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Rachel Ballon

 Rachel Ballon

Rachel Ballon, Ph.D., M.F.T. is a psychotherapist in private practice in Westwood and an international writing consultant, who has taught writing and poetry as a therapeutic tool to mental health professionals and health care practitioners including UCLA, UC Irvine, CSUN, and conferences worldwide. Dr. Ballon was one of the pioneers who studied with Dr. Arthur Lerner when he founded his Poetry Therapy Institute. She’s also a screenwriter, lecturer, teacher, and author of four widely-acclaimed books - Blueprint For Writing: A Writer's Guide to Creativity Craft and Career, The Writer's Sourcebook: From Writing Blocks to Writing Blockbusters, Breathing Life Into Your Characters: How to Give Characters Emotional and Psychological Depth, and Blueprint For Screenwriting: A Writer's Guide To Story Structure And Character Development. She uniquely incorporates elements of successful screenwriting (such as, structure, plot, character transformational arc, theme, dialogue) into her therapeutic writing work with clients.


Plenary #6):  Stories we live by stories we tell; Healing mind and body through Fast Flow Writing™ 

"The words we write can have a healing power even if they're never read by another human being." --James Pennebaker


Workshop #7):  The Therapeutic Use of Story as an Adjunct in the Counseling Setting 

“The universe is made of stories, not atoms."
-- Muriel Rukeyser


The use of story as a therapeutic tool is a powerful technique to reach unconscious material and enable individuals to revise their problematic personal stories. Mental Health Professional and Health Care practitioners will learn how to use Stories for positive results by showing clients how to re-author negative stories from their past which form their identity. Participants are taught Story structure and the use of Narratives which are effective, powerful and therapeutic tools to use with clients and groups. Stories that heal free clients from psychological blocks and negative tapes, enabling them to stop self-defeating behaviors. Discover how to collaborate with clients to right life stories and stop playing roles in stories created by others. Discarding victim stories and creating survivor stories enable clients to become unstuck in their lives, make changes, take risks, set new goals and reach them.

 

Details:

 

Plenary #6):  Stories we live by stories we tell; Healing mind and body through Fast Flow Writing™

When we read our own words or resonate with those of others, emotions arise. Writing is a powerful way to tap the unconscious, liberate repressed emotions, encounter vulnerabilities, and explore our different selves. Therapeutic writing and Story techniques are effective and accessible ways of helping us move beyond impasses in our lives toward personal growth and positive change. Clinical studies have shown how expressive writing reduces pain from rheumatoid arthritis and lessens symptoms from asthma. Our lives can be understood through the stories we live by and the stories we tell. Painful experiences and self-defeating behaviors can evolve into a sense of meaning and purpose through the re-writing of our life narratives for change and Transformation.

 

Workshop #7):  The Therapeutic Use of Story as an Adjunct in the Counseling Setting

The objectives/goals of this workshop is to demonstrate how the use of

writing as adjunct in counseling is a powerful technique to reach

individuals unconscious material and liberate repressed emotions. Mental Health

practitioners will learn how to use these therapeutic writing techniques to give them additional tools to use in the counseling setting which are effective, short term and accessible. They will also learn how to use therapeutic writing to free certain individuals from psychological blocks and enable them to become unstuck in their lives and relationships.

 

Contact Info:

Rachel Ballon MFT
390 S. Sepulveda Blvd. # 410
Los Angeles, California  90049

phone: 310/ 472-8442

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