DISCOVER ▶ EDUCATIONAL VIDEOS
Educational Videos
Below is a bank of videos to familiarize you with Control Mastery Theory and enhance your work as a therapist.
Mysteries of Psychotherapy Revealed
with Trevor Ahrendt
In this video, with Trevor Ahrendt, PsyD, we’ll introduce you to an overarching theory of how therapy works, why it doesn’t, and how to become a more effective responsive therapist. This theory strives to answer all of these questions. In short, it’s that therapy needs to be different for each person and we need a way of understanding what each person needs in therapy. This overarching theory, called Control-Mastery Theory, is simple to learn though it takes practice to apply it well.
How to be a more Responsive Therapist
with George Silberschatz
Psychotherapy research and clinical experience have shown that the therapy relationship is a key component in all effective therapies. The therapist’s ability to respond to their patient’s particular problems and needs plays a crucial role in developing a strong relationship. In today's video, with George Silberschatz, PhD, we will describe how therapists can be more responsive to their patients and provide tools for doing so.
Culture in Therapy
with Silvain Dang
Cultural experiences and factors are crucial in psychology, and skill with navigating cultural issues is becoming ever-more recognized as a core competency for therapists. In this video, Silvain Dang, PhD, RPsych, will provide give three general ideas for thinking about culture in therapy, plus a practical suggestion for working with cultural issues in the early stages of therapy.
Reliable Case Formulation
with Jim McCollum
A good, reliable case formulation can let you know how to understand what each person you work with needs and how you can help them. In this video, by Jim McCollum, PsyD, we will cover what reliable treatment planning is, a method for reliable treatment planning based on our group’s fifty-plus years of research, and a brief example of how to apply it.
How to Help Clients Put Themselves First
with Jay Reid
Clients often experience guilt when they try to put themselves first in their lives. In today's video, with Jay Reid, LPCC, we will describe how a type of therapy called control mastery theory understands how this kind of over-responsibility occurs and what you can do as a therapist to empower your clients to challenge and gently put down this emotional burden.
Corrective Experiences
with George Silberschatz
In this video, with George Silberschatz, PhD, we will highlight how a therapist’s attitude or intervention that is corrective for one patient may be detrimental for another. Control-mastery theory and the patient plan formulation in particular is a useful guide for providing patients the corrective experiences they seek.
Emotional Safety
with Trevor Ahrendt
In this video with Trevor Ahrendt, PsyD, we'll explore how control-mastery understands different patients' needs for safety and begin to explore how flexibility in the therapeutic approach, along with careful formulation, can help therapists generate safer feeling therapy for their patients.
Why the term “Self Sabotage” is half-baked
with Jay Reid
In today’s video, with Jay Reid, LPCC, we will discuss the logic of ‘self-sabotage’ for the person who is put into a position whether this strategy is required. I hope to show that for children with psychologically compromised parents, their own success in the world can constitute threats to their relationship with those parents. Finally, I’ll argue why self-sabotage is not just about oneself but is a valiant attempt to contort oneself into a state that will be more acceptable to a compromised parent.
Countertransference CT
with Trevor Ahrendt
This video, with Trevor Ahrendt, will explore why knowing your countertransference is an invaluable source of data for formulation and how to use it effectively and objectively. It also helps to explain why it may be more important to understand in certain cases than others. These things then allow an informed decision about what role it should play in treatment.
How Long is Psychotherapy Supposed to Take
with Trevor Ahrendt
Managed care companies and researchers often favor a short-term model for psychotherapy, both for convenience and cost control. But how long is psychotherapy supposed to take? Why do some folks stay in therapy for years?
Declining Client’s Invitations
with Jay Reid
In this week’s video I discuss how identify and decline patient’s invitations that come from their pathogenic beliefs. Instead therapists can cultivate and express attitudes towards clients that disconfirm these beliefs over time. I give the example of “Harry” and how he tested out his pathogenic belief that he was defective. It was the therapist’s attitude that he was intact and a good person that was helpful in him disconfirming this belief.