WSPP-DC

Local Chapter of Division 39
of the Division of Psychoanalysis
American Psychological Association

Five Fridays 2017-2018

Five Fridays 2017-2018

Dark Side of the Moon

Robert Roney, D.Min
Friday, September 15, 2017   11:30am – 2:30pm
Note: this seminar counts toward the CE Licensure requirement for Ethics.

Working with people in our profession in our various roles of patients, supervisees, mentees, supervisors and therapists makes professional and personal growth both exciting and fraught with loaded boundaries. Safety and authority are called into question and sometimes difficult to recognize. How we navigate these issues at workshops, conferences, training and organizational social events can make all the difference in whether we create a safe healthy community in which we help each other grow and heal or a dark place where egregious harmful acts may take place.

Learning Objectives:

  1. The participant will be able to articulate appropriate boundaries with patients who are psychotherapists.
  2. The participant will be able to negotiate appropriate boundaries with a supervisee who attends the same conference.
  3. The supervising participant will know when to seek consultation when the boundaries seem unclear.

Presenter:
Robert P. Roney, D.Min., is a founding partner at the Pathway Center for Psychotherapy in Norcross, Ga. He maintains a private practice that includes group and individual psychotherapy. Bob is also a certified supervisor in the State of Georgia and provides individual and group supervision and consultation. Bob was originally trained as a pastoral psychotherapist. He is married to Jan Lewis, helped raised five children, enjoys their three grandchildren. Bob’s volunteer life is in Haiti, where he currently serves as chair of Haitian Homes for Haitian Children, a non-profit organization committed to holding families together in this poverty stricken country.

Can’t Quit You Baby – The Pull Of The Passionate Bad Object

Stewart Aledort, MD, CGP, FAGPA
Friday, December 1, 2017   9:30am – 12:30pm

We will explore the hidden somatic passions that get laid down in the earliest bad fits (i.e., misattunements) and become the source of the highly resistant narcissistic behaviors and passionate, somatic, psychic attachments. Dr. Aledort’s “Omnipotent Child” syndrome describes that part of the internal psychic structure that leads to all the passionately held bad fits that characterize not only the person’s object ties and attachments, but also his or her most powerful internal psychic identity. The therapist’s technique encourages regression to elucidate preverbal experiences and uncover hidden shame. Only by reviving these earliest bad fits can we help our patients effect character change.

Learning Objectives:

  1. Identify and list the characteristic of the Passionate Bad Fit.
  2. Describe the leader’s techniques and why it encourages regression.
  3. Identify the hidden excitement in shame.

Presenter:
Stewart Aledort, MD, CGP, FAGPA, is a private practitioner in Washington DC. He is a Clinical Associate Professor of Psychiatry at George Washington University School of Medicine. He is a founding member of the National Group Psychotherapy Institute of the Washington School of Psychiatry. Dr. Aledort is widely recognized for his work in group psychotherapy. He has presented at numerous AGPA Annual Meetings over the years and at many Affiliate Societies. Through his publications and presentations, he has highlighted the crucial role of somatic passion and excitement in laying down the templates of intimacy and identity formation.

Let’s Talk About Sex: Developing Clinical Comfort & Competence Working with Sexual Issues in Psychotherapy

Suzanne Iasenza, PhD
Friday, January 19, 2018   9:30am – 12:30pm (The morning session will be one of our regular Friday Seminars – free to members, $60 to non-members)

Afternoon Session: 2:00-5:00pm. This session is for members only and limited to 12 registrants. We will delve further into treatment considerations, including how to conduct a therapeutic sexual history, formulating sexual treatment frames and understanding transference and countertransference responses. This will include some case consultations. Note: this afternoon session is now full.

Sexuality issues can feel challenging in psychotherapy. Some psychotherapists feel unprepared to delve into the issues because they haven’t had sufficient training in human sexuality. Others feel challenged by the complexities and mysteries of common presenting problems such as the effects of trauma on sexuality or the influence of desire on couple sexuality. This presentation will provide expansive models of sexual response and new approaches to standard sex therapy techniques. Case material will illustrate integration of psychodynamic, systems, and cognitive behavioral thinking.

Morning Learning Objectives

  • Participants will be able to identify and explain the significance of various models of sexual response.
  • Participants will be able to identify contemporary sex therapy techniques.
  • Participants will be able to discuss how to integrate psychodynamic, systems, and cognitive behavioral approaches in working with sexual concerns.

Special Afternoon Consultation Session with Dr. Iazenza 2:00 – 5:00pm.
This afternoon session will delve further into treatment issues raised in the morning (attendance at the morning session is necessary). Registration is on a first-come, first serve basis for members only (non-members are welcome to become members at any time). Dr. Iacenza is a highly respected and sought after presenter. We anticipate that this afternoon section will fill up quickly. Therefore, we are asking for registrants to contact Lynn Hamerling directly to secure a spot (lynnhamerling@gmail.com or (202) 722-1507). Please do not just mail in registration and assume there will be remaining spots. The cost of the afternoon session is $60.

