There’s much to say about structure. In this first of the series on Structure, I hope to provide related resources and inspirations that helped me create the course, Structure & Impact. Cohort #2 kicks off Monday, 17th of April 2023.
📽Watch: Nancy Duarte
Even though I first came across Nancy Duarte’s work because of my interest in improving the way I teach, I’ve found that much of her ideas cross-pollinated into the way I think about how I structure the therapy hour. Her book, Resonate is a good resource to have as well. (At the risk of offending your boss, if they are prone to go powerpoint-crazy, her older book, Slide:ology might be a good present!)
📕Read: Forms of Vitality Daniel Stern was a well-known psychoanalyst from his landmark writings on mother-infant attachment. A less well-known book that he wrote, called Forms of Vitality, gave words to ideas I’ve felt for a long while, stemming from my history with music. In this book, Stern illustrates how an understanding of vitality can help the psychotherapeutic process. While this book isn’t about how to “structure” your work, to me the relationship of structure and emotional impact are interwoven.
Relationship of structure and impact.
📈 Read: The Story Grid I had never come across anything quite like this. I came across Shawn Coyne’s work because of his editing work with renowned author Steven Pressfield (author of The War of Art). Reading this book was like someone pulling back the curtains and revealing trade secrets to the craft of writing. Story Grid gave inspiration to how I would think not only about how I structure sessions, but also helped me create the Session Impact Grid (ISG), which is a way to “X-ray” a session recording. I use the ISG whenever I review therapy session recordings, be it from my own, others I supervise, or even watching master therapists at work. I’ve talked about the ISG in Section III of The First Kiss, and I go in-depth with this in the Structure and Impact course. Here’s an example based on a therapy session.
⏸ Words Worth Contemplating: “The higher your structure is to be, the deeper must be its foundation.” ~ St Augustine.
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Reflection
In the sea of our daily-weekly busy madness, what is something that you lean on in your life right now?
Structure & Impact Course:
LAST DAY TO REGISTER!
Registration is now open for the 2nd cohort, starting Monday, 17th of April, 2023.
Since I’ve began teaching online in 2018, this has been one of the most popular in DC courses.
The Structure and Impact course is specifically designed to help you shape the arch of a psychotherapy session so that you can make the encounter come alive.
Learning to develop a structure of your own is a skill that every therapist should have. It's pretty hard to build a building without a scaffold.
As far as I’m aware, this is the first training available on helping you shape the arch of therapy to make it come alive.
Length: 1 month duration with 4 in-depth sections provided on a weekly basis.
Format: Interactive cohort-based, and self-paced (i.e., no need to log on at specific times).
Access: Not time-limited; Lifetime-Access.
For Professionals: $250.
For Trainees: I am sponsoring 10 people (only 3 more places left) who would really like to be in the course, but can’t afford to do so due financial hardship or due to a significant disadvantage from the currency exchange. If this is your situation, please email me to be part of this.
Here’s what some of the first cohort of therapists have to say about Structure and Impact:
"As therapists, we seek a way of working that suits our personal style. We choose to further our education in methods and techniques that we believe in. The Structure & Impact course is a cross-border course. It helps you concretely develop how you can create frameworks for conversations that increase the chance of change for those who seek your help."
Bengt Göran Lindberg, licensed couple and family therapist, Sweden.
"I have been in practice both as a therapist and as a supervisor for a long time... Daryl managed to present facts and research in a way that engage me. By simple drawings I can easily take the facts with me in practice. And try them out in different ways together with clients and professionals.
(Like the other courses), Daryl have given me what I need so I can work on with new energy!
I can seriously endorse your course as it fits me to work in my own pace and you are presenting in a most professional way!”
Gun-Eva Andersson Långdahl, Psychologist Specialized in Clinical and Educational Psychology.
"This course really balances the dual pulls between structure and freedom. The course helps to scaffold and to hold the theory that is so often so hard apply to a complex case.
Dr. Chow masterfully demonstrates the ability to make the complex simple while at the same time showing the beautiful depth of simplicity. Anyone and everyone can benefit from this course, no matter the theoretical background or beliefs about what causes change. Dr. Chow teaches you the "How" behind the "what.
Thank you for your generosity with your knowledge and experience. I really appreciate knowing there are therapists like you out there." ~ Joshua Ford, US.
Great TED talk by Nancy Duarte. What she said matches the story line in “The Heroic Client” https://rb.gy/wbnoz reminding us that our clients are the hero of their story & their therapy. We can help clients reframe their story so it moves from the beginning, middle & to the end where they can choose to see their struggles as the transformation processes which bring about the changes they want in their lives. If only we could work this magic with them more often.
Great TED talk by Nancy Duarte. What she said matches the story line in “The Heroic Client” https://rb.gy/wbnoz reminding us that our clients are the hero of their story & their therapy. We can help clients reframe their story so it moves from the beginning, middle & to the end where they can choose to see their struggles as the transformation processes which bring about the changes they want in their lives. If only we could work this magic with them more often.