|
|
|
The Wisdom Therapy Institute offers a host of services including individual, couples, and family therapy, several support groups and workshops, corporate consulting, coaching, and verteran services.
|
|
Psychotherapy
|
|
We offer a wide spectrum of professional expertise by very caring Psychologists and Ph.D. candidates with whom you will be able to build a trusting, supportive relationship. The practice of Wisdom Therapy is tailored to your needs. The first session intake will enable you to provide a comprehensive background and your current needs. The care providers will likewise provide an overview of the approach and answer any questions you may have regarding the ongoing therapeutic practice. |
|
Psychotherapy
|
|
Conflicts in relationships and marriage are unfortunately quite common. Wisdom Therapy works with couples by incorporating its primary components of Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy, Mindfulness Meditation, and Humility towards improved communication and reduced conflict. There is a pattern of thoughts, emotions, and behaviors that are common to many relationship conflicts. Wisdom Therapy targets those that are specific to you and tailors the intervention towards your needs. Wisdom Therapy also explicitly incorporates concepts like empathy and compassion as an integral component for couples to practice. In the spirit of bringing in those practices that have proven most useful in the field, couples work at the Wisdom Therapy Institute also draws on prominent psychodynamic constructs as needed.
|
|
Psychotherapy
|
|
The Institute offers several types of group psychotherapy that are designed to assist clients with practical approaches to challenging or difficult emotional experiences. Safety and confidentiality are two of the most important issues in group work at the Wisdom Therapy Institute. Each group participant is invited to an interview to establish his or her comfort level for group work, and to fully understand which group will best address the work the client wants to do. The Wisdom Therapy Institute Staff are the group leaders and their work is supervised by Shani Robins Ph.D.
Anger Management
Stress Management
Shyness and Social Anxiety
Parenting Challenges and Solutions
Pain Management
Trauma and Recovery
Grief, Loss, and Bereavement
Living with Menopause
Men and Mid-Life Crisis
A Place of Safety for Teen Women
The Quest Group for Teen Men
|
|
Psychotherapy
|
|
The Wisdom Therapy Institute provides a variety of services to Employee Assistance Programs including Individual Psychotherapy, Anger Management, Stress Management, and Living with Chronic Diseases. The goal of these services is to support employees in achieving personal goals that not only improve their work performance – the positive impact is experienced in ways that contribute to quality of life at work and at home. Currently the Institute provides confidential services to Fortune 500 Companies. Permission to reveal our corporate client list for these services is sought on an individual basis as a formal professional reference.
|
|
Support Groups
|
|
Wisdom Therapy Institute offers a safe and secure environment for groups of men, women, and men and women to meet and offer one another support not only in difficult and trying circumstances, but also in successfully converting painful experience into wisdom that can be applied every day. Having other people present who understand what you are going through, and can offer their perspective, can help lessen the burden and provide new ways of looking at a situation. Our goal is to not only help you cope with your circumstances, but also help you take on and develop new tools that can be very effective for a variety of challenges.
Support Groups are 12 weeks in length, and are focused on developing new ways of working with difficult problems that help you discover your own wisdom and learn to make the most of the wisdom other people have to offer.
The Institute offers support groups for:
Anxiety
Depression
Grief and loss
Transitions (such as job loss)
Dating and Forming Relationships
Preparing for Marriage, Enlightened Divorce
Body-Wisdom and Movement
Parenting Children with Wisdom
Parenting Teens with Wisdom
Living with AIDS
Returning Veterans
The Families of Veterans
PTSD.
The Institute also offers ongoing support groups for men and for women that provide a place and a circle of people who will be fully present when a person decides it is time to speak from the heart. Our men’s groups and women’s groups are led by professionals who have made working with men or with women their life’s work. A minimum of a 12-week commitment is required. |
|
SHYNESS AND SOCIAL ANXIETY GROUP |
|
Workshops
|
|
Social anxiety affects more than 32 million Americans. Social anxiety often causes discomfort.
