China American Psychoanalytic Alliance
Training the teachers and leaders of the next generation of Chinese psychodynamic psychotherapists
Special Lecture Series
CAPA offers special lectures, seminars and courses for students, graduates, and members. A variety of topics will be covered by distinguished members of CAPA's faculty. Upon completion of the Special Lecture Series lecture, seminar or course, student and graduate participants will receive a certification of participation.
Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this program are those of the speaker(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views or positions of CAPA.
2023-2024 Academic Year:
Title: Using the Psychodynamic Diagnostic Manual -2 to Help Diagnose & Treat Personality Disorders
Presenter: Robert M. Gordon Ph.D. ABPP
US Seminar Dates: Friday, June 7th, 2024
US Seminar Times: 9:00 - 11:00 AM EDT
China Seminar Dates: Friday, June 7th, 2024
China Seminar Times: 9:00 - 11:00 PM (21:00 - 23:00)
Prerequisites: Open to students, grads, members, and the general public
Course size: Open enrollment
Description: The Psychodynamic Diagnostic Manual was developed to understand the whole person and not just symptoms (as with the DSM and ICD). Gordon and Bornstein developed the Psychodiagnostic Chart (PDC-2) to operationalize the PDM. You are asked to use the PDC-2 to diagnose one of your patients with a personality disorder and we will discuss treatment options.
Course Objectives:
1. Learn about the PDM-2
2. Learn how to use the PDC-2 to inform treatment of patients with personality disorders.
3. Learn how to use psychodynamic treatment for patients with personality disorders.
Bio: Robert M. Gordon Ph.D. ABPP is a licensed psychologist and a Diplomate of Clinical Psychology and a Diplomate of Psychoanalysis and served on the governing council of the American Psychological Association. He was president of the Pennsylvania Psychological Association and received its Distinguished Service Award. He was elected Honorary Member of the American Psychoanalytic Association based on his research. He authored many scholarly articles and books in the areas of psychotherapy, relationships, forensic psychology, personality assessment, diagnoses, ethics, chapter editor of the Psychodynamic Diagnostic Manual-2, and co-author of the Psychodiagnostic Chart. Dr. Gordon is rated by ResearchGate as a top researcher. He has an international consulting practice.
If you have any questions about the seminar, please contact Dr. Gordon directly at rmgordonphd@gmail.com.
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Previously Offered Special Lecture Series Events
2023-2024 Academic Year:
Title: A Roadmap for Couple Therapy
Presenter: Arthur Nielsen, M.D.
US Seminar Date: Friday, November 17th, 2023
Description: In this workshop-lecture, Professor Arthur Nielsen will summarize his textbook on couple therapy, A Roadmap for Couple Therapy: Integrating Systemic, Psychodynamic, and Behavioral Approaches. Using case histories, Dr. Nielsen will describe the research-tested interventions used by the three main approaches to couple therapy (systemic, psychodynamic, and behavioral/educational) and show how to sequence and integrate them depending on the problems that couples present. The lecture should be valuable to both beginners and advanced practitioners of couple therapy.
Title: Common Sexual Problems in Marriage: Lessons from Couple Therapy
Presenter: Arthur Nielsen, M.D.
US Seminar Date: Friday, January 19th, 2024
Description: Sexual problems are extremely common in marriage and as topics in couple therapy. Most couples seeking therapy have diminished or stopped their sexual intimacy. While some identify sexual problems as chief complaints, in most cases sexual concerns emerge in therapy, embedded in other issues. While some sexual problems resolve with overall relationship improvement, others require our focused attention. Most clients have trouble talking about their sexual lives, and many therapists are anxious about how to engage in such discussions.
Title: The Inherent Trauma of Being Human and Our Disavowed Sadism
Presenter: Joseph Scalia III, Psya.D.
US Seminar Date: Friday, March 22nd, 2024
Description: This seminar will draw on the work of the post-Winnicottian Christopher Bollas; on the post-Lacanian innovations of Charles Turk, Analyst of the School at l' École Freudienne du Québec; and on the melding of Lacanian and Winnicottian concepts and practices as articulated in Lewis Kirshner's (Ed.) Between Winnicott and Lacan: A Clinical Engagement, especially its essays by both André Green and Mari Ruti, respectively. The course will be seminar style. That is, there will be a formal, though possibly extemporaneous, presentation by the instructor, and then a group discussion including all participants, discussion to be led by the instructor.
