Strategic Emotional Involvement: What Do We Do With Countertransference
9:00 a.m. – 4:00 p.m. • 6.0 C.E. Hours

COURSE DESCRIPTION

What do we do with countertransference? Dr. Hedges pushes intersubjectivity and countertransference to the cutting edge. He shows why therapists must allow their own emotional responses to inform and guide them in the two-person interplay of the therapeutic encounter. He provides insight into how therapists may avail themselves of the countertransference more fully, tactfully and effectively. This intermediate course will be filled with courageous and moving stories of countertransference entanglements as reported by numerous different therapists, and will feature a workshop experience in which participants will have an opportunity to present and discuss some of their own countertransference experiences.

TESTIMONIALS

Here are some comments about the program taken from recent course evaluations:

Presenter's genuine investment in work.—LCSW, June 13, 2004

TOPICS

•  An overview of transference, resistance and countertransference when viewed intersubjectively.
•  An overview of the central concepts in relational psychotherapy.
•  Numerous case vignettes illustrating the four major kinds of countertransference and counter-resistance.
•  Workshop opportunities for reporting countertransference dilemmas to colleagues for discussion.

GOALS

At the conclusion of this program you should be better able to:

• Recognize and use countertransference responsiveness.
• Identify four developmental types of transference and the kinds of countertransference they stimulate.
• Recognize and work with resistance and counter-resistance in treatment.

SPEAKER PROFILE

Lawrence E. Hedges, Ph.D., ABPP is a Psychologist (#PSY 3567) and Psychoanalyst in private practice specializing in the training of psychotherapists and psychoanalysts. He is a Diplomate in Clinical Psychology from the American Board of Professional Psychology, the director of the Listening Perspectives Study Center and the founding director of the Newport Psychoanalytic Institute. He is the author of numerous publications on the practice of psychoanalytic psychotherapy, including the following texts Listening Perspectives in Psychotherapy, Interpreting the Countertransference, Strategic Emotional Involvement, Working the Organizing Experience, and Remembering, Repeating & Working Through Childhood Trauma. His books on professional issues, ethics, and risk management in psychotherapy include Therapists at Risk and Facing the Challenge of Liability in Psychotherapy: Practicing Defensively.