Clinicians of Color Speak: Claiming our Place in Psychoanalysis

This series of Zoom Conversations is designed to address your curiosity about contemporary psychoanalysis & psychodynamic psychotherapy, featuring discussions with our faculty and candidates, highlighting a variety of experiences and perspectives and welcoming your questions.

Moderator: Betty Teng, LCSW

Panelists: Yuen Chen, LCSW; Bina Gogenini, PhD; Vincent Handon, MA; Rana Shokeh, LCSW

Suitable for current graduate students and those already holding postgraduate degrees who may be curious about exploring the possibility of psychodynamic and psychoanalytic training.

Psychotherapy as a Search and Rescue Operation: Taking Attachment and Acceptance Seriously with Paul Wachtel, Ph.D.

Based on his most recent book, Making Room for the Disavowed: Reclaiming the Self in Psychotherapy, this presentation by Paul Wachtel will explore how therapy can be deeper and more effective when the focus shifts from uncovering what the patient has been hiding to making room for the thoughts, feelings, and wishes that he has feared and disavowed. Building on and integrating important alternative voices in psychoanalytic thought, both old and new, Wachtel offers a version of therapeutic practice that is more humane and deeply experiential and that intersects in productive ways with humanistic and experiential approaches and with acceptance-centered cognitive-behavioral approaches. The approach builds as well on important and insufficiently appreciated implications of attachment theory. Central to Wachtel’s approach is the view that psychotherapy is essentially a search and rescue operation but that its practice has been dominated by the element of search (discovery, uncovering, unmasking, verbalizing) and has been insufficiently attentive to the rescue element, which is represented by the relational experience with the therapist, by helping the patient accept what he has pushed away out of fear, guilt, or shame, and by helping him develop ways to express his cast off wishes and feelings in his daily life that meet with acceptance rather than retraumatization. When the patient can make room for those aspects of the self that were sidetracked in the course of development, he is enabled to live life with greater authenticity and vitality and to regain access to critical adaptive resources for meeting life’s challenges.

Learning Objectives

At the end of the presentation, participants will be able to:

I. Describe the difference between attachment as a set of categories and attachment as a lifelong process of adaptation that can point the person toward self-acceptance or toward self-rejection.

II. Discuss the differing contributions to therapeutic gain of self-knowledge and self-acceptance.

III. Describe important overlaps between the methods of psychodynamic therapists and those of humanistic-experiential and acceptance-centered cognitive-behavioral therapists.

Paul L. Wachtel, Ph.D. is Distinguished Professor in the doctoral program in clinical psychology at the City College of New York. He did his undergraduate studies at Columbia, received his Ph.D. in clinical psychology at Yale, and is a graduate of the NYU postdoctoral program in psychoanalysis and psychotherapy. He was a cofounder of the Society for the Exploration of Psychotherapy Integration (SEPI) and is a past president of that organization. Among his books are The Poverty of Affluence; Family Dynamics in Individual Psychotherapy (with Ellen F. Wachtel); Psychoanalysis, Behavior Therapy, and the Relational World; Race in the Mind of America; Relational Theory and the Practice of Psychotherapy; Inside the Session: What Really Happens in Psychotherapy; Cyclical Psychodynamics and the Contextual Self; and, most recently, Making Room for the Disavowed: Reclaiming the Self in Psychotherapy. He is a Fellow of the American Psychological Association and was the winner of the Hans H. Strupp Award for Psychoanalytic Writing, Teaching, and Research, the Distinguished Psychologist Award by Division 29 (Psychotherapy) of APA, the Scholarship and Research Award by Division 39 (Psychoanalysis) of APA, and the Sidney J. Blatt Award for Outstanding Contributions to Psychotherapy, Scholarship, Education and Practice.

Accelerated Experiential Dynamic Psychotherapy (AEDP)

Grounded in attachment theory, emotion theory, somatic therapies and interpersonal neuroscience, Accelerated Experiential Dynamic Psychotherapy (AEDP) is a unique psychotherapeutic model that seeks dually to alleviate suffering, and activate positive transformation and flourishing. Together, the AEDP therapist and client work to process to completion overwhelming emotion associated with trauma. This emotional processing, followed by rounds of reflection and integration of the experience of change, serve to entrain the corrective emotional experience and re-organize internalized working attachment models. In this 8-week course, we will explore AEDP’s principles, theory, and clinical interventions. The course will include readings, didactic material, discussion, experiential exercises, and extensive video presentations that illustrate the theory and practice of AEDP. Students will be encouraged to examine this approach in relation to psychoanalytic therapy. Class meetings are held on March 18, 25, April 1, 8, 15, 22, 29 May 6, 2024 from 1:00 to 2:50 pm.

