Five Fridays 2022-2023

Our 2022-2023 Five Friday topics and presenters are listed below. ** Please note that all Friday seminars will be via Zoom. Zoom links will be sent to all registrants on the Monday before the seminar. Please register by Sunday to ensure that you get the Zoom link. 

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Awakening

Covid-19 and allied viruses have awakened traumatic aspects individually and in the social world around us. Freud’s discussion of the dream of a father that has lost his son and wakes up to face the anguish of this death will be used to focus on the theory of trauma. Jacques Lacan expands on Freud’s theory adding that trauma brings the subject to an awakening that confronts his/her/their position as an ethical being : “Is not the dream essentially, one might say, an act of homage to the missed reality – the reality that can no longer produce itself except by repeating itself endlessly, in some never attained awakening?”

Three Learning Objectives (bearing in mind take-home applicability for participants’ practices):

1. Identify key aspects in the experience of trauma as related to time and repetition.
2. Identify the role of primary repression and repression proper in the experienced trauma.
3. Apply this learning to the work with trauma in the clinical situation.

Presenter Bio:
Macario Giraldo, Ph.D: After finishing his Master’s in Applied Linguistics at Georgetown University (1964), Dr. Giraldo obtained his doctorate in clinical psychology at the Catholic University of America (1972). Dr. Giraldo is a founding member of the Lacanian Forum of Washington, D.C. and has been faculty at the Washington School of Psychiatry since the early 70’s.

Dr. Giraldo has lectured extensively presenting papers and conducting groups in many cities of the U.S., Latin America, Europe, and lately in Cairo, Egypt. His book, The Dialogues IN/OF the Group: Lacanian Perspectives on the Psychoanalytic Group (Karnac, 2012) is recognized as a primer in the application of Lacanian psychoanalysis to the psychoanalytic group.

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Slip-Slidin’ Away: A Workshop on Ethical Dilemmas in Analytic Practice

November 18, 2022 11:30am – 2:30pm EST
Stephanie Schechter, PsyD and Susan Kattlove, MD

Note: This seminar earns 3 CE’s toward licensure requirements in ethics.

As clinicians we often struggle to discuss professional ethics. Far from the enlivening feeling of exciting analytic teaching, codes of ethics are often boring and hard to remember. Consciously and unconsciously we often carry shame about clinical situations in which we have fallen short of our expectations for our work and yet we have all faced situations in which there is no clear path, where every turn carries the risk of an ethical breach. While some decisions involve clear choices, others involve a complicated slippery slope toward ethical transgressions.

This workshop has been developed to address the aversion to thinking and talking about ethics. We will use lively, experience-near fictional vignettes which depict complex, thorny ethical dilemmas. We will focus on issues of privacy and confidentiality, boundaries, and difficulties with maintaining the frame.

Three Learning Objectives:

1. Participants will be able to identify at least two unconscious pressures which can affect the therapist’s ability to set appropriate physical and emotional boundaries.
2. Participants will be able to explain competing ethical and clinical values that arise in relationships among members of training organizations.
3. Participants will learn to assess when consultation is appropriate or necessary to address issues of confidentiality and power differentials within training organizations.

Presenter Bios:

Stephanie Schechter is a psychologist and psychoanalyst in private practice in Cambridge, MA.  She is on the faculty at Boston Psychoanalytic Society and Institute where she teaches Ethics, as well as Erotic Transferences and Countertransferences. She and Dr. Kattlove present frequently at The APsaA National meetings, as well as institutes around the country, on the topic of “Ethical Dilemmas in Psychoanalytic Institutes.”  She is a contributing author of the  Psychoanalyst Casebook.

Susan Kattlove is a psychiatrist and psychoanalyst in private practice in Cambridge, MA. She is on the faculty of  Boston Psychoanalytic Society and Institute and is the co-chair of the Ethics Education Committee there.

Zoom links for seminars will be sent to all registrants on the Monday before the seminar.  Be sure to register by the Sunday (earlier is even better) to receive the Zoom link.

