SAGPS Presents the Spring Institute:
Gaining Happiness, Pleasure, and Contentment within the Psychotherapeutic Setting
May 1, 2009
Registration: 8:30 AM
Institute: 9:00 AM-4:30 PM
6 CEUS
The primary goal of this seminar is to introduce participants to the newest subfield of psychology: Positive Psychology. Through cooperative-learning exercises, small group activities, problem solving, and open discussion participants will further develop their skills as practitioners. Participants will gain in-depth knowledge of the principles of positive psychology. Participants will improve their abilities to critically assess and discuss topics within the field of psychology as a whole.
Learning Objectives:
1. Gain an understanding about the science of positive psychology
2. Use the scientific measures of happiness within the therapeutic setting
3. Compare and contrast positive psychotherapy with other psychotherapeutic schools of thought
4. Be able to employ some of the most popular “positive psychotherapeutic” techniques
Presenters
Dr. Don Lucas is the chair of the psychology department at Northwest Vista College (NVC)—a community college with more than 12,000 students in San Antonio, Texas. Before joining the department in 1999, he was a postdoctoral fellow at the Smith-Kettlewell Research Institute in San Francisco, and took his Ph.D. in Psychology with a specialty in Neuroscience and Behavior from Northern Illinois University. He publishes and presents on a variety of topics about human behavior, including, perception, psychophysics, family & domestic violence, sexuality, teaching & learning, happiness, contentment, and life satisfaction. Dr. Lucas’ first book, Being: Your Happiness, Pleasure, and Contentment, will be released in August 2009. He has been teaching for 19 years, including courses in Human Sexuality, Social Psychology, Abnormal Psychology, Developmental Psychology, and Positive Psychology. He was featured in the San Antonio Express-News newspaper and magazine SCENE in SA Monthly as one of San Antonio’s top professors. His teaching has earned him a number of awards, including the NVC Excellence in Teaching Award, The San Antonio Chamber of Commerce Doctoral Achievement Award, and the National Institute for Staff and Organizational Development Excellence Award. He is a Minnie Stevens Piper award winner—the oldest and most prestigious teaching award for higher education in the state of Texas.
Mark Harris, LCSW, LSOTP is a clinical social worker. Mark does juvenile sex offenders groups. He also has a general psychotherapy practice where he sees children, adolescents, and adults. Mark is president elect of SAGPS.