Martina Verba, LCSW, DSW is a certified AEDP therapist and supervisor in private practice in Westchester County, NY. She has extensive experience working with patients with eating disorders and has developed a practice that integrates eating disorder treatment and AEDP. For the past 5 years, she has been on the faculty of the Integrative Trauma Treatment Program at the National Institute of Psychotherapies. Prior to finding AEDP, Martina worked as an eating disorder specialist at Kaiser Permanente in Northern California, a staff therapist at Harvard University’s mental health service, an adjunct professor at Simmons College, and the Director of Counseling at a program for at-risk youth in Boston.

The Transforming Power of Affect: Emotion-Focused Therapy with Leslie Greenberg, Ph.D.

Dr. Greenberg will discuss the role of emotion in therapeutic change, employing a trans-diagnostic, trans-theoretical perspective on working with emotion based on three ideas: (1) Emotion is central in psychological dysfunction; (2) Both acceptance and change of emotions are important in cure of emotional disorder; and (3) Work on transforming the underlying emotional cause of psychological dis-ease is important for enduring change and differs from modification of symptoms and provision of coping skills.

Using video clips to illustrate, he will discuss six major principles of emotional change in psychotherapy: awareness,  expression,  regulation,  reflection, transformation, and corrective experience.  He will propose changing emotion with emotion as a basic principle of emotional change and that one of the best ways to transform amygdala-based fear, sadness and shame is with another emotion often empowering anger and the sadness of grief. He will discuss transformation by synthesis as a process in which one emotion changes another emotion and how this can be used to change memories by a process of memory consolidation. Moment by moment attunement to affect, and the use of gestalt methods of dialoguing with parts of self and imagined significant others in an empty chair to access emotion will also be discussed.

Learning Objectives:

1.   Identify different types of emotional expression.

2.   Review principles of emotional change and supporting research.

3.   Learn about changing memory by memory reconsolidation

4.   Learn how to access adaptive emotions to produce change.

5.   Learn to identify phases in emotional processing to resolve self-criticism.

Leslie Greenberg, Ph.D Leslie Greenberg, Ph.D. is Distinguished Research Professor Emeritus of Psychology at York University in Toronto and the primary developer of Emotion-focused therapy. He has received the Distinguished Research Career award of the International Society for Psychotherapy Research as well as the Carl Rogers and the Distinguished Professional Contribution to Applied Research of the American Psychology Association. He also has received the Canadian Psychological Association Professional Award for Distinguished Contributions to Psychology as a Profession. He is a past President of the Society for Psychotherapy Research. He has authored many books on emotion in psychotherapy including Emotion-focused therapy: Theory and Practice (2015), Emotion-focused Couples Therapy: The Dynamics of Emotion, Love and Power (2008), Case Formulation in Emotion-Focused Therapy (2015), Emotion -Focused Therapy of Generalized Anxiety (2017), and Emotion-focused Therapy of Forgiveness (2019). Most recently he published Changing Emotion with Emotion (2021). He currently trains people internationally in emotion–focused approaches.

First Meetings in Analytic Therapy:  Poetics and Pragmatics with Eric Mendelssohn, Ph.D.

Fridays March 8, 15, 22, and 29, 2024 from 1:00-2:30

In this course we will consider first meetings in analytic therapy conceptually and procedurally.  Our focus will be on the hopes and dreads of both participants and on the opportunities to initiate relational traditions that will engender a meaningful analytic process.  We will combine discussions of several readings selected to be usefully challenging with discussions of clinical experiences by participants and the instructor.

Learning Objectives:

1.   Develop a conceptual and procedural roadmap for first meetings in analytic therapy.

2.   Delineate relational traditions that may be initiated in first meetings that can enhance the transformational potential of analytic therapy.