Title: Dreams: Neuropsychoanalysis and Traditional Chinese Medicine
Presenter: Arseny E. Tarabanov, Ph.D.
US Seminar Date: Friday, April 12th, 2024
Description: The lecture will review the concept of erotic dreams in traditional Chinese medicine based on modern neuropsychoanalytic methodology. The dreaming process will be considered as an intrapsychic phenomenon. The ancient Chinese anticipation of the mechanism of repression within the framework of a dream will be considered. The specific idea of unconscious processes in a dream within the framework of Taoist mythology will be revised from the standpoint of modern neuroscience.
2022-2023 Academic Year:
Title: Emotional Therapy in Late Imperial China and Modern Affective Neuroscience
Presenter: Arseny E. Tarabanov, Ph.D.
US Seminar Date: Friday, April 21, 2023
Description: The lecture aims to examine the theory and practice of Emotional Therapy in Late Imperial China from the standpoint of modern Affective Neuroscience. This will allow us to revitalize the techniques of the previously very popular psychotherapeutic paradigm and consider the possibilities of their application in modern psychotherapeutic practice. Particular attention is paid to the cyclic understanding of emotions, which in Traditional Chinese Medicine was explained on the basis of the natural-philosophical theory of the "Five Elements", and now we can understand this cyclicity neurobiologically, based on the theory of "emotional systems" by Jaak Panksepp. The cyclic change of emotions underlies the psychotherapeutic process, the techniques of "emotional manipulation" and the techniques of "talking cure". Practical cases will be considered, both from the history of Emotional Therapy in Late Imperial China, and actual cases.
Title: Intimacy Matters: A Sex Therapy Supervision Seminar
Presenter: Brenda A. Lewis, LCSW
US Seminar Date: Friday, March 10, 2023
Description: Theory and technique is best applied when we put these into effect in our work to help, empower and deepen the treatment experience. With training, the creativity of the therapist, knowledge, and experience, it is important to question, understand ourselves and recognize when we as therapists are unsure as to understand and interpret what we are hearing and how it can be utilized to allow for a more meaningful treatment experience. An inner dialogue and supervision brings these questions to the surface, allowing a real conversation where learning can ensue.
In sex therapy, it can be particularly confusing to understand when the issue may be truly of a sexual nature or whether it is manifesting as an offshoot of an emotional, developmental, trauma-related or a fixation theme. When the therapist is new or inexperienced in these areas, and the patient feels there is taboo in sharing, it is difficult to proceed positively for both patient and therapist.
Title: The Practice of Theory: How Grammatical Analysis Can Improve Our Writing
Presenter: Robert Ultimo, M.A.
US Seminar Date: Friday, March 03, 2023
Description: How do we begin drafting a document and how can we best go about revising it? These two questions represent two very different frames of mind, one open and welcoming of all the ideas that might first arise as we turn our attention to a subject, the other more discerning and careful to ensure that each thought finds its place in advancing the purpose of the writing.
Over the course of two one-hour presentations, we will consider both these questions, concentrating on the latter to explain and demonstrate how a working knowledge of the elements of English grammar can help us shape our first rough conceptions into intelligent statements of persuasive design. We will define the three basic elements of word, phrase, and clause to show why these components, and not the sentence, should be our first concern in revising a draft. We will consider the consequential difference between concrete and abstract nouns, demonstrate the logical errors that result from the incorrect use of commas, and illustrate the all-important stylistic requirement that we compose sentences and paragraphs which express our thoughts in a natural voice, no matter how complex the subject.
The thesis of these remarks, then, is that we can bring to hand practical techniques to better our writing by analyzing the form of a sentence or paragraph which does not yet say what we mean to express. By understanding the structure of sentences and the reasons behind the rules which hold them together, we will have a way to transform general and inexact ideas into spare and specific thoughts to which our readers can intelligently respond.
2021-2022 Academic Year:
Title: Neuropsychosomatics and Traditional Chinese Medicine
Presenter: Arseny Tarabanov, Ph.D.
