FREDRIC MATTESON - Main Tutor

BIOGRAPHY

Contextual-Conceptual Therapy (CCT) is the creation of Fredric Matteson. He has distilled this innovative model through the lens of his dual skills as a poet and as a psychotherapist. In addition to his training in mental health, he completed a degree in Expressive Arts, followed by post-graduate work in an MFA program in Creative Writing. An award-winning poet, he brings metaphor into the work of healing suicidal persons, with great success. Early work in his 30 years in the mental health field included work in psychiatric institutions in California as well as in the mental health units of public hospitals in Washington State. For 25 years, Matteson worked as a therapist in individual and group therapy with over 16,000 suicidal patients in an inpatient program primarily for suicidal clients. From this experience, he has created an educational approach called: Contextual-Conceptual Therapy: Guiding the Suicidal Person. The approach draws upon his unique experience as a poet to use “Maps, Models, & Metaphors” to help the suicidal client bypass their logic and find a way to transform the pain that is causing them to be suicidal. Matteson currently is in private practice on Lake Union in Seattle, Washington. He offers CCT sessions for individuals, couples and families. With his office partner, Dr. Sunida Bintasan (an adolescent/child psychiatrist, who also sees adults), he leads separate teen and adult weekly CCT Groups. Along with his private practice, his work also includes program development and trainings for organizations, consultations, as well as presentations before national and international conferences. He is presently in the process of completing a book on his CCT approach that details the development, the process, and the success of the CCT work.

Training Objectives: 

You will learn how the suicidal crisis is, at its core level, a crisis of identity and how it can be turned into a liminal opportunity for transformation towards authentic selfhood. You will learn the indirect and paradoxical method of communication needed to bypass the resistance of the suicidal person’s fierce intelligence and specious logic which sustains the psychological and emotional “trap” that binds them.

These learning outcomes are very much linked to and respectful of the humanistic integrative counselling principles. The client is fully respected and supported as a person in charge of their lives and priorities. CCT builds on a counsellor-client relationship build on authenticity and trust. Privacy and confidentiality are of upmost importance to the CCT practitioner, as well as the clients' informed consent.

To book your place and for more information, please visit:

https://www.suicidetherapy.com/home 

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