PPLC01: Developing Psychodynamic Listening Skills

This course deals with listening to the patient in psychodynamic treatment, understanding the nature of the patient’s and therapist’s conscious and unconscious thoughts and feelings, watching carefully for non-verbal expressions and learning to use effectively what we hear and see in the treatment.

After attending the course, participants will be able to

• Identify the issues that arise in the treatment, including how to listen and investigate the patient’s stated interest in therapy as well as the unspoken dimensions of the patient’s presentation.
• Define and discuss the therapeutic frame, including time, frequency, fees and boundary issues.
• State how he/she would clarify with the patient the advantages of increased self-reflectiveness, self-understanding and clarification of what the patient might want to change.
• Describe legal and ethical issues in treatment, including confidentiality, note taking, digital issues, and the extent and limitations of self-disclosure on the part of the analyst.

PPLC03A: Psychodynamic Case Presentation and Supervision

In this course, students will present clinical vignettes and receive supervision. During the process of presenting cases, students will receive an introduction to certain core psychodynamic concepts such as: engaging patients in the treatment, listening psychodynamically, transference, countertransference, unconscious communications and empathy.

After attending the course, participants will be able to

• Discuss clinical material incorporating psychodynamic concepts.
• Utilize psychodynamic listening skills.
• Identify transference and countertransference dynamics in clinical situations.
• Discuss personal empathy in clinical settings.

PPLC02: Psychodynamic Diagnosis

This course focuses on the diagnosis of psychopathology, as connected to psychodynamic theories of psychology, in contrast to the descriptive approach of current DSM and ICD diagnoses. The course will look at psychodynamic ideas of personality structure and connect diagnosis with clinical utility and character organization. Developmental levels of personality organization will be explored alongside clinical implications in working with different diagnostic categories. Each diagnostic category will be explored in terms of the following: drive, affect and temperament; defensive and adaptive processes; transference and countertransference; therapeutic implications; and differential diagnosis.

After attending the course, participants will be able to

• Define the following psychodynamic concepts for each of the diagnostic categories: narcissistic, schizoid, depressive, masochistic, obsessive, hysterical and dissociative.
• Define drive, affect and temperament.
• Describe defensive and adaptive processes, transference and countertransference.
• Explain differential diagnosis.

PPLC05: Infant Development and Attachment

During the last forty years there have been important findings in the areas of attachment and infant development, as well as on how such findings can better inform treatment with children and adults. In this twelve-week course, we will study some of these findings and examine how they contribute to psychoanalytically informed psychotherapy. We will pay particular attention to (1) infant development in the first year of life, with an emphasis on the infant’s capacities for self organization; (2) the implicit, nonverbal procedures that organize not only mother-infant dyads but also adult interactions; (3) the importance of self- and interactive regulation; (4) the different attachment styles in infants and adults and how to understand and apply attachment theory clinically; and (5) findings on disorganized attachment and its connection to dissociative and borderline states.

After attending the course, participants will be able to

• Explain “the competent infant” during the first year of life.
• Explain the difference between procedural/implicit and verbal/explicit modes of interaction.
• Describe the dyadic systems model of self and interactive regulation in mother-infant and patient-therapist dyads.
• Discuss the different attachment styles and how to identify and use them clinically.
• Explain the link between disorganized attachment and dissociative and borderline states.

PPLC03B: Psychodynamic Case Presentation and Supervision

In this supervision experience, students will present clinical vignettes and receive supervision. During the process of presenting cases, students will receive an introduction to certain core psychodynamic concepts such as: engaging patients in the treatment, listening psychodynamically, transference, countertransference, understanding unconscious communications and empathy.

After attending the course, participants will be able to

• Discuss clinical material incorporating psychodynamic concepts.
• Utilize psychodynamic listening skills.
• Identify transference and countertransference dynamics in clinical situations.
• Discuss personal empathy in clinical settings.

PPLCW2: Workshop on Working with People with a Trauma Background

This workshop will focus on early Relational trauma, how to recognize its sequelae or derivatives, and clinical interventions in response to it. Early trauma interferes with the development of certain capacities or ego strengths that are important in psychodynamic psychotherapy, e.g., tolerance of affect, especially of a disturbing nature, and the capacity for self-reflection. What do these capacities look like in the clinical situation?

After attending the course, participants will be able to

• Explain the impact of abuse, neglect, loss, or illness on trauma.
• Assess how the frequency and severity of trauma experience affect the nervous system.
• Discuss the work of Allan Schore, Bessel van der Kolk and Philip Bromberg.
• Describe the role of memory in working with traumatized patients.
• Explain clinical interventions to achieve safety, awareness and stabilization.

PPLC03C: Psychodynamic Case Presentation and Supervision

In this supervision experience, students will present clinical vignettes and receive supervision. During the process of presenting cases, students will receive an introduction to certain core psychodynamic concepts such as: engaging patients in the treatment, listening psychodynamically, transference, countertransference, understanding unconscious communications, and empathy.

