SP08 – Global Thinking And Bad Decisions: Why Clients Need Your Help Making Contextual Distinctions
Location: Grand Peninsula A-D
Difficulty: All Levels
Conventional wisdom can guide us but also confuse us when seemingly good pieces of advice contradict each other (e.g., “Look before you leap…BUT he who hesitates is lost”). How can someone know when to do this rather than do that? How can we help clients make better decisions in order to improve the quality of their lives? The fields of cognitive neuroscience and phenomenology have offered us many insights into decision-making processes and some of these will be discussed as they apply to the context of active, short-term psychotherapies.
Educational Objectives:
- Identify the role of context in determining effective decisions
- Describe the way a therapist can actively intervene by teaching discrimination criteria that inform effective decision-making
- Explain how a therapist’s cognitive style or therapeutic philosophy can hinder treatment results