K4 - When a ‘Moral Vacuum’ Enters the Therapy Room: Training our professional Healthy Adult to reflect rather than react
| Friday, May 31, 2024 |
| 4:15 PM - 5:00 PM |
| Track 1 - Ballroom 1 |
Overview
Keynote
Details
As humans, we are born with the capacity to feel ‘moral emotions’, such as shame, guilt, and remorse. They help us function in society, inhibit ourselves, and repair and maintain relationships. As Schema Therapists, we tend to look at pathological shame or inappropriate self-blame as part of the person’s Inner Critic modes, and have a large toolbox aimed at reducing those experiences. However, we are much less trained to deal with their ABSENCE.
We refer to those moments - where an expected sense of genuine shame or guilt is lacking – as a ‘moral vacuum’ (Navot & Bernstein, 2023). The obvious example is when a patient is talking about somebody getting hurt, while not showing any signs of regret (e.g., common in Antisocial and Narcissistic personality disorders). However, other ‘moral vacuums’ can be much harder to detect. For example, when a patient becomes demanding or demeaning in a very subtle way, or when the patient is taking a very passive role in the therapy. In those moments, as human beings, our modes tend to jump in and fill the 'moral void' without our awareness. Therapists may quickly shift into blaming themselves for doing something wrong. Sometimes they may unconsciously join the client in blaming others, or feel highly judgmental, resentful, or reject the client.
How can we train our healthy adults to identify and reflect on those moments? How can we increase our strengths in order not to fall in the trap of filling the ‘moral void’?
In this presentation, we will provide tools for recognizing different kinds of 'moral vacuums' and connecting them to different modes. We will then explore ways to increase therapists' healthy capacities and resilience so they can choose their interventions wisely in those moments.
We refer to those moments - where an expected sense of genuine shame or guilt is lacking – as a ‘moral vacuum’ (Navot & Bernstein, 2023). The obvious example is when a patient is talking about somebody getting hurt, while not showing any signs of regret (e.g., common in Antisocial and Narcissistic personality disorders). However, other ‘moral vacuums’ can be much harder to detect. For example, when a patient becomes demanding or demeaning in a very subtle way, or when the patient is taking a very passive role in the therapy. In those moments, as human beings, our modes tend to jump in and fill the 'moral void' without our awareness. Therapists may quickly shift into blaming themselves for doing something wrong. Sometimes they may unconsciously join the client in blaming others, or feel highly judgmental, resentful, or reject the client.
How can we train our healthy adults to identify and reflect on those moments? How can we increase our strengths in order not to fall in the trap of filling the ‘moral void’?
In this presentation, we will provide tools for recognizing different kinds of 'moral vacuums' and connecting them to different modes. We will then explore ways to increase therapists' healthy capacities and resilience so they can choose their interventions wisely in those moments.
Speaker
Dr. David Bernstein
Founder and CEO
SafePath Institute
When a ‘Moral Vacuum’ Enters the Therapy Room: Training our professional Healthy Adult to reflect rather than react
Biography
Dr. David Bernstein is a Clinical Psychologist (PhD, New York University, 1990) and the Founder and CEO of SafePath Institute, devoted to training teams that work in challenging environments. He is the former “Professor of Forensic Psychotherapy” at Maastricht University in the Netherlands, and has served as Vice-President of International Society of Schema Therapy and President of the Association for Research on Personality Disorders. He is an internationally recognized expert on personality disorders, forensic psychology, childhood trauma, and psychotherapy, and has published more than 130 articles and book chapters, and several books. He has contributed many innovations to Schema Therapy, including Forensic Schema Therapy; SafePath, a team-based form of Schema Therapy; and the Bernstein iModes, image-based therapy tools. He is an active Schema Therapy supervisor and trainer.
Limor Navot
Psychologist, Training Director SafePath Institute
Safe Path Institute
When a ‘Moral Vacuum’ Enters the Therapy Room: Training our professional Healthy Adult to reflect rather than react
Biography
Ms. Limor Navot is a Psychologist and an accredited Advanced Schema Therapist. She specializes in treatment for childhood trauma, severe personality disorders, and externalizing problems involving anger and aggression. She also has extensive experience in providing risk assessment, diagnosis, and treatment for violent offenders. Today she works as the Head of Treatment in an in-patient clinic in the Netherlands (U-center), specializing in treatment for trauma and addiction. She also has a part-time private practice. Aside from her clinical work, Ms. Navot is the current Training Director of SafePath Institute, where she provides training and supervision for mental health teams and institutions around the world.
Q&A iPad
Brendan Keegans
Event Production Director
BK Event Production
