TRICKY PROBLEMS IN ANALYTIC THERAPIES AND THEIR SOLUTIONS

LIVE VIRTUAL SEMINAR with JEROME S. BLACKMAN, M.D., FIPA
JUNE 24th (11AM — 5PM EDT/NYC), 2023
To Register for this workshop, please complete the Registration form
Continuing Education Information: Pending

SEMINAR DESCRIPTION:

Therapists inevitably feel more gratified in their work when their cases have better treatment outcomes. Even when people can utilize interpretive (psychoanalytically based) approaches in therapy, many problems crop up which can make their treatment difficult.

This interactive seminar delves into many of those problems, including 1) timing of interventions; 2) the male “Yes, Dear!”; 3) bullies (who demand medication or ask personal question about you); 4) highly intelligent people who doubt your ability to keep up; 5) wealthy people; 6) people asking too few questions during evaluation (Blackman, 2004); 7) asking too many question during treatment (Dorpat, 2000); 8) people with vague chief complaints; 8) setting up the working alliance and the therapeutic alliance (Greenson, Zetzel, Adatto – see Blackman, 2013); 9) planes of intrapsychic conflict: where to intervene; past vs. present unconscious (Sandler & Sandler, 1994); 10) people with high suicide risk (multiple references including Durkheim an Shneidman – in Blackman, 2004, chapter 8); 11) promiscuous people (acter-outers); 12) people who are involved with someone who is driving them crazy (Blackman, 2013a).

Many of these are in Blackman (2013), The Therapist’s Answer Book: Solutions to 101 Tricky Problems in Psychotherapy. This book tackles 101 common and some uncommon (though interesting) problems therapists face in treating patients who are amenable to a psychoanalytically based approach, such as wise guys, patients who sleep with your secretary, people who figure you out, people who move your furniture, and suicidal people. Each chapter is 3 to 5 pages and contains both a short answer to the problem and a longer, more theoretically complex answer. All chapters include examples of techniques used in the clinical setting with representative patients.

Readings in preparation to this seminar (mandatory for those obtaining the CEs) — will be sent to the registered participants in PDF formats.

SCHEDULE OF THE DAY :

June 24, 2023

11am – 2pm – Morning session
2pm — 2:30pm — LUNCH
2:30pm — 5pm – Afternoon session

Readings in preparation to this seminar (mandatory for those obtaining the CEs) — will be sent to the registered participants in PDF formats.

LEARNING OBJECTIVES:

After completing this seminar, participants should be better able to

  • Identify and utilize character confrontation and dynamic interpretation when dealing with aggressive people who bully the therapist and others.
  • Respond with answers or interpretations to patients who ask questions of the therapist, based on the appropriateness of the questions and how invasive they are. [Invasiveness often involves the patient using projective identification, which should be interpreted. How to do this will be illustrated.]
  • Interpret the superciliousness or poor-mouthing used by wealthy people to defend against mistrust, shame, guilt, and hostility.
  • Establish a therapeutic alliance with highly intelligent people by demonstrating superior knowledge about psychodynamics and confronting the patients’ intellectualization defenses.
  • Utilize friendly confrontation to help passive people develop mentalization about their character defense, and what is being warded off.
  • Gauge the suicide risk in any person who threatens suicide or who has attempted it.  A wide range of demographic, statistical, diagnostic, and psychoanalytically generated data will then help the therapist choose the most therapeutic interventions.
  • Select the appropriate psychosexual developmental level of the patient to craft interventions and interpretation of their compromise formations within that psychosexual level, thereby avoiding the “genetic fallacy.”

RECOMMENDED READINGS:

Blackman, J. S. (2013). The therapist’s answer book: Solutions to 101 tricky problems in psychotherapy. Routledge.

