Director’s Column
Eleanor Howe, Director
There are authors whose books change me. For instance, I got it, finally – when I got the truth in Ta Nehisi Coates’ exhortation in Letter to my Son, “Here is what I would like for you to know: In America, it is traditional to destroy the black body – it is heritage.” With this statement, Coates crystalized what had previously been an incoherent set of facts in my mind.
Reading within our field, Philip Bromberg has the same effect on me: He explains and I get it….And I am filled with gratitude toward a man I’ve never met for his finding the words to broaden my grasp and aptitude.
Richard Chefetz likewise does it for me. He is in a closer circle to me: located in DC, a founding member of ICP+P and a colleague who presented a pre-conference workshop during our 2016-2017 Embodied Self Institute. With other study group members, I spent five months carefully digesting Rich’s 2015 masterpiece, Intensive Psychotherapy for Persistent Dissociative Processes and ever since, I feel myself a notably better-skilled therapist. Rich is a masterful storyteller. One can sense his earlier career as a family doctor as he advocates for health. His open-mindedness and his clear heart form a foundation as he helps even deeply disturbed patients find a way through and forward; his love of humanity shows in how he thinks, how he organizes his ideas and in the words he chooses. He has experience and hope, and he uses this book to pass on knowledge to others. Rich exhorts clinicians to “keep treating their challenging patients and not refer them to a specialist for treatment. One doesn’t need to be a specialist. One just needs to gather some special knowledge and add it to the important basics without which no special knowledge is particularly useful. Besides, it’s all about the relationship, in the first place and all the way through” (p. viii).
Rich’s writing is intended to provide us with the knowledge to help us with our challenging patients. I am grateful for his careful expression. He writes,
- An approach to psychotherapy that appreciates dissociative process, compartmentalized function…and self-states will also be sure to investigate the moment-to-moment subjective experience of not wanting to do something and still doing it….I conversationally frame the overall constellation as “different ways of being you.” The words are important because the phrase acknowledges differences while the context remains an integrative “you” – one person. (p. 66)
- and
- …in the initial period of their clinical presentation, the responsibility for increasing consciousness for the subjective experience of dissociative process is a central pillar of treatment. Attention to affect metabolism is part of that consciousness. The particulars and peculiarities of each self-state tend to sustain relatively core beliefs and create a significant impediment to developing a coherent sense of self and the world. This lack of coherence was perhaps once of value as a cloud inside which could be hidden great fears and painful humiliations. However, as childhood fades into the background, adult requirements of living make the incoherence of childhood nearly intolerable….Lack of coherence is a central issue when dissociative process fills a mind’s wallet with seemingly blank cards and runs a life long after the operating license has expired. (pp. 94-95)
By absorbing Rich’s book at a just-right pace, I learned much about the process and recognition of dissociation. I’ve integrated the concept of “different ways of being you” in almost all my work. And sometimes, when patients mention an incongruous experience of themselves, I now may ask how old they feel themselves to be in that experience. So often, the patient answers without hesitation, then looks at me with astonishment tinged with apprehension, as if to say, “Where did that come from and what the *#%! is it saying about me?” Rich’s explications showed me how to stay in the moment with curiosity as opposed to apprehension. Like my patient, I don’t know what it’s saying about him or her, but I’m calm, open and curious to find out. Like seeing a shooting star, at these moments, I nod my appreciation toward Rich for bringing home to me dissociation and its role in trauma.
So you can imagine how keenly I anticipate January 26, when Rich will present “Attackments: Subjugation, Shame and the Attachment to Painful Affects and Objects” at ICP+P’s third conference of the academic year. I know he has a packed speaking engagement calendar, and his willingness to share his clinical wisdom with us is a hallmark of his great generosity. This will be a special morning of learning from a special man, and as a free-to-members conference, a time to gather as the learning community that is the heart of what ICP+P is all about. I’ll be there, and hope to see you too!
In Peace,
Eleanor
Upcoming Training + Education
Featuring Richard A. Chefetz, MD
Saturday, January 26, 2019 from 9:30 am-12:30 pm ~ Silver Spring Civic Building at Veterans Plaza, Silver Spring, MD
Register Here!