US Seminar Date: Friday, May 20, 2022
Description: "The Neuropsychosomatics and Traditional Chinese Medicine" course has objectives to build a bridge between the innovative science of neuropsychosomatics and Traditional Chinese Medicine. The Taoist and Confucian medical traditions will be examined. The concepts of "immortal embryo" and "internal landscape of the female body" will be analyzed in the context of integrative psychosomatics. We will start from Freud's ideas about sexuality and its representation in the human body, erogenous zones and move on to the ideas of the Parisian psychosomatic school. Particular attention will be paid to the stages of the child's psychosexual development in relation to the development of the brain and nervous system. We will consider the peculiarities of ideas about female sexuality in traditional Chinese medicine and modern neuropsychosomatics.
Title: The Dream as a Clinical Tool for Understanding the Functioning of the Psyche (Students/Alumni Only) Presenter: Diana Goldman de Zocchi, MA, LCPC
US Seminar Date: Fridays – May 6 and May 13, 2022
Description: Addressing the dream as a psychic expression provides insight into the mental functioning: its laws, transactions, and logical thinking. The structure of the dream teaches us about the patient’s symptom, the transference and the analytical interpretation. The phenomenon of the dream also shows us the multiplicity of logics coexisting in a unique mental act. Metapsychology, also known as the "witch" of psychoanalysis, constantly reminds us of the complexity of psychic apparatus and its manifestations along with how this complexity is directly expressed in the patient’s speech, symptom and resistance.
Title: Psychoanalysis and Qi Gong, A Branch of Traditional Chinese Medicine:
Healing Practices Developed Through Mind/Body Consciousness
Presenter: Harlene Goldschmidt, Ph.D.
US Seminar Date: Friday, April 1, 2022
US Seminar Time: 8:00 – 10:00 PM EDT
Description: This two-hour presentation will look into some therapeutic applications of Qi gong with Psychoanalysis to help people boost their sense of grounding, vitality, and wholeness. Qi gong, a time-honored healing practice, will be explained, as well as experienced, for a fuller understanding of its proven effectiveness (Feinstein 2012, 2021). Qi gong is a foundational practice of Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM). Qi gong forms the underpinnings of Acupuncture, a newer and more familiar branch of TCM. The essential nature of Qi gong, meditations in stillness or gentle movements, has a deeply internal focus and highly reflective stance. As a result, we find a high level of compatibility and great potential for synthesis among these profoundly healing practices (Hammer 2005). In addition, compassion and ethics play important roles in training and transmitting both Qi gong and Psychoanalysis.
Body-based consciousness and the role of emotions and awareness will be addressed. We will take a full circle look starting from Freud’s (1923) well-known writing, 'The ego is first and foremost a bodily ego..” _to contemporary neuroscience validating this belief (Damasio 1994, 2005, 2010, 2021). This discussion will be further clarified through the lens of neuro-psychoanalysis (Solms 2002, 2018) and relevant research regarding the mind/body phenomena (Miller 2021, Porges 2011, Schore2003, van der Kolk 2015). The basic organizing concept of Yin/Yang in TCM will be explored with regards to the functioning of the autonomic nervous system and Taoism. The sympathetic system is related to Yang’s expansive energy, and the parasympathetic system is related to Yin essence. In addition to basic Qi gong practices and concepts, the Five Element Theory will be introduced to emphasize its relevance to personality and emotional development. Applications to clinical case material will be discussed.
Title: Delay or Deficits: On Working with Chinese Patients (CAPA Members Only)
Presenter: Xiaolu Hsi, Ph.D.
US Seminar Date: Friday March 4, 2022
US Seminar Time: 6:00 - 7:30 PM EST
Description: Up to the pandemic, university counseling services in US and private practitioners in their vicinities are inundated with requests and referrals of Chinese students as an education in U.S. had become one of the most desired commodities to the Chinese. For close to two decides, CAPA faculty have taught, supervised and treated hundreds of CAPA students in China. It’s not uncommon for clinicians to find themselves sitting with seemingly much regressed patients, or are staring at transference, transference, nothing but transference, sometimes before one barely makes through the intake process or the first class.
