Introduction to Seminars and Faculty

At this meeting we will provide an overview of our program for the year, and introduce all of the instructors, who, in turn, will introduce their classes.

Tina Lapides, L.C.S.W., Member, Child Psychoanalyst and Faculty, SFCP
Wednesday, September 7, 2011

Review of Psychodynamic Techniques and Principles: How Does Child Psychotherapy Work?

In this course we will review basic psychoanalytic treatment concepts as they pertain to children. We will introduce a conceptual framework within which it is possible to understand the often confusing clinical data of child therapy. We will emphasize the function of play as the vehicle for gathering clinical data and to communicate with our child patients. We will use clinical examples and reading to highlight central psychodynamic concepts.

Phyllis Cath, M.D., Member and Faculty, SFCP
Graeme Hanson, M.D., Previous Director of Training, Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Langley Porter Institute, UCSF
Wednesdays: September 14, 21; October 5, 12, 2011
6 CME/CE credits available

Educational objectives:

1. Participants will be able to recognize, articulate and facilitate the use of play in normal development.
2. Participants will improve their ability to use play techniques in psychotherapy.
3. Participants will be able to describe how psychodynamic principles are applied in child psychotherapy.

Nursery Rhymes and Rhythms: Psychoanalytic Perspectives on Infancy

This seminar will explore the infants of various psychoanalytic thinkers including Freud, Winnicott, Bion, and Klein. We will consider earliest child development, and the states of body and mind of babies and their caregivers through vivid descriptions of infant observation, and discuss clinical and theoretical implications for child and adult psychotherapy.

Celeste Schneider, Ph.D., Affiliate Member and Associate Faculty, SFCP
Wednesdays: October 19, 26; November 2, 9, 2011
6 CME/CE credits available

Educational objectives:

1. Participants will be able to describe early affective and mental states of infants through case material.
2. Participants will be able to explore the interrelations between the emotionally vivid interactions between caregivers and infants and work in the consulting room with child and adult patients.
3. Participants will be able to compare theoretical perspectives on infant observation.

Normal Infant Development and Research

This seminar will begin with an overview of attachment theory and research. We will examine infant research from the perspectives of Peter Fonagy's object relations theory and Daniel Stern's interpersonal theory. We will conclude with a look at the clinical applications of infant research using a case presentation.

Shahla Chehrazi, M.D., Member and Faculty, SFCP
Wednesdays: November 16, 30; December 7, 14, 2011
6 CME/CE credits available

Educational objectives:

1. Students will describe four different principals of infant mental health; a) mutual regulation; b) attachment and engagement; c) Mirror neurons; and d) Mentalization.
2. Students will review updated research in infant development and how it impacts our clinical work with infant and parents.
3. Students will compare normal infant development and recognize the early signs of development delays. Use of video tapes and case presentation will highlight student’s ability to contrast normal and abnormal infant development versus development delays.

The Unconscious Fantasies of Pre-Oedipal Children

In this class, we will look at the role that early bodily symbols play in representing, in the mind, the basic elements of early childhood experience. We will explore the ways in which children use the intensified areas of the body known as the erogenous zones in the unconscious construction of phantasies that give psychic form and structure to the major conflicts of each phase of development. We will use clinical material from both child and adult cases to illustrate how the use of a language and vision informed by the bodily symbols associated with childhood psychosexuality can lead to fruitful and generative clinical work.

Louis Roussel, Ph.D., Member and Faculty, SFCP
Wednesdays: January 4, 11, 18, 25, 2012
6 CME/CE credits available

Educational objectives:

1. Participants will be able to apply specific heuristics for noticing and speaking to the manifestations of unconscious phantasies in both child and adult clinical work. This will enable clinicians to expand their interpretive repertoire in order to improve patient care.
2. Participants will be able to develop a basic knowledge of the way in which early bodily symbols play a role in representing basic elements of early childhood experience. This will enable clinicians to develop an enhanced ability to understand many bodily expressed symptoms in terms of early childhood developmental etiology and thereby improve their diagnostic precision.
3. Participants will be able to make use of these new clinical skills to work with clients from diverse clinical backgrounds. They will have acquired knowledge of social, cultural, and political influences and concerns that shape clinical treatment.
4. This course will provide participants with an opportunity to hear case examples by faculty as well as an opportunity to present their clinical vignettes. They will apply material from textual material and lecture in order to practice the use of a language and vision informed by bodily symbols associated with early childhood developmental experience.

