Something seems to be absent from the "toolboxes" of counsellors and therapists. Though therapists may be familiar with various theories and techniques, they do not always succeed in being effective with clients; they do not always have impact. Too often clients are frustrated by the pace of their therapist. Impact Therapy offers the practitioner ways to get more accomplished in a session and frees the therapist to be creative during the session.

Impact Therapy is an approach that calls for the therapist to speed up the counselling process by following some basic steps. It gets clients thinking for themselves thus promoting confidence and independence instead of dependency which is sometimes found in other therapies. Impact Therapy can speed up the process since there is an emphasis on clients moving through their issues rather than "wallowing" in them. Also the use of creative multi-sensory techniques tends to speed up the counselling process.

Impact Therapy is a unique approach to counselling, integrating concepts from existing theories. Much is drawn from the theories of Rational Emotive Behaviour Therapy (REBT), Transactional Analysis (TA), Gestalt, and Reality Therapy. The impact therapist combines REBT with creative props, drawings, analogies, and Gestalt therapy in a different manner than the way this theory is traditionally taught. The impact therapist uses the ego states from TA with chairs, drawings, movement, and in combination with REBT in clear, concrete, and effective ways. Impact Therapy serves as a solid bridge between theory and technique and provides a clear way to understand the process and progress of a therapy session.

It is a multi-sensory approach which recognizes that change or impact comes from not only verbal, but also visual and kinesthetic exchanges. The emphasis is on making counselling clear, concrete and thought-provoking, rather than vague, abstract, and emotional. It provides the therapist with ways to frame the therapeutic process as well as ways to assess the progress of a session. This approach is action and insight oriented. The goal of any therapy session is creating change or setting in motion the process for change. Impact Therapy is an empowering approach to therapy and calls for the client to be active, thinking, seeing, and experiencing during the session.

This course teaches therapists and counsellors the basic steps to follow for speeding up the counselling process and having a better impact on their clients. It is designed to enrich the therapist’s intervention strategies by making them more concrete and more effective providing therapists with the necessary tools to help them cope with a wide variety of problems. They are taught to use the symbolic power of simple objects to transform abstract ideas and complex difficulties into clear, concrete, easily intelligible metaphors.

VENUE: Centurion (Pretoria)

DURATION: 1 day course

PRICE: R1500

CPD: 7 General CEUs

A little self-criticism is a good thing because it can be a reality check that motivates someone to be a better person. But there is a big difference between "I need to work harder", which will motivate one to take action, and "I'm useless and it doesn’t matter how hard I work, I will always be a failure." Negative self-talk tends to backfire, because it leads us to focus on our so-called “failures” instead of the "small ways that we could improve”. Studies show that over the long term, negative self-talk is associated with higher stress levels and even depression. This course teaches therapists and counsellors ways to identify and muzzle the inner critic for good using Impact therapy.

In the course we will look at the theory of change, how to determine at which stage of change the client is and how to help the client through every stage using Impact techniques. Then we will discuss the theory of emotions, how to detect negative self-talk (irrational or self-limiting beliefs) about self, others and the world, identify automatic negative thoughts (ANTs) and how to deal with it, ways to handle situations and how to teach children to understand their own thinking.

Next we will look into the theory of interactions, intrapersonal and interpersonal TA, interactions between people, the drama triangle and teaching children to use TA. Finally we will focus on creative counselling techniques and negative self-talk exploring metaphors, analogies and fantasies, disputing using writing and drawing as well as chairs and movement. This will be a hands-on, creative and fun course with lots of ways to change old self-limiting beliefs and habits.

VENUE: Centurion (Pretoria)

DURATION: 1 day course

PRICE: R1500

CPD: 7 General CEUs

According to the National Institute of Mental Health anxiety disorders are the most common mental illness in the US. It affects 40 million adults in the US, which is 18% of their population. Though anxiety disorders are highly treatable, only about one-third of those suffering from it receive treatment. It was found that people suffering from an anxiety disorder are three to five times more likely to visit the doctor and six times more likely to be admitted to hospital for psychiatric disorders than those who don't. Genetics, brain chemistry, personality and life events are among the complex set of risk factors that anxiety disorders develop from.

