Foundational Workshops

Utilizing Hypnosis in the Treatment of Narcissistic Wounds in Psychotherapy

A Relational Approach

The dimension of narcissism influences a wide-range of character presentations and treatment issues occurring in psychotherapy in our modern age. Although clinical and public attention is often focused on the categorically-derived DSM-V diagnosis of Narcissistic Personality Disorder, narcissistic wounds stemming from attachment failures are a more frequent occurrence in the development of the self. These arrests in the full formation of the self and their subsequent re-appearance in later relationship interactions are often referenced in a wide range of treatments.

In this workshop, we will consider how Kohut's self psychology and current innovations in attachment theory can help us understand narcissistic wounds and treatment issues across the dimension of narcissism. Further, we will focus on the role that hypnosis can play in a relationally attuned therapeutic relationship towards facilitating attachment repair in patients with developmental arrests associated with narcissistic wounds (e.g. false-self identify formation, affect dysregulation, boundary difficulties, etc.). Through a mixture of didactic and experiential training, participants will develop increased competency in (1) understanding how the therapeutic relationship in general, and clinical hypnosis from an attachment frame in particular, can be utilized to re-build developmental structure and re-engage reflective functioning in this population of patients and (2) utilizing specific applications of clinical hypnosis towards this aim.