Friday Evening Program: Stress Reduction for Clients and Therapists. Presented by: Ben Bernstein, PhD

Marin County CAMFT

In this talk, clinical psychologist and performance coach, Ben Bernstein, PhD, will present his original formulation of stress and the tools for reducing it. Drawing on evidenced-based research and thirty-five years of clinical practice, Bernstein has created a model for stress reduction and performance enhancement that can be used by therapists working with people of all ages.

Dr. Bernstein will focus on how client stress can be effectively addressed in therapy; and how therapists can use the same tools to reduce their own stress and improve their performance. Touching on issues of depression, anxiety and countertransference, Bernstein will use examples from his own clinical practice and life history.

In this seminar participants will:

• Learn the relationship between stress and performance.
• Learn to develop awareness of stress in body, mind and spirit
• Learn specific tools for reducing stress.
• Learn to apply the principles and tools for reducing stress and improving performance.

Ben Bernstein, Ph.D., is an educator and performance psychologist. Trained as a teacher in inner city schools in New York and London, he was a prominent figure in the progressive education movement in the early ‘70s, and has since gone on to teach at every level of the educational system.

Over the last 43 years he has coached thousands of clients, from high school students to business executives to Pulitzer Prize, Tony and Academy Award winners. He has received numerous awards and grants from the U.S. and Canadian governments, and has been a speaker at national and international conferences. He was the first director of improvisation at Robert Redford’s Sundance Institute in Utah. His current client list includes athletes, opera singers, dentists, instrumentalists, attorneys, actors, physicians, business executives, and many students taking tests (SAT, ACT, LSAT, MCAT, DAT).

Bernstein, now based in the Bay Area, is the creator of The Bernstein Performance Model (BPM), an original system of nine core tools used to reduce stress and improve performance. The BPM is the basis of his book, Test Success! How to Be Calm, Confident and Focused on Any Test (Spark Avenue, 2012), co- author of Stress Free (Kodansha, 1991), and the forthcoming The Teen’s Guide for Success (Familius, May 2013).

Dr. Bernstein is a highly praised keynote speaker and workshop leader. A member of the National Speaker’s Association, he holds a coveted spot on the speakers’ circuit for the American Dental Association. He is regularly invited to give keynote addresses to major national organizations, particularly in health care. Dr. Charles Bertolami, the new Dean of the School of Dentistry at NYU, has publicly recognized Dr. Bernstein’s work as “highly innovative.”

Educated at Bowdoin College, with a PhD. from the University of Toronto, Bernstein also has a master’s degree in music composition from Mills College. He has produced diverse creative projects such as making films with psychologically disturbed teenagers in an Australian hospital, and training opera singers in his ongoing workshop, The Singer’s Gym, in San Francisco. He is a master teacher in the Adler Fellowship and Merola Programs at the San Francisco Opera. In 2013 he was appointed as an advisor to the international Center for the Study of Sustainability and Spirituality.

Bernstein has coached his three younger siblings in their successful artistic careers. His sister, Didi Conn, was Frenchy in the film of Grease, and Stacey in the hit PBS children’s series, Shining Time Station. His brother Andrew, is the head photographer for the NBA, and his youngest brother, Richard, has an international career as an opera singer singing leading roles at the Metropolitan Opera to highly enthusiastic notices. Bernstein’s wife, Suk Wah, is a novelist.
The couple live in northern California.

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Networking: Evening Program meetings include informal networking, announcements and refreshments for the first 20-30 minutes.

Date: Friday, May 17, 2013

Time: 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. The presentation begins at 6:00 pm and ends at 7:30 p.m.

Cost: There is a $10 fee for non-Marin CAMFT members.

Location: Corte Madera Town Center, Room 201 - 770 Tamalpais Drive, Corte Madera, CA (map)

Information: For more information about the Friday Evening Lecture Series and about joining the Committee, contact Committee Chair, Gary Gross at ggrossmft@yahoo.com