3.   Identify hopes and dreads felt and lived by both participants in first meetings.

Eric Mendelsohn, Ph.D. is Faculty and Supervisor at NIPTI and National Training Program, Westchester Center for the Study of Psychoanalysis and Psychotherapy, and Postgraduate Program in Psychoanalysis and Psychotherapy, Adelphi University.  Dr. Mendelsohn works with patients in individual analytic therapy and with couples.  He serves as a supervisor/consultant, and runs reading and consultation groups.  His papers and book chapters take up the patient-therapist relationship as well as the subjective experience of analytic therapists.

NIP Virtual Open House 2024

NIP candidate Ashleigh Ide discusses a case.

With supervisor Steven Kuchuck, DSW.

Career Change: Becoming an Analyst

This series of Zoom Conversations is designed to address your curiosity about contemporary psychoanalysis & psychodynamic psychotherapy, featuring discussions with our faculty and candidates, highlighting a variety of experiences and perspectives and welcoming your questions.

Career Change: Becoming an Analyst

Moderator: Tanya Leach

Panelists: Susan Hyon, Robin Kirman, Vince Handon, Sandy Farber

Suitable for current graduate students and those already holding postgraduate degrees who may be curious about exploring the possibility of psychodynamic and psychoanalytic training.

Confronting Christian Nationalism: Conscious and Unconscious Motivations and How to Talk Across the Divide with Pamela Cooper-White, MDiv, PhD, LCPC

French psychoanalyst Julia Kristeva once wrote, “How could one tolerate a foreigner if one did not know one was a stranger to oneself?”  Xenophobia, or fear of the other, has blossomed in the U.S. into a radical divisiveness, in which the right-wing fear-mongering of narcissistic, charismatic leaders has dangerously heightened hate-motivated speech, acts of violence, and legal attacks against persons of color, Jews, women, and LGBTQ persons.  What are the conscious and unconscious motivations behind Christian nationalists and others who joined right-wing extremist movements in the U.S.?  And how – if ever – is it possible to talk across the divide?  Beginning with Freud’s “Group Psychology” as well as implications from Self Psychology and relational multiple-self theory, this program will include an introductory lecture, and ample time for small group and plenary discussion and exploration.

Learning Objectives

1.   participants will be able to describe four conscious motivations behind individuals’ participation in movements that promote hate and extremism in the U.S. today.

2.   Participants will be able to describe unconscious dynamics that fuel individuals’participation in movements that promote hate and extremism, from Freud, Self Psychology, and contemporary relational psychoanalytic theoretical perspectives.

3.   Participants will be able to apply their therapeutic listening and responding skills to build strategies for talking with individuals who have fallen into extremist group beliefs.

Pamela Cooper-White, MDiv, PhD, LCPC, is the Christiane Brooks Johnson Professor of Psychology and Religion Emerita at Union Theological Seminary, New York, and an Episcopal priest in the Diocese of New York.   She has published 10 books, including Old & Dirty Gods: Religion, Antisemitism, and the Origins of Psychoanalysis, and The Psychology of Christian Nationalism which received the 2022 INDIE independent publishers’ gold award for social and political science. She was the 2013-14 Fulbright-Freud Scholar in Vienna, Austria, and is a member of the American Psychoanalytic Association; honorary member of the National Psychological Association for Psychoanalysis (NPAP); and serves on the boards of the Freud Foundation U.S. (Freud Museum Vienna), the Journal of Pastoral Theology, and the Psychology, Culture, and Religion program unit of the American Academy of Religion.

Interpretation: Voice of the Field with Donnel Stern, Ph.D.

Through lecture, interaction with attendees, and case material, Donnel Stern, Ph.D., one of the most influential thinkers in contemporary psychoanalysis, will explore and develop some of his newest ideas about therapeutic action and how analytic therapists can be most effective.

Dr. Stern believes that, for patients, the most memorable moments in psychoanalytic treatment are seldom the contents of the analyst’s interpretations, but the feeling of being understood.  Interpretations are most meaningful, he says, not only because of what they say, but because each one is evidence that the analyst, who generally becomes someone of great significance to the patient, knows the patient more than they did the moment before. Dr. Stern calls this process “witnessing” (Stern, 2009, 2022). As a result of it patients not only know and feel—they also “know and feel that they know and feel.” They can feel their roles in authoring their own experience. Therapeutic action results: Patients “come into possession of themselves.”  