It restricts social activity, employment opportunities, and one's ability to enjoy a full life.
Symptoms of social anxiety that will be addressed in the group therapy include:
• Fear of being evaluated, judged, or criticized by others and increasing self confidence
• Sweating, trembling, raised heart rate, blushing, stumbling over words, etc.
• Concern that anxiety symptoms will be noticed by others and will result in
being embarrassed or rejected
• Fear of attending or talking with others at social gatherings (parties, weddings)
• Shyness and anxiety about dating or other relationships
• Anxiety about speaking in public (small or large groups), eating in restaurants
or other social situations
Receive support from others who are experiencing similar challenges, practice the skills to build
self-confidence and overcome your social anxiety in this open-ended group that utilizes
Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy (CBT) and Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction. CBT and MBSR
have proven to be highly effective in the treatment of social anxiety and the prevention of
relapse. CBT does not require the use of medications, but can be helpful for those who are taking
medications.
Participants will learn to:
• Apply relaxation techniques such as breathing and visualization
• Change self-defeating patterns of fearful or negative thinking
• Develop coping and assertiveness skills for entering into social situations
• Develop a greater confidence and better self-image in social situations
Group: Shani Robins, Ph.D. (PSY 18795) is a licensed psychologist and has conducted
individual and group therapy for 15 years with a wide range of clients.
He is an instructor at Stanford University & the director of graduate clinical training,
Where: Wisdom Therapy Institute
Palo Alto, CA
When: The group will meet once a week at 8:00 pm and will be ongoing
Please contact Shani Robins, Ph.D. at (650) 490.0069 or
This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
for additional information about the group.
Fee: $65 per session (90-minute sessions). Discounted to $55 if paid monthly in advance.
Initial individual consultation session required prior to start of group.
|
|
Workshops
|
|
Anger is associated with conflict, frustration, irritability and negative effects on personal,
social, and professional relationships. It also has negative, long term health consequences
such as hypertension and coronary disease, from which 50 million adults in the United
States suffer. It limits one's ability to enjoy a full life and fulfill their potential.
Symptoms of anger that will be addressed in the group therapy include:
• Feelings of antagonism towards significant others, family, friends, or co-workers
• Frustrations that tend to escalate to anger
• Interpersonal conflicts that both contribute to and result from anger
• Stress, muscle tension, hostility, accelerated breathing, and anxiety
Learn the skills to reduce your anger in this ongoing group that utilizes
Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy (CBT) and Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction.(MBSR).
CBT has proven to be highly effective in the treatment of anger and the prevention of relapse.
CBT does not require the use of medications, but can be helpful for those who are taking
medications.
Participants will learn to:
• Apply relaxation techniques such as breathing and visualization
• Gain understanding of the situations in which anger tends to occur
• Identify and modify thoughts and behaviors that lead to anger
• Develop new methods, activities and strategies that reduce anger
• Develop coping and assertiveness skills for dealing with frustrations
• Learn and apply empathy, compassion, Humility, and gratitude practices
Group: Shani Robins, Ph.D. (PSY 18795) is a licensed psychologist and has conducted
individual and group therapy with a wide range of clients for 15 years.
He is an instructor at Stanford University, and a director of graduate clinical
training,.
Where: Wisdom Therapy Institute
Palo Alto, CA
When: The group will meet once a week, Wednesdays at 6:00 pm and will be ongoing.
Please contact Shani Robins, Ph.D. at (650) 490.0069 or
This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
for additional information about the group.
Fee: $65 per session (90-minute sessions). Discounted to $55 if paid monthly.
