Lankton's Professional Summary

	Stephen Lankton Stephen on co-creating experience.

Brief Professional Summary

Stephen practices in Phoenix, Arizona and teaches and trains clinicians worldwide. He is a LCSW in Arizona.. His clinical training has been sponsored by university psychology and social work departments, state associations in clinical disciplines, and private training institutes in over twenty countries for over twenty five years.  He is the Executive Director of the Phoenix Institute of Ericksonian Therapy, and is a Faculty Associate at Arizona State University, Dept. of Sociology and Behavioral Science and Editor of the the American Journal of Clinical Hypnosis.

Stephen is a recipient of the Lifetime Achievement Award for Outstanding Contribution to the Field of Psychotherapy and the Irving Secter Award. He is the past president and Diplomate of the American Hypnosis Board for Clinical Social Work, a Fellow and Approved Supervisor in Family Therapy, a Fellow and Approved Consultant in Clinical Hypnosis, a Diplomate of the American Psychotherapy Association and a Diplomate in Clinical Social Work.  He graduated from the University of Michigan, School of Social Work in 1974 and is a LCSW (10443) in Phoenix, Arizona.

Well known for his teaching of Ericksonian hypnosis and psychotherapy, he authored and coauthored 6 books  including: Assembling Ericksonian Therapy, Tales of Enchantment, The Answer Within, Enchantment and Intervention, and Practical Magic, and edited and co-edited 11 others. He was founding editor of The Ericksonian Monographs.  In addition, he has published dozens of chapters in professional works addressing family therapy, Ericksonian therapy, clinical hypnosis, brief therapy, clinical social work, constructive therapy, innovative therapy, bioenergetics, transactional analysis, and strategic therapy.

He has an extensive training background including studying with the late Dr. Milton H. Erickson, MD for five years. Before studying with Dr. Erickson he had been recognized for his work in Gestalt Therapy, and Transactional Analysis. However, his intensive study with Dr. Erickson resulted in his synthesis of a highly accountable, goal-directed, holistic, and positive approach to therapy.

As an author, trainer, clinician, editor, teacher, and corporate consultant Stephen has a number of diverse activities all related to information exchange. These include elaborating the emerging epistemology and behavioral science expertise as it applies to psychotherapy, training for mental health professionals, clinical supervision, performance psychology, corporate consultation, and the human factors in interface design. 

He has regularly conducted corporate consultation on behavioral factors in interface design as a corporate partner with Xerox Corporation. In 1993 he developed and co-authored the document engineering methodology for Xerox Global Services. He provides behavioral science expertise to Xerox teams working to create, redesign, and develop application for organizations in the health care, insurance, telecommunication, banking, and financial industries. The list of these organizations includes the Internal Revenue Service, New York State Tax and Finance, New York State Children Services, Empire Blue Cross and Blue Shield, others.

This site should be useful for examining some aspects of his approach to psychotherapy, couples therapy, performance enhancement, corporate consulting, and his credentials, publications, awards, and training. 

For convenience, click here to contact Steve Lankton by email.