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Finding Solid Ground… Even with the Most Dissociative Clients!

Highly dissociative, traumatized patients often present with an overwhelming array of severe clinical problems and frequent crises. Their chronic self-destructive behaviors, behavioral reenactments, and difficulty retaining what is discussed in sessions can limit their progress in treatment. Therapists may feel frustrated and question whether they are helping such patients. Dr. Brand will discuss the evidence-informed approach that she and colleagues have developed called Finding Solid Ground. This program has been shown to be beneficial in guiding dissociative trauma survivors towards decreased symptoms, reduced self-harm, improved emotion regulation, and increased self-compassion. She will provide an overview of the journaling and practice exercises used in the Finding Solid Ground program; this is the program that was tested in the Treatment of Patients with Dissociative Disorders (TOP DD) studies. Dr. Brand will role play common challenges encountered such as clients who do not want to stop self-harming. She will describe pragmatic, research-informed techniques for managing dissociative patients’ reliance on dissociation so that attendees can leave with pragmatic ideas about helping their patients “find solid ground”.  

Learning Objectives (bearing in mind take-home applicability for participants’ practices):

1. Participants will be able to identify 3 symptoms that can alert clinicians to the possibility that a client has a DD.
2. Participants will be able to describe the three stages of treatment for DD clients.
3. Participants will be able to describe and implement appropriate interventions for the stabilization stage of DD treatment.
4. Participants will discuss an awareness of the risk of vicarious traumatic and empathic countertransference when working with complex trauma clients.
5. Participants will be able to articulate appropriate ways to monitor and address countertransference and vicarious traumatic reactions when working with individuals with complex trauma histories.

Presentation Reference List:

• Brand, B.L., Lanius, R. Loewenstein, R.J.. (2014). Dissociative Identity Disorder. In G. Gabbard (Ed.), Treatments of Psychiatric Disorders 5th Edition (pp. 439-458). Arlington VA: American Psychiatric  Publishing Inc.
• Steele, K, Boon, S. & Van der Hart, O. (2017) Treating Trauma-Related Dissociation: A Practical Integrated Approach. New York: Norton.
• Steinberg, M. & Schnall, M. (2001) The Stranger in the Mirror Dissociation, The Hidden Epidemic. New York: HarperCollins.
• van der Hart, O., Nijenhuis, E. & Steele, K. (2006) The Haunted Self: Structural Dissociation and the Treatment of Chronic Traumatization. New York: Norton.
• van der Kolk, B.A. (2015) The Body Keeps the Score: Brain, Mind and Body in the Healing of Trauma. New York: Penguin.

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Mentalizing Autism:

Incorporating a Neurodiversity Framework into Psychodynamic Work

March 31, 2023 11:30am – 2:30pm EST
Stacey Dershewitz, J.D., Psy.D. and Sara Hedlund, PhD

Note: This seminar earns 3 CE’s toward licensure requirements in cultural competence.

Traditional psychoanalytic conceptualizations of Autism have harmed and stigmatized neurodiverse individuals and communities. The neuro-caste system has infused our understanding of Autism and other forms of neurodiversity, and has seeped into the consulting room in both subtle and overt ways. This presentation will provide a historical overview of psychoanalytic theories of Autism and explore psychoanalytic psychology’s tendency to “other” those who deviate from neurotypical norms. Drawing on clinical material, it will demonstrate ways that incorporating a neurodiversity-informed treatment approach can help empower neurodiverse clients and communities. It will also support clinicians in recognizing their beliefs and attitudes about Autism and identifying ways they might better meet the needs of this growing segment of the population.

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A Companion Unobtrusive – Clinical Follow-Up

2-part Seminar with Robert Grossmark, PhD

Saturday, April 1 & Sunday, April 2.  Approximate times: 5 hours Saturday afternoon, 3 hours Sunday morning 9:30/10am – 12:30/1:00pm. In person at the BCC Service Center.

