the Santa Barbara County Psychological Association

November 20, 2009 at Marmalade Cafe in Santa Barbara.

Our Board bid farewell to David Baldwin, Ph.D. and his lovely wife Diana at they depart for big opportunities back east.

Photos by Fred Morguelan

Dear Colleague,

I am delighted to invite you to participate in an innovative research project that we are beginning in the Department of Counseling, Clinical, & School Psychology at the University of California, Santa Barbara. The study will investigate methods for improving psychotherapy when the therapeutic work has become challenging, stalled, or reached an impasse. We invite you to review your caseload and reflect on those cases that have become most difficult or problematic. If you and your client choose to participate you will be assigned to one of two experimental conditions, both designed to enhance or repair the therapeutic work.

What will be required?

If we believe that you and your client are appropriate for the study we will ask you to complete several questionnaires of alliance, therapeutic process, therapist activity, session evaluation, and satisfaction prior to and after our intervention. Our intervention methods will consist of a brief consultation and feedback with you and your client or a brief psychological assessment of your client and a joint feedback session. In both cases, we would be asking for a maximum of three hours of your time across three months.

Benefits

If you are selected for inclusion in this study you will receive a token $25 and your client will receive $100 plus reimbursement for parking. More importantly, we believe that both of these interventions will improve the psychotherapy work for you and your client. Furthermore, we hope that this research can be used to inform the work of other clinicians who may also face the challenge of a difficult psychotherapy.

For further information

Please call Kaila Norman, Graduate Research Assistant, at (805) 776-3722 or email her at pacucsb@gmail.com.

This study is funded by a grant from the Personality Assessment Foundation to Dr. Steven Smith and has been approved by the Human Subjects Committee at the University of California, Santa Barbara.

Thank you for your interest.

Sincerely,

Dr. Steven R. Smith

Associate Professor and Director of Clinical Training

Licensed Clinical Psychologist, PSY 20096

Department of Counseling, Clinical and School Psychology

University of California, Santa Barbara

At La Casa de Maria Radhule Weininger offers instruction and practice in Mindfulness Meditation. This practice facilitates moment-by-moment embodied awareness. This helps to develop presence and clarity and gives an experience of the interconnectedness and sacredness of all being. Inner calm helps to ease the stresses of life and to develop compassion for ourselves and others. No matter what spiritual tradition or path to emotional, mental or spiritual well-being you follow, this practice will enhance your journey. This is particularly true if you are a caregiver at home or in a helping profession, as this practice helps to respond more skillfully and with equanimity to present challenges. Alongside mindfulness meditation we will also introduce Metta or Loving Kindness-Meditation, an ancient way of cultivating our inherent compassion and affection towards ourselves and the world around us.

Radhule Weininger, Ph.D. practices psychotherapy and teaches mindfulness meditation in private practice and retreat settings. She started practicing in Sri Lanka in 1981 and is currently mentored in her teaching by Jack Kornfield, Ph.D. through Spirit Rock Center.

Every Tuesday from 6pm to 7pm we offer Mindfulness and Metta or Self-Compassion Meditation at La Casa’s “Little Chapel.
Every Thursday from 6pm to 7pm in La Casa’s “The Loft” there will be opportunity for Mindfulness and Metta/ Self-Compassion meditation as well as instruction. 1CEU per sitting MFTs and LCSWs offered

These programs are ongoing through the year.
“We often speak of mindfulness not only as bare attention but as affectionate attention. Woven into it is an orientation towards kindness and seeing deeply into the nature of things, which invites us to see how all is interconnected.”- Jon Kabbat-Zinn

www.lacasademaria.org radhule@cox.net / 569-5408

This Summer and Fall Robert Bosnak and Radhule Weininger are offering an opportunity to work with dreams in a safe group setting in ways that help us be aware and meet the challenges of health, relationships, spirit, and the creative life. We see the work with dreams as a psychological tool affording us a glimpse of a larger perspective, helping us to mature in good health in the face of life’s formidable complexities. In each of the sessions we will work one or two of the members’ dreams . There will be opportunity for discussion, sharing and some teaching around work with dreams.

Robert Bosnak, PsyA, J.D.
Since 1972, Zurich-trained Jungian analyst Robert Bosnak has led dream groups and explored dreaming with individuals, in both analytical and didactic contexts, developing a method called embodied imagination, in the work with dreams and waking memories, is practiced individually and in groups in psychotherapy, medicine, theater, art and creative research. It was a rehearsal technique of the Royal Shakespeare Company in England, and applied in medical research and psychotherapy in Japan, China and a variety of Western countries. Robert Bosnak has authored several books: A Little Course in Dreams; Dreaming with an Aids Patient; and Tracks in the Wilderness of Dreaming. His latest book (2007) is Embodiment: Creative imagination in Medicine, Art and Travel. He is past president of the International Association for the Study of Dreams.

Radhule Weininger, M.D., Ph.D.
is a psychologist in private practice in Santa Barbara and teaches mindfulness meditation through La Casa de Maria. She studied dream-work in a Gestalt, neo-analytic and Jungian way. She also studied intuitive association with Lionel Corbet, dream-tending with Steve Aizenstat, embodied imagination with Robert Bosnak and “dream-work as spiritual path” from Sri Madhava Ashish.

We will meet every other Tuesday from 8.30am to 10.30am at 2565 Puesta del Sol, starting June 2nd.

Suggested, not mandatory, reading: Embodied Imagination, Robert Bosnak; Dreamtending, Steve Aizenstadt. Articles will be made available on embodied imagination by Robert Bosnak, Dreams as Spiritual Path by Radhule Weininger.
To contact us: Radhule Weininger: 455-6205, radhule@cox.net