Dr. Stern goes on to present interpretations as the outcomes of shifts in the interpersonal field, shifts that reveal this new freedom to think and feel. These shifts allow creation of the analyst’s interpretations, which therefore are a sign of the new way of being that has now become possible between analyst and patient. Because field shifts are jointly created, without conscious intention, the interpretations that arise from them are therefore not really created independently by the analyst, but are instead the voice of the field.

Learning Objectives

1.   Attendees of this program will be able to apply the idea of witnessing to patients in their clinical practices.

2.   After attending this program, attendees will see how their interpretations to their patients emerge from the clinical process between themselves and their patients.

3.   After attending this program, attendees will see how shifts in the interpersonal field they establish with their patients provoke their clinical interventions.

Donnel B. Stern, Ph.D. is Training and Supervising Analyst at the William Alanson White Institute in New York City; and Clinical Professor of Psychology and Clinical Consultant at the NYU Postdoctoral Program in Psychoanalysis and Psychotherapy. He is the Founder and Editor of a book series at Routledge, "Psychoanalysis in a New Key,” which has over 80 books in print. He is the former Editor-in-Chief of the journal Contemporary Psychoanalysis. He has published articles and book chapters for 40 years, and has co-edited four books and authored four others, the most recent of which is The Infinity of the Unsaid: Unformulated Experience, Language, and the Nonverbal  (Routledge, 2019).  A fifth authored book, On Coming Into Possession of Oneself: Transformations of the Field, is in press, and another is written but not yet scheduled for publication: Contributions to the History and Definition of Interpersonal Psychoanalysis. He is in private practice in New York City.  He has taught and lectured for many years across North America, Europe, Australia, and South America.

The Efficacy of Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy: A Lecture and Clinical Workshop with Jonathan Shedler, PhD

Psychodynamic therapy is an evidence-based treatment. The program will begin with a lecture and discussion, based on Dr. Shedler’s internationally acclaimed article, The Efficacy of Psychodynamic Psychotherapy.

Dr. Shedler will describe the seven core features of contemporary psychodynamic psychotherapy in clear, jargon-free language, then discuss scientific evidence for the benefits of psychodynamic therapy and how it compares to other evidence-based treatments like CBT and antidepressant medication. Dr. Shedler will describe how the active ingredients of all effective psychotherapies draw on (often unacknowledged) psychodynamic principles, such as enhancing self-knowledge, identifying problematic relationship patterns, and addressing these patterns in the “here and now” of the therapy relationship.

The second half of the program will have a practical, hands-on clinical focus, building on concepts from the opening lecture. Participants will develop a deeper understanding of contemporary psychodynamic therapy through clinical case presentations by workshop participants, with case discussion, “live” clinical supervision, and role playing to demonstrate clinical interventions. Dr. Shedler will emphasize the centrality of transference and countertransference and the role of clinical case formulation as a roadmap to effective psychodynamic treatment.

Learning Objectives:

 After attending this session, participants should be able to:

1.   Describe seven distinctive features of contemporary psychodynamic therapy.

2.   Define the concepts of effect size and meta-analysis.

3.   Describe empirical evidence supporting psychodynamic therapy.

4.   Develop a deeper understanding of clinical treatment process thorough case discussion, role play, and live clinical supervision.

Dr. Jonathan Shedler is the author of what may be most widely-read psychoanalytic paper of our time, The Efficacy of Psychodynamic Psychotherapy. It won worldwide acclaim for firmly establishing psychoanalytic therapy as an evidence-based treatment, and has been downloaded more than a quarter of a million times by clinicians around the world.  He has authored over 100 scientific papers in psychology, psychiatry, and psychoanalysis. His is the first recipient of the American Psychoanalytic Association Scientific Paper Prize for his paper in the Journal of the American Psychoanalytic Association on psychoanalytic personality diagnosis, and he is co-author, with Nancy McWilliams, of the Psychodynamic Diagnostic Manual (PDM-2 and forthcoming PDM-3). Dr Shedler lectures and provides clinical to mental health professional around the world. He is a Clinical Professor of Psychiatry at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) and a faculty member at the San Francisco Center for Psychoanalysis.

