2023 - 2024 East Bay Yearlong Program
Jan Chess, PhD, MFT, Chair
Graeme Daniels, LMFT and Elizabeth Stuart, MD, Committee Members
The Metaphorical Stepchildren of Psychoanalysis
In this course, we will explore areas that psychoanalytic literature, practice, and thinking have historically left out, dismissed, or given short shrift. We live in a modern era punctuated by violence perpetrated along the lines of gender, race, class, and nation, fractures within families and between countries, and the threat of climate disaster. Many people struggle in this environment, managing trauma that lives in the body somatically in many guises, substance abuse, alternate sexualities and gendered identities, psychosis, neurodiversity, and eating disorders. They call and come to us for help, and we do not always feel well- equipped to respond. In this course, we will look to psychoanalytic clinicians with expertise in these areas to help us to sit with these clients, using a psychoanalytic lens to deepen our understanding and create more meaning in our work together.
| Dates: | Fridays, October 20, 2023 – June 28, 2024 |
| Time: | 12:30pm – 02:00pm |
| Sessions: | 34 Sessions |
| Location: | Online via ZOOM |
| Program Fee: | $ 1,430.00 General Readers are not included in the program fee. See Policies tab for details. |
After the detox: a psychoanalytic approach to treating addictions
In the course, “After the detox: a psychoanalytic approach to teaching addictions” we will look at the concept of addiction through a psychoanalytic lens with an eye towards a long-term approach, in the context of a broader treatment field that often places emphasis upon short-term, crisis-oriented interventions despite the prevalence of patients presenting with chronic difficulties with chemical dependencies or process addictions. This course also observes that shorter-term approaches soften short-change understanding of addictive patterns, seeking to stabilize or contain destructive behavior but not fostering deeper knowledge of unconscious impulses or structural intrapsychic change. Through the works of Freud, Klein, Bion, Chasequet-Smirgel, to name a few, plus use of clinical vignettes provided by and invited by the instructor, this course will look at how to use analytic thinking to understand what addiction is and to discuss treatment approaches that support lasting sobriety.
Graeme Daniels, MFT
Fridays, October 20, 27; November 3, 10, 17; December 1, 2023
(no class on November 24, 2023)
Educational Objectives:
Upon completion of this activity, the learners will be able to:
- describe addiction from a psychoanalytic perspective.
- learn to integrate analytic thinking into 12-step philosophy.
- describe how the relationship between analyst and patient can support lasting sobriety.
- think of addictions as substitution symptoms reflecting psychic defenses, displacement and repetition compulsion.
- consider insight-oriented approach as complement to behavioral intervention.
Case Conference
In this five-week course, two participants will have the opportunity to present their clinical work to faculty and to their peers over 2-3 sessions. As a group, we will try to experience the hour almost as if we too have been in the room, listening, associating, and imagining something about the experience. Using our analytic listening, foregrounding our intuition, we will feel our way into the hour. Then as we weave together our associations, we will bring in the analytic canon as relevant to help us make sense of what’s happening and formulate something of the patient’s experience.
Elizabeth Stuart, MD
Fridays, December 8, 15, 22, 2023; January 12, 19, 2024
(no class on December 29, 2023 and January 5, 2024)
Educational Objectives:
Upon completion of this activity, the learners will be able to:
- cultivate analytic listening skills during a clinical hour. These include but are not limited to letting go of memory and desire, paying close attention to the start and end of the hour, noticing connections found in patient transitions, noticing slips of the tongue, being aware of non-verbal cues such as body language and tone, thinking deeply about breaches of the frame (i.e., time, money,) attending to the therapist’s own internal emotional, bodily and cognitive experience, thinking about transference and countertransference feelings or enactments.
- consider the here and now of a clinical encounter and think about its possible meaning.
- draw from the analytic literature to help weave together and make sense of a patient’s emotional experience.
When Words Fail and Bodies Speak: Psychoanalytic Treatment of Eating Disorders
This course will examine psychoanalytic conceptualization and treatment of eating disorders. We will explore these complex and confounding syndromes through multiple lenses: as failures of thought, with unthinkable thoughts becoming stuck in the body; as complex compromise formations tied to early relational experiences; as autistic defenses against intolerable anxieties; as dissociative disorders linked to early experiences of trauma and affective dysregulation; and as disorders of desire, clandestine love affairs marked by anticipation, excitement, secrecy, and disappointment, leaving emptiness in their wake. We will attend to the importance of gender, culture, and the role of the therapist’s body ni the treatment situation throughout.
