Classes

Throughout my career I’ve taught classes in a number of areas, most related to helping, healing, or psychotherapy. They’ve included counselor training, sexuality, assertion training, intimacy/freedom/fear, integral sex therapy, and many others. What follows are syllabi from two current classes I’m offering, one privately and one with the Santa Barbara Graduate Institute:

Natural Healing Style (NHS) 1

Thursday evening, 5:30-9:30: Greetings, natural healing style presentation–15 to 25 minutes of NHS as accessing your deepest gifts and strongest passions to live your values personally, professionally, in the healing session, and in spiritual orientation and practice. Introductions, initial mind map of NHS, practice feeling grateful for it already happening (intention and visualization are always a part of NHS work alone and with group members, as are other manifestation practices), hachi dan kin (like simple qi-gong).

Friday morning, 9-12:30: Tai Chi (we’ll start by learning and repeating two or three movements and add a couple of new movements each time we practice), water ceremony, meditation (find spot, practice mindfulness meditation), dream discussion, quadrants, lines, levels, journaling, mindmap NHS, sharing/feedback small group, large group processing/questions, hachi dan kin, lunch.

Friday afternoon, 2-5:30: Meditation, polarity/masculine/feminine, journaling, mindmap NHS, sharing/feedback small group, large group processing/questions.

Friday night: Dinner at a local restaurant together

Saturday morning, 9-12:30: Tai Chi, meditation, deva of NHS, dream discussion/exercise, attunement, the gift of shame and development, journaling, mindmap NHS, sharing/feedback small group, large group processing/questions, hachi dan kin, lunch.

Saturday afternoon, 2-5:30: Meditation, defensive states, neurotic and characterological defensive patterns, interpersonal neurobiology (including secure and insecure attachment), journaling, mindmap NHS, sharing/feedback small group, large group processing/questions, hachi dan kin.

Saturday night, 7-9:30: Meditation, shadow. Exercises to connect to shadow, all the selves that are there, but are hard to be aware of or we resist awareness of. Mindmap NHS, large group processing/questions.

Sunday morning, 8-10: beach walk. 10-11: brunch. 11-2:30: Tai Chi. Meditation. Manifestation integrating neurobiology (identifying and enhancing optimal states of consciousness), physics (including non-local and transtemporal phenomena, effects, and possible uses), and ceremony (stages of ceremony, all actions as expressions of spirit), journaling, mindmap NHS, sharing/feedback small group, large group processing/questions. Late lunch.

Sunday afternoon, early evening 3:30 to 7: Hachi Dan Kin. Ascending and descending spirituality, journaling, mindmap NHS, sharing/feedback small group, large group processing/questions. Sunday night redo your mindmap of NHS.

Monday morning, 9-1: Tai Chi, meditation, dream discussion/exercise, sharing NHS/mindmaps with group feedback/photos (all of which I’ll email to participants after the workshop). Periodic sessions (in person or on the phone) on continuing to embody and practice NHS.

Natural Healing Style 2 (6 to 12 months after 1)

Same format with deeper presentation of the different areas and more questions, exercises, enactments, and group feedback. Additional presentations will include depth work, mindset (from Carol Dweck’s work), coherent autobiographical narrative, couples work, Integral life practice, sexuality, sex therapy, and addiction. Periodic sessions on continuing to embody and practice NHS.

Natural Healing Style 3 (6 to 12 months after 2)

Similar format with emphasis on sharing your NHS with the world in a book, series of drawings, paintings, poetry, dance, film or however else you are moved to share it.

Recommended books for NHS

Witt, Keith. (2007). The Attuned Family: How to be a Great Parent to Your Kids and a Great Lover to Your Spouse. Santa Barbara Graduate Institute Publishing/iUniverse. Available on amazon.com, or barnesandnoble.com.

Witt, Keith. (2007). The Gift of Shame: Why We Need Shame and How to Use it to Love and Grow. Santa Barbara Graduate Institute Publishing/iUniverse. Available on amazon.com, or barnesandnoble.com.