Silent Disclosures and Other Subjective Excursions—Theoretical and Clinical Considerations with Steven Kuchuck, Ph.D.

Paper 1: When the Personal Becomes Professional:  Clinical Implications of the Psychoanalyst’s Subjectivity

In this paper, Steven Kuchuck explores the impact of the psychoanalyst’s life experience and psychological make-up on the treatment. By expanding psychoanalytic study beyond theory and technique to include an examination of events in the clinician’s childhood and adult life as well as related psychodynamic issues, the presenter focuses on ways in which these experiences, crises, and dynamics affect both clinical choices and the  therapist’s overall presence in the consulting room. Related, he looks at the relationship between the clinician’s subjectivity, theoretical interests, and technique, and explores areas of overlap and differentiation between two phenomena that are often confused; the larger issue of the therapist’s subjectivity, and self-disclosure. Tracking and using subjectivity in order to further the therapeutic action will also be discussed.

Paper 2: Say You, Say Me*—Confusing Our Objects, Naturally

 Cathy had just landed and arrived for her session exhausted. Depleted and in distress; “I know I won’t get to see him or hear his voice again.  I could barely say goodbye, knowing that”.  Tears fill her eyes and I feel a similar press against my own lids as my mind begins to wander...

This paper will explore work with a patient traumatized by toxic, fragile objects, in treatment with an analyst similarly impacted by parental fragility. One moment in particular will be considered, a period of existential crisis for both parties in which events overlapped, finality hovered, and confusion enveloped the dyad.    (*Lionel Richie, 1986)

Learning Objectives

1.   Give one example from their own practice of how an aspect of their own subjectivity either impeded or facilitated the therapeutic action. 

2.   dentify at least one example from their clinical practice of a situation in which patient and therapist boundaries weakened and subject and object became confused.

3.   List 2-3 reasons why it is important to track their subjective responses to patients.

Dr. Steven Kuchuck is former Editor-in-Chief of Psychoanalytic Perspectives, where he currently serves as Senior Consulting Editor, Past President of IARPP, faculty, NYU Postdoctoral Program in Psychotherapy and Psychoanalysis, NIP National Training Program, and other institutes. His recent book, The Relational Revolution in Psychoanalysis and Psychotherapy, is currently being translated into numerous languages. He won the Gradiva award for best book of 2015; Clinical Implications of the Psychoanalyst’s Life Experience and 2016; The Legacy of Sandor Ferenczi: From Ghost to Ancestor (co-edited with Adrienne Harris). His latest book, Diary of a Fallen Psychoanalyst: The Work Books of Masud Khan (co-edited with Linda Hopkins) is published by Karnac Books.

Mothering in Later Life: Difficult Adult Children with Judith R. Smith, LCSW, PhD

Mothers whose later years have been turned upside down by the unexpected challenges of later life parenting, are often immobilized, not knowing whose needs should take priority - “mine or my adult child’s”? In addition, they often are confused and do not know how to respond to their son or daughter’s often abusive or disrespectful behavior.

In this 4-session course, therapists will learn how to understand and support parents with “difficult adult children”. Based on her research, Dr. Smith developed an understanding of the internal experience of these mothers, who in later life must parent children with serious mental Illness and/or substance use disorders. When an adult child is unable to support themselves, refuses medication or treatment, and returns home for shelter, difficult mothering begins.

This course will help therapists move away from mother-blaming (“She’s so enmeshed”) to a deeper understanding of the conflicts that mothers of seriously challenged adult children face. The course will include interactive exercises and case vignettes. Greater understanding of older mothers’ feelings of shame, blame, guilt, grief, as well as ambivalence will enhance your skills as a clinician.

The course is taught on Thursdays, 7:00-8:30pm starting Nov 2, 9, 16, 30th.

Learning Objectives

I. Participants will become knowledgeable about the internal conflicts of older mothers whose “difficult” adult children have SMI and/or substance use behavior and are often aggressive and/or abusive towards their own mothers.

II. Participants will learn about applying motivational interviewing to help parents consider the pros and cons of making changes in their situation with their challenging and dependent adult children.

