disorder (BPD), but over the years, mentalization-based therapy (MBT) has been expanded to a very wide range of situations in which there is a breakdown in the therapeutic process and is relevant to a variety of disorders, populations and therapeutic frameworks (individual, group, systemic). In the course, we will learn about the developmental basis of mentalization, introduce basic concepts in the theory, and present its unique working principles in various intervention settings. In the second part of the course, there will be simulations of the participants and practice of various mentalistic techniques.
Narrative Observation of Therapy - Ms. Shlomit Giloni Barak
Humans are interpretive and storytelling creatures, we understand our lives through stories. Stories organize our lives and give them meaning and a sense of continuity. They are woven into relationships, life events, and the society in which we live. But what of the story is written for us and when are we our own writers? The narrative approach grew out of postmodern and poststructural ideas. It emerges from a respectful and non-judgmental stance, which treats children and adults as experts in their own lives. The approach strengthens the place of the child and the parent as having skills, abilities, beliefs, values, and aspirations - and sees them as tools for change, while rewriting the story of their life. In the course, we will learn about the philosophical and theoretical foundations of the approach, and we will learn about and experience key therapeutic practices ('maps'): externalizing the problem, unique moments, expanding the preferred story, bonding conversations, and rituals of definition. Learning will combine lectures, discussions, exercises, and watching videos.
Training in the integration of psychotherapy A and B
An annual training group, the group is based on case presentations by group members and emphasizes observation and integrative thinking, identification of different treatment approaches, therapeutic techniques, deepening and conceptualizing between theory and practice in order to enrich thinking and movement according to the patient's needs. The group training allows exposure to the work of other students, promotes discussion from multiple theoretical perspectives of clinical work and exposure to cases from a wide range of contexts, populations and treatment methods.
Second year
The use of a treatment center and time in short-term treatment - Dr. Yael Perry Herzovich and Ms. Einat Levin Barskin
The course will offer a look at treatment focus and treatment duration as components of any therapeutic process and a review of the background to the development of early and short-term models in psychotherapy. We will discuss the difference between crisis intervention and focused and short-term treatment. We will focus on focused and short-term treatment models from different approaches while providing a detailed introduction to the relevant therapeutic skills. At the core of the course, we will deal with the use of time as a resource and short-term treatment models from an integrative position. The material learned will be demonstrated and illustrated through a discussion of therapeutic cases.
Principles of the Relational Approach – Dr. Lehi Belson Hamel
The course will offer a comprehensive introduction to the background of the emergence of the relational approach and a rich perspective on its development process. It will provide learners with extensive and organized knowledge of the principles of the approach, the theorists leading it, and the central issues it addresses, while focusing on models of intersubjectivity, and on the characterization of goals, dimensions, processes, and tools of the therapeutic process from a relational perspective. We will attempt to gain a deeper understanding of concepts at the core of the approach, including: mutual recognition, multiple selves, interpretation as mutual construction, enactment, the relational third, the dialectic of hope and fear, between spontaneity and rituals, and between interpretive and expressive work in the therapeutic process, the therapist's self-disclosure, and more. During the course, we will present and demonstrate specific aspects related to therapeutic work in a relational approach with children, adolescents, and parents, and demonstrate how these ideas can provide a theoretical and practical platform for thinking about integration in psychotherapy.
Psychopathology from an integrative perspective - Dr. Aluma Reis and Dr. Yael Perry
In this course, we will examine different models for diagnosing psychopathology and see the use we can make of these models as clinicians. In doing so, we will try to create a bridge between pathology and the clinic and explore the subject from a pragmatic perspective. To this end, we will examine different models for diagnosis and practice them with different patients.