After attending the course, participants will be able to

• Discuss clinical material incorporating psychodynamic concepts.
• Utilize psychodynamic listening skills.
• Identify transference and countertransference dynamics in clinical situations.
• Discuss personal empathy in clinical settings

PPLC04: Using the Therapeutic Relationship in Clinical Practice

This course will cover different aspects of the therapist-patient relationship as a significant factor in the therapeutic process. The readings and class discussions will explore the roles of the therapist and of the patient, techniques for listening to the patient, techniques for exploring what experiences, feelings, and memories are unfolding within a session, the clinical concepts of transference and countertransference, how to use them in sessions, and the therapist’s self-revealing versus self-disclosure. There will be a focus on the therapeutic concepts involved in the readings and an emphasis on clinical application. Each class meeting will include ample clinical examples that demonstrate the concepts and techniques from the readings.

After attending the course, participants will be able to

• Describe the different roles of the therapist and the patient within a therapeutic process.
• Describe the concepts of transference and counter-transference.
• Apply the concepts of transference and counter-transference in clinical work.
• Describe different listening techniques of the therapist such as listening-to-listening, other-centered listening, empathic listening, oneiric listening, and reverie,
• Apply different techniques of therapeutic listening to distinguish therapist revelation from self-disclosure.

PPLC06: Meeting and Keeping Patients

Engaging and holding on to psychotherapy patients is a craft. Much of the beginning clinician’s skills are based on intuition, empathy, and a desire to help. These are the rudiments that will accompany the psychodynamic therapist throughout his career. However, there is also a set of techniques, originally codified from within the psychoanalytic establishment and then amended to keep pace with varying patient populations, alternative theoretical approaches and cultural shifts that have influenced how we practice today. These skills can be learned in clear and systematic ways. The early, middle and later phases of treatment will be distinguished stopping along the way to examine practical issues such as constructing the frame, setting and adjusting fees, analyzing vs. managing transferences, countertransference, termination etc.

After attending the course, participants will be able to

• Explain the method to engage patients.
• Discuss how to maintain the frame, which includes setting or adjusting fees, frequency of sessions, etc., and sustain patients over time.
• Identify transference and countertransference in working with different patient populations.

Workshop on Dream Analysis

The workshop will address the value of integrating dream analysis into the fabric of the therapeutic process. The seminar will address key concepts in the use dream analysis including; the first dream, the symbolism and metaphor of the dream, the importance of the patient’s associations to their dreams, manifest and latent content, the life context of the dream, and the dream as a reflection of the patient’s engagement in the therapeutic process. The workshop will demonstrate the helpfulness of dream analysis in understanding the psychodynamics and internal world of two young adult patients who have been seen in individual treatment with presenting problems of depression, anxiety and conflicts related to separation and individuation.

After attending the course, participants will be able to

• Demonstrate learning by being able to associate the seminar content to their own clinical experience.
• Practice with a greater understanding of the many facets of dream analysis and be aware of the therapeutic role that it could serve in their clinical practice.
• Describe key concepts useful in the technique of dream analysis.
• Employ new therapeutic skills with the goal of helping the patient to open up and deepen the treatment experience. 

Psychotherapy from a Spiritual Perspective

Psychodynamic psychotherapy, in its transformation of neurotic patterns through exploring and understanding the nature of the self and the self in relation to the “other”, has more in common with a spiritual endeavor than do most other forms of psychotherapy.  This workshop will demonstrate how a spiritual framework in the mind of the therapist can open possibilities for positive change, growth and integration that might not otherwise occur.  Theoretical perspectives and case material will be used to illustrate how an integration of psychodynamic and spiritual lenses can enrich treatment and help overcome therapeutic impasses.  Psychodynamic concepts such as resistance and projective identification will be viewed from an integrated psycho-spiritual perspective.  In the last segment of the workshop, participants will have the opportunity to bring up their own cases for discussion.

After attending the course, participants will be able to

• Describe the convergence of the psychodynamic emphasis on unconscious processes and the spiritual emphasis on an “unseen reality.”
• Explain how a spiritual framework in the mind of the therapist can enhance and deepen psychotherapeutic work, and open possibilities for transforming limiting patterns. 
• Describe concepts such as resistance and projective identification from a spiritual framework.  

Curriculum and Guide for Continuing Education Contact Hours

Fall Term: September 16, 2024 – December 13, 2024
Winter Term: January 6, 2025 – March 28, 2025
Spring Term: April 7, 2023 – June 27, 2025
Time: 6:30pm-8:00pm, 7:00-8:30 pm, 8:00pm-9:30pm, or 9:00-10:30 pm, Tuesday & Thursday, and Saturday.