Witt, Keith. (2005). Waking Up: I will email you a copy if you request it. This book presents a variety of systems of psychotherapy organized around applying Ken Wilber’s and David Deida’s work directly to the psychotherapy session. Each perspectives includes transcripts of clinical examples demonstrating practical applications.

Siegel, Daniel, J. The Mindful Brain: Reflection and Attunement in the Cultivation of Well-being. (2007) New York: W.W. Norton & Company. This is neuroscience reaching for spirit. It is a wonderful bridge between reductionist empiricism and alternative treatment and thought.

Wilber, Ken (2006). Integral Spirituality. Boston: Shambala. I especially recommend you check out integral methodological pluralism so that the four quadrants, eight zones, and eight methodologies make sense.

Deida, David. (2006). The Way of the Superior Man. (1997). Brazos, Texas: Plexus. So far I’ve found Deida to be the gold standard for understanding, accessing, and integrating masculine/feminine aspects, essences, and practices.

Day, Laura. (2001). The Circle. New York: Jeremy P. Tarcher/Putnam. She writes elegantly, beautifully, and soulfully, emphasizing manifestation as spiritual transformation.

Tony Buzan. How to Mind Map. (2002). London: Thorsons. This book is short, sweet, and probably one of the simplest and best ways to instantly uplevel creativity and information processing.

 

Theories of Couple, Marriage and Family Therapy
Santa Barbara Graduate Institute
Prenatal & Perinatal Psychology, and Somatic Psychology
Monthly On-Campus Program
COR620 Course Syllabus
Instructor: Keith Witt, PhD.
E-mail: Keithwitt@cox.net
Office Hours: By appointment

Course Description:
Through a combination of readings, lectures, discussions, music, simulated therapy sessions, and experiential exercises, this class will provide a basic foundation in the history, principles, and major theories in the practice of couples, marriage and family therapy. In addition, this course will provide an introduction to the principles and practices of integrally informed psychotherapy with a special emphasis on masculine and feminine types and interpersonal neurobiology. Students will use this knowledge to understand and expand on a number of theoretical/clinical models of conjoint and family therapy.

Course Objectives:

  • At the completion of this course students will be able to:
  • Demonstrate mastery of the basic concepts within major models of family therapy.
  • Understand and be able to compare and contrast the major models within family systems therapy.
  • Discuss an integrally informed perspective applied to a variety of conjoint and family therapy approaches.
  • Apply interpersonal neurobiology to conjoint and family therapy.
  • Conceptualize and work with masculine and feminine aspects, essence, and polarity in psychotherapy.
  • Prepare and present a treatment plan that is understandable and acceptable to families, insurance companies, and other therapists.
  • More deeply understand the concept of self as instrument of healing in psychotherapy, and to learn and apply skills in developing self as instrument of healing.

Achievement of course objectives will be assessed via participation in classroom discussions and exercises, online Forum work, written assignments, including preparation of a treatment plan.

Learning Activities – Percentage of Class Time

  • 55% Lecture and discussion.
  • 35% Experiential (role play, simulations, music, and other exercises).
  • 10% explaining and processing assignments.

Required Reading and Assignments

Required Texts:

  • Nichols, M. P. & Schwartz, R. C. (2001). The essentials of family therapy (3nd ed.). New York: Allyn & Bacon.
  • Dattilio, F. M. & Jongsma, A.E. (2000). The family therapy treatment planner (1st ed.). New York: John Wiley & Sons.
  • Witt, K. (2006). The attuned family, how to be a great parent to your kids and a great lover to your spouse. Unpublished, will be provided on the SBGI website.
  • Handouts distributed in class.

Reading and Written Assignments:

Weekend One – Friday

Required reading to be completed prior to the first class:

  • Essentials read the forward and chapters 1 through 8.
  • Attuned Family chapters 1 through 8.

Recommended reading:

  • Essentials chapters 9 and 10.

Assignments: Prior toCreate a log where you briefly summarize each chapter in the reading. Include theoretical foundations, signature clinical techniques, and how this system applies or does not apply to your natural healing style. E-mail your log to instructor (keithwitt@cox.net) by midnight, Saturday Jan 27, 2007.

