Downloads: Guide to Programs (PDF), Registration Form (PDF)

All events take place at OPC unless otherwise indicated. Directions to OHSU.

Registration Policies.

Case Conference for Advanced Graduate Students
REGISTER (pdf)
Six sessions will be devoted to following one or two cases of participants from process notes. Key concepts of psychoanalytic therapy will be discussed through detailed clinical material. This course is designed for advanced graduate students in psychology or social work (i.e. within 2 years of graduation) and unlicensed graduates who wish to learn about or expand their knowledge of psychoanalytic therapy. Two participants will be asked to present case material and all participants will be encouraged to question and discuss the clinical material.

Peter Armstrong, PhD & Kathy Reicker, LCSW
Dates, times & location to be determined upon consultation with registrants. Please contact OPC office for more details. 7.5 cme’s. FREE for students & members of OPC.

Psychoanalytic Complexity: A New Worldview for Psychoanalysis and
Psychotherapy
REGISTER (pdf)
Complexity theory, a cutting-edge perspective heretofore relegated to disciplines such as physics, molecular biology, and meteorology, has infiltrated psychoanalysis and psychotherapy and is now revolutionizing our ideas about the emergence and transformation of emotional life. This perspective offers a richer paradigm in understanding and engaging in the unique experiential world of each individual and the means by which we can convey a deeper respect for the complexity of human experiencing in general. It profoundly alters our conceptualizations of human development, psychopathology, relationality, and the process of change.

Psychoanalytic complexity is concerned with the emergence and patterning of emotional experience from the self-organization and cooperation of many parts, with the conditions necessary to produce adaptive change, and with the process of making meaning out of apparent randomness. It highlights the process by which the “rules” of human relating change as a result of the “play” and posits a vision of the clinical narrative as an emergent property and product of the larger relational and historical system of which each of us is an integral constituent.

A complexity perspective substantially redefines our understanding of central psychoanalytic themes such as personal agency, autonomy, individuality, fatedness, emotional responsibility, trauma, and essential notions about what is true and real. This presentation will include a thorough exploration of the fundamentals of complexity theory, as well as its application to our understanding of human relating, emotional experience, meaning-making, and therapeutic action and change. It will be augmented by clinical examples and slide and video presentations.

William Coburn, PhD, PsyD is a clinical psychologist and psychoanalyst, practicing in West Los Angeles, California. He id Editor-in-Chief of the International Journal of Psychoanalytic Self-Psychology and is an Editorial Board Member of Psychoanalytic Inquiry. He is a Faculty Member and Senior Training and Supervising Analyst at the Institute of Contemporary Psychoanalysis in Los Angeles, an Advisory Board Member of the International Association for Relational Psychoanalysis and Psychotherapy (IARPP) and an Editorial Board Member of Revista Italiana Telematica di Psicologia Psicoanalitica del se Intersoggettivita Psicoanalisa Relazionale. The recipient of the 1999 Daphne S. Stolorow Memorial Essay Award and the 2000 Karl A. Menninger Memorial Essay Award, he has published and presented numerous articles on countertransference, intersubjectivity, supervision, contextualism, and complexity theory.

Saturday, September 27, OHSU Old Library Auditorium, 3181 SW Sam Jackson Park Road, Portland, 9am-4pm. 6 cme’s. $150.

To Say Or Not To Say: Self Disclosure, and the Therapist Vulnerability
to Being Seen
REGISTER (pdf)
This seminar will explore the controversies and debates around the important topic of self disclosure in psychotherapy and the related topic of the therapist’s vulnerability to being seen. The shift in the field of psychoanalysis from a primarily intrapsychic model to an intersubjective / relational model requires us to reformulate our thinking about self disclosure. The wide array of theoretical perspectives as well as difficulties in defining what is meant by self disclosure, calls for further inquiry. As therapist and patient are always engaged at both a conscious and unconscious level, it may be an illusion to think we always have control over what we disclose. We tell about ourselves not only in our words but also through our non-verbal communications, our therapeutic style, our physical self-presentations and our office spaces. Unsolicited and unexamined self disclosure may cause harm to our patients and to us. The challenge is to recognize the complexities related to the therapist’s use of subjectivity, the nature of the patient’s desire for authentic contact, and the necessity of keeping the patient’s experience and internal world in the foreground of the therapeutic encounter. This workshop will be interactive and readings will be assigned.

Carol Stuart, PsyD & Gerald Fogel, MD
5 Thursdays: October 2, 9, 16, 23, 30. 7-8:30pm. 7.5 cme’s. $185.

Desire and the Other: Externalism and Drive Theory in Lacan
and Laplanche
REGISTER (pdf)
Lacan and Laplanche took a perspective on Freud’s instinctual drives and human desire that led psychoanalysts not only to the looking glass (and Lacan’s “mirror stage”), but all the way through it. What we once thought we understood began to seem not only up-side-down, but also in-side-out. These ideas brought new life to psychoanalytic clinical understanding, as well as to a variety of other areas of discourse, including literary criticism, film studies, philosophy, and feminism. Integrating these perspectives has not always been easy. We have found that discussing them and their wide-ranging applicability in a small group format, using some of their original writings as a springboard, has been useful in finding our bearings in the de-centered world explored by these seminal French analysts beyond the looking glass.