Tom Wooldridge, PsyD
Fridays, January 26; February 2, 9, 16, 23; March 1, 2024
This seminar has been awarded a total of 9 CME/CE credits.
Educational Objectives:
Upon completion of this activity, the learners will be able to:
- discuss the central concepts in psychoanalytic thinking about the mind-body continuum and how those can be used as a lens for understanding the eating disordered patient’s struggle.
- describe how eating disorders can be understood from an object relations perspective, that is, as shaped by early relational experiences that have been internalized and now organize and give meaning to experiences in the present.
- explain how eating disordered symptomatology can serve as an autistic defense (i.e., as an aspect of mental functioning characterized by somatosensuous, protomental experience) within the personality of a non-autistic adult.
- discuss how eating disorders can be understood through the lens of affect regulation theory, dissociation and multiple self-states.
- examine psychoanalytic thinking about agency and desire and apply these ideas to the conceptualization of patient’s struggles with food and appetite.
- discuss the ways in which psychoanalytic theories of gender development illuminate the experience of eating disorders and body image concerns in both male and female patients.
Queerness & Psychoanalysis
Psychoanalysis, as a discipline, a theory of human development and as a clinical practice, has struggled, in parallel with the culture at large, with how to understand individuals whose sexual desires and gender expressions fall outside of mainstream societal expectations. To identify as queer, gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, gender fluid, gender expansive, non-binary, for example, positions that individual in the margins of society and psychoanalytic theory. Here I use the term “queer” as an inclusive designation to refer to individuals whose gendered and sexual identities fall within these margins.
In this 5-week seminar, we will review the historical underpinnings within psychoanalytic theory, along with the socio-cultural factors, that have fostered biased conceptualizations and misrepresentations of queerness. Drawing from the contemporary psychoanalytic literature on gender and sexualities, and contributions from queer theory, we will elaborate a clinical perspective that recognizes individuality in the queerness of the people we work with in psychotherapy.
Gary Grossman, PhD
Fridays, March 8, 15, 22, 29; April 5, 2024
This seminar has been awarded a total of 7.5 CME/CE credits.
Educational Objectives:
Upon completion of this activity, the learners will be able to:
- describe the fallacies in psychoanalytic theory that have contributed to biased conceptions of individuals who are not heterosexual or cisgendered.
- summarize the socio-cultural impact on psychological development in individuals whose adult identities fall within the spectrum of queer.
- describe a psychotherapeutic approach informed by psychoanalytic and queer theories.
- demonstrate the detrimental impact of historical biases toward gender and sexual orientation variance on psychoanalytic theory and clinical practice.
- critique existing psychoanalytic theories of sexual orientation and gender identity development.
Neurodiversity
“Neurodiversity” is a broad term that denotes that breadth and variation of human neuropsychological and neurodevelopmental profiles (aka “neurotypes”). Neurodivergent generally refers to a person with a neurotype that differs from the normative neurotype (neurotypical). This language is alive, in dialogue, and still working toward a clear definition of who is called “neurodivergent.” But, generally, and for thepurposes of this course, nuerodivergent will denote individuals who meet / may meet criteria for diagnosis of one or more of the neurodevelopmental disorders – e.g. autism, ADHD, and the specific learning disabilities.
Psychoanalytic theory of treatment of neurodivergent patients is relatively sparse, with contributions primarily focusing on autistic patients. This course will review selected theories of autistic patients from seminal psychoanalytic authors (e.g. Klein, Ogden, Tustin, Alvarez). This six-week segment wil critically examine historical theories for potential bias and clinical misattunement to the neurodivergent experience. It will also work to identify tools and trends in theory that can inform our present context.
Throughout the course, students will engage texts from contemporary autism research and from actually autistic individuals. This will allow for a rich dialogue between these bodies of work and identification of points of resonance and collaboration. Critical autism studies and contemporary trends in autism research raise interesting questions about core psychoanalytic concepts including: symbolic communication, play, the sensorium, empathy, and theory of mind.