Following Feb 4;

  • Paper: Following weekend one, write a paper, not more than three pages exploring two aspects of the golden family exercise. First, what about the theoretical/clinical system that most stood out to you in the exercise is consistent with the golden “family” of your experience. How does this system meet the beautiful, good, and true validity standards?
  • Second, briefly explore the following question: If you wanted the family you felt in your heart in the exercise to enter psychotherapeutic treatment, what form of treatment would you most prefer them to receive, and why?

Forum Assignment: This course has 8.0 hours taught online (which include log assignments and Treatment Planner assignments).

  • Write and post on the forum a complete treatment plan. Use the guidelines from Treatment Planner, and you will also get more detailed explanations in class. .
  • Post on the forum comments about another student’s treatment plan from a theoretical perspective that is different from the one that (in your opinion) they used. Your comments need to be solidly based in theory, constructive, and responsive to instructor’s directions that will be given in class. This is primarily student/student learning, but will be monitored, and occasionally directed, by instructor comments. Instructor will provide general comments and direction as needed.

Weekend Two – Friday

Required reading to be completed prior to the second weekend:

  • Attuned Family chapters 9 through 14
  • Preface, Introduction, and one of the thirty-eight issues sections listed in the table of contents in Treatment Planner.
  • Reccommended reading:
  • Essentials chapters 11 through 16

Assignment prior to the second weekend: Continue the log assignment for all the reading. E-mail your log to instructor.

Assignments Specifications:

  • All assignments double-spaced in #12 font.
  • Extra credit, ten points: Write your dreams down a minimum of three nights each week of class, starting the night before the first lecture and extending to the day of our last meeting. Begin each entry with the date of the dream. Ask yourself each time you record a dream, “What is this dream telling me?” Bring the journal to the last class. Instructor will check your journal, but not read specific dreams.

Course Outline:Weekend One – Friday
Brief awareness exercise – check in with breath, sensation, emotion, thought, and impulse.
Introductions – Name, place, and what one aspect of the reading most attracted or surprised you. The beautiful, good, and true validity standards will be introduced. Organizing principles such as “Think always of the healing” and the assumption that all learning styles (including yours) are beautiful, good, and true will be explored.

Complexity theory, systems theory, communications theory, and systems as languages lecture – This is expanded into systems as worldviews and as intertwined healing systems. We’ll begin with complexity theory expanded into a historical overview of the development of conjoint and family therapy beginning with the Big Bang and progressing to the present. We’ll focus on the awakenings and integrations that have occurred in the development of theoretical/clinical models. Bowen, Jackson, Haley, Minuchin, Johnson, Gottman and others will be introduced as explorers; all discovering something that had always been in front of them, but that they couldn’t perceive until they woke up to it. We will explore how different clinicians (such as O’Hanlon, Satir, Kempler, and Madones) adjusted their theoretical and clinical styles to their personality, sexual essence, and personal inclinations. Questions.

Therapy enactment

Think you of the fact that a deaf man cannot hear.
Then, what deafness may we not all possess?
What senses do lack that we cannot see and cannot hear
Another world all around us.

~From Dune, by Frank Herbert~

Systems theory expanded into polarity lecture, music, and exercises – Various communication models including Bowenian, experiential, strategic, and structural, will be integrated into the central importance of masculine and feminine types, and the omnipresent nature of energetic polarities between people in general, and within families and couples in particular. We will introduce David Deida’s concepts of first, second, and third stage functioning and relationships and how they fit into the family life cycle and systemic interventions. Questions.

Therapy enactment: questions

Lunch

Hachi Dan Kin
Questions

Developmental Lines and Levels lecture – Beginning with object relations theory, we will expand into Beck and Cowen’s Spiral Dynamics, Piaget, Carol Gilligan, David Deida’s levels of psychosexual development, and Ken Wilber’s developmental fulcrums formulations. We will explore the implications of integrating this material into the theory and practice of family therapy. Questions.

Therapy enactment: questions

Break

Questions

Shame Lecture expanded into interpersonal neurobiology.