Ralph Beaumont, MD & Matt Carges, LMFT
6 Wednesdays: October15, November19, December 17, February 18, March 18, April 15. 7-9pm. 12 cme’s. $300

Ethics
REGISTER (pdf)
This year’s two sessions of two hours each will focus on the interface between personal ethics and professional ethics. We will consider how to practice psychotherapy / psychology ethically as well as how to think about ethical issues psychologically. Another focus will be to sort out the clinical, legal and ethical aspects through the sharing of case material that participants bring to the discussion. Several readings will be supplied. This course is designed to meet the psychology continuing education and ethics requirement.

Michal Drabanski, MA, MS, LPC & Jeffrey Sher, PsyD
2 Thursdays: November 13, November 20. 7-9pm. 4 cme’s. $100

Infant Observation, The Tavistock Model: The Process and Implications for
its Clinical Applications
REGISTER (pdf)
The presentation will provide an introduction to infant observation by modeling how infant observers and group participants learn from their own experience about the development of the infant’s internal emotional world. The process of observing an infant for a year provides a unique opportunity to learn about childhood development as it is happening. The evolution of the earliest relationships with parents, siblings, and others in the natural surroundings can be seen in all its complexity. The baby’s own experience, its efforts to hold itself together, to develop trust, to hold good internal images/moments and to develop symbols can all be seen. The observation provides an opportunity for the cultivation of an emotional openness to the earliest and most primitive anxieties of the infant, mother, and the observer. Duane Dale, MD, Oregon Psychoanalytic Faculty member and local psychoanalyst, will be a formal discussant for this program.

Join us from 6:00-7:00 p.m. for a reception prior to the program! Hors d’oeuvres and wine will be served, complementary of OPC.

Thomas C. Saunders, MSW, LICSW is a psychoanalytic psychotherapist, supervisor and consultant, who has a private practice in Mill Creek, Washington, working with children, adolescents and adults. He co-ordinates the Infant Observation Training for the Center for Object Relations in Seattle. He is the Clinical Director of the Seattle area A Home Within project (a program to meet the emotional needs of foster children and youth). He has a particular interest in the analytic holding/containing of the most primitive emotional anxieties in work with children and adults.

Friday, December 5, at OHSU Old Library Auditorium, 3181 SW Sam Jackson Park Road, Portland. 6-7pm: Reception. 7-9pm: Program. 2 cme’s. $50.

To Sleep, Perchance: The Clinical Use of Dreams in Psychotherapy
and Psychoanalysis
REGISTER (pdf)
Dreams are not only the royal road to the unconscious, but they are also deep modes of communication and connection between psychotherapist and patient. In our attention to our patient’s dreams we convey an interest in and respect for their most private experiences. In this series of classes we will be addressing how to invite dreams into our clinical hours and to work with them in a way that deepens the therapeutic process. We will conduct this class as a case conference focused on dreams, with participants’ clinical experiences with dreams as a central focus.

Candace Young, PhD
4 Thursdays: January 15, 22, 29, February 5. 7-8:30pm. 6 cme’s. $150

The Black Man and the Mermaid: Desire and Disruption in the Analytic Relationship
REGISTER (pdf)
Erotic feeling in the female clinical dyad (whether delicate or bold) forms an intricate tapestry for exploration. This paper traces subtle yet powerful elements in the transition from preoedipal life into unfolding oedipal situations where separate erotic strands are richly interwoven. Examined at the level of unconscious fantasy, the oedipal recognition of “threeness” as a traumatic disruption is seen to have a quality of sudden shock experienced as an assault on (dyadic) “reality.” Attention will be directed to the impact of the desexualization of the maternal figure (including the female analyst) on the development of female passion. The focus on maternal sexual subjectivity is extended to include consideration of women as subjects (versus objects) of beauty. Betsy Iannuccillo, LCSW, Oregon Psychoanalytic Center faculty member and local psychoanalyst, will be a formal discussant for this program.

Dianne Elise, PhD is a Supervising and Personal Analyst and Faculty Member of the Psychoanalytic Institute of Northern California. She is an Associate Editor of Studies in Gender and Sexuality and on the Editorial Board of the Journal of the American Psychoanalytic Association. Dr. Elise has written a series of papers over two decades examining gendered aspects of early developmental experiences both preoedipal and oedipal. Proffering trenchant critiques of traditional analytic theorizing, she has consistently challenged conventional accounts of development. Nationally recognized for her innovative contributions to the psychoanalytic literature on gender and sexuality, she presents complex theorizing in a lively and accessible manner.

Saturday, February 21, OHSU Old Library Auditorium, 3181 SW Sam Jackson Park Road, Portland. 10am-1pm. 3 cme’s. $75.