How do we understand the predicaments of 21-year-old junior in pieces affectively and behaviorally, or an accusatory 26 year old first year CAPA student? Are they merely or truly in regression, or are they actually developmentally delayed? As these young people “hyper-focus” on their academic or vocational endeavors, what impact of the famous Chinese traditional “valuing of education and achievement” has had on the development of their self, when this education arm race made famous or infamous by the “Tiger Mother” renders their parents absent-minded* as I see them, and precludes much of any sort of the mirroring that contemporary treaters of pathological narcissism now know as the foundation, only with which an integrated self can emerge?
*In the case of the majority of non-middle-class parents essentially abandon their children to work in cities hundreds and thousands of miles away, on a scale historically unprecedented.
Title: Neuropsychoanalysis and Traditional Chinese Medicine
Presenter: Arseny E. Tarabanov, Ph.D.
US Seminar Date: Friday, January 7, 2022
Description: This course will cover three important areas of expertise: psychoanalysis, neuroscience, and traditional Chinese medicine. For twenty years, neuropsychoanalysis has been improving the effectiveness of psychoanalytic practice by rethinking the theoretical and practical legacy of Sigmund Freud from the standpoint of neuroscience. Neuropsychoanalysis allows us to take a fresh look at the nature of consciousness and the unconscious, the nature of affects and psychopathology. The concepts of the emotional brain and the endogenous nature of consciousness, recently formulated in the framework of neuropsychoanalysis, allow us to build a bridge to traditional Chinese medicine. The traditional Chinese concepts of the brain, affects and psychopathology may again be in demand. Based on the neuropsychoanalysis approach, we will also be able to see the relevance of some areas of traditional Chinese psychotherapy and compare them with psychoanalysis.
2020-2021 Academic Year:
Title: Foundations of Family Systems Therapy for Couples
Presenter: Michael D. Zentman, Ph.D.
US Seminar Date: Wednesdays - April 7, 14, 21, 28 and May 5, 12, and 19 (7 sessions)
Description: In this course we will explore a systemic therapy model that views the couple as an emotional unit which influences and is influenced by the individuals within it. No one exists in a relational vacuum; everyone shapes and is shaped by their family, both past and present. We will examine couple patterns and dynamics as well as the current impact of each partner’s family-of-origin. Based on this information a conceptual diagnosis of a couple as well as a treatment plan can be developed.
Title: Psychoanalytical Psychotherapy of Couples and Families
Presenter: Paulina Zukerman, PhD
US Seminar Date: Fridays - March 5, 12, 19 and 26, 2021
Description: Family and Couple conflicts need different tools to be understood, not only psychoanalytical concepts. To think about “other” is different to think with “other”.
The topics are: Presence/representation, Definition of the link, The linkage Structure, Definition of the “patient-Family” and the “patient-Couple”. Who is the patient?, Transference, Unconscious Stipulations: Agreements and Pacts, The setting and its transformations, Interpretation, Family/couple and money conflicts."
Title: Terror in Psychotherapy
Presenter: Lawrence Hedges, Ph.D., Psy.D., ABPP
Description: Contemporary neuroscience, infant research, and relational psychotherapy make clear that we are a relational species—that our brain and neurological systems actually organize in the first year of life depending on the relationships that are and are not available. By the second year of life a symbiotic interaction is becoming established characterized by mutual affect regulation and mutual attachment experiences. Dr. Hedges will demonstrate how trauma experienced during these “organizing” and “symbiotic” levels of relational development stimulates fear, anxiety, and terror that have consequences for later relationships—and in extreme forms lay the foundation for suicide and homicide.
A series of case vignettes will be offered that illustrate how early relational intrusive trauma produce terror in transference and countertransference experiencing.
Title: Psychoanalysis and the Elderly
Presenter: Mi Yu, M.D., Ph. D.
Description: Treatment of the elderly is one of the lesser developed areas of psychoanalysis and psychodynamic psychotherapy. In this seminar we will consider both theoretical and clinical material related to the treatment of the elderly. The instructor will encourage students to share their views on this topic. Then, the instructor will offer a short didactic presentation outlining the history and practice of the treatment of the elderly. One participant will present a case and a short segment from a session.