This was Dr Grossmark’s original seminar description from Dec 2021. This will be a small group, clinical follow up. Updated learning objectives will be added soon and sent to all registrants.

This presentation addresses the challenges met when working with patients who cannot “work together” with an analyst, who are not sufficiently able to symbolize and mentalize. We will address both patients who suffer disturbances in the area of self-other definition, continuity and regulation of self, as well as patients who can appear to be more related and reflective, but harbor sequestered self states that are dominated by areas of unrepresented and unsymbolized trauma and neglect. This presentation will present the position of the unobtrusive relational analyst who companions the patient in the emergence of illusion, fragmentation and non-relatedness and privileges the inner world of the patient that becomes the signature and defining sculptor of the clinical interaction and process. Unrepresented and unformulated trauma and neglect announce themselves in the flow of mutual enactive engagement and rather than seek to move the patient into greater relatedness and insight, the analyst companions the patient in the emergence of yet to be known and thought narratives of trauma and fragmentation. The tilt is toward an ontological position that privileges being-with the patient rather than epistemological where meaning can be symbolized and interpreted.

Fees: $225 for WSPP members; $375 for non-members. (Non-members are invited to join WSPP for $140.00 and save on registration.

Note: This course earns 8 CE’s

Registration: To reserve your space, please email Lynn Hamerling quickly as this seminar could to fill up. WSPP members (and non-members who attended the presenter’s original Dec 3, 2021 Friday seminar), will have priority registration through March 10. After March 10th, registration will be opened up to the larger community.

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The Way You Do The Things You Do:

Achieving and Sustaining Psychotherapy Effectiveness

May 12, 2023 11:30am – 2:30pm EST
Molyn Leszcz, MD

Combining clinical illustrations and a review of relevant literature in an interactive format, this presentation will examine the factors that contribute to therapist effectiveness. AKA being an Evidence Based Psychotherapist can improve your clinical work. We will look more deeply at the finding that although the psychotherapies are generally very effective, not all therapists are equally effective. The workshop will address what unfolds at the level of the therapeutic relationship that can improve or impede clinical effectiveness. Areas that will be addressed include understanding the central role of the therapeutic alliance, empathy and attunement, therapeutic focus, multicultural competence, activation of the here and now, countertransference, therapeutic metacommunication, and the ethical application of the therapist’s use of self and judicious transparency.

Learning Objectives

1. Illustrate and operationalize factors that contribute to enhanced psychotherapist effectiveness
2. Employ the evidence-base of effective psychotherapy
3. Articulate the principles of therapeutic metacommunication and processing within the
   therapeutic relationship
4. Explore the ethical application of therapist’s use of self, countertransference, and judicious therapist transparency

Presenter Bio:
Molyn Leszcz, MD, FRCPC, CGP, DFAGPA

Dr. Molyn Leszcz is Professor, Department of Psychiatry, University of Toronto. He served as
President of the American Group Psychotherapy Association, from 2020-2022.

Dr Leszcz also served as Psychiatrist-in-Chief at Sinai Health System, 2006-2017, Vice Chair,
Clinical for the Department of Psychiatry, University of Toronto, 2010-2017, and Chair (Interim)
the Department of Psychiatry, University of Toronto, 2014-15.

Dr. Leszcz’s academic and clinical work has focused on improving integration in psychiatric
care and broadening the application of the psychotherapies within psychiatry. Dr. Leszcz has
worked extensively in the areas of physician wellness and leadership, along with the effects of
pandemic stress on health care providers. He co-authored with Irvin Yalom, the 5th and 6th (2020) editions of the Theory and Practice of Group Psychotherapy. A co-authored book in the
Psychotherapy Essentials to Go series, Achieving Psychotherapy Effectiveness, was published in
2015.

Dr. Leszcz was awarded the Anne Alonso Award for Outstanding Contributions to
Psychodynamic Group Therapy and also was awarded Distinguished Fellowship in the American
Group Psychotherapy Association. Dr. Leszcz has been the recipient of a number of education
and teaching awards at the University of Toronto.