Emotional Process Work in a Multi-Therapy Context
Dan Short chose the word fitness on purpose. Almost nobody works at their health in any deliberate way, but people do work at fitness. They accept that it needs maintaining, that it can be improved, and that improvement takes repetition. He argues emotional capability behaves the same way, in clients and in the clinician, and that treating it as something trainable changes what you do in a session.
The course is built to sit underneath whatever you already practise. That is what multi-therapy context means here: the question he is answering is not which school you belong to but what any therapist needs to understand about emotion in order to work with it. He traces the line from the Stoics through Albert Ellis to show how much of cognitive behavioural therapy inherited an old argument about emotion, including a part of that argument that turns out to have been a mistranslation.
From there it is practical and it goes deep. Somatic markers, the physical signal that arrives before a person can name what they are feeling, which he first used in domestic violence work because a tightening jaw is easier to catch than a thought. Genuine empathy separated from emotional contagion, which is where a lot of clinicians lose themselves. Matching your response to the emotional state a client is actually in, including the counterintuitive cases where a bold challenge reaches a defiant client and empathy does not. The varieties of anger, and why English gives us one word for several different things. Thirteen lessons across an Intermediate block and an Advanced block, with live participants and real case discussion throughout.
You’ll walk away with
- Emotional fitness as a trainable capacity, and what that changes about how you set goals with a client
- Somatic markers: finding the physical signal that arrives before the emotion is nameable, and teaching a client to use it
- Genuine empathy separated from emotional contagion, and how to tell which one you are doing
- Matching your response to the client’s emotional state, including when a challenge works and empathy does not
- Defiant anger and desperate anger told apart, and why they need opposite responses
- Emotional fluency: helping a client widen the range of what they can feel on purpose
- Switching a client from an unwanted emotion to a more useful one, carefully, including with trauma presentations
- Reframing and rebuilding the meaning of an event through the emotion attached to it
- Working with a client’s emotions in session rather than analysing them afterwards
- Where the whole idea comes from, from Stoic philosophy through to cognitive behavioural therapy
- Your own emotional fitness, which the course treats as part of the clinical skill rather than as self-care
Watch the course trailer
CPD Information For Mental Health Professionals
Enjoy complete flexibility with 100% self-paced learning you can access anytime, anywhere, and on any device. This course is included with your Tatra Training membership, along with every other course in the library.
Structure: thirteen lessons in two blocks, Intermediate and Advanced. The Advanced block builds directly on the Intermediate one.
Where this sits: the groundwork for Dan Short’s emotion material and the better starting point of the two. Anxiety, Anger, Sadness and Regret takes the same ideas considerably further and into an Ericksonian frame.
Course Duration: 6 learning hours
Certificate and CPD hours: On completion you’ll receive a Certificate of Completion to support your CPD records. Your certificates are yours to keep.
Assessment: Complete a short quiz at the end (80% pass mark), which you can resit as many times as needed.
Revisit Anytime: Come back to the course as often as you like while your membership is active, whenever you want a refresher for practice.
CPD Eligibility: This program may be suitable for CPD for professionals such as:
- Psychologists
- Counsellors and Psychotherapists
- Social Workers
- Community Workers
- Mental Health Nurses
- General Practitioners (GPs)
- Occupational Therapists
CPD requirements vary between professional bodies, so please check with your association or credentialing body to confirm you can claim CPD hours/OPD points for this program and what evidence they require.
Course Content
Meet Your Instructor
Traditional therapy approaches that rely heavily on conscious insight can miss the profound healing potential that emerges when clinicians learn to work with clients' unconscious resources. Dan Short has spent over three decades mastering the art and science of Ericksonian hypnosis, becoming one of the world's leading authorities on unconscious process work and brief therapeutic interventions.