Initial individual consultation session required prior to start of group.
|
|
Wisdom Therapy in the Corporation |
|
Corporate Consulting
|
Wisdom Therapy has been applied in Fortune 500 companies such as Yahoo! and Cadence Design Systems with remarkable results such as increases in emotional intelligence, productivity, work group cooperation, leadership, and company loyalty and decreases in anger, anxiety, stress and conflict. Our consulting takes a systems approach towards facilitating skills and addressing the stressors and conflicts that emerge on the individual, work-group, and company-wide levels. Our consulting ranges from Emotional Intelligence trainings and Conflict Resolution to Stress Management and Mindfulness Meditation skills to Executive Coaching and Wisdom in Leadership. We also work with EAP to provide needed services.
|
|
Corporate Consulting
|
Wisdom has often been associated with effective leadership. Experience, adaptive strategies, awareness, emotional intelligence, pragmatics, vision, minimal thought distortions, low fear and high courage, empathy, and Humility are characteristics common to most effective executives.
The components of Wisdom Therapy explicitly aim to train executives for these skills. The corporate application of Wisdom Therapy includes several components, including Emotional Intelligence training.
Wisdom Therapy also includes Mindfulness Meditation, which has been empirically shown to be effective in (1) Increasing awareness to alternatives and options, an essential leadership ability, and (2) Enabling executives to be less rigid & attached to a particular direction – a valuable skill when a particular strategy proves faulty.
The Cognitive-Behavioral component of Wisdom Therapy provides executives with the tools to minimize the twelve so-called cognitive distortions. These are thought patters that are based on faulty assumptions that tend to lead to faulty decisions. Addressing them explicitly enables effective shifts towards more realistic thinking and action.
Humility is yet another critical component of most high level executives. The awareness of our limited knowledge and the respect and appreciation for the system as a whole are among the prominent aspects of this component. Like the other dimensions, this can be trained and practiced.
Finally, although corporations must address the bottom line, leaders are often unaware that maintaining empathy and compassion for those in and out of the company often serves to multiply the rewards dramatically.
|
|
Corporate Consulting
|
|
Emotional Intelligence has been established for nearly two decades as an essential skill for organizational success. Being aware of one’s own emotions and that of others, and developing the skill to regulate emotions is at the heart of this practice. Wisdom Therapy provides multiple exercises for facilitating this invaluable skill. Greater detail on this can be found in the chapter on Emotional Intelligence in the Handbook of Organizational Consulting Psychology. This chapter by Shani Robins, Ph.D. is titled, A Consultant’s Guide to Understanding and Promoting Emotional Intelligence in the Workplace.
|
|
Corporate Consulting
|
Conflict in corporate settings exists at multiple levels. It exists within individuals, between dyads, in small work groups, between groups, between employees, managers, and executives, and between individuals within each of those categories. Conflict also results from Mergers and Acquisitions, and in Organizational Development.
Several key components seem to be ubiquitous to many such conflicts. One category seems to be the cognitive assumptions and expectations held by the various parties. A second aspect of conflict includes a degree of arrogance that one is right and others are wrong. Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy and Humility training address both and have thus proven to be invaluable in conflict resolution work. Mindfulness Meditation helps not only to reduce tension and stress, but to decrease judgmental inclinations and increase empathy towards the other parties. A systems perspective is often also included in the training to diminish the likelihood of myopic attitudes and interactions, and provide the big picture of the organization as a whole.
|
|
Corporate Consulting
|
Mindfulness Meditation facilitates several characteristics. First, it brings one’s attention to the present context so little energy and few mental resources are lost to regrets of the distant past or to fears of an unforeseen future. At the same time, one still learns lessons from the past and plans for the future, but critically, does so with a present focus. Secondly, Mindfulness increases awareness and quite simply expands one’s scope of perceived options. Thirdly, Mindfulness leads to an action-oriented approach that enables the executive to be less judgmental, and more action-oriented.
|
|
Corporate Consulting
|
Because Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy facilitates more realistic thinking and provides effective relaxation techniques, stress is reduced dramatically. The anxiety associated with stress is frequently associated with future-oriented thinking and the cognitive distortion of ‘fortune-telling’. Mindfulness Meditation brings the attention to the present and thus, in and of itself dramatically reduces anxiety and stress. The Emotional Intelligence component of Wisdom Therapy further facilitates positive social interaction that yet further reduces stress.
