Oregon Psychoanalytic Center
Four Thursdays, May 20, 27, June 3, 10
7 – 8:30pm
CME Credits: 6
Fee: $150; Member Fee: $135

The experience of conception, pregnancy, birth and caring for a young child is a period of enormous change and psychological growth.  The mother’s early pre-verbal experiences of being mothered come closer to consciousness stimulated by the daily experiences with her own child.  This offers an opportunity for the new mother to master specific developmental tasks and new aspects of identification with her own mother.  In this course, we will consider various psychoanalytic perspectives on the developmental processes involved with becoming a mother, with particular attention to the contributions made by the field of infant observation, and the overlap between maternal functions and the therapist’s clinical functions.  We will explore primitive states as they may be experienced by the child, as they may be evoked in the parent by the child, and similarly as they may be experienced by the patient and the therapist in relation to the patient.  A variety of contemporary psychoanalytic perspectives will be discussed and the class will consider the similarity between maternal and clinical functions of containment, emotion regulation and providing a mentalizing function.  Weekly readings, along with case vignettes from participants and instructors will be used to guide discussion.

Kate Donchi, LMFT, is a psychotherapist in private practice treating children, adolescents and adults.  She is Co-Chair of the Family Development Committee at the Oregon Psychoanalytic Center.

Amy Reiss, PhD, is a psychologist in private practice treating children, adolescents, adults, couples and families.  She is a member of the Family Development Committee of the Oregon Psychoanaltyic Center and a Board Member of the Columbia River Eating Disorders Network.  Dr. Reiss has also taught in the Institute of the Oregon Psychoanalytic Center.

 



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