Title: Trauma and The Dissociative Structuring of the Mind
Presenter: Sheldon Itzkowitz, PhD
Description: This course is designed to help students develop an appreciation for the overwhelming impact of trauma on the structuring of the mind. Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID) - formerly referred to as Multiple Personality Disorder - is a disorder of memory, identity and integration of experience. Traumatic dissociation allows the developing child to adapt to interpersonal experience that the mind-brain cannot take in and assimilate. This often results in the mind becoming structured dissociatively. Multiple centers of consciousness, “self-states” or “alter personalities” emerge to contain traumatic thoughts, feelings and memories that are otherwise unacceptable to the self. The dissociatively structured mind allows traumatic experience to be held in a way that is kept separate and apart from other parts of the mind to prevent the person from overwhelming, affective, hyperarousal that interferes in the functioning of day to day life.
Title: The Call of Darkness: A Relational Listening Approach to Suicide Intervention
Presenter: Lawrence Hedges, Ph.D., Psy.D., ABPP
US Seminar Dates: Fridays - January 8 and 15, 2021
Description: This two-part intermediate video course for mental health professionals begins with the awareness that our ability to predict suicide is little better than chance and that at present there are no consistently reliable empirically validated treatment techniques to prevent suicide. However, Dr. Hedges will demonstrate that in the past three decades much has been learned about the psychodynamics of suicide and many promising treatment approaches have been advanced that are slowly yielding clinical as well as empirical results. In this video, Dr. Hedges will present the groundbreaking work on suicidality of Freud, Jung, Menninger and Shneidman as well as the more recent work of Linehan, Kernberg, Joiner and the attachment theorists along with the features in common that these treatment approaches seem to share. He will put forth a Relational Listening approach regarding the origins of suicidality in a relational/developmental context and will consider their implications for treating and managing suicidality. There will live discussion periods with Dr. Hedges following each video.
2019-2020 Academic Year:
Title: Lacanian Psychoanalysis with an Emphasis on Freudian Practice
Presenters: Dwight McCan, PhD and Cissy Hong Xhou - Lacan Analyst Candidate
Description: This five meeting course is designed to introduce the work of Jacques Lacan as it relates to the Freudian practice of psychoanalytic treatment. We will read Dany Nobus’ excellent book that outlines and contrasts Lacan’s contributions to theory and practice. The focus will be on the conceptualization of Transference and the Strategies of Interpretation developed by Lacan. These ideas are relevant to both child work and adult work. Cissy and I look forward to exploring Lacan’s concepts of Psychoanalysis with you. Cissy will lead a discussion in Mandarin to make sure concepts are clear in both languages.
Title: Becoming a Woman Psychoanalyst: Challenges, Unique Issues and Opportunities
Presenter: Winja Buss
Description: This three-part course is specifically designed to address the concerns and issues faced by women studying and practicing psychoanalysis. Each part of this course will start off with a brief lecture and thereafter merge into an open discussion that provides a safe place for the discussion of personal experiences.
Title: Dreams: Royal Roads to the Unconscious
Presenter: Barbara Stimmel, PhD
Description: This elective will focus on dreams as resistance, as information, as clinical moments, as transference narratives, as “royal roads to the unconscious,” and more. There will be suggested papers to read as groundwork before the course begins. All participants will be invited to present dreams from their clinical hours as well as using some from the literature.
Title: Psychoanalytical Psychotherapy of Couples and Families
Presenter: Paulina Zukerman, PhD
Description: Family and Couple conflicts need different tools to be understood. Not only psychoanalytical concepts. To think about “other” is different to think with “other”.
The topics are: Presence/representation, Definition of the link, The linkage Structure, Definition of the “patient-Family” and the “patient-Couple”. Who is the patient?, Transference, Unconscious Stipulations: Agreements and Pacts, The setting and its transformations, Interpretation, Family/couple and money conflicts.
Title: Measurement Instruments in Dynamic Psychology: The Use of the Defensive Functioning Scale (DSM IV) and the Level of Personality Functioning Scale (DSMV)
Presenter: Thomas Allen, MD
Description: This course is designed for the clinical use of 2 measurement instruments in the field of dynamic psychology: The “Defensive Functioning Scale” included in the American Psychiatric Association’s Diagnostic and Statistical Manual IV Edition and the “Level of Personality Functioning Scale” in the DSM V Edition.
