There are Two Bodies in the Room: Expanding Clinical Capacity Through Body Awareness

Pamela Rosenblum, MA, LP. SEP,  NCPsyA 

January 27, February 10 & February 24, 2012 (3 part workshop) 7:00-9:00

80 Fifth Avenue, Room 1408

As clinicians, with our feet firmly planted in the ground of psychoanalytic, psychodynamic and/or systems-based understanding, it can be exciting to expand our awareness to include the messages that the body conveys.  This workshop will introduce participants to the value of incorporating body awareness into one’s practice. 

Through body awareness, we have greater leverage to work with implicit memory, dissociated self states, anxieties and emotions.  This workshop will challenge participants to learn and understand more about the nervous system and how it can impact the body’s defensive patterns and coping mechanisms.

This workshop will:

•   Introduce participants to some key concepts and tools from the trauma resolution field, specifically Somatic Experiencing®, which are useful in talk therapy,

•   Teach participants to work with greater ease in learning to trust the patient’s nervous system 

•   Describe what is meant by "Survival Energy" and why we need to educate patients about this concept.  

•   Provide participants with tools for getting patients "out of their heads" and into their feelings.

•   Help participants to recognize their own signs of nervous system activation

•   Provide a basic understanding of how to use a  knowledge of brain function to expand clinical effectiveness

•   Teach participants how to recognize and work with implicit memories that are embodied and enacted, in both the patient and the therapist

•   Illustrate how transference and countertransference can be full embodied experiences that can help us to understand our patients’ emotional states and thoughts.

Pamela M. Rosenblum, MS, LP, SEP, NCPsyA is a faculty member and supervisor at the Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy Study Center.  A licensed Psychoanalyst, she is also a certified Somatic Experiencing practitioner as well as a member of the American Society of Clinical Hypnosis. 

Seating for this workshop is limited so please register early.

The Adoption Experience: An Exploration into the Lives of Adoptive Parents and Adoptees

Barbara Freedgood, LCSW

Leanne Jaffe, MA, LCSW

Friday, December 16, 2011

6:30-9:00pm

In this presentation, two therapists -- one an adoptee and one an adoptive parent -- come together to talk about some of the most important issues in treatment with people who are living the adoption experience.

The presentation will include a discussion of the developmental timeline in an adopted family that includes the challenges that face both parents and children at different stages. These include experiences prior to the decision to adopt; how to talk about adoption in and out of the home; identity-development in adoptees throughout the life cycle;  dealing with questions about search, reunion, and openness in adoption; the cathexis of the birth mother as lost object; object constancy and its application to the adoptive family; and reality vs. fantasy in adoption.

This workshop is open to any clinician interested in developing a more nuanced understanding of the issues surrounding adoption, and will include clinical examples to illustrate how these concepts come up in the work with adoptive parents and adoptees along with intervention strategies to help deepen and advance the treatment.

Barbara Freedgood, LCSW has been in private practice in New York for thirty years. Originally a dancer, she came to the work through body awareness training, finding her way into psychoanalysis when she encountered the crisis of infertility. She has written and presented on the topic of infertility, most recently at the IARPP conference in Madrid in June 2011. She is currently forming groups for parents of adopted children. She is a graduate of the NYU Post Doctoral Marriage and Family Program and the mother of two children by adoption. 

Leanne Jaffe, M.A., LCSW practices individual and family psychotherapy with children, teens, and adults. Her specialty is adoption and alternatively-formed families, including families of divorce and step-families, LGBT families, and those formed using assisted reproductive technologies.  She founded Adapting To Adoption in 2000 to help adoptees build identity, help their families to build intimacy, and to provide education and training to other professionals.   Herself an adoptee, Leanne culls both personal and professional understanding of the complexities of adoption, resulting in a unique and comprehensive appreciation of and sensitivity to members of the adoption triad. She leads groups for young people, adults, and parents.

Sexless Marriage: It takes two...or Maybe Not

Suzanne Iasenza, PhD

Nov 11, 2011, 7:00-9:00 PM

Sexual desire issues are the most common sexual problems presented in couples psychotherapy. Sometimes both partners report little interest in sex. More often couples are struggling with discrepant desire. How can we best understand and intervene in the complexity and changeability of sexual desire over the lifespan of a couple? Theory, technique and case material will be presented to address these issues.

Suzanne Iasenza , PhD, is a faculty member of PPSC, ICP and Adelphi University Derner Institutes.  She is a psychotherapist and sex therapist in private practice in New York City.  She is co-editor of the books Lesbians and Psychoanalysis: Revolutions in Theory and Practice and Lesbians, Feminism and Psychoanalysis: The Second Wave.   

When To Call It Quits: Working with Challenging Couples

Judy Levitz, PhD

February 11, 2011 from 7 - 9 pm

 Couples treatment is inherently difficult, but there are certain situations when the work feels stuck or futile at best, or at worst that the relationship is becoming increasingly toxic and destructive.

With these couples, the therapist is often left feeling helpless, inadequate and frustrated, and may need to assess if the treatment can be effective in helping the couple stay together, or if the the couple needs to work towards separation. 

In this workshop, we'll address some of the dynamics that account for these impasses and identify circumstances when it may be "time to call it quits" and when couples work actually becomes contraindicated.  To help the therapist feel more equipped in these difficult circumstances, we'll also explore various intervention options that will allow the therapist to navigate through these highly-charged situations.  

Judy Levitz is the Founding Director and Board President of PPSC, where she also teaches and supervises.  She has led workshops on couples' therapy and integrating psychoanalytic theories, and has authored articles including "The Contact Function Revisited," and “Is it Normal?"- an in-depth analysis of a couple’s treatment in Uncoupling Convention, and maintains a private practice in New York City.  Dr. Levitz sees individuals, couples, and groups in her private practice.



Business Planning and Marketing for Your Private Practice: A Two-Part Workshop

Patricia Tidwell, PhD, LCSW

Friday, January 21, 2011 and Friday, February 4, 2011

6:30-9pm

Many clinicians feel uncomfortable around money or acknowledging that helping others is a business.  Psychotherapists in private practice are indeed small business owners.  Approaching your practice as a business can lead to increased income and more importantly a greater sense of security, direction and possibility.  This two-part workshop introduces concepts of business and marketing planning and then guides participants through a step-by-step process of creating plans for their own practices.

In the first session, Dr. Tidwell will present the principles of setting business goals and developing strategies such as fee setting, networking, and marketing/promotion to help achieve the goals.  In addition to lecture, case studies will demonstrate what the plans look like in ‘real life.’  Specific guidelines will be provided for information and data gathering about your practice and your goals so that you have the basis for developing a business plan that works for you.

The following session provides an opportunity to interact with the instructor and other workshop participants in developing a real business plan for your private practice.  Whether you have created a draft of a plan over the two week interim or want to start fresh during the second session,  specific recommendations and input will be available to you so that by the end of the second session, you will have a plan to operate and use in your practice.  Templates for goal setting, marketing and business plans will be provided.   

Patricia Tidwell, Phd, LCSW has had a private psychotherapy practice in New Yorksince 1996. She is a training analyst, faculty and supervisor at PPSC where she is also Dean of Students. Prior to becoming a therapist, Trish was a marketing executive with twenty years experience in marketing management. She taught graduate marketing at NYU Stern School of Business Administration and Fordham University’s Graduate School of Business Administration. In addition to her therapy practice, she consults with individual helping professionals in developing business plans and new ventures.