The challenges of creating and sustaining intimate relationships in an era when family models are in a state of transition and gender roles have  become more complex has resulted in an ever-increasing call for skilled couples therapy.  Many psychoanalysts find themselves treating  couples, often without clear concepts to guide their work.  While the fields of couples therapy and psychoanalysis arose from very different intellectual milieu, creative workers in both disciplines have found fascinating ways to integrate the two as our panelists will demonstrate.  Psychoanalytic conceptions such as intersubjectivity, projective identification, and attachment theory – among others – have been integrated with family systems theory to create psychoanalytically informed approaches to working with couples.  We are proud to bring together four gifted psychoanalytic couples therapists who will show us how the work of Winnicott, Sullivan, Lacan and others illuminate their work with couples.

In the morning session the panelists will present their approaches to couples work, conceptually and through clinical examples.  In the afternoon session, Dr. Zentman will show a video of his work with a couple and the panelists and audience will discuss their observations and reflections of this work.

Panelists:

Mary-Joan Gerson, Ph.D.

Virginia Goldner, Ph.D.

Deborah Anna Luepnitz, Ph.D.

Michael Zentman, Ph.D.

 Conference Chair:

David Brand, Ph.D.

New York Blood Center

310 East 67th Street

New York, NY 10065

$150 General Registration

 $100 for NIP PA Members

$75 for non-NIP TI students

 (Non-NIP TI students, please include copy of current student ID)

$60 for NIP TI students

 Late registration fee after April 30^th is $15. Payment at the door by cash or check only. 50% refund will be given up to one week prior to the conference date only.

Registration: 8am to 9 am

Mary-Joan Gerson, Ph.D.

Dr. Gerson is the Director of the Advanced Specialization in Couple and Family Therapy, and is Faculty and Supervisor at the  N.Y.U. Postdoctoral Program in Psychotherapy and Psychoanalysis.  She is also the Founding President, Section VIII (Couples and Family Therapy) of Division 39 (Psychoanalysis), APA.  She has served on the Advisory Board of the Minuchin Center for the Family and Division 39, is a Supervisor at the National Institute for the Psychotherapies and a member of the Teaching Faculty, Mount Sinai School of Medicine.   She is the author of The Embedded Self:  An Integrative Psycho-dynamic and Systemic Perspective on Couple and Family Therapy. Second Edition, 2009, and numerous publications on the integration of psychoanalysis and family systemic theory, the dynamics of medical illness, parenthood motivation and family formation.  She is in private practice, New York City.

Virginia Goldner, Ph.D.

Dr. Goldner is on the faculty of the NYU Post-doctoral Program in Psychoanalysis and Psychotherapy, the Stephen A Mitchell Center for Relational Psychoanalysis, and doctoral program in clinical psychology at C.U.N.Y.   She is the co-Editor of two books, Gender in Psychoanalytic Space with Muriel Dimen (Other Press; 2002), and Predatory Priests, Silenced Victims, with Mary Gail Frawley O’Dea (Routledge; 2007). Virginia has received awards for her Distinguished Contributions to psychoanalysis by Division 39 of the APA (2007), and to family therapy by the American Family Therapy Academy (1996). She is the author of numerous journal articles and book chapters, and is at work on a collection of her major papers. Dr. Goldner is in private practice in New York City.

Deborah Anna Luepnitz, Ph.D.

Dr. Luepnitz is on the clinical faculty of the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Pennsylvania School Of Medicine.  She is author of The Family Interpreted; Psychoanalysis, Feminism, and Family Therapy (1988) and Schopenhauer’s Porcupines: Intimacy and Its Dilemmas (2002).  Dr. Luepnitz maintains a private practice in Philadelphia and directs a pro bono psychoanalytic project with formerly homeless adults.  She was trained in both family systems theory and psychoanalysis.  Her main theoretical influences are Winnicott and Lacan.

Michael Zentman, Ph.D.

Dr. Zentman Is the founding director of the Adelphi Postgraduate Program in Marriage and Couple Therapy and an Associate Clinical Professor of Psychology in the Adelphi Postgraduate Program in Psychoanalysis and Psychotherapy.  He is on the faculty at The Training Institute for Mental Health and has a private practice in Centerport, L.I. and in Manhattan. He contributed the chapter, “Family Therapy” in Anxiety and Related Disorders: A Handbook, by Benjamin Wolman, M.D. & George Stricker, Ph.D.  Dr. Zentman has presented workshops and seminars on a variety of subjects including the treatment of disorganized and chaotic couples, integration of psychoanalytic and systemic couples theory and the intergenerational impact of Holocaust related trauma on clinical practice. 

NYC Blood Center
310 East 67th Street
New York, NY 10065

Saturday, May 8, 2010 from 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM (ET)

National Institute for the Psychotherapies Annual Conference

The National Institute for the Psychotherapies Training Institute is dedicated to providing psychoanalytic training for clinicians and comprehensive treatment for the community.