2017-2018 Academic Year:
Title: An Introduction to Transference Focused Psychotherapy for Borderline Personality Disorder
Presenter: Tennyson Lee, MD
Description: This eight meeting course is designed to introduce participants to Transference-Focused Psychotherapy (TFP). TFP is a state-of-the-art, evidence-based treatment for patients with personality disorders (PD). We will use the most recent version of the treatment manual. The focus will be on clinical relevance for your patients with Borderline Personality Disorder and other significant personality disturbance, and as such you will gain more from the course if you have actual experience of the challenges in working with a patient with Borderline PD. Each meeting will include a theoretical and applied component. In the applied component you will be invited to discuss clinical material relevant to the theoretical input.
Title: How to Treat Disturbed or Special Needs Preschoolers Right in Their Classrooms
Presenter: Gilbert Kliman, M.D.
Description: Three two hour seminars on Reflective Network Therapy, an intensive evidence based application of child analysis for treating special needs preschoolers in their classrooms. This method may be particularly suited for cultures such as may be found in parts of China which emphasize the interrelatedness of minds and generations, and are favorable toward harnessing the therapeutic potential of social networks. The technique will be illustrated by videotaped sessions from several preschools showing the four basic elements:1) in-classroom briefing by teacher and child to therapist, 2) psychoanalytic play session in the classroom in which the child may interact expressively with willing peers as he or she chooses, 3) debriefing by therapist and child to teacher, 4) parent guidance weekly. Treatment of children with post traumatic stress disorder, some with autism spectrum disorder, disturbances of conduct, and oppositional defiant behavior will be included. Participants will be invited to conduct and share with the seminar participants any such work they carry out in suitable clinical or preschool settings. Online supervision can occur during seminars or follow later for participants who have such opportunities.
Title: Emerging Ethical and Therapeutic Issues: Frame, Relationship, Importance of Code of Ethics and Fee Management from American and Chinese Sociocultural Contexts
Presenters: Elise Snyder, M.D., Richard Friedman, M.D., Kim-Kwong Chan, Ph.D., Alan Karbelnig, Ph.D.
Description: This course will have us look at the importance of adhering to a code of ethics, differentiating this from general morality. We will address how the frame, therapeutic relationships, virtual communication and fee management play out with and without this framework of ethics. Four seasoned panelists will share their professional experience and participants will have a chance to ask questions and discuss.
2016-2017 Academic Year:
Title: The Psychology of Addiction
Presenter: Lance Dodes, M.D.
Description: Addiction has been deeply misunderstood in both theory and clinical practice. Rather than being a reflection of impulsivity or self-destructiveness, or a result of genetic or pbysical factors, addiction can be shown to be a psychological mechanism that is a subset of psychological compulsions in general. This course will describe and illustrate a comprehensive new way to understand and treat addictions.
Title: An Introduction to Transference Focused Psychotherapy for Borderline Personality Disorder
Presenter: Ben McCommon, M.D.
Description: This eight meeting course is designed to introduce participants to Transference Focused Psychotherapy (TFP) for Borderline Personality Disorder. We will use the most recent version of the treatment manual that guides clinical research. The focus will be on clinical relevance for your patients with Borderline Personality Disorder and other significant personality rigidity. I look forward to reviewing this approach to difficult patients with you.
Title: Conceptualization / Formulation Writing Class
Presenter: Deborah L. Kirschbaum, Ph.D., Psy.D.
Description: This class will be opportunity to have in-depth training in writing up an early assessment of a patient, integrating observations and history with theory and clinical application and interventions. Each student in this course will write up a case based on class discussions and hand-outs. The members of the class will analyze these write-ups in class discussion. By the end of the course, students will submit a rewrite to me. It will be limited to 10 CAPA students and graduates.
Title: Psychoanalysis and the Elderly
Presenter: Mi Yu, M.D., Ph. D.
Description: Treatment of the elderly is one of the lesser developed areas of psychoanalysis and psychodynamic psychotherapy. In this seminar we will consider both theoretical and clinical material related to the treatment of the elderly. The instructor will encourage students to share their views on this topic. Then, the instructor will offer a short didactic presentation outlining the history and practice of the treatment of the elderly. One participant will present a case and a short segment from a session.