Exercise – Golden family meditation. This is a guided meditation to explore each student’s semantic charge on family, and on the various theoretical perspectives they have been exposed to. Questions.

Break

Questions

Experiential family therapy lecture emphasizing self as healing instrument: It is important to hone our selves as instruments of healing and to live the principles we teach.

Therapy enactments with class members trading off therapy roles

Assignments for Sunday:

  • Write down whatever dreams you have tonight and tomorrow night. If you are unable to remember your dreams, write what you were feeling and thinking as you woke up.
  • Write down two questions from any of the material we covered today. These will be turned in at the beginning of class Sunday.

————————————————————————————————————

Sunday

Brief awareness exercise – check in with breath, sensation, feeling, thought, and impulse.

Lecture – Depth psychology and family systems lecture

Exercise: Dreamwork and family therapy. Using the dreams recorded this weekend, we demonstrate several methods of integrating dreamwork into family therapy. Questions.

Break

Lecture: Including family of origin and transgenerational perspectives in diagnosis and treatment. Practical applications of experiential, structural, and strategic systems (especially Bowen, Minuchin, Haley, Whitaker, Satir, and Johnson). Questions.

Exercise – We will construct genograms using the symbols provided in your handouts, and explore how this information is invaluable in diagnosis and treatment.

Break

Lecture/Discussion - We will discus cognitive behavioral theory and practice, and explore diagnosis (including DSM -IV), systemic features, masculine/feminine essences/polarities, and structural perspectives. What might determine when different styles or approaches of psychotherapy are indicated? Questions.

Exercise: Borderline Ball.

Therapy enactment: Questions

Lunch

Brief awareness exercise – breath, sensation, feeling, thought, and impulse
Questions from Friday’s assignment will be addressed:

Therapy enactment

Break

Brief awareness exercise - check in with breath, sensation, feeling, thought, and impulse.

Lecture on Shadow. Easy learning and hard learning will be explored from the perspective of shadow; those things about us we cannot easily see.

Questions

Exercise – Simulated family therapy, an integrated approach.

————————————————————————————————————

Weekend Two – Friday

Brief awareness exercise - check in with breath, sensation, feeling, thought, and impulse.

Questions

Defensive states lecture – We will more deeply explore characterological, neurotic, and relational defensive structures/states, with special emphasis on borderline and narcissistic personality disorders.

Questions

Simulated therapy session. Questions

Break

Brief awareness exercise – check in with breath, sensation, feeling, thought, and impulse.

Therapy enactment, demonstrating working with characterological, neurotic, and relational defensive states and structures.

Questions

Lunch

States lecture – We will begin by exploring gross, subtle, and causal states, and then proceed into ascending/descending spirituality – Music exercise. Including spiritual dimensions in conjoint and family work, with special emphasis on sexuality as shared spiritual practice with couples. We will practice evoking and utilizing these states in the therapy session. Questions.

Break

Questions

Integration/autobiographical narrative lecture. Questions

Break

Concluding exercise – Each student will write down one surprising useful discovery from this class, and one message/technique/approach/perspective that they believe that everyone in the class is best served by. We will explore and celebrate our class as a learning community. Days of Joy.

Course evaluations- Final ten minutes.

————————————————————————————————————

Recommended Reading and References

Ahrons, C. R. (1994). The good divorce: keeping your family together when your marriage comes apart. New York: HarperCollins.

American Psychiatric Association (1994). Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders (4th ed.). Washington, DC: American Psychiatric Association.

Anderson, W. T. (1983). The upstart spring: Esalen and the American awakening. Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley Publishing Company.

Assagioli, R. (1965). Psychosythesis. New York: The Viking Press.

Barbach, L. (2000). For yourself: The fulfillment of female sexuality. New York: Signet.

Baron-Cohen, S. (2003). The essential difference: The truth about the male and female brain. New York: Basic Books.

Beattie, M. (1987). Codependent no more. New York: Harper and Row.

Belliveau, F., & Richter, L. (1970). Understanding human sexual inadequacy. New York: Bantam Books.

Berman, J., & Berman, L. (2001). For women only: Overcoming sexual dysfunction and reclaiming your sex life. New York: Henry Holt and Company, LLC.

