MINDFUL ISTDP - CORE Training

ISTDP Core Training is a deeper dive into the complex components reviewed in Pre-Core Training and much more. It is a 3-year program that meets 4 times per year, for 3 days each time.  Training will take place in person over a weekend Fri-Sun. Each 3-day meeting is a separate training module and includes a PowerPoint presentation and video examples as well as skill-building exercises. The program includes a lecture portion on the first part of the first day followed by skill-building exercises and each student receiving 80 minutes of supervision of video of their work.  In this way, all students learn together and from one another. The last hour of each training day will be a group process hour in which we have an open discussion about anything coming up that therapists want to share or discuss in service of their growth as therapists.

Group culture insists upon safety in sharing and the recognition that we are all mistake-makers. It is our primary responsibility to engage in self-compassion and to help fellow group members if they are having difficulty with self-compassion. When we review video, we will not be critiquing the therapist’s intervention, but instead focusing on  patient response to intervention and what supervision the patient response provides us such as “yes, keep going”, “now I am resisting closeness with you”,  “I think I am here to please the therapist” or “I am too anxious right now“ for some examples. This will help us to more and more quickly and accurately recognize feelings, anxiety and defenses so that we can form the next hypothesis to test.