Title: Group Psychotherapy and Recovery from Addiction
Presenter: Jeffrey D. Roth, MD, FAGPA, FASAM
Description: Addiction is a disease of isolation. Recovery occurs in groups. Group psychotherapy and mutual support groups are the ideal combination of group experiences to foster recovery from addiction. This course will demonstrate the use of the group-as-a-whole in supporting recovery from addiction. After a brief introduction by the presenter, participants will have the opportunity to discuss the readings provided, to present clinical material and to examine the process of the group as it develops in the here-and-now.
2015-2016 Academic Year
Title: A Brief Introduction to the Writings of Donald Winnicott with an Emphasis on the Capacity to Play
Presenter: Karen Melikian, Ph.D.
Description: This four meeting course is designed to introduce the works of Donald Winnicott as they relate to development, play and psychoanalytic treatments. We will read several important papers that outline some of Winnicott’s contributions to theory and practice. The beginning focus will be on play and creativity. These ideas are relevant to both child work and adult work. I look forward to exploring these papers with you all.
Title: Relational Psychoanalysis: Models of Mind, Multiplicity and Dissociation
Presenter: Lisa Lyons, Ph. D.
Description: Relational theory considers the mind and the self as multiply configured, and considers dissociation rather than repression as a principal mechanism thorough which mind is structured. In this clinical seminar we will consider clinical material through a lens turned to the Relational model of mind. An article outlining the relational model will be sent to all participants in advance of the seminar. The instructor will offer a short didactic presentation outlining the relational model of mind. One participant will present a case and a short segment from a session. Then, as each of us imagines how we would listen to, understand and respond to this material if this were our own patient, we will use Relational theory to explore clinical process.
Title: A Brief Introduction to Lacanian Psychoanalysis with an Emphasis on Freudian Practice.
Presenter: Dwight McCan, PhD
Description: This five meeting course is designed to introduce the work of Jacques Lacan as it relates to the Freudian practice of psychoanalytic treatment. We will read Dany Nobus’ excellent book that outlines and contrasts Lacan’s contributions to theory and practice. The focus will be on the conceptualization of Transference and the Strategies of Interpretation developed by Lacan. These ideas are relevant to both child work and adult work. I look forward to exploring Lacan’s concepts of Psychoanalysis with you.
Title: Diagnosing and Treating ADHD (Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder) in Adults
Presenter: Lana Fishkin, MD
Description: This course will help you recognize the signs and symptoms of ADD in adults. This diagnosis has been accepted relatively recently, as we have come to understand that nobody “outgrows” ADD, and that frequently it is not recognized or treated in children. The consequences of missing the diagnosis in childhood can be chronic anxiety, depression, and poor self-esteem in adults with this diagnosis.
Several assessment screening questionnaires will be presented, but the clinical interview is the best indicator of this disorder. Clinical material will be presented by the instructor and, hopefully, by participants. More specifically, the session on 10/17 will be a lecture (with questions encouraged!), and at the session on 10/24 volunteers will be asked to present relevant clinical material.
Title: Psychic Isolation in Adolescence and its Relation to Bodily Symptoms
Presenter: Mary Brady, Ph.D.
Description: This workshop examines psychic isolation as an important element of adolescent development. I conceive of psychic isolation in adolescence as an affective state with important developmental underpinnings. The affective elements are estrangement and loneliness. The developmental underpinnings include shifting (conscious as well as unconscious, internal as well as external) object relations and senses of the self. Psychic isolation combined with the intensity of adolescent experience can leave adolescents unable to articulate their experience. This difficulty with articulation and symbolization can leave them vulnerable to breakdown into concrete bodily symptoms, such as eating disorders, cutting, substance abuse and suicide attempts. I use Bion’s conceptualization of containment and the balance of psychotic versus non-psychotic integrative parts of the personality to examine the emergence of concrete bodily symptoms in adolescence.
2014-2015 Academic Year:
Title: Pre-CAPA Training Program
Presenter: Jiang Qi Zhuang
Description: For several years, Jiang Qi Zhuang, a CAPA Advanced Training graduate in Chengdu, has been teaching a Pre-CAPA Training Program for mental health professionals in his area. In this seminar, Jiang Qi Zhuang will teach three classes on how to organize a Pre-CAPA Training Program.