Elective course 1 of 2 courses common to both tracks:
1. Introduction to DBT Dialectical Behavioral Therapy - Ms. Nurit Shahar
Personality disorders in general and borderline personality disorder in particular pose a challenge to the diagnostician, theorist and therapist. Characteristics of impulsivity, affective instability, lack of trust (acting out), fragile interpersonal relationships, identity confusion, massive use of splitting and projective identification cause powerful countertransference reactions. Dialectical Behavioral Therapy (DBT) is intended for disorders of emotional regulation and instability, and is effective even and especially in cases of chronic suicidal behavior. This therapeutic approach, developed by the American psychologist Prof. Marcia Linehan, has been empirically tested in several centers in the US and Europe and has been proven to be clearly effective in treating patients suffering from borderline personality disorder. The approach has also been found effective in treating eating disorders, especially binge eating, depression and anxiety in people with personality disorders, as well as in people suffering from substance addiction. The approach has been found to be effective in treating adults and adolescents, and recently there is evidence of its effectiveness in children as well. It is an integrative treatment approach that includes the use of elements of cognitive-behavioral, supportive, dynamic therapy in the self-approach and the object relations approach, elements from the intersubjective approach and elements from the Zen Buddhist theory. The main elements that define dialectical behavioral therapy are behavioral theory, mindfulness and dialectical philosophy. The treatment offers holism and synthesis. The unique characteristic of the method is the dialectical part, which means bringing opposites closer together in a continuous process of synthesis. There is an emphasis on acceptance as the basis for change, and a synthesis between the concept of Zen Buddhist theory and Western psychological concepts.
2. The Motivational Approach: How to Help Patients Change / Ms. Orit Kovac
Patients who are unable to make behavioral changes are highly frustrated, and so are those around them - therapists and family members - who feel helpless in the face of a stuck or worsening situation. The motivational approach, which grew out of the field of addiction treatment, was developed and formulated by Miller and Rolnik. It is an evidence-based approach that aims to motivate patients to change behavior and cooperate with treatment plans. At the heart of the approach is the understanding that ambivalence is at the heart of every change process and that we must accompany the patient in exploring and resolving it if we want to promote change and increase the chance that it will be maintained over time. The approach focuses on the interaction between the therapist and the patient and explores the ways in which motivation, self-efficacy perception, and resolution of ambivalence can be influenced. In addition, the approach is based on research demonstrating that a confrontational stance on the part of therapeutic agents increases resistance on the part of patients, and therefore includes intervention strategies to address resistance while deliberately avoiding confrontation.
The course will focus on introducing the spirit, principles, and practical tools that the motivational approach offers to therapists who accompany patients in change processes. The course, throughout, incorporates diverse demonstrations and practices of the various tools by the participants.
Training in the integration of psychotherapy C. D.
An annual training group, the group is based on case presentations by group members and aims to create a safe and enabling space for users to provide them with opportunities to consult on therapeutic cases, consolidate their professional identity, and grow from an integrative position.
Ethical Issues in Psychotherapy - Dr. Dafna Palti
The course seeks to establish the understanding that professional ethical thinking is central and essential in the work of psychotherapy therapists and to provide theoretical and practical tools to apply this. First, in 2 self-study units, we will deal with the definitions of professional ethics of psychotherapy: What is professional ethics? What is the difference between legal rules and ethical rules? What laws are important to recognize in the context of therapeutic work in mental health? What is an ethical dilemma? How do you identify it and how do you reach an ethical decision? What are ethical codes and what are ethics committees? What principles and values should guide us in our work?
Subsequently, 2 online workshops will be held at the beginning of the summer in small groups (workshop dates will be announced in advance during the academic year) to which students will be invited to bring ethical dilemmas from their work. The workshops will allow them to demonstrate and practice ethical discussions and ethical deliberations surrounding the dilemmas, and analyze them using the tools presented in the course.
Third year
An integrative perspective on trauma - attachment, emotion, and experience-based approaches to trauma treatment - Ms. Michal Ziv
The course will teach about understanding and treating trauma through different perspectives, including recent findings in neuroscience research, neurobiology of emotions, attachment theory and modern attachment studies, polyvagal theory, the impact of trauma on the body and the importance of working with the body in treating trauma, the impact of negative experiences on the development of the mind and brain, and theories that focus on emotional and experiential work as a therapeutic map. The course will emphasize integrating theoretical understanding and the concepts learned into clinical contexts. The course will combine lectures, demonstrations, experiential exercises, and a discussion of participants' therapeutic examples.