Afternoon Learning Objectives

  • Participants will be able to describe how to conduct a therapeutic sexual history.
  • Participants will be able to formulate expansive sexual treatment frames.
  • Participants will be able to discuss transference and countertransference working with sexuality in psychotherapy.

Presenter:
Suzanne Iasenza, PhD is on the faculties of the Institute for Contemporary Psychotherapy and Psychoanalysis (ICP) and the Adelphi University Derner Institute’s Postgraduate Program in Psychoanalysis and Psychotherapy. She also teaches in the workshop series at the Ackerman Institute for the Family. She is co-editor of the books Lesbians and Psychoanalysis: Revolutions in Theory and Practice (1995) and Lesbians, Feminism, and Psychoanalysis: The Second Wave (2004) and maintains a private practice in psychotherapy and sex therapy in New York City. Her most recent paper, “What’s Queer About Sex: Expanding Sexual Frames in Theory and Practice” (2010) was published in the journal Family Process.

References:
Bader, M. (2002). Arousal: The secret logic of sexual fantasies. New York: St Martin’s Press.
Iasenza, S. (2010). What is queer about sex?: Expanding sexual frames in theory and practice. Family Process, 49 (3), 291-308.
Kaplan, H.S. (1977). The new sex therapy. New York: Brunner/Mazel.
Mitchell, S. A. (2002). Can love last?: The loss of romance over time. NY: W.W. Norton & Co.
Scharff, D. E. (1998). The sexual relationship. NJ: Jason Aronson.
Stoller, R. J. (1975). Perversion: The erotic form of hatred. New York: Delta.

Dream Weaver – Tales From The Psyche

Fonya Lord Helm, Ph.D., ABPP
Friday, March 16, 2018   11:30am – 2:30pm

By investigating the dreamers associations to their dreams, we can start to understand these tales from the unconscious. We will focus on gaining new historical information and using the dream images to look at self states and coping mechanisms. Participants will explore the idea that telling a dream to someone is in itself an unconscious communication and show that the dream can be a dramatization of ongoing relationships. In addition, we will consider when telling a dream operates as a resistance and when that resistance should be interpreted. As we discuss this unconscious process, Dr. Helm will present clinical examples of uncanny communications that may have changed the manifest content of the dream.

Learning Objectives:

  1. Discuss free associating to dream images and explain how that can facilitate the discovery of new historical information.
  2. Identify a self state dream, using three characteristics.
  3. Delineate Gray’s idea of how the telling of a dream operates as a resistance (in addition to a communication) in analysis or therapy. When should such a resistance be interpreted?

Presenter:
Fonya Lord Helm, PhD, ABPP is a psychologist and psychoanalyst in private practice in Virginia Beach, VA and sees patients both in person and by phone or Skype. She specializes in long-term work, focusing primarily on deepening relationships, building self-esteem, and the diminution of anxiety and depression. A Training and Supervising Analyst both at the Institute of Contemporary Psychotherapy and Psychoanalysis and at the Contemporary Freudian Society, she also teaches at the China American Psychoanalytic Alliance. She is a member of the Analytic Process Scales Group, which does process and outcome research, is on the Board of the Psychoanalytic Research Consortium, and is on the Board of Section I, Division 39, APA.

The Oblivion Express

Jacob I. Melamed, Ph.D., M.S., APA -CPP (Substance Use Disorders)
Friday, April 27, 2018   9:30am – 12:30pm

On an average day, 160 individuals seeking a brief interlude of euphoria or simple relief or feelings of normality will die of an opioid overdose in the United States. The opioid epidemic leaves no segment of society untouched. This presentation is designed for the clinician who has limited experience with the treatment of addictive disorders. Special focus will be on the abuse of prescription pain killers (opioids) including societal factors that have created this epidemic, the pharmacology and the psychodynamics of opioid abuse, and effective treatment options. This seminar will also review the major drugs of abuse with a focus on the latest research on cannabis. Finally, the presentation will address the myths and facts surrounding Twelve Step groups and how the clinician can dispel these myths to make a successful patient referral to these resources, as well as alternatives.

Learning Objectives:

  1. Participants will be able to identify and explain to patients effective treatment options for opioid abuse.
  2. Participants will be able to explain to patients the latest findings on the short- and long-term effects of chronic cannabis use.
  3. Participants will be able to identify the myths surrounding Twelve Step groups and counter them in order to make a successful patient referral to these resources.

Presenter:
Jacob I. Melamed, Ph.D., M.S. is a clinical psychologist in private practice in Bethesda, MD. He received his doctorate from Northwestern University Medical School and holds a post-doctoral masters degree in clinical psychopharmacology from Fairleigh Dickinson University. He has a specialty in the treatment of addictive disorders and is certified in the treatment of substance use disorders by the College of Professional Psychology of the American Psychological Association.