River Edge, New Jersey-Jay P. Granat, Ph.D. psychotherapist, author, former university professor and licensed marriage and family therapist and founder of www.StayInTheZone.com has developed a new approach to counseling and psychotherapy.
This method can help many people to change and to feel better after just one session.
The Need For Efficient Counseling And Psychotherapy
As a result of changing health care laws and changing insuring coverage, there is an increased need for efficient forms of health care and mental health care.
“Despite the new insurance laws, many people still have no insurance coverage or very limited mental health benefits, says Dr. Granat who has been featured in many major media outlets including The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, USA Today, The BBC, The CBC, The International Herald Tribune and Good Morning America.
One of the criticisms of psychotherapy is that it is often inefficient, expensive and slow.
Also, therapy sometimes focuses more on problems than on solutions to problems.
While many patients do need long-term treatment, others can be helped with simple and direct approaches that are designed to solve presenting problems as soon treatment begins.
In the last fifteen years, there has been an increased interest in short term approaches to counseling and psychotherapy.
Cognitive Behavioral Dream Therapy
Granat calls this model Cognitive Behavioral Dream Therapy. It combines hypnosis, visualization, dream therapy, guided imagery and meditation and with traditional cognitive behavioral techniques.
How Does It Work?
“After taking a history and assessing the person’s presenting problem, they are asked to describe their creative and positive dreams, day dreams and fantasies for solving what is troubling them. In most cases, the dream is intensified by hypnosis and a combination of other techniques mentioned above.
Tapping into dreams, daydreams and fantasies taps into the person’s potential and sets a positive tone for the therapy session.
Some therapists believe that hypnosis taps into the person’s unconscious mind. Other psychologists believe it connects with different neural pathways. And some believe that the hypnosis or visualization creates some disassociation from the problem which spurs on creative and new thinking.
After the person describes their hopes, dreams, goals and all that is associated with them, I then ask the individual what thoughts, feelings or behaviors do they need to adjust to increase the likelihood that their dream can become a reality.
This is a key question and it allows many people to leave the session with a game plan as to what they need to do to get their life onto a better path.”
The Magic Square
“Next, I show the person a square diagram which I call “The Magic Square” with the word “dreams” in the upper left hand corner, the words “thoughts” in the upper right hand corner, the words “feelings” in the lower right hand corner and the word “behaviors” in the lower left hand corner.
I explain that some people change their thoughts first, some change their feelings first and some change their behaviors first after they become aware of the positive solutions that their dreams outline for them.
The goal here is that the perso leave the session with a new game plan for sorting out their issue whatever it may be.
How To Turn A Dream Into A Reality
Several months ago, a person who wanted to lose weight for her daughter’s wedding got in touch with how she dreamed about looking at the party.
This dream motivated her to change her eating habits, join a gym and then train for a half marathon.
She went to her daughter’s wedding having lost thirty pounds.
While many people get a lot of help in this session, some do need a few more sessions to keep changing and growing in a positive manner.
Helping Athletes To Perform Their Best
“While I initially developed this model to help elite athletes to perform to their potential, I have used this technique in treating anxiety, depression, marital conflicts, weight control and family problems,” says the author of numerous sport psychology books, programs, cd’s and
dvd’s.
How To Get In The Zone With Sport Psychology, Bedtime Stories For Young Athletes, How To Conquer Test Anxiety, How To Lower Your Golf Score With Sport Psychology And Self-Hypnosis How To Get Mentally Tough, How To Manage Stress With Self Hypnosis and others can be found at self help products.
“Frankly, I have been amazed at how positively a wide range of clients have responded to this approach.”
Marriage Counseling And Family Therapy
Where marriage and family conflicts are concerned, I frequently take each person through the magic square exercise. Then the family members can see that they can do and need to do save their marriage and improve their relationships.
For More Information, Media Requests
Or To Schedule An Appointment
Dr. Granat will be writing more on this method and will continue to test the effectiveness of this approach.
He will also present at professional conferences and seminars open to the public.
Dr. Granat is can be reached at info@stayinthezone.com or at 888-580-9663.