CALL FOR PROPOSALS

FOR SEPI XXV ANNUAL MEETING- SEATTLE

MAY 15-17, 2009

The Society for the Exploration of Psychotherapy Integration (SEPI) invites proposals for its 25^th Annual Meeting to be held in Seattle, Washington, May 15-17, 2009. Pre-conference workshops will be held on May 14^th. Proposals for papers, panels, or workshops may be directly related to the conference theme, but may also concern other subjects of clinical interest to the SEPI membership and to conference attendees.

SEPI is an international organization aimed at integration across theoretical perspectives. SEPI provides a community for clinicians and scholars who wish to explore the limitations of single school perspectives and who are interested in learning alternative ways of working with clinical problems. As an organization, SEPI is committed to open, respectful, and generous dialogue. This is the spirit that animates our conferences.

Conference Theme:
Psychotherapy Integration:
Contributions, Challenges and the Future

Why should people care about psychotherapy integration? They should care because it represents an attempt to offer more effective and personalized psychotherapy drawn from multiple approaches. SEPI continuously challenges the best thinkers, clinicians and researchers in the field of psychotherapy to creatively respond to the pragmatic needs of clinicians practicing worldwide. The 2009 conference in Seattle marks SEPI's 25th anniversary. This is an important opportunity to take stock: to look back on the important contributions SEPI has made; and to look forward to the challenges that remain for integrative theory, research, practice and training. Psychotherapy has evolved over the last century and will continue to change. SEPI will continue to play a seminal role in providing an environment of contact, conversation, argument and growth amongst some of the best theorists, researchers and clinicians drawn from diverse approaches to psychotherapy. This year's conference will integrate the past, present, and future through 1) the presentation of ongoing research and theory, 2) practical methods for integrative treatment and training already in action, and 3) stimulating discussion of future challenges to be met in order to secure the future of integrative psychotherapy.

The theme related to challenges and future directions is broadly conceived. All matters related to psychotherapy and integration will be considered, but an emphasis on integration in research and practice will be favored. The following topics are meant to be suggestive of the broad range of possible topics to encourage exploratory and integrative submissions:

• Research: What we know, what we don’t know, what we need to know
• Teaching integrative practice
• Evidence-based practice within integrative psychotherapy
• Treatment failures in pure models
• Are theories still important in the 21^st Century?
• What are we integrating? Science, practice, techniques
• Where is the cutting edge in psychotherapy?
• Multiculturalism, diversity, and the global challenges of meeting the needs of the underserved

PROGRAM COMMITTEE

Jeff Brooks-Harris, Ph.D., Texas Woman’s University (Program Chair)

Alberta Pos, Ph.D., York University

Jeffrey Magnavita, Ph.D., University of Harford

Shigeru Iwakabe, Ph.D., Ochanomizu University

Senior Program Consultants:

Leslie Greenberg, Ph.D., York University

Larry Beutler, Ph.D., Pacific Graduate School of Psychology

John Norcross, Ph.D., University of Scranton

PROGRAM FORMAT

• We welcome clinicians and scholars from all the psychotherapy traditions, as well as from other academic disciplines.

• The program will consist of plenary panels, pre-conference and during-conference workshops, symposia, individual papers, and discussion groups. Plenary addresses with invited speakers or panels will also take place.

• Although we prefer proposals for sessions that address the conference theme, subjects other than the main theme of the conference that are relevant to psychotherapy integration will be considered.

• SEPI is devoted to facilitating dialogue among the participants. All presentations must allocate a minimum of 10 minutes time, preferably 15 minutes, for audience participation.

• Single individual paper submissions (20 minutes) are welcome and will be organized by the program committee into panels of related papers whenever possible.

• SEPI is a non-profit organization. The presenters are asked to honor the non-profit spirit of SEPI as an organization and are therefore subject to the usual registration fee for the conference.

General Submission Guidelines

• The submission form contains two parts - the conference submission portion of the form and the Continuing Education eligibility portion of the form. The form can be downloaded from the SEPI website: sepiweb.com

• PLEASE NOTE: Individuals may NOT participate in more than two presentations at the conference. The exception to this is participating in the role of a session discussant.

• In order to meet the needs of clinicians in the community who attend SEPI’s annual meeting to fulfill continuing education requirements, all proposals are assessed for eligibility for APA Continuing Education credit. The provision of CE credits is sponsored by and provided through Division 29 of the American Psychological Association (Psychotherapy). APA Division 29 - Division of Psychotherapy - is approved by the American Psychological Association to offer continuing education for psychologists. APA Division 29 - Division of Psychotherapy - maintains responsibility for the program.

• To be considered as a session accredited for providing Continuing Education credits proposals (be it for a workshop, discussion group, panel, symposium etc) must be accompanied by:

• A short abstract describing the submission.
• A full CV for each participant
• Learning objectives relevant to the practice of psychologists

Guidelines on how many learning objectives are required and how to write appropriate learning objectives are available on the site.

• We encourage the use of videotaped sessions, verbatim transcriptions, demonstrations, case presentations, or other methods that ground the dialogue in live clinical material and clarify practical considerations and clinical applications.

• The DEADLINE FOR SUBMISSIONS is January 2, 2009. Please send your submissions via the conference submission form email link within the form. This will automatically send your submission to : sepi2009programchair@gmail.com If you have difficulty with the link, you may also download the form, complete it, and send via email to the above address.

• Submissions will be acknowledged via email within one week of submission. If you do not receive an acknowledgement, please contact Dr. Jeff Brooks-Harris at the above email or 940-898-2313 in order to be certain that your submission has been received. The program committee will send notices of acceptance by February 7, 2009.