Featuring Golnar Simpson, PhD, LCSW

Sunday, January 25, 2026
12:30 pm-3:30 pm (US Eastern/New York Time)
Virtual Zoom Event

3 CEs will be offered

CLICK HERE TO REGISTER

This will be a virtual event. We hope you can join us!

For thousands of years, the wish to unravel the mysteries of human subjectivity and meaning making — to develop a more coherent sense of “who” and “what” we are — has been at the center of human creativity and scholarship. We have reached the point where we can support the assertion that we are constituted by each other’s otherness. As such, the very notion of our human existence depends on experiencing meaningful connections with other human beings at the individual and collective levels.  A pivotal aspect of this understanding of the human condition is the psychoanalytic concept of the “subjective third” and its significant implications for our theory and clinical practice. In this presentation, Dr. Simpson will delve into a discussion of the constitutive elements of the subjective third. Drawing on the relational intersubjective writers such as Ogden, Green, Winnicott, Benjamin and others, she will explore such questions as How the subjective third works; Where does it fit in with the transference/countertransference dynamics of the clinical encounter?; and What is its course, culminating as it does in the experience of new meanings, self-development and identity formation? Furthermore, Dr. Simpson will present case vignettes that highlight the subjective third at play in the treatment. Her treatment is embedded in a unitary mind/body/context perspective, one informed by psychoanalytic, neuroscience and sociocultural findings. Her presentation will illuminate how matters of diversity are alive in the intersubjective field. With an extended invitation for audience participation, we will focus on treatment considerations of the meaning making process, the illuminations of concepts such as “implicated subjectivity,” and the role of witnessing in clinical encounters.

Learning Objectives

At the conclusion of this conference, participants will be able to:

  1. Describe the constitutive elements of the subjective third from a unitary mind/ body/context perspective on human functioning.
  2. Explain the process aspects of the subjective third as manifested in the transference/countertransference dynamics.
  3. Describe the concept of “implicated subjectivity” involved in the subjective third in general and diversity matters in particular.

References:

Benjamin, J. (2023). Recognition in the face of harm: Implicated subjectivity and the need for acknowledgement. In R. Kabasakalian-McKay and D. Mark (Eds.), Inhabiting implication in racial oppression and in relational psychoanalysis (pp. 52-75). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003265146

Coelho, N.E., (2016). The origins and destinies of the idea of thirdness in contemporary psychoanalysis. The International Journal of Psychoanalysis, 97(4),1105-1127. https://doi.org/10.1111/1745-8315.12433

Kanwal, G.S. (2018). Loss, self-state, and the immigrant analyst: Exploring the “analytic fourth”. Psychoanalysis, Culture & Society, 23, 419-436. https://doi.org/10.1057/s41282-018-0088-x

Ogden, T. (2018). How I talk to my patients. Psychoanalytic Quarterly, 87(3),399-413. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003265146

This conference is appropriate for clinicians at all levels of experience and offers 3 CEs.

CE Credit is granted to participants with documented attendance for the entire duration of the event and a completed evaluation form.Credit will not be granted to registrants who are more than 15 minutes late or depart more than 15 minutes early from a session. Please arrive at least 10 minutes before the scheduled start time to allow time to check in.

PLEASE NOTE: Recording in any form of this live streaming event is NOT permitted.

About our presenter:

Golnar Simpson, PhD, LCSW is a Board Member, AAPCSW. Member, ICP+P. NASW Foundation- Pioneer. Founding Dean, Clinical Social Work Institute of Washington, DC. Past President, Clinical SW Federation. Recipient, AAPCSW Lifetime Achievement Award (2017). Co-author, articles on clinical social work education, theory and practice, Clinical Social Work Journal. Co-Guest Editor, Special Section, articles on Dialectical Perspectives on Contemporary Clinical Practice, Psychoanalytic Social Work. Distinguished Practitioner, Former Chair of Social Work Academy of National Academies of Practice. Private Practice, McLean, VA.

CLICK HERE TO REGISTER

Registration closes on Friday, January 23rd at 12:00 pm ET.

Conference Fees:

$90ICP+P Members
$50ICP+P MITs, Emerging Professionals, Graduate Student Members, Fellows, 1st and 2nd Year Members
$50Unaffiliated Students
$120Non-members
$75International Attendees (Outside US)

For more information, email administrator@icpeast.org. A refund for cancellation is available up to 10 days before the conference.

To register by mail, send this page and payment to:

ICP+P

c/o Nilou Mostofi
3298 Governor Drive, Suite 22270
San Diego, CA 92192

Continuing education credit: 3.0 CE credits available for full attendance. The Institute of Contemporary Psychotherapy and Psychoanalysis (ICP+P) is approved by the American Psychological Association to sponsor continuing education for psychologists. ICP+P maintains responsibility for this program and its content. ICP+P is approved by the Maryland Board of Social Work Examiners to offer Category I continuing education credit. As our CE program receives oversight from a licensed social worker, the CE credits we award are highly likely to be recognized by licensing boards in Virginia and the District of Columbia. These continuing education credits meet the ANCC standards for nurses. Marriage and family therapists licensed in the District of Columbia, Maryland, and Virginia may submit these CE credits to their licensing boards. (Marriage and family therapists in other jurisdictions and licensed counselors should inquire with their local Boards regarding continuing education credit.) Attendees from the above professional groups will earn 3.0 CE credits for attending the CE activity. Full attendance is required to receive the designated CE credit.

* Golnar Simpson, PhD, LCSW, and the planners have informed us that they do not have a conflict of interest and have disclosed that they have no relevant financial relationship with any commercial interests pertaining to this educational activity. Additionally, the presenters have been instructed to disclose any limitations of data and unlabeled or investigational uses of products during this presentation. This presentation will not contain any references to off-­label (non-­FDA approved) use of products or devices.

CE Credit is granted to participants with documented attendance at individual workshops and completed evaluation forms for those sessions. Credit will not be granted to registrants who are more than 15 minutes late or depart more than 15 minutes early from a session. Please arrive at least 10 minutes before the scheduled start time to allow time to check in.