Human survival depends on fear and stress reactions because they enable people to pursue important goals and respond appropriately to danger. In healthy individuals, a genuine challenge or threat provoke the fight or flight reaction, which then triggers an appropriate action. However, anxiety disorders involve an inappropriate or excessive state of arousal and the person experiences feelings of uncertainty, fear or apprehension. Once the threat is removed an appropriate response to the threat resolves while an anxiety disorder persists.

Worrying could be very useful when it helps a person to work toward important goals in life or remember appointments. In this way a person is rewarded for worrying. It serves one well when worrying leads to effective planning and making positive, healthy choices. When one is able to change a potentially negative outcome into a positive outcome, it makes sense to worry.

While concern and worry commonly affect people and could be helpful in a person's life, anxiety presents itself as much more intrusive to daily life. It has a crippling effect on a person's entire life as this emotion invades every aspect of life. Without appropriate and effective intervention, this emotion could invade one's entire life and have some very debilitating effects.

However, anxiety also offers an excellent momentum as it contains a rich source of information and could serve as a powerful agent for change. Impact Therapy strategies and creative impact techniques could be used with anxious clients to make sure anxiety will help them grow, become stronger and contribute to their self-awareness.

This course is designed to add novel ideas to the therapist's anxiety repertoire to be more effective in dealing with anxiety by making their intervention strategies more action, insight and resolution oriented.

VENUE: Centurion (Pretoria)

DURATION: 1 day course

PRICE: R1500

CPD: 7 General CEUs

Anger is one of the most powerful emotions all of us love to judge but also to ignore. Because we don’t like to deal with anger, our subconscious minds developed subtle and creative ways to cope with it. Therefore, it doesn’t always show up as familiar short bursts of rage. It could also be much more subtle or insidious. No wonder it is said that anger is only one letter short of danger as anger comes from the Latin word "angere", which means "to strangle".

Although anger might be an unpleasant emotion to deal with, it is a normal, healthy part of being human. If expressed in a healthy way anger serves as a powerful motivating force. But chronic anger could increase the risk of having a heart attack or stroke.

In this course the CBT model is used to explain how anger grows from irrational thoughts and leads to a difficult-to-break cycle of growing frustration. The Cycle of Anger diagram is taught as a tool to show how anger is triggered, beginning with a trigger which leads to negative thoughts, emotions, physical symptoms and a behavioural response. The course starts by defining anger (especially, how anger differs from aggression), and then move through topics such as triggers, the expression of anger, and consequences of anger.

Impact therapy tools are demonstrated to teach clients how to recognize and understand their anger.

In this course the focus falls on anger management with children, teens and adults using Impact therapy props and metaphors. It is designed to help therapists be more effective when doing anger management by making their intervention strategies more concrete and effective.

VENUE: Centurion (Pretoria)

DURATION: 1 day course

PRICE: R1500

CPD: 7 General CEUs

Depression, the most common psychiatric disorder in the world, is an epidemic which has reached explosive proportions. It is said that one in every four people will suffer from major depression at least once in their lives. Feeling sad is a normal part of stress or grief, but when the feeling persists over a long period of time and it becomes disabling and distressing, it gets the clinical diagnosis of major depressive episode. Depression not only causes profound mental anguish. It also affects the core biological processes which regulate immunity, hormones, sleep, appetite, neurotransmitters, glucose control and metabolic activity. The result could be premature aging, heart disease, Alzheimer's, stroke or diabetes. Depression continues to be a major healthcare burden.

But depression also includes a way of viewing yourself, others and the future in such a way that could be categorized as faulty thinking patterns. These cognitive distortions could be challenged and replaced by more adaptive responses. It is a case of what came first, the chicken or the egg. Was the person depressed and therefore developed faulty thinking patterns or did the person develop depression because he already had faulty thinking patterns, as one doesn't have to be depressed to be guilty of invoking faulty thinking patterns. Whichever came first, the fact is that before long this person will create a feedback loop or vicious cycle of negative thoughts. As human beings we are the creators of our thoughts and therefore it is possible to break this cycle.