As Director of the Milton H. Erickson Institute of Phoenix and Executive Director of the Phoenix Institute of Ericksonian Therapy, Dr. Short represents the direct lineage of Milton Erickson's revolutionary approach to psychotherapy. His book Hope and Resiliency, co-authored with Betty Alice Erickson and Roxanna Erickson Klein, has been translated into seven languages and stands as a definitive guide to Ericksonian principles. His extensive research includes over 1,500 hours studying the original Erickson archives, giving him unparalleled insight into the master therapist's methods.
Dr. Short's expertise spans Ericksonian hypnosis, brief therapy, domestic violence treatment, trauma therapy, and couples/family therapy. His approach demonstrates how therapeutic relationships themselves become vehicles for transformation when practitioners learn to engage clients' unconscious wisdom. He specialises in showing clinicians how small shifts in language, timing, and therapeutic presence can create profound changes that bypass conscious resistance and accelerate healing.
What sets his training apart is depth combined with practical application. Short doesn't just teach hypnotic techniques - he shows practitioners how to cultivate the therapeutic artistry that makes Ericksonian approaches so effective. His international teaching at institutes in France, Italy, Spain, Mexico, and Japan gives him cross-cultural insights into how unconscious processes operate across diverse populations.
For your practice, expect to gain specific skills in therapeutic hypnosis, tools for accessing clients' unconscious resources, and frameworks for creating transformational therapeutic relationships. His methods particularly benefit clinicians who want to move beyond symptom-focused approaches to facilitate deeper, more lasting change.
Quick Win: Short's "therapeutic choice architecture" technique helps clinicians structure conversations so clients naturally discover their own solutions - often creating breakthrough insights that traditional directive approaches miss.
Qualifications
- Ph.D., Counseling Psychology, University of Massachusetts Amherst, 2000
- M.A., Counseling, University of North Texas, 1993
- APA-accredited internship, Houston, TX, 1996
- Licensed Clinical Psychologist
- Nearly 30 years of clinical experience
- Over 1,500 hours of research in Milton Erickson archives
Authored Books
- Making Psychotherapy More Effective with Unconscious Process Work (2020)
- From William James to Milton Erickson: The Care of Human Consciousness (2020)
- Transformational Relationships (2010, Zeig, Tucker & Theisen)
- Hope and Resiliency (2005, co-author with Betty Alice Erickson & Roxanna Erickson Klein, Crown House Publishing, translated into Spanish, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Russian)
Teaching & Roles
- Director, Milton H. Erickson Institute of Phoenix
- Executive Director, Phoenix Institute of Ericksonian Therapy
- Adjunct Faculty, International Society of Hypnosis (ISH) Educational Board
- Clinical Instructor, Southwest College of Naturopathic Medicine
- Visiting Faculty, Various Ericksonian Institutes Worldwide
- Former Associate Director, Milton H. Erickson Foundation
- Former Executive Editor, Milton H. Erickson Foundation Newsletter (5 years)
Professional Practice
- Private Practice Psychologist, Scottsdale, AZ, 2003–present
- Clinical Supervisor, Graduate interns, various programs, ongoing
- Former Graduate Faculty Member, Argosy University
- Consultation groups for professionals, Phoenix metropolitan area
Featured Publications
- Multiple professional articles, book chapters, treatment manuals
- Blog author, Behavior.net
- Collaborative author, SAGE Encyclopedia of Counselling and Theory
- Academic researcher with extensive publications in professional journals
Speaking & Training
- International conference faculty worldwide
- Milton H. Erickson Foundation conference presenter
- Visiting faculty: France, Italy, Spain, Mexico, Japan
- YouTube presentations on Ericksonian therapy
- Global educational workshops and seminars
Ready to unlock your clients' unconscious healing resources? Discover how Dr. Short's Ericksonian methods can transform your therapeutic presence and help clients access profound change through their own innate wisdom.
Feedback & Reviews
This course includes:
- Lessons 13
- Topics 0
- Duration 6 hours
- Quizzes 1
- Language English