Short Courses - Institute of Contemporary Psychotherapy and Psychoanalysis

ICP+P offers Short Courses periodically throughout the year. They are short-term training opportunities and generally consist of one-time, 2- to 3-hour classes on specific topics. Check back frequently as new courses can be added at any time…

Below are Short Courses we are currently offering and a list of several of the interesting topics that have been covered in the past.

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Here is a sampling of some of our most recent Short Courses…

Short Course: Transforming the Negative Sense of Self after Childhood Trauma ~ Mar 3, 2023

Offering 3 CEs ~ This short course will present a method therapists can use to guide such clients to update their traumatic memories.

Short Course: The Full Spectrum of Shame & Humiliation ~ Jan 20, 2023

Offering 3 CEs ~ In this short course participants will become familiar with these themes and develop an increased consciousness for these issues and ways in which depth conversations can be opened in this delicate territory.

Short Course: The Referral Matrix ~ Dec 10th, 2022

Offering 2 Ethics CEs ~ This short course deals with therapists maintaining ethical boundaries when working with, as well as making, new patient referrals.

Short Course: An Introduction to Polyvagal Theory ~ Oct 28th, 2022

Offering 3 CEs ~ This short course is an introduction to Polyvagal theory where you will begin to observe your own autonomic nervous system and start thinking about ways to resource and regulate.

Short Course: From the Nursery to the Therapeutic Relationship – Developing a Sense of Earned Security ~ Feb 5, 2022 ~ Registration Now Closed

Offering 2 CEs ~ In this short course, we will describe the observable links between an insecure attachment presentation in the nursery and the differences/similarities in adult treatment. We will also illustrate the way knowledge of attachment research can support therapists during moments in which intense and potentially disruptive affects take center stage in the clinical encounter. These are often the times that developmental trauma powerfully enters the room, affecting the dyad’s shared experience.

Short Course: Intersubjectivity: Working with the Leading Edge and the Trailing Edge ~ October 23rd, 2021

This course will take a deep dive into intersubjectivity theory as developed by Robert Stolorow with a focus on leading edge/trailing edge experiences in therapy. We will include how a cultural context is crucial to understanding and working with subjective experience.

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And Still More…

Cultural Issues and Relational Practice: Racial and Sexual Minorities

Relational practice, with its honoring of the subjectivities of both clinician and client, has the capacity to enhance sensitivity to all aspects of the client’s humanity, including cultural variables such as race, sexual orientation, and gender identity. Until recently, however, contemporary psychoanalysis has not carefully and consistently attended to such variables. This short course was a small part of a movement in contemporary psychoanalysis toward integrating culturally sensitive and relational practice. It focused on increasing clinicians’ awareness of, and sensitivity to, issues to consider when working with clients who are members of racial and sexual minorities.

Let’s Talk about Sex: Working through Anxiety of the Erotic in Couples Therapy

Sex is one of the main reasons we form romantic relationships. It permeates advertising, music, and pop culture in the U.S. Sex is ubiquitous; sex is natural; sex is very difficult to talk about – even by therapists. Sexual problems are pervasive for couples and yet very little is written in psychoanalytic literature about how to effectively discuss sex and sensuality within couples therapy.

Letter Salad: Relational Practice with Clients who are LGBTQIA2-S

Just when you thought you had mastered the term, “LGBT,” one by one, a new letter was added. Now we have, “LGBTQIA2-S”—what’s a culturally sensitive clinician with acronym challenge to do? In this workshop, a variety of learning modalities, including didactic, case discussion, and experiential exercises, were used to increase awareness of categories of sexual orientation, sexual behavior, and gender identity, while acknowledging that these categories are fluid and exist along continua. It also presented how to intervene more sensitively and effectively in relational practice with sexual minorities.

“Why did I decide to be a couples therapist anyway?” Finding your way when you feel ineffective with couples

Even the most experienced couples therapists encounter cases where they feel ineffective: deskilled, confused, inadequate, or angry at one or both members of a couple. Are these reactions a response to the dynamics of the couple, or are they coming from the therapist’s countertransference? These questions were considered from a multi-subjective theoretical orientation and discussed with possible interventions using challenging case material as illustration.