This ninety-minute web conference provides attendees with an introduction to “affluenza,” or compulsive buying. Dr. Benson will explore the culture of consumption that gives rise to compulsive buying and the high price of materialism. Next we look at the professional unease that’s not uncommon in working with those who buy compulsively and then focus on etiology, assessment, diagnosis, comorbidity, and the functions of compulsive buying. We survey the forms of treatment and treatment adjuncts currently in use. Finally, Dr. Benson will introduce a few easily learned techniques that are extremely effective with those who overshop and describe how they fit into a comprehensive treatment program that combines psychodynamic principles, cognitive behavior therapy, and motivational interviewing techniques.
This introductory web conference is designed to help clinicians:
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In short, participants will be able to listen to this live event by calling in to our teleconference center. Prior to the event, all participants will be sent an email with instructions on how to log in to the teleconference center. This event will include lecture, interaction, and question and answer periods.
1.5 CE credits will be provided by GoodTherapy.org for attending this web conference in its entirety.
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April Lane Benson, PhD, is a nationally known psychologist who specializes in the treatment of compulsive buying. She is the co-founder of the Center for the Study of Anorexia and Bulimia and a member of the Board of Directors of the Institute for Contemporary Psychotherapy, both of which are located in New York. She has been in private practice in New York City for over 30 years.
I Shop, Therefore I Am: Compulsive Buying and the Search for Self (Aronson, 2000), which Dr. Benson edited, is a multidisciplinary approach to the problem of compulsive buying. It includes contributions from the fields of sociology, consumer behavior, marketing, community education, psychology, and psychiatry. Her recent book, To Buy or Not to Buy: Why We Overshop and How to Stop (Trumpeter, 2008), offers a comprehensive program for stopping overshopping. Dr. Benson has also written articles and chapters for professional books and magazines.
Dr. Benson and her associates offer individual treatment and group coaching, both in person and on the telephone, and train therapists who want to learn to work with overshoppers. Stopping Overshopping, LLC maintains an active and informative website. Each month, people from almost 70 different countries visit the site.
Dr. Benson has appeared widely in the media and has been quoted in The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, Washington Post, Chicago Tribune, The Christian Science Monitor, and The Toronto Star. She has also been referenced in Time, Money, Kiplinger Personal Finance, Ladies’ Home Journal, Vogue, Cosmopolitan, Harper's Bazaar, Redbook, Marie Claire, and a variety of internet publications. She speaks to both professional and non-professional audiences.