Connecting Inner Worlds: The Therapist's Heart in Countertransference

Connecting Inner Worlds: The Therapist's Heart in Countertransference

Date: September 20, 2024

Time: 11:00 AM - 3:00 PM

Lunch provided: 12:30 - 1:30 PM

Location: The Berman Center

Presentation Description

Join us for a presentation explores the deep emotional interplay between therapist and client that shapes the therapeutic alliance. Attendees will gain insight into how a therapist's own emotional responses—often unconscious—can influence the therapeutic process, either enhancing or hindering client outcomes. The session will emphasize the importance of self-awareness and emotional attunement in managing countertransference, offering practical strategies for therapists to maintain professional boundaries while utilizing their emotional experiences to foster healing connections. This presentation is ideal for clinicians seeking to deepen their understanding of the nuanced dynamics in therapeutic relationships.

About the Presenters:

Mike Giresi
Chief Clinical Officer, Family First Adolescent Services

Mike found his passion for helping others through his own healing journey. He began his career supporting adults with complex trauma, PTSD, and addictions. Mike is a Florida Certified Addiction Counselor and an Internationally Certified Alcohol and Drug Counselor through the IC&RC. He is also a nationally Certified Trauma Professional and a NARM® Master Practitioner, having assisted in teaching NARM® principles for working with complex trauma to professionals around the world and consulting on their application to adolescent treatment.

Mike currently serves as Chief Clinical Officer for Family First Adolescent Services, a premier residential treatment center in South Florida. He uses his extensive training in trauma, somatic psychology, interpersonal neurobiology, and addiction treatment to develop individual, group, and family programming for clients and families. Additionally, Mike is a national speaker, educator, and consultant on developmental trauma, addiction, and adolescent treatment.

Jill Weinstein

Co-Founder and Clinical Director of Ignite at the Berman Center

Over the last 20 years, Jill has worked with adolescents and their families in the areas of depression, anxiety, eating disorders, and obsessive-compulsive disorders, helping them to evolve into their best selves.

She is passionate about helping individuals develop their inner strength while they learn specific skills that will prove to them that their struggles can evolve into a source of personal power.

As a creative person, Jill enjoys using a variety of therapeutic modalities and draw from various philosophies, including Positive Psychology, Cognitive Behavioral, Rapid Resolution, as well as Various Experiential Therapies.Over the last 5 years, Jill has developed a daily practice of yoga and meditation and have experienced firsthand the power that doing so has had on me and my family. Because she wanted to share all that these benefits with others, she became a registered yoga instructor.

Since then, she has incorporated mindfulness techniques into her clients’ psychotherapy sessions. Teaching mindfulness to children, adolescents, and their families can be a powerful preventative tool. She also works with schools to help them integrate mindfulness programs into their curriculum.

Host or Publisher Baylee Moats with Family First Adolescent Services