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Stephen Gilligan

PhD
Psychologist
Stephen Gilligan, Ph.D.

STEPHEN GILLIGAN, Ph.D., is a psychologist in Encinitas, CA. He was one of the original NLP students at UC Santa Cruz, where Milton Erickson and Gregory Bateson were his mentors. After receiving his psychology doctorate from Stanford University, he became one of the premier teachers and practitioners of Ericksonian hypnotherapy. This work evolved into his original approaches of Self-Relations and Generative Self and was further developed with Robert Dilts into Generative Coaching. In response to the unprecedented meta-crisis we are currently facing, all this work is now woven into a Creative Mind meta-structure that honors and seeks to realize the interconnection of all life—friends and enemies, nature and humans, spirit and matter.

He has taught in many different cultures and countries over the past 30 years and has published extensively. His numerous books include The Hero’s Journey: A Voyage of Self-Discovery (co-authored with Robert Dilts), the classic Therapeutic Trances, The Courage to Love, The Legacy of Erickson, Walking in Two Worlds (with D. Simon), Generative Trance: The Experience of Creative Flow, four volumes of Generative Coaching, and his ongoing six-volume series on Creative Mind.

2026 Sessions

Generative Psychotherapy: Practical Clinical Applications

In this session, Dr. Gilligan will overview his seminal work on generative psychology, with special emphasis on the most recent work of Creative Mind. This work sees human realities as created from an interaction between two brain/mind intelligences: (1) the more ancient and collective consciousness of the (right brain) nonverbal/nature consciousness, and (2) the more recent human virtual/verbal intelligence of the left brain. We will see how conflicts between the two result in intransient symptoms, and how therapeutic work to shift them into a more cooperative “generative” reality in which “problems” move to “resources”. This talk will give both a theoretical frame and a practical description of how to use it for superior therapeutic effect.

Presenter

Tuesday, December 08 8:30–9:30 AM
Faculty

Stephen Gilligan

PhD
Psychologist
Stephen Gilligan, Ph.D.

STEPHEN GILLIGAN, Ph.D., is a psychologist in Encinitas, CA. He was one of the original NLP students at UC Santa Cruz, where Milton Erickson and Gregory Bateson were his mentors. After receiving his psychology doctorate from Stanford University, he became one of the premier teachers and practitioners of Ericksonian hypnotherapy. This work evolved into his original approaches of Self-Relations and Generative Self and was further developed with Robert Dilts into Generative Coaching. In response to the unprecedented meta-crisis we are currently facing, all this work is now woven into a Creative Mind meta-structure that honors and seeks to realize the interconnection of all life—friends and enemies, nature and humans, spirit and matter.

He has taught in many different cultures and countries over the past 30 years and has published extensively. His numerous books include The Hero’s Journey: A Voyage of Self-Discovery (co-authored with Robert Dilts), the classic Therapeutic Trances, The Courage to Love, The Legacy of Erickson, Walking in Two Worlds (with D. Simon), Generative Trance: The Experience of Creative Flow, four volumes of Generative Coaching, and his ongoing six-volume series on Creative Mind.
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