Managing the therapeutic process from an integrative perspective – Prof. Sharon Ziv Beyman and Ms. Maayan Pekhat Teomi
The course aims to conceptualize, expand, and practice the toolbox used by therapists from an integrative perspective. One of the main ways to build therapeutic knowledge and capability is through the systematic study of a variety of therapeutic skills, including conceptualizing the stages of therapy, the process of introduction and assessment, establishing the therapeutic contract, establishing the therapeutic focus, managing the therapeutic relationship in all its aspects, the variety of therapeutic interventions (such as reflection, interpretation, etc.), managing the end of therapy, managing crises and blockages in therapy, managing the time resource in therapy, and more.
Training from an integrative standpoint in every aspect includes familiarity with comprehensive theoretical knowledge based on a variety of approaches, familiarity with research knowledge and research tools, and practice that relates to the forms of work offered by a variety of approaches.
Elective course 1 out of 4 courses common to both tracks:
Treatment of loss and bereavement – a personal-professional journey / Ms. Hamutal Arbel
In what way does death, yours and that of your loved ones, concern you? How do you relate to the subject of death when it comes up with patients? Do you find it more difficult to respond to this topic than to other topics? Do you get stuck, or do you skip ahead elegantly? The course seeks to expand the knowledge, reduce fear, and increase the confidence of therapists in treating situations of loss and bereavement, in order to assist patients in processing the loss, in finding effective ways of coping, and in constructing beneficial meanings. We will move between learning the latest theory and contemporary models in the field of loss and bereavement and their applications in psychotherapy, and an internal journey of inquiry into our relationship, as therapists and as human beings, with death. The course will be workshop-style and will include the use of writing, art, and various types of media, as well as work on clinical material from course participants.
2. Relationship-focused interventions in parent-child care / Ms. Michal Yardeni
Today, there is an extensive clinical and research knowledge base on dyadic interventions as a key factor in the treatment of difficulties in children and adolescents. The goal of these interventions is to treat situations of relationship disruption, or to support a parent in helping their child in situations where traumatic events or other emotional and developmental difficulties threaten the child's mental development. In this course, we will discuss several models of dyadic treatments, suitable for preschool children (such as the Haifa model for dyadic therapy) or for latency ages and adolescents (the Daniel Hughes model), as well as models that are designed to treat certain situations, such as the DIR model, which is a model for parent-child therapy with children on the autistic spectrum; and the CPP model, which is designed to treat trauma in early childhood. During the course, we will learn about dyadic therapy, starting from the stage of creating a therapeutic alliance with parents, the assessment process, through conceptualization and goal setting (building a formulation), choosing entry points, and finally the therapeutic intervention itself. We will also discuss how these interventions can be integrated into treatments where the setting is not dyadic, such as parenting therapy or individual child therapy. We will study the theoretical and research background that underlies these interventions, discuss various circumstances that call for integrating dyadic interventions into the treatment of children's difficulties, and how understanding the circumstances and the formulation of the treatment affect the therapist's positioning, therapeutic goals, and methods of intervention. Learning will be done through lectures, discussion, experiential experience, and clinical examples.
3. Days of War: Mental Movement in Encounter with Transience and Death / Ms. Ginat Engel Barak
Still a war / Dana Schneider
And for a moment you might think everything is fine:
The moon is orbiting the Earth again,
It rained in the yard today,
The children's breaths rise and fall in my room.
Sleep.
But the crack in the ceiling
He will testify.
On my torn eyes
And my scorched heart
Still a war
Until two years ago, we only read about ongoing war in history books. Since then, we have been moving in a changing reality, one day under a real threat and the next day when routine "breaks out."
The clock keeps ticking...
What happens to us when we encounter impermanence and death?
How do we enable the soul to deal with threats or 'ruptures' in the continuum of being?