Title: A Survey of DSM-5, ICD-10 and PDM/PDM-2 for Treatment Purposes
Presenter: Robert M. Gordon, Ph.D. ABPP
Description: We will review how a diagnostic formulation can help you do better therapeutic work. To do this you need to have a rough understanding of the main classifications. As you go along in your clinical work you can later fine-tune your diagnostic specificity. An accurate diagnosis should be a scientifically based form of empathy that is helpful to the patient.
Title: Working with Somatic Countertransference
Presenter: Adrienne Margarian, B.A. M.A (Psych.) M.A. (Art Ther.) M. Psych.S.(Hons) M.A.P.S
Description: The body of the therapist speaks in numerous ways in the psychotherapy session. Common experiences such as headaches, nausea, aches, pains, sleepiness, sexual arousal, dizziness and trembling can provide unique material relevant to the inner world of the client and the psychotherapy relationship evolving between therapist and client. These physical manifestations are known as somatic countertransference, a form of countertransference positioned as an embodied, physical manifestation in the therapist’s body. Theories referenced for discussion of somatic countertransference will span from dance movement psychotherapy to contemporary psychoanalytic to post Jungian thought. In addition, current empirical studies from the UK and US will be considered as well as possible Chinese cultural explanations for the role of the therapist’s body in the session. These cultural ideas have been developed from current cross-cultural research of Chinese psychotherapists and how they work with somatic countertransference. Finally and importantly, this lecture will highlight the potential negative effects of somatic countertransference if not acknowledged and processed in clinical supervision.
Title: Teaching and Learning Psychotherapy in China
Presenter: Nadine M. Tang, LCSW in conversation with CAPA instructor Daniel Yu, LCSW
Description: A brief history of psychology in China will be presented, including a discussion of cultural differences in worldview between China and the West. Issues to be discussed include aspects of child rearing and marriage and how these impact styles of communication, traditional Chinese views on mental illness and their relationship to western psychotherapy, and observations about teaching and learning in China.
Title: Developmental Considerations in Psychotherapy with Gay Men: A Contemporary Psychoanalytic Perspective
Presenter: Gary Grossman, Ph.D.
Description: This presentation describes early childhood experiences of boys that grow up to be gay, illustrating the potential for emotional disruption and trauma when parents assume their child will be heterosexual. Drawing on work with adult gay men and adolescents in psychotherapy and psychoanalysis, the psychological consequences of empathic failures during early childhood, and especially the Oedipal stage, will be addressed. Links between these early disruptions and later internalized homophobia and romantic relationships will be highlighted. The unique challenges faced by gay adolescents in a society that does not fully recognize them will also be discussed. Clinical examples will be used to demonstrate the relevance of these developmental theories to psychotherapy.
Title: Working with Shame Dynamics in Routine Psychodynamic Psychotherapy
Presenter: Elizabeth Haase, MD
Description: The delineation of shame from guilt and core psychodynamic and neurobiological conceptions of shame will be reviewed. The talk will then focus on common clinical presentations of shame and transference and countertransference pitfalls of addressing shame in the clinical setting.
Title: Dream Analysis
Presenter: Ira Moses, Ph.D.
Description: We will examine how dreams can be used to deepen the work in order to help the patient increase their introspection. We will study how the therapist can use dreams to help the patient focus on their inner experience rather than simply offer interpretations. There will be less emphasis on interpretation as we rely more on the techniques of Inquiry and Free Association to help expand the patient's awareness of unconscious process.
Title: Psychoanalysis and Dialectical Behavior Therapy: Clinical and Theoretical Integration
Presenter: Lisa Lyons, Ph.D.
Description: In this lecture students will be introduced to clinical work that integrates psychoanalysis with more active approaches drawn from Dialectical Behavior Therapy. This integrative way of thinking and working is especially relevant to clinical work with patients who have difficulty controlling impulses and tolerating intense affect. However, the attention it draws to behaviors in daily life, current interpersonal experience and affect, and mindfulness-based approaches to experiencing what is dissociated or out of awareness adds important new dimensions to psychoanalytic work with higher functioning patients.