For clinicians or mental health students who are curious about what it is that psychodynamic therapists actually do, we offer a “window” into the process and a chance to connect an introduction to theory with actual clinical material. Each class will begin with a brief theoretical description of a core clinical concept, followed by the presentation and discussion of material from a long-term psychotherapy process. We welcome lively discussion, dialogue and debate.

We encourage therapists working from within other theoretical frameworks to take this class. Some knowledge of psychodynamic theory and practice is helpful but not required.

 

Objectives:

Session 1: The Goals of Psychodynamic Psychotherapy

Students will be able to describe the value and rationale of psychodynamic approaches to psychotherapy in regard to therapeutic effectiveness as well as the fulfillment of professional and personal ambitions of therapists.

Session 2:  The Initial Assessment and the Beginning of a Treatment Relationship

Students will be able to describe the optimal setting for beginning a treatment relationship and the range of observable data that the therapist gathers about the people seeking emotional and psychological help.

Session 3: Models of the Mind: How We Make Sense of the Data We Gather

Students will be able to describe and discuss the theories and hypotheses that help to organize and make sense of the data therapists observe.

Session 4:  Learning to Listen and to Hear

Students will be able to articulate better the language of the unconscious and how developing tools for listening and hearing helps both patients and therapists.

Session 5: Resistance and Defense

Students will be able to describe and discuss the obstacles in the way of self-knowledge as they appear in the middle phase of treatment.

Session 6:  Transference and countertransference

Students will be able to describe and discuss the impact of the patient and therapist’s emotional world on the therapeutic relationship and the use made of that encounter for therapeutic gain.

Session 7:  Therapeutic Tools and the Treatment Process

Students will be able to describe the full range of interventions, verbal and nonverbal, that promote growth, healing and self-discovery.

 

The required text for the course is Mark J. Thompson and Candace Cotlove, The Therapeutic Process: A Clinical Introduction to Psychodynamic Psychotherapy. Paperback copies are available from booksellers, including Amazon at https://amzn.to/3sBZ33C

 

Click HERE for Continuing Education Credit details