The Institute for Clinical Social Work is pleased to announce the formation of a psychodynamic clinical consultation group for Latinx therapists, with regular meetings beginning in October. This group will create a space for licensed psychodynamic (or those interested in psychodynamic and psychoanalytic theory) Latinx therapists to discuss clinical material.   The group will focus on contemporary articles focusing on how colonial mentality, racism, culture, language, and immigration shape our internal worlds, as well as those of our patients.

Our clinical consultation group was created to provide a network of mutual support for Latinx therapists, led by two of ICSW’s esteemed faculty members, who are each experts in their field.

Latinx therapists face unique challenges in their clinical practice, arising from both systemic issues and the specific needs of the communities they serve — from cultural representation to language barriers to systemic racism and discrimination. Guided by the insights of psychodynamic theory and readings, this group offers candid conversation, culturally relevant training, and engagement with diverse therapeutic literature.

As a participant, you will:

• Learn how race, class, political, economic and sociocultural factors contribute to your patients’ suffering 

• Learn how to identify your own racial biases and how these biases impact your work with patients

• Understand the importance of psychodynamic thinking for diverse clinical settings

Presenters: Merari Fernandez, PhD, LCSW and Ida Roldan, PhD, LCSW

Course Schedule: Wednesday, October 2, 2024, to June 2025 (13.5 hours)

Where: One meeting per month (VIA Zoom)

Time: 3:00 pm - 4:30 pm CST

Apply by September 18, 2024

Cost: $450 per person

CEUs are available for licensed Social Workers and Psychologists. 

Questions: Contact Elree Smith at esmith@icsw.edu

Questions: Contact Elree Smith at esmith@icsw.edu

Program Query: Contact Lou Pansulla at lpansulla@icsw.edu

Questions: Contact Elree Smith at esmith@icsw.edu

Program Query: Contact Lou Pansulla at lpansulla@icsw.edu

Questions: Contact Elree Smith at esmith@icsw.edu

Program Query: Contact Lou Pansulla at lpansulla@icsw.edu

Questions: Contact Elree Smith at esmith@icsw.edu

Program Query: Contact Lou Pansulla at lpansulla@icsw.edu

Questions: Contact Elree Smith at esmith@icsw.edu

Program Query: Contact Lou Pansulla at lpansulla@icsw.edu

Contact Elree C. Smith with questions about this event and for the student link: esmith@icsw.edu

Contact Elree C. Smith for student registration link: esmith@icsw.edu

Contact Elree C. Smith for student link or with questions: esmith@icsw.edu

Neuropsychoanalysis and Deepening the Understanding of Subjective Experience

Neuropsychoanalysis is an interdisciplinary field that supports dialogues among neuroscientists and psychodynamic clinicians. From the Neuropsychoanalysis Association (NPSA) website: “The brain is the organ of the mind. If we want to fully understand mental life, we must integrate the findings of neuroscience with all levels of the mind. Neuropsychoanalysis is interested in the neurobiological underpinnings of how we act, think, and feel.”

Individual, neurobiological differences shape each of our ways of perceiving, experiencing, and understanding. These aspects are often an overlooked area that shapes intrapsychic meaning. This presentation will review neurobiological underpinnings and explore child and adult clinical material to illustrate how neurodevelopmental information is useful in the clinical setting by expanding the understanding of a patient’s “experience of” and helping the therapist to empathize more fully with the patient’s experience.

Contact Elree C. Smith for student link or with questions: esmith@icsw.edu

Luminary Series Inaugural Presentation

Attachment Theory: Its Utility in Psychodynamic

Practice with Adults

John Bowlby’s theory of attachment at first was so controversial that he had to move his practice down the road from the Anna Freud Center in London, then the home of British psychoanalysis. Today attachment theory and its empirical base have a growing presence in clinical practice and popular psychology. Indeed, as Wachtel suggests, attachment theory can be thought of as a plural noun, which can make it difficult to know how to make the best use of it in psychodynamic work with adult clients.

This workshop is designed to give practitioners a clear understanding of Bowlby’s theory, its relation to later iterations, and a framework for using it in psychodynamic practice. The first half of the workshop with present the essence of the theory and Ainsworth’s and others’ perspective on security, insecurity, organization and disorganization, internal representations, along with examples of how these constructs are assessed in a research context. In the second half a framework for thinking about attachment related issues will be presented along with clinical case examples that show the applicability of attachment as well as its limitations.

Dr. Judith Solomon is internationally recognized for her pioneering research and theory-building on attachment and caregiving, including her discovery, with Mary Main, of the infant disorganized/disoriented attachment category. She conducted the first longitudinal study of infants in separated and divorced families and developed key representational measures of caregiving and child attachment, including the Caregiving Interview and the Attachment Doll Play Projective Assessment. Dr. Solomon is the first editor of Attachment Disorganization (1999) and Disorganized Attachment and Caregiving (2011). She was recently a Fulbright Visiting Professor at the University of Vienna, a Visiting Researcher in the Department of Public Health and Primary Care, Cambridge University, UK, and a 2018 recipient of the John Bowlby Award for Contributions to the Field of Attachment from the Bowlby Centre, London, UK.

Dr. Solomon also maintains a private clinical practice in Connecticut comprised of adults and parent-child relationships

It all begins with an idea. Maybe you want to launch a business. Maybe you want to turn a hobby into something more. Or maybe you have a creative project to share with the world. Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference.

It all begins with an idea. Maybe you want to launch a business. Maybe you want to turn a hobby into something more. Or maybe you have a creative project to share with the world. Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference.

It all begins with an idea. Maybe you want to launch a business. Maybe you want to turn a hobby into something more. Or maybe you have a creative project to share with the world. Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference.