About / Jan 11 / Zetzer presents lecture on hope and optimism in psychotherapy

January 11, 2011
For immediate release

Heidi Zetzer of the Hosford Counseling & Psychological Services Clinic at UC Santa Barbara's Gevirtz School presents lecture "Cultivating Hope & Optimism in Psychotherapy"

Dr. Heidi Zetzer, Director of the Hosford Counseling & Psychological Services Clinic at UC Santa Barbara’s Gevirtz School, will present the lecture “Cultivating Hope & Optimism in Psychotherapy” on Wednesday, January 19 at 11:30 am at the University Club, 1332 Santa Barbara Street. The event is presented by Santa Barbara Therapy – California Association of Marriage and Family Therapists.

“Hope is an extremely important common factor for successful psychological change,” (Snyder, 2000, p. 103). Yet, even to psychotherapists, the hope specialists of mental health, hope can seem elusive. Clients may appear hopeful one week and demoralized the next. Similarly, psychotherapists notice that clients differ widely in their beliefs about the future. Some clients may be generally optimistic while others are pessimistic about what lies ahead. Positive psychology offers practitioners two outstanding and pragmatic theories of hope and optimism, which center on the cultivation of thoughts and beliefs that promote goal-directed behavior, support positive expectancies, and are associated with good treatment outcomes.

The purpose of this presentation is threefold: a) to provide an introduction to hope theory (Snyder, 2000) and learned optimism (Seligman, 2006), b) to report on the research that supports the validity and value of these two theories, and c) to provide practitioners with practical tools for building hope and optimism in psychotherapy. The objectives for this 1.5 hour presentation are as follows: a) to understand the role of positive emotions promoting health and wellness, b) to learn the features of optimism, pessimism, and hope that may be amenable to intervention, and c) to explore the value of different methods for enhancing hope and optimism in psychotherapy.

Dr. Zetzer is the Director of the Hosford Counseling & Psychological Services Clinic in the Department of Counseling, Clinical, and School Psychology at UC Santa Barbara. The Hosford Clinic provides affordable empirically-based culturally-responsive mental health services to members of the Santa Barbara community. In addition to running the clinic, Zetzer teaches practicum and supervision courses, supervises graduate student clinicians, provides psychotherapy to community clients, and is engaged in two research projects: “Evaluating Counseling Techniques in Cross Cultural Counseling with Mexican Americans” and “The Role of Providers’ Racial/Cultural Identities in Mental Health Services.”

Tickets for this event may be purchased on line at www.santabarbaratherapy.com or contact Kandace Overgaag at sbcamftevents@gmail.com for more information. The event is $25.00 for SB-CAMFT members, including 2 CEU’s or $30.00 for non-members including 2 CEU’s. The registration deadline is Friday, January 14 at 5 pm.

[Heidi Zetzer is available for interviews; to arrange an interview, contact George Yatchisin at 805 893 5789]
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Heidi Zetzer of the Hosford Counseling & Psychological Services Clinic at UC Santa Barbara's Gevirtz School presents lecture "Cultivating Hope & Optimism in Psychotherapy"