Stanley Gross, Ed.D., instructor

Impulses, flooding, and worried thought are commonplace, but not innocuous responses to events touching our “hot buttons.”  These reactions serve as the leading edge of social (community violence) and mental health problems (depression, anxiety) as well personal pain. Few who experience these urgent reactions understand how they originate or what to do about them. The problem flies under the radar for professionals, researchers, and policy makers. This workshop offers a way to harness these urges and improve stressful choice. It deconstructs the underpinning of the reaction and offers a sequence of ten steps to defuse hot buttons. 

Specific learning objectives:

• Become sensitive to the implications of hot buttons for work with clients.

• Understand the origin, significance, and persistence of hot button reactions.

• Use interventions in psychotherapy and psychological education.

Program Code: HMIB
6 CE Credits MFT
Location: at William James College, Newton

Stanley J. Gross, Ed.D., recently retired after twenty-five years of clinical practice in Quincy and West Roxbury, MA.  He is Professor Emeritus of Counseling Psychology at Indiana State University, Terre Haute IN.  Dr. Gross authored Of Foxes and Hen Houses:  Licensing and the Health Professions (1984) and Pathways to Lasting Self-Esteem (2004).