If you are currently a mental health professional or coach, and are looking to explore strategic skills and frameworks, here are the top five things you need to know.
1. What makes a strategic approach so distinctive?
The first thing people notice about strategic approaches is that they can be incorporated into many different methodologies. It is a socio-cognitive approach and is client-centred but therapist-led. Because of this, it is extremely proactive.
What does this mean?
It means that we make the assumption that the client is the expert in having the problem, but the therapist should be the expert in creating a solution or a range of possible solutions by connecting the client to their dissociated resources. In this way, the strategic model is very strengths-based. Explaining how the past has affected the present is NOT part of the strategic approach.
A strategic therapist is going to find out what the client wants, uncover the experiential gap that prevents them from having it, (what the client does not know, or what the client knows that is not so), and fill that gap.
This is brief therapy by nature because we are not going to explore a client’s past in any depth or seek causal explanations for current behaviour in the client’s story. The story is important, but mostly as a vehicle for discovering the flawed assumptions the client is making.
Strategic approaches predominantly focus on looking at how the client generates the problem by assessing the disruptive patterns of cognition and behaviour that underpin the issue. Errors in perception typically lead the client down unhelpful paths. The focus is always on what does the client assumes to be true, which is getting in their way. Then, of course, the question becomes, how do we address it?
Many of these patterns are very common among people who are struggling. Anxiety is frequently a result of an inability to manage uncertainty. Anger is a result of a client running an injustice of some kind, often assuming that others think and act, or should think and act the way they do. This is better known as self-referencing and is the underpinning to much of the anger and disappointment people experience.
Strategic approaches encourage self-awareness and the building of new perceptual skills. Many models rely on pattern interruptions, but strategic approaches would seek more than that. A strategic practitioner aims to engender new patterns, thereby immunizing the client from future challenges. Learn More
2. Are you eligible to join ISPA?
If you are already trained in a strategic form of psychotherapy then the obvious answer is yes. ISPA is your home! If however you have been trained in some other form of psychotherapy but would like to add the strategic model to your repertoire, we also have a place for you as well.
On enrollment, you will receive a series of videos introducing you to the 10 principles of strategic psychotherapy. The same video series then explains the nature of how a problem is generated and a core understanding of what effectively is a social-cognitive approach to dealing with many problems.
You get this absolutely free with enrollment, and this can be counted as part of your CPD points for your first year of membership.
Thereafter there are plenty of opportunities to discover the rewards of a strategic approach at short workshops, clinical demonstrations, and longer courses, both online and LIVE.
ISPA could provide you with a new world of possibilities. LEARN MORE
3. Why would you invest in ISPA?
The mission of ISPA is to promote strategic approaches in therapy and coaching. To our knowledge, there is no other organization like it in the world. We are confident that Strategic approaches are worth investing in and will render you better client outcomes.
The founders of ISPA have over 20 years of experience in the field, have taught the approach to 1000s of people, including psychologists, psychiatrists, social workers, counselors, and psychotherapists. The feedback is consistent. It is absolutely worth the investment. Want to know specific member benefits? CLICK HERE
4. Can you secure insurance as a practitioner with ISPA?
Yes of course you can. You can download an application form for our preferred supplier CLICK HERE.
5. ISPA has colleges. What are they and which one would I join?
The different colleges of ISPA are set up to provide specific support to different types of therapists with a Strategic framework. Some of these Colleges refer to Trademarked approaches and are only open to specific qualifications, while others are fairly self-explanatory. Want to learn more. CLICK HERE.
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