Services Offered By Gibbs Gibbs A. Williams, Ph.D. Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy and E-Line Counseling Gibbs' Specialties Complicated Borderline Personality Disorders (Generalized Insecurity) Identity Confusion Symptoms (A Divided Self Seeking Wholeness) Addiction Disorder Symptoms (Impulsivity - Compulsivity) Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome Couples Counseling Types Of Counseling Available Description of Workshops Available Coping With Hard Times Spirituality and the Agnostic Addict Seeking the Golden Thread: The Evolving Self, Meaningful Coincidences, and The Creative Process Frustration Intolerance and Substance Abuse Psychoanalysis and the Esoteric Occult Making the Connection! A New Look at Heroin Addiction Complicated Borderline Personality Disorder Symptoms (Generalized Insecurity) Difficulties in attaining and sustaining positive momentum, continuity, constancy, clarity, focus, efficiency, and balance with one's self, love, and work. Feeling as if one knows that something is wrong but unable to name it or change it. Experiencing one's self as trapped, in a no exit, dark, atmosphere. Experiencing one's self caught in vicious circles of endless theme and variations repeating the same old familiar distressing and unfulfilling story. A sense of being controlled by time instead of choosing what to do with one's time A sense of being dominated or even possessed by inner and outer forces over which one has no control A sense that one is motivated by fear, obligations, and guilt, rather than motivated by interests, curiosity, free organic choices, and authentic gratifying committments. Uncomfortable living in one's skin. Back to Top Identity Confusion Symptoms (A Divided Self Seeking Wholeness) Difficulties in attaining and maintaining a sense of wholeness, worthyness, and purpose. A frustrated search for attained and sustained meaningful connectedness with oneself, one's love(s), and one's work. A problem with answering the essential questions of who am I, and what do I really want? Despite external signs of 'success' (money, possessions, status etc.) in the private inner depths lurks a feeling of gnawing inadequacy, combined with a judgement that one is a fraud, and a failure. A sense that one has a great deal of potential but unable to actualize it. Back to Top Addiction Disorder Symptoms (Impulsivity - Compulsivity) A style of automatically reacting to stimuli than acting from within. An aversion to and difficulty in tolerating so called negative feelings including anxiety.depression, confusion, not knowing, ambiguity, helplessness, hopelessness, ambivalence, shame, guilt, and frustration. Dominated by unrealistically high or low expectations A major problem in regulating self esteem - e.g. If I am so smart, why do I feel so stupid; If I have so much potential, why can't I actualize it?; I aspire so high but I fall so low. A difficulty in learning from past experiences Difficulties in planning, and struggling with struggle. Difficulties in accepting realistic limitations Back to Top Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome Symptoms (Psychic Short Circuiting) Difficulties in attaining and sustaining positive momentum, continuity, constancy, clarity, focus, efficiency, and balance with one's self, love, and work. Feeling as if one knows that something is wrong but unable to name it or change it. Experiencing one's self as trapped, in a no exit, dark, atmosphere. Experiencing one's self caught in vicious circles of endless theme and variations repeating the same old familiar distressing and unfulfilling story. The present expereinced through the lens of the worst of the traumatic past. Back to Top Couples Counseling Pre Marital Marital Separation Divorce Back to Top Types Of Counseling Available Face to Face Counseling E-Mail Correspondence Online Chat Sessions Instant Message Chat Sessions Time and Fees to be arranged.            Free Consultation Call: Gibbs A. Williams Ph.D. 212 -254-1084; or, send E mail to: gibbs@gibbsonline.com Description of Workshops Gibbs A. Williams, Ph.D.     -I- COPING WITH HARD TIMES Have you ever wondered why one person's perception of an event as a potential disaster is viewed by someone else, as a potential opportunity for success? This workshop provides a framework for understanding one's personal response to stressful events, and offers practical, concrete concepts and tools to aid in liberating creative potential towards effectively mastering adversity. Back to Top -II- SPIRITUALITY AND THE AGNOSTIC ADDICT The central assumption of the twelve-step program is that an intimate connection with one's Higher Power as conceptualized by A.A., but often remain preoccupied with spiritual concerns. The objective of this workshop is to help such people harness and effectively use their "spiritual" energy. This will be done by examining underlying assumptions, organizing concepts, and processes of alternative conceptions of the Higher Power: as either an external benevolent guiding force and/or a connection with one's personal unconscious. Back to Top -III- SEEKING THE GOLDEN THREAD: THE EVOLVING SELF, MEANINGFUL COINCIDENCES, AND THE CREATIVE PROCESS Some, who have successfully quested and forged a solid identity, describe their searching as like being on a psychological scavenger hunt leading them from clue to clue as if they were stringing jeweled beads on a golden thread. Once obtained, the journey for a cohesive self appears to have unfolded from some central idiosyncratic