Berne, E. (1961). Transactional analysis in psychotherapy. New York: Grove Press, Inc.

Bodansky, S., & Bodansky, V. (2002). The illustrated guide to extended massive orgasm. Berkeley, CA: Hunter House Publishers.

Bradshaw, J. (1988). Bradshaw on the family: A revolutionary way of self-discovery. Deerfield Beach, FL: Health Communications, Inc.

Campbell, J. (1949). The hero with a thousand faces. Princeton: Princeton University Press.

Curran, D. (1983). Traits of a healthy family. New York: Ballantine Books.

Danielou, A. (1994). The complete kama sutra: The first unabridged modern translation of the classic Indian text. Rochester, VT: Park Street Press.

Deida, D. (2005). Blue truth: A spiritual guide to life and death and love and sex. Boulder, CO: Sounds True, Inc.
——— (2002). Dear lover. Austin, TX: Plexus.
——— (2004). Enlightened sex manual: Sexual skills for the superior lover. Boulder, CO: Sounds True, Inc.
——— (1995). Intimate communion. Deerfield Beach: Health Communications, Inc.
——— (1997). The Way of the superior man. Austin, TX: Plexus.
——— (2001) Waiting to love. Austin, TX: Plexus.

Dement, W. C., & Vaughan, C. (1999). The Promise of sleep. New York: Dell Publishing.

Druck, A. (1989). Four therapeutic approaches to the borderline patient. Northvale, N J: Jason Aronson Inc.

Freud, S. (1949). An outline of psycho-analysis. New York: W.W. Norton and Company, Inc.
———(1952). On dreams. New York: W.W. Norton and Company, Inc.

Gilligan, C. (1993). In a different voice: Psychological theory and women’s development. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

Gottman, J. (1999). The marriage clinic: A scientifically based marital therapy. New York: Norton Professional Books.

Gray, J. (1992). Men are from Mars, women are from Venus. New York: Harper Collins Publishers.

Haley, J. (1980). Leaving home: the therapy of disturbed young people. New York: McGraw-Hill Book Company.
——— (1963). Strategies of psychotherapy. New York: Grune and Stratton.

Hartmann, T. (2003). The Edison gene: ADHD and the gift of the hunter child. Rochester, VT: Park Street Press.

Harvard Mental Health Letter. Meditation in psychotherapy. Harvard Medical School: Volume 21. Number 10, April, 2005

Hedaya, R. J. (2000). How to beat the side effects and enhance the benefits of your medication: The anti-depressant survival program. New York: Crown Publishers.

Jung, C. G. (1961). Memories, dreams, and reflections. New York: Random House.
——— (1933) Modern man in search of a soul. New York: Harcourt, Brace and World, Inc.
——— (1958). Psyche and symbol. New York: Doubleday Anchor Books.

Kahneman, D. (1999). Well-being: Foundations of hedonic psychology. Portland, OR: Book News, Inc.

Kaplan, H. Singer (1974). The new sex therapy: Active treatment of sexual dysfunctions. New York: Brunner/Mazel Publication.

Kegan, R. (1982). The evolving self: Problem and process in human development. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

Kernberg, O. (1975). Borderline conditions and pathological narcissism. Northvale, NJ: Jason Aronson Inc.

Korzybski, A. (1933). Science and sanity: An Introduction to non-Aristotelian systems and general semantics. Lakeville, CT: The International Non-Aristotelian Library Publishing Company.

Lange, A. J., & Jakubowski, P. (1976). Responsible assertive behavior. Champagne, IL: Research Press.

Levine, J. (2002). Harmful to minors. Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press.

Levine, P. (1997). Waking the tiger: healing trauma. Berkeley, CA: North Atlantic Books.

Liedloff, J. (1975). The continuum concept. Reading MA: Addison-Wesley Publishing Company, Inc.

Lowen, A. (1975). Bioenergetics. New York: Coward, McCann and Geoghegan, Inc.
——— (1967) The Betrayal of the Body. New York: Collier Books.

Madanes, C. (1983). Strategic family therapy. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass Publishers.

