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.
This workshop is an introduction to the area of clinical health psychology and addresses issues encountered by psychologists working with an inpatient or outpatient medical population. It explicates the common problems encountered when we work with physically ill patients; it provides a framework to formulate diagnosis and intervention with the physically ill; it offers practical skills useful in the area of clinical health psychology.
Unfortunately, despite our best efforts, we occasionally fail our clients. We either get into a rut or the client, under the pretext of lack of money or time, leaves therapy prematurely.
In this workshop, we will examine the conditions indicating early in therapy that things may falter later on. Then we will see in actual clinical cases the impact of certain issues that are common in almost every treatment:
Self disclosure of the therapist
Client’s idealization of the therapist
The masochism of the therapist
Participants are welcome to bring their own cases for discussion.
Loss is an inevitable experience in human life and sometimes the after-effects of significant losses can touch much deeper layers of our psyche than those described by our favorite psychological theories.
We, as therapists, do our best to help clients work through their losses, but how many of those clients can actually process the loss?
In this seminar we will cover:
Different types of loss ( anticipated, traumatic, diffuse) and their respective effects.
Which clients have the capacity to work through their loss
The conditions that either facilitate either hinder the process of mourning.
For certain people life entails more than making a living, solving problems and managing daily affairs; for such people life should be passionate, heroic and meaningful. However, even the most down to earth persons start to realize as they grow older that certain event sequences and relationship patterns keep coming up in their lives, creating a personal and deeply engraved life scenario. In this workshop we will look into the myth of Hero as developed by Campbell and Jung and we will get a glimpse into our own life dynamics pertaining to the hero archetype.
We often need to deal with crises in our private office. Situations such as severe physical abuse,
self -destructive behaviors, suicidal ideation, or psychotic breakdown call for a different intervention than the usual « psychotherapeutic» approach.
In this workshop we will examine common examples of crisis intervention through case studies and role playing. You are welcome to bring your own cases for discussion.
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.