In the course, we will look at these questions from different angles, including psychoanalytic, existentialist, Buddhist writing, and prose. We will focus, among other things, on our personal experience of transience and death, and how we operate in a clinic where 'the walls are falling' - when patients encounter a similar reality.
We will integrate clinical material, stay in the present, and embark on a common journey "without memory and without desire" (Bion).
4. Mindfulness for Therapists – From Theory to Practice / Ms. Shelly Frankel Falls
In the course, we will focus on understanding the origins of mindfulness and delve into its many benefits and diverse applications. We will practice a variety of mindfulness techniques, including mindfulness of the worlds of the senses and mindfulness of thoughts and emotions. In addition, we will focus on cultivating beneficial emotions such as self-compassion and compassion for others, gratitude, and generosity. The goal of the course is to instill mindfulness techniques in students so that they can also offer them to patients and use them in the therapeutic field. Developing mindfulness helps both the therapist and the patient in expanding the range of attention, developing self-awareness, emotional regulation, and non-judgmental introspection. It also increases our ability to identify automatic reactions and pause them, and improves the ability to deeply accept reality. The course requires practical practice at home of the techniques taught during the classes. The end of the course will be dedicated to a joint examination of how the concepts and tools offered can be integrated into the treatment room.
Elective course 1 of 3:
1. Practical integration of issues in adulthood - marriage, parenting, family / Dr. Aluma Reis
In this course, we will focus uniquely on integration: we will learn a conceptualization that combines various therapeutic approaches (psychodynamic and third wave, couple and family therapy, and more) as well as therapeutic intervention methods derived from this integrative conceptualization, while combining current research and clinical knowledge. The focus of the course is content: the stations of the adult person's journey - relationships, parenting, and family. We will learn about general challenges in adulthood (for example, managing marital conflicts, coping with the loss of an elderly parent) and unique challenges (such as single parenting, the "L" of the "T" and Chapter B). At each station, we will meet ourselves and our patients, and discuss case studies of patients participating in the course in the light of conceptualizations and methods of intervention. Throughout the course, we will move between the intrapersonal world and the interpersonal world, between an individual perspective and a couple and systemic perspective, between insights into the inner world and action in reality, between the universal and the particular, and finally - between the adult therapist and the adult patient.
2. Movement between individual and couple and family therapy / Ms. Shlomit Giloni Barak
As therapists, we are skilled in individual work from various theoretical perspectives, focusing on issues within the person's personality. Interventions made within individual therapy create change in a person's psyche and automatically reflect on the closest relationships in their lives. Correspondingly, sometimes, systemic constellations in which the person finds themselves make it difficult for them to create change within themselves, since such change constitutes a threat to their closest relationships. In this course, we will expand the intrapersonal and interpersonal observation and think about the mutual effects between intrapersonal processes and the family and couple system in which the person lives. As part of the course, we will become familiar with systemic ideas that underlie therapeutic thinking, learn key concepts and intervention methods, which expand the perspective from which we start. The goal of the course is to provide a systemic therapeutic position that will allow the therapist to make individual interventions that maintain the couple and family context in which the person lives. The course will teach ideas and concepts from the worlds of family and couples therapy that can also be used in individual therapy.
ACT approach and contemporary behavioral therapy approaches / Mr. Lior Biran
In this course, we will learn the basics of the ACT approach and its perception of human suffering, we will learn therapeutic tools from the world of ACT, and in addition, we will learn the behavioral foundations that underlie the approach. In addition, we will learn about other approaches that have grown from the same theoretical sources of contextual behavioral sciences.
Training in the integration of psychotherapy, 5th and 6th
The training group is a space designed to enable learning, experimentation, and internalization of integration between theoretical knowledge and clinical experience around a focus of integration in psychotherapy. In the third year, the focus of the training group will be to deepen and consolidate the connection of the knowledge acquired throughout the years of study into the personal-professional identity and therapeutic style of the therapist. In the meantime, the course will accompany students in writing the final case, which is designed to encourage and promote the consolidation of the knowledge and tools acquired during the studies in the program.