Maslow, A. (1962). Toward a psychology of being. Princeton, NJ: D. Van Nostrand Company, Inc.

Masterson, J. F. (1981). The narcissistic and borderline disorders. New York: Brunner/Mazel.

Masters, W. H., & Johnson, V. E. (1970). The pleasure bond: A new look at sexuality and commitment. Boston: Little, Brown and Company.

Minuchin, S. (1974). Families and family therapy. Cambridge MA: Harvard University Press.

Musashi, M. (1974). A book of five rings. New York: The Overlook Press.

Prabhavananda, Swami, & Isherwood, C. (1944). The song of God: Bhagavad-Gita. New York: The New American Library.

Perls, F. (1969). In and out of the garbage pail. New York: Bantam Books, Inc.
——— (1992). Gestalt therapy verbatim. Gestalt Journal.

Phillips, R. D. (1975). Structural symbiotic systems: Correlations with ego-states, behavior, and physiology. Chapel Hill, NC: Robert Phillips, 100 Eastowne Drive, Chapel Hill.

Preston, J., & , Johnson, J. (1990). Clinical psychopharmacology made ridiculously simple. Miami, FL: MedMaster, Inc.

Ripley, A. (2005, March 7). Who says a woman can’t be Einstein? New York: Time Magazine.

Roethke, T. (1975). The collected poems of Theodore Roethke. New York: Anchor Books.

Rogers, C. R. (1961). On becoming a person. Boston: Houghton Mifflin.

Sarno, J. E. (1999). The mindbody prescription: Healing the body, healing the pain. New York: Warner Books.

Satir, V. (1988). The mew peoplemaking. Science and Behavior Books, Inc.

Schnarch, D. (1997). Passionate marriage. New York: Henry Holt and Company.
——— (2002). Resurrecting Sex. New York: Harper Collins.

Seligman, M. E. P. (2002). Authentic happiness: Using the new positive psychology to realize your potential for lasting fulfillment. New York: Free Press/Simon and Schuster.

Shippen, E., & Fryer, W. (1998). The testosterone syndrome: The critical factor for energy, health, and sexuality—Reversing the male menopause. New York: M. Evans and Company, Inc.

Simonton, O. C. (1978). Getting well again. New York: St. Martin’s Press.

Tescher, S. A. (2005, March 17). To paddle or not to paddle: It’s still not clear in U.S. schools. Christian Science Monitor.

Thomashauer, R. (2002). Mama Gena’s school of womanly arts. New York: Simon & Schuster.
——— (2003). Mama Gena’s owner’s and operator’s guide to men. New York: Simon & Schuster.

Tzu, Lao (1963). Tao te ching. Middlesex, England: Penguin Books Ltd.

Wilber, K. (2000). A brief history of everything. Boston: Shambala.
——— (2001). A theory of everything. Boston: Shambala.
——— (2000). Integral psychology. Boston: Shambala.
——— (2003). Kosmic consciousness. Boulder: Sounds True (audio recording).
——— (2000). Sex, ecology, spirituality. Boston and London: Shambhala.

Witt, Keith (1982). An Investigation of the effectiveness of treatment involving talking plus touching in enhancing health. Santa Barbara, CA: The Fielding Institute.

Witt, Keith (2007). The Attuned Family: how to be a GreatParent to Your Kids and a Great Lover to Your Spouse. Santa Barbara Graduate Institute Publishing/iUniverse. Amazon.com

——–. (2007). The Gift of Shame: Why We Need Shame and how to Use it to Love and Grow. Santa Barabara Graduate Institute Publishing/iUniverse. Amazon.com

——–. (2006). Sessions: All Therapy is About Relationships. keithwitt@cox.net

——–. (2005). Waking Up: Integrally Informed Individual and Conjoint Psychotherapy. keithwitt@cox.net/

Wolf, A. (1991). Get out of my life, but first could you drive me and Cheryl to the mall? New York: The Noonday Press.

Wyckoff, J. (1975). Franz Anton Mesmer: Between God and devil. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, Inc. 1975.

Filed under: Uncategorized on August 21st, 2007 | Comments Off