Benjamin Morsa, PsyD
Fridays, April 12, 19, 26; May 3, 10, 17, 2024
This seminar has been awarded a total of 9 CME/CE credits.
Educational Objectives:
Upon completion of this activity, the learners will be able to:
- describe autistic objects and identify 2-3 links between these definitions and the recommendations for practice that follow.
- identify and describe fallacies and instances of authorial bias in selected psychoanalytic texts. Participants will consider the potential impact of these mindsets on contemporary clinical work.
- list and describe community-defined terms related to autistic experience including: stimming, masking/camouflaging, and burnout.
- analyze and critique psychoanalytic texts then apply ideas from autistic authors to identify 2-3 means of creating culturally responsive psychoanalytic practice.
- describe seminal formulations of autism (e.g., Tustin, Alvarez) by naming their theorization of 1) the causal nature of autism, 2) the impact of autism on the developing child and family, and 3) the role of the analyst in treating autistic children.
- define Yergeau’s concept of demi-rhetoricity and consider 3-4 examples from their clinical training of how this might manifest in clinical practice.
Embodiment: Implications and Meanings in Psychoanalytic Thought
This course surveys the topic of embodiment from various intersubjective and socio-cultural perspectives. We will explore the concept of Donnel Stern’s “embodied mind” and Peter Goldberg’s use of “psycho sensorial experience as a means to enlivenment”. A Buddhist perspective of the “body as a resonating, containing space to understand the unconscious” allows another vantage into the analytic and spiritual (Alfanto,2013). We will consider neurobiology and “bottom up” approaches to embodiment and the meaning of the skin’s surface and tattoos. Finally, we will take up the role of illness for the analyst and it’s impact on the clinician and patient.
Jan Chess, PhD, MFT
Fridays, May 24, 31; June 7, 14, 21, 28, 2024
This seminar has been awarded a total of 9 CME/CE credits.
Educational Objectives:
Upon completion of this activity, the learners will be able to:
- describe embodiment from an intersubjective perspective.
- utilize somatic approaches in their clinical practice.
- apply a social-cultural perspective of embodiment from two cultures.
- demonstrate two concepts of how trauma can affect the body.
- name two out comes from a therapist’s illness.
- demonstrate how to work from an analytic perspective with the issue of tatooing and skin alternation.
Readers Fee
Charges for reading material required for the seminars are not included in tuition. Your readers will be prepared by CopyCentral, and costs are based upon copyright laws and charge based on the content of the readers. The SFCP Office will inform you when your readers are available to be purchased from CopyCentral’s website. Please note that CopyCentral may take 2 weeks to print and mail the readers to you, so we recommend you to purchase them as soon as they become available.
Refund Fee
- There will be a full refund if one requests to drop the program on or before September 18, 2023.
- There will be a 10% cancellation fee if one requests to drop the program on or after September 19, 2023.
- There will be no refund of classes in progress, and SFCP will provide a pro-rated refund of tuition for classes not yet begun.
CME/CE Credits Fee
The CME/CE credits fee is $10 per credit for SFCP members or $15 per credit for non-SFCP members. SFCP has established a cap cost of $200 for credits requested per program. The cost of CME/CE credits is separate from the tuition fee and billed individually upon the request for credits at the end of the seminar.
CE Attendance Policy
Please see individual course listings for the number of CE credits awarded, if applicable. Courses offering CE credit meet the requirements for CE credit for Psychologists, LCSWs, LPCCs, LEPs, and MFTs.
APA requires psychologists and other mental health professionals participating in all programs, including in long-term programs (lecture series) to demonstrate 100% attendance in order to be eligible to obtain CE credit. All participants must sign in at the beginning of each class or program and sign out at the end of the class or program. If participants miss a class in a seminar that is part of a long term program, they may be eligible to do “make-up” work for the missed class. Participants can meet with the class via Zoom or another “face to face” platform, if they are unable to attend in person. Alternatively, they can arrange to meet with the instructor, in person, to make-up the instructional time or can engage with the instructor via the “face to face” technologies, i.e. Face-time, Duo, Zoom, or others. This work must be completed within two weeks of the end of a seminar. Credit for the seminar will be awarded once the instructor notifies the SFCP office the time has been made up and the participant completes a course evaluation. No variable credit will be awarded for partial attendance.
