Classes

One of the most challenging aspects of our work is a pervasive perfectionism that can so dominate our own minds as therapists and greatly inhibit the emotional growth of our patients.  The pressure to get it right and have the answers can undermine therapeutic work with both participants.  One of the psychoanalytic writers who has most directly addressed these problems is Harold Searles, an American psychoanalyst greatly influenced both by the British object relations tradition, especially Bion, and the American interpersonal tradition.

This course will explore the common distinction between psychological and spiritual experience, both in our own lives and in our work with our patients.  What constitutes a spiritual experience?  Is it fundamentally distinct from something psychological?  How do we work with what our patients might regard as spiritual?  How do these three traditions, psychoanalysis, Christianity, and Buddhism, as well as other traditions of spiritual/psychological growth, interrelate?  We will use as our background resource chapters from Michael Eigen's book Psychoanalytic Mystics.

Join me for a three-part seminar exploring the dynamics of working with adolescents and their parents, framed through the prism of Contemporary Self Psychology and Winnicottian Theory. Whether you are an established therapist specializing in teens and their parents, a newcomer to adolescent psychotherapy, or someone seeking insights into recognizing similar developmental struggles in adults, this course aims to enhance your understanding of the technical and developmental challenges of effectively addressing resistant adolescents and skeptical parents. 
 

"Sanity is very rare; every man almost and every woman has a dash of madness." —Emerson

Psychoanalysis and psychoanalytic psychotherapy are not immune from having to confront suicidality, and many of us do not understand what happens when a patient ends up in an emergency department to be assessed for psychiatric hospitalization.

The air is often thick with transference and countertransference, as the unconscious of both the therapist and patient can collide in a battle of anxiety regulation and desperation on multiple fronts.

Psychoanalysis and psychoanalytic psychotherapy are not immune from having to confront suicidality, and many of us do not understand what happens when a patient ends up in an emergency department to be assessed for psychiatric hospitalization.

The air is often thick with transference and countertransference, as the unconscious of both the therapist and patient can collide in a battle of anxiety regulation and desperation on multiple fronts.

This course is designed to be beginner friendly to those who do not have much familiarity with Lacan.

Jacques Lacan (1901-81) was a French psychoanalyst who pioneered what he described as a “return to Freud.” Lacan’s yearly seminars made extensive references to Freud’s writing and critiqued, extended, and innovated psychoanalytic theory into a new school of psychoanalysis.

This class has filled. To join the waitlist, please contact Terry Hanson. 

Dreaming has always been at the heart of psychoanalytic work, but most of us can find it terribly daunting when we face the moment of experiencing a dream, whether recalling our own or listening to a patient's.  One of the best books exploring these challenges is Donald Meltzer's Dream Life.  Meltzer emphasizes there is no formula or right way of working with dreams, but there are many things that can be understood about the function and meaning of dreams.  Mainly in this seminar we will explore together actual dreams, our patient's and our own, and develop our capabilities to ente

This class has filled. To be added to the waitlist, please email education@nwaps.org.