Union Institute & University

Psy.D. Program in Clinical Psychology

440 E. McMillan Street, Cincinnati, Ohio 45206 – 513.861.6400 – 800.486.3116 – FAX 513.861.3218

28 Vernon Street, Suite 112 Brattleboro, Vermont 05301 – 802.254-0152

PSY Clinical Hypnosis

2 Credits

Summer 2011

Instructor: Lewis Mehl-Madrona, MD, PhD

Email: Lewis.Mehl-Madrona@myunion.edu or mehlmadrona@gmail.com
Office phone: 802-254-2527 ext. 8402 or Mobile: 808-772-1099

Course Description:  
Hypnosis has become an important part of a number of current psychotherapy approaches, particularly for pain management.  This course will focus on learning how to determine when hypnosis is an appropriate approach and how to do hypnosis in clinical contexts. The course will examine its use regarding pain and medical conditions, as well as with other clinical issues, such as anxiety, depression, posttraumatic stress disorder, smoking, and eating disorders.  We will focus on both direct and indirect approaches, and will consider the use hypnosis with clients with special cases of normal pain, such as childbirth or athletic training. The course will include a review of both traditional and current literature of empirically supported treatments. This will include a review of the neurobiological underpinnings of hypnosis and discussion of some of the literature on absorption, flow, attention, and perception that support the efficacy of hypnosis. Learners will gain a mastery of basic hypnosis knowledge and skills in preparation for continued practice and/or more advanced training.

In one story about the beginning of the world, the Word was sufficiently powerful to create the world. Words or language arise from our bodies, are spoken and therefore have physical impact, Words can help to make us sick or to make us well. Through voice, tonality and phrasing, we can use our words to change our body reality, transforming sickness to health, despair to hope, and misery to happiness. Words have served healers, doctors, priests and shamans from time immemorial. In this course we will learn more about how to speak the language of healing. We will consider how words affect attitudes, change beliefs, and nurture faith. Through our words, deep inner resources for healing can be kindled and nurtured to become physiological changes. Our words flow with pictures of mountain streams, armies of white blood cells, and the peacefulness of a Pacific sunset. What words should we choose? How do we breathe these words? How do we learn to speak poetry? How do we persuade people to consider different Ideas than those in which they are habitually stuck? If change, as hypnotherapist and psychiatrist Milton Erickson said, is about substituting good ideas for bad ones, how do we do this? How do we present an idea in such a way that it will be accepted and become part of the person's master narrative, or story about who they are and what they do? How do we change people's identity?

With this attitude, we will flow between learning more about hypnosis technique and the art of persuasion and the experiential side of storytelling and the oral tradition. We will strike a balance that will aid in the restoration of wellness for ourselves and our clients. 

Textbooks:

Primary: Lynn, S.J., & Kirsch, I. (2005). Essentials of Clinical Hypnosis: An Evidence-Based Approach. Washington, DC: American Psychological Association Press, ISBN: 978-1-59147-344-2, List Price: $49.95

Secondary: Mehl-Madrona, L. (2005). Coyote Wisdom. Rochester, VT: Bear and Company

       Erickson, M. H., & Rosen, S. (1992). My Voice will go with You: Teaching Tales of Milton H. Erickson, M.D. New York: Norton.

Selected papers to be provided in class.

Class Format: We will meet four times during the Cincinnati meeting in May with online follow-up. During our face-to-face meetings we will focus on learning how to do hypnosis. During on-line discussions we will review our discussions of the readings and discuss challenges that Learners are having in applying hypnosis. 

Grading: Participation in face-to-face class, 25%

Hypnosis Practice: Students should practice hypnosis sessions with clients from their placement or with simulated patients (for example, friends, classmates, family members pretending to be a patient, etc.), 50%. Learners will submit one recorded session each Unit for critique of their technique for a total of 7 sessions. We expect at least half-hour sessions, but the recording need only be 15 minutes. Everyone should submit at least 2 openings (first 15 minutes), middle sessions (middle 15 – 25 minutes), and endings (last 15 minutes).

Threaded Discussions: We will expect 4 posts per Unit (see grading rubric).

