The Company specializes in the training of professionals and students in the psychotherapy of schizophrenia and program development. Its treatment methods are called Direct Confrontation an active psychotherapeutic approach to the person with schizophrenia. Research that has been replicated in many countries has proven that medication by itself does no more than mask symptoms and that these patients require more than is typically offered. One can attribute the failures in treating this serious problem, not only to the rigid traditional treatment methods, but also to the attitude of the professionals treating these problems.
Direct Confrontation is an active psychotherapy approach, that concentrates on effecting behavioral changes in patients that helps improve the quality of their lives. These individuals with long histories of schizophrenia must be approached
by the trainer, so that the initial contact leads to a trusting relationship and a therapeutic alliance, so that the treatment outcome will be positive. We strongly believe that psychotherapy has long been underestimated and/or denied,
even though it represents the backbone of any unified treatment system.
Without this psychotherapeutic direction, no gains in treatment will be lasting. Our efforts are directed toward teaching professionals and students the basic
principles of Direct Confrontation. We are prepared to offer our program anywhere in the world. Jack Rosberg's experience over more than four decades of practice, has produced lasting results in many patients with schizophrenia and has
also helped students and professionals and institutions improve their quality of care with these new directions in treatment.
We believe it is time to educate professionals and students and train them in developing methods of treatment that are more hopeful and give these patients a better chance to change.
In 1987, Jack Rosberg was invited to Sweden and Norway to present his work and train professionals in active psychotherapy. He went to many cities in these countries including Stockholm, Gothenburg, Oslo, Bergen and many smaller areas that expressed an interest in reviewing his work and utilizing some of his methods. His experience was published in several newspapers in Scandinavia in Stockholm, he did a consultation with a severely regressed patient in a psychiatric hospital that led to an article published in a Scandinavian Journal and a paper that was read at the IXth International Symposium for the Psychotherapy for Schizophrenia in Turin, Italy, in 1988.
His lectures and workshops on schizophrenia includes video taped treatment sessions and when possible he does demonstrations with patients that vividly expresses his treatment methods.
He continued his work in Scandinavia until mid 1991.
During those years he lectured at the Universities of Oslo and Bergen and did staff training at many psychiatric hospitals. He also helped develop a treatment program for young schizophrenics in Molde, Norway, sponsored by the Norwegian
Government. Because of staff conflicts he trained the staff by demonstrating with patients with the entire staff present and developed a treatment approach that was entitled by the Norwegians as "Living Room Therapy". As a result
of that effort, staff conflict was resolved and patient care improved.
In 1991, after making several presentations at the Xth International Symposium for the Psychotherapy of Schizophrenia in Stockholm, he was invited to Russia, just after the attempted coup.
The first trip to Russia included several full
day workshops in Moscow. The audiences were composed of psychiatrists, psychologists and nurses. The methods that Rosberg introduced and the video taped treatment sessions, stimulated and excited many of these professionals. After this, he
went to Simferopol, a city near Yalta and the Black Sea.
He had several days of workshops in psychiatric hospitals and again the reception was positive, even though he encountered some opposition from the biological and physically directed psychiatrists. However, this is not unusual in a
professional world that looks away from the humanistic encounter that the seriously mentally ill patient requires and looks more toward medication and other physical methods of treatment that have never succeeded in recovery for these
patients without other treatment modalities.
From Simferopol he did several workshops in St. Petersburg in several psychiatric hospitals.
In 1992, he was again invited to Russia, this time however, the visit took him to the Urals and Siberia where he went to four cities and did many demonstrations through a Russian interpreter with Russian patients who had a diagnosis of
schizophrenia.
There were newspaper articles, radio and TV interviews and many requests for consultations with Russian patients. The first demonstrations with patients was done in Chelyabinsk in the Urals. The city where the Atom Bomb
was built. Rosberg, according to the Russians, was the first foreigner to be permitted to enter that city. In Siberia, he conducted workshops in several cities including Novosibirsk.
The demonstrations with Russian patients through an interpreter (Rosberg does not speak Russian) served to erase much of the skepticism that some Russians held. He is a master at making rapid contact with even the most regressed patients.
In 1993, he had other European and American commitments, so Russia was not on the Agenda until 1994, that year he went from the Far East of Russia, Khabrosk, Vladavostok, Ussirsk to Ekaterinburg in the Urals and back to Moscow.
The reception was very strong and after many workshops in those areas, he was invited back the same year to the Far East of Russia and Krasnoyarsk in Siberia. In 1995, he was referred a Russian patient from Siberia and treated the patient in the United States for three months. He returned with the patient to his city in Siberia and developed a treatment program that met the needs of this and other very sick patients. From there he returned to Ekaterinburg and created a program of psychotherapy and psychosocial rehabilitation.
During several of these visits Rosberg was accompanied by Ann Rosberg, who trained non medical staff in psychosocial rehabilitation. Part of her treatment armamentarium is aerobics. This method was both very exciting to both patients and staff and the depression that is so often a part of schizophrenia was frequently lifted which enhanced and supported other parts of the overall program. At this point in time, there are six psychosocial programs in hospitals as a result of the Rosberg treatment approach and the use of Direct Confrontation Psychotherapy (Active Treatment) is being practiced by increasing numbers of psychotherapists in Russia.
Finland and Spain hosted workshops and training for their professionals with Rosberg and company. It is apparent that there is a great need for more active and involved treatment approaches. The time for forging new directions in treatment is very much past due and Rosberg efforts are at the forefront of a new wave of professional pioneers.