Accreditation Statement for CME/CE Sponsorship and Disclosure Statement
IMPORTANT DISCLOSURE INFORMATION FOR ALL LEARNERS: None of the planners and presenters for this educational activity have relevant financial relationship(s)* to disclose with ineligible companies* whose primary business is producing, marketing, selling, re-selling, or distributing healthcare products used by or on patients.
*Financial relationships are relevant if the educational content an individual can control is related to the business lines or products of the ineligible company.
—Updated July 2021—
For “After the detox: a psychoanalytic approach to treating addictions” seminar:
PHYSICIANS: This activity has been planned and implemented in accordance with the accreditation requirements and policies of the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education (ACCME) through the joint providership of American Psychoanalytic Association and San Francisco Center for Psychoanalysis. The American Psychoanalytic Association is accredited by the ACCME to provide continuing medical education for physicians.
The American Psychoanalytic Association designates this Live Activity for a maximum of 9 AMA PRA Category 1 Credit(s)™. Physicians should claim only the credit commensurate with the extent of their participation in the activity.
For “Case Conference” seminar:
PHYSICIANS: This activity has been planned and implemented in accordance with the accreditation requirements and policies of the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education (ACCME) through the joint providership of American Psychoanalytic Association and San Francisco Center for Psychoanalysis. The American Psychoanalytic Association is accredited by the ACCME to provide continuing medical education for physicians.
The American Psychoanalytic Association designates this Live Activity for a maximum of 7.5 AMA PRA Category 1 Credit(s)™. Physicians should claim only the credit commensurate with the extent of their participation in the activity.
For “When Words Fail and Bodies Speak: Psychoanalytic Treatment of Eating Disorders” seminar:
PHYSICIANS: This activity has been planned and implemented in accordance with the accreditation requirements and policies of the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education (ACCME) through the joint providership of American Psychoanalytic Association and San Francisco Center for Psychoanalysis. The American Psychoanalytic Association is accredited by the ACCME to provide continuing medical education for physicians.
The American Psychoanalytic Association designates this Live Activity for a maximum of 9 AMA PRA Category 1 Credit(s)™. Physicians should claim only the credit commensurate with the extent of their participation in the activity.
For “Queerness & Psychoanalysis” seminar:
PHYSICIANS: This activity has been planned and implemented in accordance with the accreditation requirements and policies of the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education (ACCME) through the joint providership of American Psychoanalytic Association and San Francisco Center for Psychoanalysis. The American Psychoanalytic Association is accredited by the ACCME to provide continuing medical education for physicians.
The American Psychoanalytic Association designates this Live Activity for a maximum of 7.5 AMA PRA Category 1 Credit(s)™. Physicians should claim only the credit commensurate with the extent of their participation in the activity.
For “Embodiment: Implications and Meanings in Psychoanalytic Thought” seminar:
PHYSICIANS: This activity has been planned and implemented in accordance with the accreditation requirements and policies of the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education (ACCME) through the joint providership of American Psychoanalytic Association and San Francisco Center for Psychoanalysis. The American Psychoanalytic Association is accredited by the ACCME to provide continuing medical education for physicians.
The American Psychoanalytic Association designates this Live Activity for a maximum of 9 AMA PRA Category 1 Credit(s)™. Physicians should claim only the credit commensurate with the extent of their participation in the activity.
PSYCHOLOGISTS: The San Francisco Center for Psychoanalysis is approved by the American Psychological Association to sponsor continuing education for psychologists. The San Francisco Center for Psychoanalysis maintains responsibility for this program and its content.
Psychologists attending SFCP events approved for CE credits may report AMA PRA Category 1 Credit(s)™ toward their CE requirements. Psychologists self-certify the number of hours they have completed on their renewal form (whether online or paper).
LCSWs/MFTs: The San Francisco Center for Psychoanalysis is a continuing education provider that has been approved by the American Psychological Association, a California Board of Behavioral Sciences recognized approval agency
Psychologists, Social Workers, and Marriage and Family Therapists will be awarded AMA PRA Category 1 Credit(s)™ on an hour for hour basis; see the program description for the maximum of credits awarded for each program.
Commercial Support: None