III. Participants will consider the impact of macro forces on mothers’ feelings of powerlessness: inadequate mental health and substance use treatment system; no affordable housing, and the belief in the internalized mandate to be a “good mother”. We will review the available resources for helping parents to stay safe, government benefits they can access for their adult children, and strategies for supporting the clients’ need for social support.

Dr. Judith R. Smith, LCSW, PhD, is a clinical social worker, psychotherapist, and associate professor emerita. Her area of specialization is the mother/child relationship. Most recently, she shifted her research lens away from parenting in the first three years of life to understanding older mothers and their “difficult” adult children. This research has been published widely in professional journals, and most recently in a book for clinicians and a general audience, entitled Difficult: Mothering Challenging Adult Children through Conflict and Change, Rowman & Littlefield, 2022. As a tenured professor for over 25 years at Fordham University Graduate School of Social Service, she taught and developed courses on human development, aging, and advanced clinical practice. Currently, she works with clients individually and facilitates support groups for older mothers with adult children who have serious mental illness, substance use disorder, and/or involvement with the criminal justice system.

ITP Colloquium: Child and Adolescent Trauma through a Racial Equity Lens

The presentation will use a case study to enhance practitioners’ empathic understanding of a traumatic experience from the client’s perspective and how traumatic experiences and their aftermath can influence a family’s and/or a child’s development and life trajectory. Centering the impact of trauma on the child and family provides a foundation for assessment and treatment planning, which in turn leads to the provision of effective, individually tailored practice elements (observable therapeutic techniques) chosen and applied to address the client’s unique needs and strengths, culture, developmental level, life circumstances, and environment.

The case presentation of Jamal, a 10-year-old African American boy living with his maternal grandmother after being removed from his mother’s care due to alleged physical abuse and neglect will be introduced via handouts and video excerpts. The case highlights the significance of the therapeutic relationship in trauma practice, an understanding of the differential impacts of trauma that incorporates an anti-racist and anti-oppression lens, the role of intervention objectives, and the use of empirically supported, trauma-informed practice elements.

Specifically, the case presentation will offer participants the opportunity to identify contextual elements critical to forming a therapeutic relationship, including not only genuineness, warmth, and empathy but also the role of positionality and how potential relationship disruptions may emerge due to the power dynamics in the client-therapist relationship. The presentation will introduce the concepts of racial battle fatigue, race -based traumatic stress and stress the importance of physical and emotional safety.

Participants will have the opportunity explore the practice elements of Relaxation, Affect Regulation, Homework and Non-verbal interventions using the case of Jamal, as well as the opportunity to apply these in their own practice. Resource pages with additional exercises listed by developmental age group will be provided.

Learning Objectives

Participants will:

I. Describe the impact of exposure to sexual abuse in childhood.

II. Identify how cultural factors and processes can influence children’s and families’ experiences of trauma.

III. Apply the practice elements of relaxation, affect regulation, non-verbal interventions, and homework to work with children and families impacted by trauma.

Virginia C Strand, DSW, holds a doctorate in Social Work from Columbia University, a MSW from Catholic University School of Social Work and a BA from Macalester College. Currently a Research Professor and Co-Director of the federally funded National Initiative for Trauma Education and Workforce Development (NITEWD) at UNC School of Social Work, she has over 40 years of experience in practice, teaching, and research. Her focus in practice was on out-patient mental health treatment, working with traumatized children, youth, and families. Her research career has spanned workforce development in child welfare and more recently in children’s mental health. She has studied the use of an implementation framework to assess the organizational readiness of mental health agencies for the adoption of evidence-based trauma treatments. Results of a recent study to identify common trauma-informed practice elements in evidence-based trauma treatments informs curriculum development at the NITEWD.

Karon Johnson, MACM, MSW, LCSW, CCTP is a graduate of the UNC School of Social Work and currently serves as a clinical assistant professor and member of the practicum faculty. She teaches direct practice courses and supports students in placements related to adult mental health and substance use. She is a Doctor of Ministry student at Vanderbilt University Divinity School where she focuses on increasing mental health literacy and support among clergy and faith leaders. Her research interests include ethics, the intersection of spirituality and social work, and trauma, including grief and loss. Karon is a bilingual clinician who also maintains a private clinical practice in Durham, N.C., focusing on trauma, grief and loss, supporting individuals for whom religion or spirituality are systems of importance.