About the Conference:
Sometimes a patient vacillates between angry attacks on the therapeutic relationship and tenacious attachment to it. As a participant in the relationship, the therapist will inevitably also experience difficult feelings. The clinical atmosphere can be so poisoned by such extremes of push and pull between the participants that it can cause emotional exhaustion, shame and fear of humiliation, intolerable loss, intense dislike, disgust, and contempt.
As we now know, patients who have experienced frightening parents and disorganized/disoriented attachment in their early development will likely demonstrate a degree of chaos in their present attachment relationships. But when shame-contempt dynamics are present, the behaviors we see may exceed even the predictable, and establish patterns of “baiting” between therapist and patient. In this conference, Dr. Chefetz will describe these dynamics and how to identify them. Additionally, he will offer suggestions for understanding and working with patients when our clinical relationships include these types of extremely difficult dynamics.
At the conclusion of this conference, participants will be able to:
1. Describe the difference between the words affect, feeling, and emotion as well as the clinical utility of distinguishing between them.
2. Describe the parental contribution to each of the four major infant attachment styles and their clinical relevance to adult psychotherapy and the exploration of a traumatic past.
3. Explain how “attackment” describes a shift from proximity seeking in the attachment paradigm to guaranteeing distance when domination-submission, power and control, dynamics overwhelm the interpersonal world of a child.
Register Here!
Short Course
To Group or Not to Group: Assessment and Preparation of Potential Group Members
Friday, February 8, 2019 from 12:30-3:45 pm ~ ICP+P Office, 4601 Connecticut Ave., NW, Suite 8, Washington, DC 20008
Presented by:
Register Here!
About the Short Course:
Group therapy can be integrated with, or follow, individual treatment to expand and broaden the client’s therapeutic experience beyond the traditional dyad. This workshop is an exciting opportunity for clinicians who may or may not run groups themselves: to learn specific ways in which participating in group may be beneficial; to explore having a dialogue with clients about group; and to connect clients with a group experience, if appropriate.
This workshop explores a process for answering three basic questions: Is a client suitable for long-term, open-ended, psychodynamic group therapy? If yes, is the client suitable for the specific group I have in mind? If yes, are they ready to join the group now? Tools for identifying potential group members, assessing readiness for group, and preparing new members for group entry will be demonstrated.
At the conclusion of the short course, attendees will be able to:
- Evaluate potential group members’ suitability for long-term, open-ended, psychodynamically-oriented group therapy.
- Prepare exclusion and inclusion criteria.
- Conduct a clinical interview for pre-screening.
- Identify items required for preparation prior to group entry.
This program is appropriate for introductory and intermediate level clinicians and offers 3 CEs.
Register Here!
Other 2018-2019 ICP+P Training
- January 26, 2019, Conference – Attackments: Subjugation, Shame, and the Attachment to Painful Affects & Objects, with Richard Chefetz, MD, Silver Spring Civic Building, 9:00am-12:30pm, 3 CEs. Register Here Now.
- February 8, 2019, Short Course – To Group or Not To Group: Assessment and Preparation of Potential Group Members, with Rob Williams, LICSW, CGP, Liz Marsh, MSW, LICSW, Art Therapist, David A. Heilman, PsyD, and Jennifer McLish, LCSW, ICP+P Office, 12:30-3:45pm, 3 CEs. Register Here Now.
- March 1, 2019 – Short Course – The Female Gaze in/on the Female Body in Art and Psychoanalysis: The Case of Paula Modersohn-Becker and Epistemic Injustice, with Sandy Hershberg, MD, ICP+P Office, 2 CEs.
- April 5, 2019 – Short Course – Congruent with material presented during our Embodied Self Institute, Mary Choi, LICSW, will discuss and demonstrate the use of somatic psychotherapy techniques to uncover client dynamics. ICP+P Office, 3 CEs.
- April 28, 2019 – Psychoanalytic Training Program / Joint Institutes Candidates’ Committee (JICC) 22nd Annual Conference, Washington DC Metropolitan Area, 3:00-6:30 pm, 3 CEs.
- May 4, 2019, Annual Conference, with Steven Stern, Chevy Chase, MD, 9:00am-4:30pm, 6 CEs.
- September 28, 2019, Conference with Mark J. Blechner, PhD, Silver Spring Civic Building, 9:00am-12:30pm, 3 CEs.
- December 7, 2019, Conference with Anton H. Hart, PhD, Silver Spring Civic Building, 9:00am-12:30pm, 3 CEs.
Leave A Comment