Jennifer L. Abel – The Art of Perfecting Muscle Relaxation

• Do you teach Progressive Muscle Relaxation to your clients?
• Do you take at least 45 minutes to teach these techniques?

If you answered “no” to either of these questions, join international speaker and clinical psychologist Jennifer L. Abel, Ph.D., for 90 minutes and put the power of Progressive Muscle Relaxation to work for you!

Dr. Jennifer L. Abel will teach you strategies to maximize the effectiveness of progressive relaxation gained from over 20 years’ experience perfecting the craft. Jennifer began her work on these techniques as the associate director of SADI (Stress and Anxiety Disorders Institute) under the direction of T.D. Borkovec – a co-author of Progressive Relaxation Training: A Manual for the Helping Professions. Dr. Abel built upon this work; adding popular elements of muscle relaxation of her own design including sponge imagery and the Tin-Man to Scarecrow technique.

• Individualize progressive relaxation to your client by using alternative tensing strategies, carefully debriefing, and applying this knowledge to subsequent phases.
• Create a more effective pattern by learning words and phrases to include and avoid.
• Reduce clients’ adaptation levels, proven to have a positive effect on headaches, blood pressure, insomnia, fatigue, sexual satisfaction, and chronic pain.
• Employ 5 stages of progressive relaxation, Socratic reminders, sponge imagery, and the Tin-Man to Scarecrow technique.

Background on PMR

• History of PMR
• Lowering adaptation level – the key mechanism
• Benefits of PMR

The First Session:

• Explaining history, benefits, and rationale of lowering adaptation level to the client
• Three reasons we tense despite the fact that the goal is relaxation.
• How to teach the 16 muscle groups and other important pre-training info.
• 12 tips to maximize the effectiveness of relaxation patter.
• 10 tips on the importance of debriefing.

Beyond 16 muscle groups:

• Differential Relaxation – The key to PMR benefits.
• Tailor PMR to each client, maximizing effectiveness.
• 7 muscle group, then 4 muscle group
• Recall – deep relaxation without tensing

Beyond PMR:

• Tin-Man to scarecrow
• Sponge imagery
• Socratic reminders to reduce tension and maximize energy

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