17 Questions to which the answers are needed during evaluation. (Many of these are in Blackman, 2013).

Reading correlations (Problem # refers to the chapter in the Therapist’s Answer Book)

  • Timing of interventions: Problem 2 (2 pages); Problem 101a (4 pages);
  • The male “Yes, Dear!”: Problem 24 (2 pages);
  • Bullies (who demand medication or ask personal question about you): Problem 21 (5 pages);
  • Highly intelligent people (who doubt your ability to keep up) Problem 17 (4 pages)
  • Wealthy people: Problem 16 (3 pages);
  • Asking too few questions during evaluation (Blackman, 2004);
  • Asking too many questions during treatment (Dorpat, 2000);
  • People with vague chief complaints: Problem 4 (4 pages);
  • Setting up the working alliance and the therapeutic alliance (Greenson, Zetzel, Adatto – see Blackman, 2013), Section B introduction and Problem 3 (3 pages)
  • Planes of intrapsychic conflict: where to intervene; past vs. present unconscious (Sandler & Sandler, 1994): Problem 8 (5 pages);
  • People with high suicide risk (multiple references including Durkheim and Shneidman – in Blackman, 2004, chapter 8); also: Problem 62 (9 pages);
  • Promiscuous people (acter-outers): Problem 30 (4 pages);
  • People who are involved with someone who is driving them crazy (Blackman,2013a): Problem 96 (3 pages);
  • 17 questions to which answers are necessary during evaluation (Blackman, not yet unpublished in English). A developmental view of stages in the supervision of psychoanalytic therapies. (Attached and sent to registrants). [Blackman, J. (2019). A developmental view of stages in the supervision of psychoanalytic therapies. Journal of Shanghai Mental Health Center 2(3), 162–167.]
  • Asking too many questions during psychotherapy (Blackman, 2004, Chapter 6);
  • People who bring their own drinks to the office: Problem 54 (5 pages).

About the book:

This book is designed to help them achieve that by providing practical solutions to problems that arise in psychotherapy, such as the following: Do depressed people need an antidepressant, or psychotherapy alone? How do you handle people who want to be your “friend,” who touch you, who won’t leave your office, or who break boundaries? How do you prevent people from quitting treatment prematurely? Suppose you don’t like the person who consults you? What if people you treat with cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) don’t do their homework? When do you explain defense mechanisms, and when do you use supportive approaches? Award-winning professor Jerome S. Blackman answers these and many other tricky problems for psychotherapists. Dr. Blackman punctuates his lively text with tips and snippets of various theories that apply to psychotherapy. He shares his advice and illustrates his successes and failures in diagnosis, treatment, and supervision. He highlights fundamental, fascinating, and perplexing problems he has encountered over decades of practicing and supervising therapy.

SHORT BIO:

Professor Jerome Blackman is a psychiatrist and a psychoanalyst (certified by the American Psychoanalytic Association, the American Board of Psychoanalysis, the Council of Independent Psychoanalytic Societies, and the International Psychoanalytic Association). He has been in private practice since 1975 and is currently a Professor of Clinical Psychiatry at Eastern Virginia Medical School in Norfolk, Virginia. He is also an IPA Training and Supervising Analyst with the Contemporary Freudian Society in Washington, DC.

Dr. Blackman was the 12th Recipient of Akhtar-Brenner Lectureship Award from Sidney Kimmel Medical College of Thomas Jefferson University in 2017 where he lectured on the Expanded Mental Status Assessment. He was an invited lecturer at Mount Sinai Icahn School of Medicine Department of Psychotherapy in 2017, where he lectured on Differential Diagnosis and Redefinition of Masochism.

The Jerome S Blackman, MD [yearly] Lectureship in Psychoanalysis was established in his honor, in 2019, by the Virginia Psychoanalytic Society and Eastern Virginia Medical School. At the Naval Medical Center Portsmouth (VA), the Jerome S Blackman MD Teacher of the Year Award was given to 25 different teachers from 1992–2016. He received the Edith Sabshin MD Award for Teaching from the American Psychoanalytic Association.

Early in his career, while in child psychoanalytic training at the New Orleans Psychoanalytic Institute, he consulted to many Child Protection Centers. Based on his experiences, in 2016 he co-authored Sexual Aggression against Children:  Pedophiles’ and Abusers’ Development, Dynamics, Treatability, and the Law (Routledge) with Dr. Kathleen Dring. In 2023, they wrote Developmental Evaluation of Children and Adolescents: A Psychodynamic Guide (Routledge).

In 2003, his paper on countertransference was published in the Psychoanalytic Quarterly. He later published several book chapters on topics including stepparenting, porn addiction, the first year of life, laziness, shame, philandering, fear of injury, and the death of the analyst.