Impact Therapy offers tools to help clients suffering from depression. This approach specializes in simplifying the problems – and the solutions – for the clients, presenting a step by step intervention to meet the client where he is, give him some concrete tools to understand his state and help him progress through the higher steps. By examining the symptoms and behaviours typical of depression, effective Impact strategies could be devised to stop the downward spiral and begin the assent toward a healthy, balanced life. This hierarchical process allows both clients and therapists to experience little victories at each step and makes it clear what to do and what to avoid at each level.

In this course the focus falls on new ways to identify faulty thinking patterns using Impact Therapy props and metaphors. It is designed to help therapists and clients interrupt the endless feedback loop of faulty thinking patterns by making intervention strategies more concrete and effective.

VENUE: Centurion (Pretoria)

DURATION: 1 day course

PRICE: R1500

CPD: 7 General CEUs

This course will only be accredited and presented for 2019 on special request only.

In this Fundamental course the definition, objectives and philosophy of Medical Hypnoanalysis will be discussed. An explanation of the therapeutic process and how it relates to psychotherapy will follow with examples to outline the structure and perspective of the analytical phase of the Medical Hypnoanalysis model.

The psychotherapeutic foundation of the Medical Hypnoanalysis model will be introduced and the role of ego strengthening in the form of scripts will be outlined. The way to phrase suggestions to have maximum impact on the subconscious mind will be demonstrated. The rank order of life's priorities will be introduced with examples to understand the subconscious mind's reason for choosing certain symptoms. Understanding this will assist the psychologist in the diagnostic process to deal with psychological issues promptly and cost effectively. The different Medical Hypnoanalysis syndromes will be discussed and outlined with examples. Knowledge of these syndromes in association with the rank order of life's priorities will be of great importance to the psychologist in the diagnostic process. The theoretical basics of the triple allergenic theory in association with the origin of emotional problems will assist the psychologist in identifying the origin of a client's problems. The way in which Medical Hypnoanalysis shortens the therapeutic process of psychotherapy will be explained.

All the above knowledge will be incorporated in the skill of history taking. Psychologists will learn how important listening and writing skills are in the diagnostic process of Medical Hypnoanalysis. The attention will be focused on the preliminary information and non verbal communication of the client before the client's story is heard. The way in which the client tells his/her story will be recorded verbatim by the psychologist, together with the non verbal communication. Special attention will be given to the interpretation of these aspects. The expanded history of the client will fill the gaps and participants will be ready to make the Conscious Diagnosis and create therapy goals.

Finally time will be spent explaining the ethics of video recordings as well as the desirability of sharing information gathered during hypnosis sessions with the client and third parties.

VENUE: Centurion (Pretoria)

DURATION: 2 day course

PRICE: R3000

CPD: TBD

This course will only be accredited and presented for 2019 on special request only.

In the Fundamental course participants were taught to make the Conscious Diagnosis as part of the analytical phase.

The purpose of this Intermediate course is to teach participants to make the Subconscious Diagnosis, integrate it with the Conscious Diagnosis and to formulate therapy goals from this double diagnosis. This will give psychologists direct access to repressed traumatic incidents quickly and deal with it effectively in order to make this psychoanalytical process cost effectively and put it in reach of more people.

History taking and making the Conscious Diagnosis will be done. The different syndromes will be discussed as well as ways to identify these syndromes. The word association exercise and its origin of free association (psychoanalysis) will be introduced and demonstrated. Interpretation of the word association exercise and making the Subconscious Diagnosis will be discussed. Practical examples will be used to help participants gain experience. The “false memory syndrome” regarding hypnosis will be discussed at length.

VENUE: Centurion (Pretoria)

DURATION: 3 day course

PRICE: R4500

CPD: TBD

This course will only be accredited and presented for 2019 on special request only.

In the Fundamental and Intermediate courses participants were taught to make a Double Diagnosis as part of the analytical phase.

The focus of the Advanced course is on the therapy phase. The diagnostic process will be discussed and demonstrated in order to formulate therapy goals. The role that the birth experience could play in causing the underlying problem will be discussed and demonstrated with a client. The use and administering of the Three Boxes metaphor to solve the underlying problem will be explained and demonstrated. Practical examples will be used to help participants gain experience. Time will be spent explaining the re-traumatising of clients and psychopathology where the use of hypnosis is not recommended.

VENUE: Centurion (Pretoria)

DURATION: 4 day course

PRICE: R6000

CPD: TBD