|
|
Personal Development Coaching |
|
Coaching
|
|
Creating possibilities where there were blocks to accomplishing anything is a key purpose of personal development coaching. If we can suspend judgment about our lives for a few moments we can begin to see our strengths and pay less attention to our weaknesses. Defining a life on purpose rather than reaction is an outcome of a process of overcoming internal barriers and setting goals that you are more than ready to achieve, once you can envision them in an environment of possibility rather than limitation. Each coaching program is custom designed for each client, based on their life history and life goals, and involves short term, mid term, and long term goals that are interdependent and doable in the everyday world. Personal development coaching can be focused on any goal, personal or professional, or a combination of the two. If you have decided it’s time to invest in having a life lived on purpose rather than in reaction, our program can support your effort. |
|
Coaching
|
|
Planning for the future in your career or your business needs to address what it is that you hope to achieve in all of the major aspects of your life. Achievement coaching is a whole-person approach that takes into account not only position, power, and financial targets, but also your health, relationships, relaxation and recreation, sources of learning, and creating the opportunity for your future to unfold in response to a practical plan that makes room for vision and inspiration. Achievement coaching is a short term approach that is designed in 12-week sequences with specific goals. |
|
Visioning: Graphic Facilitation for Life Planning and Group Expression |
|
Coaching
|
|
Visioning is a technique that has its origins in the cave paintings of early human beings throughout the world. Ancient peoples made supplications to the powers that controlled their lives through graphic representations. Visioning permits expression of areas of the brain that direct our lives, make our plans, hold dreams and realistic goals in balance, and even call upon forces out of our control to participate in our personal realization. Visioning for individuals is a journey into the key questions that demand our attention, and a practical approach. A technique that is applicable for individuals and groups, Visioning creates one of those rare moments when it is possible to see at the same time what everyone at a meeting is thinking, a process that encourages the expression of ideas that are inclusive of the thoughts of each participant. Visioning sessions for individuals require 2 hours and a desk or table surface that is at least 3 to 4 feet wide and 4 to 6 feet in length. Visioning sessions for groups require a morning or an afternoon, and a room with at least one clear wall that is at least 16 feet long. |
|
Tapintu, Inc. · The Projective Differential™ |
|
Strategic Partners
|
|
The Wisdom Therapy Institute is proud to partner with Tapintu, Inc., the exclusive provider of commercial applications of the Projective Differential™
The Projective Differential (PD) is a general purpose assessment and facilitation technique designed specifically to help individuals and organizations tap into their own deepest wisdom.
|
|
Read more...
|
|
Veteran Services
|
|
The Wisdom Therapy Institute has made a commitment to providing services to returning veterans and their families. Our services are offered on a sliding scale with a minimum payment of $25.00 per session for individuals, couples, group therapy, and support groups.
Our mission is to offer the services of the Institute to veterans with stabilized medical challenges, who do not pose a risk to themselves or others, are not in acute crisis, and can be seen within an outpatient environment. Trauma-related anxiety and depression takes many forms. For this reason the Institute’s program for veterans is initiated with a series of assessments that are evaluated in consultation with licensed clinicians, and a formal care plan is reviewed with supervisors before it is presented to the client. Once agreement has been reached with the client on a course of treatment, progress in the case is evaluated in both individual and group supervision.
The Institute has also made a commitment to the families of veterans, to support them in the event that their adult children are facing serious medical and mental health crises. Family therapy is available for extended families with children. Groups are available for fathers and mothers, as well as a men’s group for fathers and male relatives, and a women’s group for mother’s and female relatives. Groups require a minimum of 8 participants. Our goal is to provide an environment where it is possible to explore and address the stress, anger, and grief that may be part of a parent’s or family’s experience, and to make available tools for coping with crisis and its aftermath.
Please contact Dr. Mark Yoslow to enroll in one of our services for veterans and their families at 650-324-9484, Extension 9. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