Preface

Course Outline:

Documentation and Verification

Required readings for each week are listed in the syllabus or are posted on the left hand vertical menu of the class website for each Section. The additional journal articles (beyond the textbooks) will be assigned as the course progresses, based on the specific topics, participants’ areas of interest and group discussions. Class discussions will include group chat sessions and threaded email exchanges based on the readings, evolving topics of interest, and questions posed by the instructor (e.g., How is this relevant to the clinical practice of psychology? What are the diversity and social justice implications of this material?). Each learner will be required to complete the readings, reply to the topics questions posed for the week, and participate in group conversations. The instructor will begin the discussions by posting a “seed” question to which Learners can respond.

The minimum expectation is four quality posts per Section. Posts will be graded in accordance with the following rubric:

 The instructor may or may not choose to award extra credit for posts in excess of 4.

Grading

Class participation                   25%

Recording sessions                  50%

Threaded Discussion               25%    

                                                100%

Each of these four graded areas will have extra credit opportunities which will be announced as we proceed.

Grading will be as follows: 

A              93-100  

A-            90-92

B+            87-89         

B              83-86

B-             80-82

C+            77-79

C              70-76

U              <69

There should be no surprises when it comes to the final grade.  I will make every effort to communicate immediately with any student who appears to be earning less than an “A” in the course.  The purpose of grading is to motivate you to learn the material amidst the demands of other courses and your busy lives.  It is not to punish or evaluate you in any way. Students are expected to keep an eye on their grades on the class website in gradebook and to be pro-active in asking for help if their grade is less than what they desire.

Course Components

Diversity Component:

Diversity will be addressed as a broad-based concept to include such issues as age, ethnicity, culture, family patterns, gender, physical disability, religious preference, sexual orientation, social class, and spirituality of multiple populations. Diversity will be woven into both didactic and experiential learning. Furthermore, students will be encouraged to address and identify personal beliefs, assumptions, and expectations regarding diversity issues in order to support and strengthen their professional competence and self-understanding in their work with diverse individuals and families.

Critical Thinking Component:

 Throughout the course students will be encouraged and supported to apply critical thinking skills (i.e. deductive and inductive reasoning skills, logic, judgment, reflection, and questioning) when evaluating, discussing and presenting evidence and when discussing interactive effects of treatment.

Ethics and Professional Behavior Component:

Throughout the course students will be expected and encouraged to discuss ethical and legal issues that emerge.

Academic Policies

Academic Dishonesty/Plagiarism: In an effort to foster a spirit of honesty and integrity during the learning process, Union Institute & University requires that the submission of all course assignments represent the original work produced by that student. All sources must be documented through normal scholarly references/citations and all work must be submitted using the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association, 5^th Edition (2001). Washington DC: American Psychological Association (APA) format. Please refer to Appendix A in the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association, 5^th Edition  for thesis and paper format. Students are encouraged to purchase this manual (required in some courses) and become familiar with its content as well as consult the University catalog for further information regarding academic dishonesty and plagiarism. 

Scholarly writing: The faculty at Union Institute & University is dedicated to providing a learning environment that supports scholarly and ethical writing, free from academic dishonesty and plagiarism. This includes the proper and appropriate referencing of all sources. You may be asked to submit your course assignments through “Turnitin,” (www.turnitin.com), an online resource established to help educators develop writing/research skills and detect potential cases of academic dishonesty. Turnitin compares submitted papers to billions of pages of content and provides a comparison report to your instructor. This comparison detects papers that share common information and duplicative language.

Americans with Disabilities Act Policy

It is the policy of Union Institute & University to make reasonable accommodations for qualified students with disabilities, in accordance with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). If a student with disabilities needs accommodations, the student must notify the Director of Student Services. Procedures for documenting student disability and the development of reasonable accommodations will be provided to the student upon request. 

Students will be notified by the Director of Student Services when each request for accommodation is approved or denied in writing via a designated form.  To receive accommodation in class, it is the student’s responsibility to present the form (at his or her discretion) to the instructor.  In an effort to protect student privacy, the Department of Student Services will not discuss the accommodation needs of any student with instructors. Faculty may not make accommodations for individuals who have not been approved in this manner.

Statement Regarding Diversity

Union Institute & University prepares students to serve populations with diverse social, ethnic, economic, and educational experiences. Both the academic and training curricula are designed to provide an environment in which students can develop the skills and attitudes essential to working with people from a wide range of backgrounds.

Evidenced-Based Practice Component

This course will integrate evidence based practice into the course by assigning literature searches for clinical problems and discussing the quality of evidence and the assessment of evidence of the materials found by the student.