life theme {the subjective aim}. It is not unusual for these truth seekers to report an intimate connection with meaningful coincidences. These fascinating anomalies are initially experienced with awe and a felt sense that they contain some important coded message from some 'spiritual ' source. This workshop will provide an overview of theoretical perspectives, a method for decoding your own synchronicities, and suggested practical applications. With this knowledge, you can connect and utilize your personal unconscious as a guide to heightening your awareness, strengthening your cohesiveness, and evolving your consciousness. Dr.Williams has been investing the mysteries of synchronicities for over forty. His interpretation is one of the few that is non- Jungian Back to Top -IV- FRUSTRATION INTOLERANCE AND SUBSTANCE ABUSE The typical substance abuser has difficulty in dealing with frustration and setting and maintaining necessary psychological boundaries in time, space and contents of consciousness. This workshop explores the concept and experience of frustration, frustration (in) tolerance and ego boundaries as central to understanding the underlying psychological causes of substance abuse. These two concepts will then be utilized in creating a model of intervention which leads to effective treatment outcomes. This workshop is a one-day skill building program. In my experience as a supervisor, teacher and practicing Psychoanalytic Psychotherapist, I have observed that many patients entering treatment are abusing one or more substances. These patients may have different diagnostic classifications but they all suffer from notable ego weakness. This is due to the lack of a cohesive self - that is a missing or weak psychological self-structure. Global or selective ego weakness may be viewed as a symptom of a more fundamental psychological problem. This core problem is an incapacity in tolerating frustration and initiating and maintaining necessary ego boundaries in space, time, and between and among contents of consciousness. Many ego theorists including, Andre Spitz, Margaret Mahler, and Edith Jacobson et.al. conclude that the capacity to tolerate increasing doses of frustration is a prerequisite for the spontaneous development of a cohesive self and strong ego. Despite the crucial importance of these concepts in the forging of a solid identity, when it comes to identifying , exploring and working through this issue in treatment there is a woeful lack of concrete, systematic approaches towards resolving this core problem. The following course was designed to meet this need. Back to Top -V- MAKING THE CONNECTION! A NEW LOOK AT HEROIN ADDICTION The purpose of this course is to critically examine the existing models and techniques used in the treatment of the heroin addict. This is done in the light of recent advances in theoretical formulations and in clinical practice. An attempt is made to derive a unified theory, which aims at identifying and understanding the essential pathology of the addict and the derived implications for his treatment. The psychoanalytic model is used as the principle way to assess and evaluate the addict's personality structure and his dynamics. Among the primary issues raised in this course are: (1) Is the addict psychologically ill and if so, what is the nature of his illness? ; (2) What can be done to "cure" the addict? ; (3) What are the criteria for successful treatment?; (4) Is the professional therapist and/or the ex-addict therapist a necessity or a liability in treatment?; (5) Is the primary aim of therapy to be one of alliance or compliance?; and (6) Should the addict have a Bill of Rights? Back to Top -VI- PSYCHOANALYSIS AND THE ESOTERIC OCCULT On the surface it appears that psychoanalysis and the occult have little in common. On a deeper level, knowledge of these subjects reveals the opposite to be true. Both assume a fundamental belief in the creative (transformative) powers of the personal unconscious as the key to acquiring a unified and successful life. Focusing on essential details of psychoanalysis and selected systems of the esoteric occult (including the Kabbalah, astrology, numerology, and the Tarot) this workshop will identify, and explore the philosophical assumptions, and central organizing concepts common to both subjects. Also covered will be practical implications and applications in utilizing both approaches in growing and or in healing a missing or divided self. This endeavor may be thought of as a search for a grounded spiritual psychology. Back to Top CLASSES DR. WILLIAMS IS AVAILABLE TO TEACH (Listed alphabetically) Clinical Uses of Synchronicities (Meaningful Coincidences) Coping With Hard Times Crisis Intervention and Psychoanalysis Essential Concepts Inducing Significant Psychological Change Frustration Tolerance, Psychological Boundaries, and Substance Abuse How the Talking Cure Cures: The Science of Psychoanalysis Philosophy, Science, and Psychoanalysis: Theoretical and Practical uses of Freudian Metapsychology Pro versus Anti-Freudians: Towards Resolving the War of Words Psychoanalysis and the Esoteric Occult The Psychodynamics and Uses of Meaningful Coincidences (Synchronicities) Something Out of Nothing: Transference and Countertranceference Issues in Treating the symptom of emptiness. Spirituality and the Agnostic Substance Abuser Striving for Wholeness: Preventing Substance Abuse in Pre Teens The Therapeutic Community and the Treatment of Hard Core Addicts Back to Top Gibbs A.Williams Ph.D. © 2000