We often believe that all people who ask help are suitable for psychotherapy. However, in many cases, the problems confronting the person cannot be resolved through therapy alone. How do we investigate the suitability of a prospective client for psychotherapy?
What other resources should we look for to help this client? Are we the right person to help the specific client? What are the common mistakes made by therapists as they endeavour to help people?
In this seminar we will explore Malan’s model of short term psychodynamic therapy. We will discuss the selection criteria and the clinical problems which are more suitable for this type of intervention. Valuable qualities of this perspective include the careful diagnosis; focus on a single aim; and the intensive working through of client’s issues in the transference relationship.
At what point is a client ready to leave therapy? This important question puzzles not only beginners but also experienced clinicians and its appropriate resolution determines to a large extent the ultimate success of therapy.
In this seminar we will discuss:
Early indications for a client’s premature flight from therapy
Appropriate management of issues surfacing at the end phase of therapy ( what if the client gets worse? What if the client claims that she is ultimately disappointed with therapy? Are we going to slowly wean the client or continue having regular sessions till the last minute? Are we going to schedule regular follow-ups?)
Presentation of clinical cases where therapy gets into a rut or ends prematurely.
Advantages and disadvantages of short term vs long-term therapy.
Many individuals, because of difficult neonatal and infantile experiences, have not been able to ‘enter’ their body. Their physical ego, the kernel of the self, has been formed in a problematic way lasting till adult life and appearing as body dysphoria, physical distress, organic disease or psychosomatic disorders.
In this workshop we will examine the formation of the invisible membrane embracing the psychosoma during the first months of life and we will reflect on the negative outcome of an inadequate body-mind integration during childhood and adult life.
Most psychotherapy models assume that the client has an inner world, a self and the ability to relate- regardless of how inadequate or blocked those may be.
However, clinical experience has shown that we should not assume these attributes. Particularly borderline, psychotically and psychosomatically organized clients manifest many problems in the area of mentalization and symbolization.
In this workshop we will focus on the work of Peter Fonagy and other attachment theorists to study the mentalization process which takes place during infantile life and leads to the formation of their inner world. We will also discuss clinical interventions to use with adult clients with inadequate mentalization skills, which may help them develop further those skills and deepen their inner world.
Many therapists have discovered that inside an adult client there is a small child with his/her own needs trying to heal his/her wounds. In this seminar we will discuss how we can best approach this partly dissociated aspect of the client’s subjectivity and the problems usually encountered in this process.
Loss is an integral part of human life, however, several people cannot get over an intimate loss. In this workshop we will analyze the experience of loss
Such an analysis reveals that not everyone is able to process their loss and be in touch with their feelings, therefore realistic goals and individually tailored interventions are a necessity.
We will also reflect on whether we can “cure” or “ get over” our past wounds; this is the existential dimension of loss, poignantly depicted in the myth of Chiron.