Mind Meeting Brain: Applications of Contemporary Neuroscience Research
to Psychodynamic Psychotherapy
REGISTER (pdf)
Psychoanalysis, described by neuroscientist Eric Kandel as “the most coherent and intellectually satisfying view of the mind”, is being reinvigorated by the rapidly advancing insights of neuroscience research. This course reviews new knowledge in neuroscience that has applicability to psychoanalytic understanding and practice. The course will cover selected topics relevant to psychodynamic psychotherapy: emotions and affect regulation, psychological defenses, applications of infant research to the therapeutic relationship, and language and cognition. The course will conclude with instructors’ “neuropsychoanalytic” case presentations.

Lee Shershow, MD & Nancy Winters, MD
5 Thursdays: February 26, March 5, 12, 19, April 2; 7-8:30pm. 7.5 cme’s. $185

Narcissism
REGISTER (pdf)
Therapeutic action and the transformation of a person’s restricted emotional capacity to one of greater richness depends on the affective engagement between therapist and patient. Two paths toward affective engagement are considered in this talk. They are empathic understanding, and meeting or violating expectations.

Our understanding of narcissism and related self pathology as well as our knowledge of how empathy develops in human beings have been enhanced by the study of self and interactive regulation in social exchanges between mothers and infants. Empathy will first be considered from the perspective of its developmental precursors, for example the non-conscious role of facial displays and vocal rhythm; and, second, with respect to the cognition necessary for empathic understanding and therapeutic action.

The specific impact of empathic understanding derives, in part, from the role of expectations in development and in treatment. Empathic understanding engages therapist and patient because it meets and may even surpass what the patient anticipates in a relational encounter. Meeting, surpassing, or violating such expectations can lead to a positive experience for both patient and therapist. Violations of expectations have a powerful effect that ranges from humorous surprises to violence and murder. Both of these extremes will be illustrated, the latter through the home videos made by the parents of a young boy who became a mass murderer. All of these concepts are illustrated and augmented by case material and film clips.

Frank M. Lachmann, PhD is a psychoanalyst in private practice in New York. He is a member of the Founding Faculty of the Institute for the Psychoanalytic Study of Subjectivity, New York, and Clinical Assistant Professor at the New York University Postdoctoral Program in Psychotherapy and Psychoanalysis. He has lectured and supervised candidates in analytic training at institutes in the United States, Canada, and in Europe. He is author or co-author of more than 100 publications, author of Transforming Aggression: Psychotherapy with the Difficult-to-Treat Patient (Aronson, 2000), co-author with Joseph Lichtenberg and James Fosshage of Self and Motivational Systems (Analytic Press, 1992), The Clinical Exchange: Techniques Derived from Self and Motivational Systems (Analytic Press, 1996) and A Spirit of Inquiry: Communication in Psychoanalysis (Analytic Press, 2002), and co-author with Beatrice Beebe of Infant Research and Adult Treatment: Co-Constructing Interactions (Analytic Press, 2002). This presentation is derived from several chapters from his book, Transforming Narcissism: Reflections on Empathy, Humor, and Expectations (Analytic Press, 2008).

Saturday, May 9, OHSU Old Library Auditorium, 3181 SW Sam Jackson Park Road, Portland. 9am-4pm. 6 cme’s. $150

continuing medical education
These activities have been planned and implemented in accordance with the Essentials Areas and Policies of the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education (ACCME) through the joint sponsorship of The American Psychoanalytic Association and the Oregon Psychoanalytic Institute. The American Psychoanalytic Association is accredited by the ACCME to provide continuing medical education for physicians and takes responsibility for the content, quality, and scientific integrity of this CME activity. The American Psychoanalytic Association designates these educational activities on an hour for hour basis in category 1 credit towards the AMA Physician’s Recognition Award. Each physician should claim only those hours of credit that he/she actually spent in the educational activity. Disclosure information is on record indicating that participating faculty members have no significant financial relationships to disclose.
These CME credits will usually satisfy requirements for social worker CEU’s and psychologist CE’s. However, clinicians should consult their respective state licensing boards for final approval.

REGISTRATION POLICIES

Registration Due Date & Registration Fees
Class participants are asked to register no later than 10 days before the program. Late registrations (except for Special Friday Evening Programs) will be charged an additional $10.

Discounts for Continuing Education Programs
Members of OPC can deduct 10% from their registration fees.
Students and Residents can deduct 50% from their registration fees.
Only one form of discount can be used for each registration.

OPC Continuing Education Refund Policy
It is OPC’s policy to refund class fees, minus a $10 service charge, if the cancellation is received five business days in advance. Alternately, the class fee may be applied to another class or program without being subject to the $10 service charge, if specifically requested by the registrant. There is no refund for missed classes or programs.

Materials Fee
Registrants for Continuing Education courses may be charged a minimum of $5.00 to cover the costs of reading materials.

Non-Discrimination Policy
OPC maintains a non-discriminatory policy with regard to race, color, religion, national origin, sex, age, disability, sexual orientation, or marital or parental status in admissions, employment, and access to programs.

Last updated 09/13/2008