He has lectured at many universities in China, as well as psychoanalytic institutes and universities in the U.S. and worldwide.  From 2018–2021, he was appointed Distinguished Professor of Mental Health at Shanxi Medical University in Taiyuan. He was a keynote speaker at the 6th and 7th China Psychoanalytic Association Congresses in Shanghai (2019 & 2021) regarding child development and developmental issues in supervision; he received the “High End Foreign Talent” Honor from Shanxi Province in 2018.

CONTINUING EDUCATION:

Titles:

Joint Accreditation Statement

In support of improving patient care, this activity has been planned and implemented by Amedco LLC and Object Relations Institute for Psychotherapy & Psychoanalysis (ORIPP).  Amedco LLC is jointly accredited by the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education (ACCME), the Accreditation Council for Pharmacy Education (ACPE), and the American Nurses Credentialing Center (ANCC), to provide continuing education for the healthcare team.

Psychologists (APA) Credit Designation

This course is co-sponsored by Amedco and Object Relations Institute for Psychotherapy & Psychoanalysis.  Amedco is approved by the American Psychological Association to sponsor continuing education for psychologists.  Amedco maintains responsibility for this program and its content.  13.75 hours.

The following state boards accept courses from APA providers for Counselors: AK, AL, AR, AZ, CA, CO, CT, DC, DE, FL, GA, HI, IA, ID, IL, IN, KS, KY, MD, ME, MO, NC, ND, NH, NE, NJ, NM, NV, OK*, OR, PA, RI, SC, SD, TN, TX, UT, VA, WI, WY
MI: No CE requirements.
*OK: Accepts APA credit for live, in-person activities but not for ethics and/or online courses.
The following state boards accept courses from APA providers for MFTs:
AK, AR, AZ, CA, CO, CT, DE, FL, GA, IA, ID, IN, KS, MD, ME, MO, NE, NC, NH, NJ, NM, NV, OK*, OR, PA, RI, SC, SD, TN, TX, UT, VA, WA, WI, WY
AL MFTs: Credits authorized by NBCC or any other state licensing agency will be accepted.
MA MFTs: Participants can self-submit courses not approved by the MAMFT board for review.
The following state boards accept courses from APA providers for Addictions Professionals: AK, AR, CO, CT, DC, DE, GA, IA, IN, KS, LA, MD, MO, MT, NC, ND, NE, NJ, NM, NY (held outside NY ONLY), OK*, OR, SC, UT, WA, WI, WY
The following state boards accept courses from APA providers for Social Workers:
AK, AR, AZ, CA, CO, DE, FL, GA, ID, IN, KY, ME, MN, MO, NE, NH, NM, OR, PA, VT, WI, WY

New York Board for Social Workers (NY SW)

Amedco SW CPE is recognized by the New York State Education Department’s State Board for Social Work as an approved provider of continuing education for licensed social workers #0115. 13.75 hours.

New York Board for Psychology (NY PSY)

Amedco is recognized by the New York State Education Department’s State Board for Psychology as an approved provider of continuing education for licensed psychologists #PSY-0031. 13.75 hours.

To receive CE certificates for the actual hours attended – please request them at the time of registration or any time prior to beginning of the conference. CE certificate fee: $25 (in addition to the registration fees). No fees charged for PD (Professional Development) certificates from ORI.

REGISTRATION AND FEES:

Early Bird registration (before May 23rd, 2023)
$60 regular/ $45 grad students & candidates/ $20 undergrad students.
If CEs are requested — please use the “regular” registration (not a “student”) option. There is an additional fee of $25 (can be paid prior or on the day of the conference).

Regular registration (from May 23rd – til June 23rd, 2023 — before 6pm EDT)
$75 regular/ $55 grad students & candidates/ $25 undergrad students.
If CEs are requested — please use the “regular” registration (not a “student”) option. There is an additional fee of $25 (can be paid prior or on the day of the conference).

Registration ‘at the door’ (after 6pm EDT/NYC time on June 23rd, 2023)
$90 regular/ $65 grad students & candidates/ $30 undergrad students.

Please Note: If CEs are requested — there is an additional fee of $25 (can be paid on the day of the conference or in advance).

SPECIAL SCHOLARSHIPS are available for undergraduate and graduate students, as well as for retired or disabled practitioners, or need-based or/and those who live outside of the USA.

CANCELLATION POLICY:
Full refund before the date of the event.
No refund from the day of the event, but full paid tuition will be applied to any further ORI events.

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