Winnicott's Thinking About the Basics: Issues of Loss, Connection and Ruthlessness in the Young Child

How does a child engage with the world—both with his or her caregiver and with his or her own mind? This seminar will explore the many-faceted world of the young child through the purview of Winnicott and his theories on the use of the object and on play. We will use his thinking as an entryway to understand the clinical issues that impact a young child through both clinical and theoretical articles.

Reyna Cowan, L.C.S.W., Adjunct Faculty, SFCP; Member, PINC
Wednesdays: February 1, 8, 15, 22, 2012
6 CME/CE credits available

Educational objectives:

1. Students will gain a working understanding of the work of D.W. Winnicott and how he creates a structure for looking at the way a child engages with her world.
2. Students will learn the difference between an environmental mother and an object mother and develop strategies to understand what is going on in a treatment between a child and therapist in the consultation room.
3. Students will learn techniques and strategies for play therapy with very young children.

Developing the Emotional Muscle and Resiliency of Two of Five-year-old Children and Their Parents

We all want to know how to help young children we care about, and treat, to feel more joyous, to become kind, resilient, thoughtful, productive, and creative. In this four-week seminar we will explore how we can assist, in practical ways, two to five-year-old children and their parents develop and strengthen, their emotional muscle in order to accomplish this complex task. We will read selected chapters form Kerry Kelly Novick and Dr. Jack Novick’s book Emotional Muscle: Strong Parents, Strong Children (2010).

Era Loewenstein, Ph.D., Training Analyst, Member, Faculty and Child Psychoanalyst, SFCP
Wednesdays: February 29; March 7, 14, 21, 2012
6 CME/CE credits available

Educational objectives:

1. Participants will be able to describe the Novicks' concept of emotional muscle.
2. Participants will be able to describe at least one intervention in work with young children or their parents that helps the development of emotional muscles.
3. After reading selected chapters from the book Emotional Muscle and taking part in a group discussion, participants will be able give two examples of how to talk with three or four-year-olds children about their emotional muscles.

Challenges of Child Treatment: Touching, Tantrums, Toilets and Treats

This course will focus on the interplay between theory, clinical technique, countertransference, and the inevitable, unplanned actions of therapist and child when one is engaged in psychotherapy. We will look at ways to think about and manage toileting accidents, children who refuse to come into the office (and refuse to leave), lying, cheating, and stealing from us. How do we keep the therapist and child safe in the face of physical rage and fury, guaranteeing both will survive? We will welcome participants' clinical cases and quandaries as an aspect of this course.

Myrna Frankel, L.C.S.W., Member and Faculty, Child Psychoanalyst, SFCP
Wednesdays: March 28; April 4, 11, 18, 2012
6 CME/CE credits available

Educational objectives:

1. Students will learn countertransference implications for therapists.
2. Students will learn to apply theory to unanticipated child enactments.
3. Students will explore development and special behavioral outcomes.
4. Students will normalize their experience through exposure to a variety of typical and on setting child symptoms including toileting and physical contact.

Clinical Descriptions of Oedipal Children

We will examine behavioral descriptions of oedipal age children, consider the various meanings of “oedipal” dynamics, and the responses that these dynamics elicit from the people around them. We will also think about the implications of a successful versus compromised oedipal phase on the child’s future development. We will use clinical material brought in by both the instructor and the students to illustrate the papers.

Clara Kwun, L.C.S.W., Member and Faculty, SFCP
April 25; May 2, 9, 16, 2012
6 CME/CE credits available

Educational objectives:

1. Students will learn about the oedipal stage in development and the associated states and traits through readings and case material.
2. Students will consider the question of whether oedipal development holds across cultures through readings and case material.
3. Students will identify the impact on future development of a child of a compromised oedipal phase.
4. Students will explore the impact of oedipal development on the adults around them and consider how to use this information in working with parents.