Abstract:

Chairwork has been playing an increasing significant role in Schema Therapy in recent years ((Heath & Startup, 2020; Kellogg, 2015). The discovery of the Four Dialogues in 2018 was significant  breakthrough because it provided a powerful and elegant model for effective psychotherapeutic action whether using Chairwork, Imagery, or more conversational forms of clinical encounter (Kellogg, 2018, 2019; Kellogg & Garcia Torres, 2021). The Four Dialogues are: Giving Voice, Telling the Story, Internal Dialogues, and Relationships and Encounters. 

Giving Voice involves amplifying and giving expression to a feeling, interviewing a part to better understand it, and/or empowering people to claim power and affirm the decisions that they are making in their lives.

Telling the Story is centered on working with people to express and work through difficult, painful, or secret narratives.

Internal Dialogues involve working with the patient’s inner parts or modes. These chairwork dialogues usually take one of three forms: (1) Polarity Dialogues; (2) Alternative Dialogues; or (3) Mode Dialogues.

Relationships and Encounters dialogues are rooted in the interpersonal world, and it involves working with the cycle of emotions—or the expression of love, anger, fear, and grief.

This model provides a framework not only for listening to patients, but also for taking effective action. 

Drawing on the insights and strengths of both Contextual Schema Therapy and the Four Dialogues, the goal of this presentation is to outline how Chairwork can be used to treat a range of clinical issues as a way of empowering clinicians to create more powerful dialogue-based interventions. 

Topics to be covered are:

(1)          Foundations – An introduction to the Four Principles and the Four Dialogues

(2)          Using Chairwork in Contextual Schema Therapy – A Review of Interventions

(3)          Demonstrations and Role-Plays

a.      Polarity Dialogue – Resolving Inner Conflict/Making Decisions

b.     Working with Trauma – Third Person Storytelling

c.      Voice Dialogue – Interviewing a Mode

d.     Vector Dialogues – Working with Complex Emotions (If time permits)

(4)          How Chairwork Heals

Target Audience:

Schema Therapists who are particularly interested in further developing their skills in and understanding of experiential techniques.

Learning Objectives:

1. Participants will become familiar with the Four Dialogues and how these four stances can be used alone or in combination to strengthen their Schema Therapy work.
2. Participants will understand the differences among the three Inner Critic Modes – Punitive, Demanding, and Protective – and how to use Chairwork to (a) clarify which critic they are working with and (b) weaken the power of the Critic Modes while strengthening that of the Healthy Adult Mode.
3. Participants will learn how to use the Self-Compassion meditation as a method for developing the capacity for self-kindness

Level Of Experienced Required:

Advanced

About the Presenter:

Scott Kellogg

Dr. Scott Kellogg is an ISST-certified Advanced Schema Therapist who has also received training in both Gestalt Therapy and Voice Dialogue. He created the Transformational Chairwork Psychotherapy Project in 2008 and he currently teaches this method of psychotherapeutic dialogue to practitioners in both the United States and abroad. Dr. Kellogg is in private practice in New York City.

Dr. Kellogg received his Doctorate in Clinical Psychology from the Graduate Center of the City University of New York, and he has served on the faculties of New York University, the Rockefeller University, the Yale University School of Medicine, and Teachers College/Columbia University. He is also a Past-President of the Division on Addictions of the New York State Psychological Association.

In his writings, he has focused on such topics as Gestalt Chairwork, Humanistic Addiction Psychotherapy, and Schema Therapy. Dr. Kellogg is the author of Transformational Chairwork: Using Psychotherapeutic Dialogues in Clinical Practice (Rowman & Littlefield, 2014).

His websites are:

Transformational Chairwork: http://transformationalchairwork.com/

Gradualism and Addiction Treatment: http://gradualismandaddiction.org/

His email is: kelloggchairwork@gmail.com

Amanda Garcia

Amanda Garcia Torres is a certified Chairwork Psychotherapist in private practice at Chairwork Therapy NYC and a Trainer with The Transformational Chairwork Psychotherapy Project. Her work is guided by a lifelong passion for addressing suffering and injustice, particularly within historically oppressed populations.

Her website is: https://chairworktherapynyc.com/

Her email is: amandagarcialmhc@gmail.com