In this workshop, we will invite participants to join us in developing a fresh understanding of traumatic experience that makes use of contributions from self psychology, relational psychoanalytic theory and the work of the Boston Change Process Study Group. Using clinical examples, we will show how a flow in the embodied sensing of oneself, others, and oneself in relation to others tends to disintegrate in the aftermath of trauma. The benefits of using a new experiential language that replaces traditional psychoanalytic terminology with the words, “I,” “you,” and “we” will be explained.
As we have done in previous workshops, experiential exercises and embodied supervision will be offered.
Adrienne Harris will again be the moderator.
General Admission: $50
General Admission + CE credits: $75
Students: $25
New School/NYU Postdoc students: Free (email NSSRFerencziCenter@gmail.com to reserve a spot)
CE Credits (4 hours) available for Social Workers and MHCs
Presenters:
Jon Sletvold, Psy.D.
Doris Brothers, Ph.D.
Moderator:
Adrienne Harris, Ph.D.
Presented by Sándor Ferenczi Center at The New School for Social Research.
Welcome by Adrienne Harris
Introducing “I,” “You,” and “We”
Instead of “ego” or “the self” we suggest the word, “I.” Instead of object(s) we suggest the word, “you.” And instead of object relations, selfobject, the third or the field we suggest the word, “we.” We believe that by adopting these words, we more closely express the embodiment of relational experience.
I-Centeredness and You-Centeredness
People who are relatively well-functioning and free from ongoing trauma tend to experience a rhythmic flow in their sensing of “I,” “you” and “we.” However, in the face of strong emotional challenges and traumas, an I-centered or you-centered position tends to dominate experience. In these circumstances one’s sense of we is weakened and, in some instances, lost. We suggest that healing in clinical psychoanalysis goes hand in hand with the analytic couple’s enhanced ability to move freely among the sensing of “I,” “you,” and “we.”
Re-envisioning the dissociation-enactment model
An alternative to the dissociative self-state model is offered that emphasizes unconscious memory processes in bodily comportment and style of relating with others. The emphasis shifts from mental storage to the body in its relations with others. We suggest that the loss of a shared direction in an enactment can be understood as a breakdown in the sense of “we.”
The Sense of “We” and a New Focus in Therapeutic Relating
To the extent that psychoanalytic therapy provides healing from trauma, it enhances a person’s capacity to tolerate uncertainty and consequently to maximize the flow of “I,” “you,” and “we” experiences that are complexly embodied. It might be said that psychoanalytic healing results in a greater experience of embodied wholeness.
Experiential Exercises and Embodied supervision
A variety of exercises will be introduced that are designed to help participants understand how the sensing of “I,” “you,” and “we” deepens experiences of self and others and self with others. An embodied approach to supervision will be explained and demonstrated, and some participants will get an opportunity to be supervised on cases of their own choice. In this model of supervision, the supervisee will be asked to roleplay his/her interaction with the patient, taking on “I”, “you”, and “we” positions. All the participants will be asked to register their embodied experiences of the supervisee and the patients they present. They will then contribute to discussions of the clinical examples.
Discussion led by Adrienne Harris
10:00AM-12:00PM: First session
12:00PM-1:00PM: Lunch
1:00PM-3:00PM: Second session
Jon Sletvold, Psy.D. is faculty, training and supervising analyst at the Norwegian Character Analytic Institute. He teaches embodied perspectives on psychoanalysis and psychotherapy in Europa, USA and China. He has written articles and book chapters on embodiment in psychoanalytic theory, practice and training. He is the author of The Embodied Analyst: From Freud and Reich to Relationality, Relational Perspectives Book Series, 2014, winner of the Gradiva Award, 2015.
Doris Brothers, Ph.D. is a co-founder and faculty member of the Training and Research in Intersubjective Self Psychology Foundation (TRISP). She co-edited Psychoanalysis, Self and Context with Roger Frie from 2015 to 2019. She serves on the advisory board and council of IAPSP. She is the author of three books and many journal articles. Her latest book, Toward a Psychology of Uncertainty: Trauma-Centered Psychoanalysis was published by Analytic Press in 2008. She has presented workshops on embodiment with Jon Sletvold in New York, Beijing, Shanghai, Dublin and Vienna. She is in private practice in Manhattan, New York, USA.
Adrienne Harris, Ph.D. is Faculty and Supervisor at New York University Postdoctoral Program in Psychotherapy and Psychoanalysis. She is on the faculty and is a supervisor at the Psychoanalytic Institute of Northern California. She is an Editor at Psychoanalytic Dialogues, and Studies In Gender and Sexuality. In 2009, she, Lewis Aron, and Jeremy Safran established the Sándor Ferenczi Center at the New School University. She, Eyal Rozmarin and Steven Kuchuck co-edit the Book Series Relational Perspectives in Psychoanalysis. She is an editor of the IPA ejournal psychoanalysis.today.
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