With AB/IS-TDP the problem is dissolutioned. In the dissolutionment of a problem you dissolve the problem so that it does not continue to come back. Permanent results (character change) are attained. AB/IS-TDP was developed to overcome obstacles that most traditional psychotherapies cannot accomplish rapidly or at all. Recent research has supported the efficacy of this approach.

My approach combines my understanding of early life trauma and psychological damage, attachment theory (how we create relationships with ourselves and others), based on solid outcome based research as opposed to theory or opinion based research.

This form of psychotherapy is most suitable for people who have high motivation to change for the better, such as people who are suffering from self-defeating behaviour/thinking, anxiety, depression, compulsive behaviour, addiction, eating disorders and undiagnosed body pain. This form of psychotherapy is a very active one and I take a very involved position with my patients in the session. This is unlike some forms of psychotherapy or counselling where the therapist takes a very passive (just listening) position. People that come to work with me who have courage and a strong will to want to get better will shorten the duration of their suffering and the duration of the therapy. This can be a very substantial cost saving along with a healthy outcome.

To learn more about AB/IS-TDP consider these resources:

• www.istdp.ca/media.htm#publication
• Intensive Short-Term Dynamic Psychotherapy (Wikipedia)
• Southern California Society for ISTDP

They are often very surprised they are experiencing better mental and physical health in a short period of time as a result of our work together.

My work has been proven to be more effective and give quicker and more lasting results using 90 minute and 120 minute sessions.

If you do not live in the Vancouver area, AB/IS-TDP can be very effective in a block format. In this case we would discuss arranging for a block of therapy that would occur during a series of visits to Vancouver. For example, the first sessions might consist of 2 or 3 days of 120 minute sessions on each day. After that contact we would decide when another block therapy session could occur in the near future.

These arrangements would be based on the progress and outcome of the initial trial therapy sessions.

To learn more about AB/IS-TDP consider these resources:

• www.istdp.ca/media.htm#publication
• Intensive Short-Term Dynamic Psychotherapy (Wikipedia)
• Southern California Society for ISTDP

Psychodynamic therapy (AB/IS-TDP) is showing in recent research that patients continue to improve in short term and long term follow-up.

Follow-up contacts are often useful to bring reminders to the patient if they have questions or are experiencing new phenomena that they just remembered because of the follow-up contact.

One of the most powerful tools that can be used with individuals suffering from poor impulse control or addiction is to intervene in a direct manner. This process of intervention has been shown to have success 80% of the time when done by a trained professional. You may have watched this process on TV and thought we can do this on our own. My experience is that this is rarely successful and can be somewhat dangerous if the person is prone to violent outbreaks.

I have been trained in Intervention and have carried out well over a hundred Interventions in my professional career. One of the common questions is how successful are you when you do this? My experience has been that close to the predicted 80% of the time there is success. However, when an intervention is not successful the people that have been involved have become healthier, more educated about addiction and are often relieved from the dependency of taking care of this individual sometimes physically, financially and emotionally. That is not to say that they do not love the person or cherish their friendship any more but as a result of being involved in the intervention are living a much healthier life themselves.

I have been able to use the Attachment Based/Intensive Short-Term Dynamic Psychotherapy (AB/IS-TDP) approach with great success. Recovering patients have often commented that they felt they had wasted a lot of their lives looking for happiness by staying dutifully in some recovery programs.

My experience is that once an individual has attained a level of sobriety or being clean, that they do very well with the AB/IS-TDP approach to psychotherapy. Recent outcome research is showing that IS-TDP outperforms a lot of the more popular therapies. This means low lapse and relapse issues and permanent character change.

Basically, Hendrix’s theory suggests that we were born in relationship, we were neglected to some degree or mistreated in relationship and we spend our lives trying to get or find someone to be with who will give to us unconditionally what we deserved and or give us the safety of behaviour that will dissolve fears we have about being relational.

I have found some of the processes in Imago methodology to be quite useful with couples who are relatively healthy. These couples are usually experiencing difficulty or fear of communicating their needs and wants in a relationship. These couples usually respond and do quite well in some of the Imago processes. However, a majority of couples who are experiencing problems/power struggles in their marriage/relationship have deep seated defence structures that they learned very early in their lives to survive with. These defence mechanisms are often accompanied with high levels of anxiety and or depression and often create acting out behaviour that can be physically assaultive or verbally assaultive or both. In my experience this is where the rubber hits the road and most Marital Therapies fail or are not effective enough in their approach.

My experience working with couples has led me to develop a more successful approach to couples work than is being sold on the Marital/Relationship market today. First of all, recent research on and about marital therapists suggests that 79% of therapists state they do marital/relationship therapy/counselling. The study found that 69% of the 79% who said they did Marital Therapy had NO training in Marital/Relationship Therapy.

How I work with couples

How I work with couples and or individuals who are looking to be more relational is to see the couple together for the first session or two. This session(s) will give us a precise psycho diagnosis as to what the emotional health of each individual is and what procedure would be the most effective, quickest, long lasting and cost saving. Good, focused, precise Attachment Based/Intensive Short-Term Dynamic Psychotherapy will then be offered to each individual along with strategic couples sessions to integrate the individual work that is being done. It is my experience and my intention to accelerate the process with precision and care to a successful outcome. In my opinion and experience this is a much quicker and cost saving approach.

My approach to this topic of Anger/Rage Regulation is to have the candidate in the workshop get to know and understand this core emotion. But further than just understanding, the material will take the candidate to a place of not just having interpersonal dynamic awareness, but more importantly to a place of experiencing dynamic intra-personal understanding. This workshop gives the candidate the opportunity to participate anonymously in the workshop setting and look at the parts of their core emotions which they may be completely unconscious about.

This workshop has been proven effective with men and women for many years and has been continuously improved upon. Some comments from participants are:

• “Terry uses real life experience. No B.S. I felt like I was not the only one with anger issues.”
• “Terry was very supportive, understanding and willing to help day or night. Very thankful.”
• “Receptive and made me feel at ease with difficult situation.”
• “This course was in layman’s terms which I could understand and then apply.”
• “I’m becoming part of the solution and less of the problem.”