Dr. Marks-Tarlow received her B.A. in psychology from Stanford University and her PhD in clinical psychology from UCLA. During graduate school, she was trained primarily in cognitive-behavioral work and sought additional training at the Gestalt Therapy Institute of Los Angeles (GTILA), eventually becoming President. She received training in hypnosis from Jean Holroyd and Michael Diamond at UCLA’s Neuropsychiatric Institute, plus studied guided imagery with Muriel Fuller. She pursued analytic self-psychology with Lynne Jacobs, and for over a decade has studied interpersonal neurobiology and regulation theory with Allan Schore. She also has expertise in nonlinear science, especially chaos and complexity theories and fractal geometry.
Terry is currently an Adjunct Professor at Pacifica Graduate Institute and at California Institute for Integral Studies. She also teaches at the Hypnosis Motivational Institute and online at Embodied Philosophy. She is Core Teaching Faculty at the Insight Center in Los Angeles where she regularly conducts continuing education workshops and classes.
Terry Marks-Tarlow, PhD
Creativity & Play in Psychotherapy
November 18, 2023
1:00 - 5:00 PM PST via Zoom
Effective psychotherapy is inherently creative by attending to novelty and amplifying new ways to be, act, and relate to others. This holds true for therapists and patients alike. By attuning ourselves to creative communications that emerge both spontaneously and deliberately during sessions, we deepen the growth potential of the work. Creativity emerges from open wiring of the mammalian brain and specifically from the PLAY circuit. Play lends flexibility, spontaneity, and the inherent joy of doing, moving, and being in relationship to ourselves and others.
This workshop examines characteristics of creativity as applied to open-ended psychotherapy. We’ll review the neurobiology of play in mammals, concentrating on its importance to human development for a host of behavioral, emotional, cognitive and social competencies. We discuss a play model of talk psychotherapy, which functions unconsciously, at implicit levels, often revealing underlying defenses as well as bids for attachment.
We will have fun with lots of interaction and play as we dive into guided imagery plus other ways to access our creative core.
Terry has written and edited more than 10 books, including Clinical Intuition in Psychotherapy, Awakening Clinical Intuition, Mythic Imagination Today, A Fractal Epistemology for a Scientific Psychology, and most recently called the Eel & the Blowfish: A Graphic Novel of Dreams, Trauma, and Healing. Terry Illustrates all her books, dances ballet 5 days a week, plays piano, and has co-curated a yearly art exhibition for 10 years, Mirrors of the Mind: The Psychotherapist as Artist. She has written two librettos with Julliard professor and composer Jonathan Dawe, one of which opened with a ballet at Lincoln Center in New York City.
Instructional Objectives
Participants will be able to:
List 5 characteristics of creative therapists;
Describe the neurobiology of the PLAY circuit and its importance to open wiring in the brain;
Describe behavioral, emotional, cognitive, and social competencies achieved through early play;
Enumerate a play model of open-ended psychotherapy, which complements trauma approaches;
Practice guided imagery scripts designed to accessing creativity;
Discuss the benefits and limits of a creativity and play focus within psychotherapy.
Continuing Education
Continuing Education credits are available for this training.
Psychologists: The Insight Center is approved by the American Psychological Association to sponsor continuing education for psychologists. The Insight Center maintains responsibility for this program and its content. This course provides 4 CE.
MFTs / LCSWs / LPCCs: The California Board of Behavioral Sciences accepts APA authorized continuing education. This course provides 4 CE.