In 2020, issues with enactments, boundaries, and changes in the frame have taken on new relevancy, if not urgency, with the sudden disruption of business as usual caused by COVID-19. With little time for preparation, clinicians and patients have been forced to conduct sessions on the phone or via video conferencing platforms such as Zoom. However much therapists have attempted to recreate their former settings, the frame has radically changed: clinicians in their offices are now working in the wild, plunged in their patient’s habitats, and the affordances of communication devices and their screens pressure both parties to behave in ways incongruent with the office. This class will examine some of the boundary issues, enactments, and accommodations in treatment that arise in distance analysis and psychodynamic therapy with both children and adults. Changes in the frame will be carefully examined as will some of the affordances offered by devices and screens for acting out and for play. Clinical material from the literature, the instructors, and, hopefully, from participants will illuminate some of the dilemmas and therapeutic dimensions offered by the new modality.

For more information, contact us at 314-361-7075 x 361 or marketing@stlpi.org. Cancellations will be accepted up to one week prior to the first session.

Make check payable and send to: St. Louis Psychoanalytic Institute 7700 Clayton Rd, Ste 200, St. Louis, MO 63112

 

OBJECTIVES:

• Gain an appreciation of the creative ways patients are using the virtual space and screen

• Learn to recognize enactments in virtual treatments

• Reflect on how best to address enactments at a distance

• Reconsider parental support during virtual sessions

• Discuss methods for handling boundary issues at a distance

• Analyze switches within and between sessions in a patient’s choice of device and setting

• Recognize how devices, the screen, and the setting unconsciously influence the interaction

 

Course Instructors

• S Berlin Brahnam, Ph.D., is a clinical candidate at the St. Louis Psychoanalytic Institute and professor in the Information Technology and Cybersecurity Department in the College of Business at Missouri State University. She has published papers in journals and conferences, as well as several books (as co-editor), on the topic of technology and psychotherapy. Dr. Brahnam has been quoted in the New York Times and has been interviewed on international television shows on issues related to communicating online.

• Tina Marie Dale, LCSW, is a graduate of the child, adolescent, and adult clinical psychoanalytic training program at the St. Louis Psychoanalytic Institute with a full-time psychoanalytic private practice. She is Director of the Advanced Psychodynamic Psychotherapy Program and a faculty member at the St. Louis Psychoanalytic Institute. Tina has functioned as a teacher and consultant for 15 years with a core group of caregivers, staff, and teachers within a specific set of orphanages in South America.

Date: Thursdays Jan 21, 28, Feb 4. from 7 to 8:30 p.m.

This program, when attended in its entirety, is offered for 4.5 Credits

Price: $115

Location: Available via Zoom