Distance Learning program to address important foundational psychodynamic concepts and techniques in individual psychotherapy.
CLICK HERE TO REGISTER for Spring 2025: There’s Always Something: Clinical Challenges and Dilemmas
General Overview
Psychodynamic psychotherapy is an effective form of treatment, as shown in numerous studies involving thousands of patients. However, many clinicians have had little exposure to it in their post-graduate training.
This course is an eight-session seminar held by online video conference. The seminar meets on Friday mornings from 9:00 a.m. – 11:00 a.m. US Eastern Time. The first hour is a lecture/discussion seminar designed around assigned readings. The second hour is a discussion of a case presentation and the application of the theory, technique, and research findings that apply to the patient.
The seminar meets over the internet as a live class using a secure Zoom videoconference platform that can be used on any device: computers, laptops, tablets and smartphones.
This videoconference rotates through 4 Modules (1 per semester) on a cyclical basis. Participants can join at the beginning of any module.
Spring 2025 – There’s Always Something: Clinical Challenges and Dilemmas
Fall 2025 – The Therapeutic Frame
Spring 2026 – Generating Psychic Structure
Fall 2026 – A Thorn in the Flesh Trauma
For descriptions of each module visit the main Psychodynamic Psychotherapy Program page.
Program Chair
Stephen Morris, PhD
Spring 2025: There's Always Something: Clinical Challenges and Dilemmas
(Module IV of the Psychodynamic Psychotherapy Program)
No matter our level of training or the number of years of our experience, there is always something! There is always a challenge or a dilemma to perplex, bedevil, and keep us awake at night and off balance during the day. In this semester we will address the challenges that culture, time, love, hate, fear, clinical failure, technology, passion, loneliness, and endings present in the clinical situation. We will develop an understanding of such challenges at both the feeling level and the thinking level, for both the therapist and the patient. We will also discuss the empirical research that supports successful interventions.
You may enroll in this course even if you have never participated in a Psychodynamic Psychotherapy videoconference.
Program Date(s):
January 10, 2025 - May 2, 2025Spring 2025 Course Schedule
9-11am on Fridays (US ET)
Educational Objectives
Spring 2025 – There’s Always Something: Clinical Challenges and Dilemmas
January 10, 2025: CLASS 1
Locating Ourselves, Locating the Other: Race and Gender in Psychodynamic Psychotherapy
Andi Eliza-Christie, LPC
- Discuss 2 ways in which countertransference is utilized to identify implicit racial bias and focus on the reparative potential of guilt
- Describe 2 ways in which 19th and 20th century theories of sexual orientation and views of appropriate treatment were pathologizing to LBGQ people
- Explain 3 reasons for considering the developmental influences of familial, socio-cultural, and political factors when working with patients from different racial backgrounds
January 24, 2025: CLASS 2
When Time Stands Still: Blocked and Stalled Therapies
Karen Fraley, LCSW, BCD
- Participants will describe one clinical example of the pressure of a projective identification and explain how this can be worked through in the countertransference.
- Participants will identify one clinical example of Symington’s concept of shifting perspectives in the therapist and explain how this shift influences the patient.
- Participants will be able to describe one clinical example in which the patient’s symptoms seem to reflect stalled or deficient development of the self.
- Participants will be able to explain why Ogden recommends recognizing the patient’s defenses and be able to list two outcomes of using this technique.
February 7, 2025: CLASS 3
You Are No Help At All: Negative Therapeutic Reaction
Jim Poulton, PhD
- List three different ways through which a patient can exhibit a Negative Therapeutic Reaction in a course of treatment.
- Explain the interpersonal origins of two different countertransference responses a therapist may have when working with a patient exhibiting a Negative Therapeutic Reaction.
- Describe one primary characteristic and one primary cause of the development of a bastion in the therapeutic relationship.
February 28, 2025: CLASS 4
If I Loved You: Erotic Transferences and Countertransferences
Sheila Hill, LCSW-C
- Describe the difference between erotized transference and erotic transference.
- Explain the difference between holding and penetrating.
- Describe an erotic countertransference “in the body” that you have clinically experienced.
March 14, 2025: CLASS 5
Screen Dreams: Teletherapy
Caroline Sehon, MD
- Describe two elements of a contingency plan to handle technology failures, emergencies or risks in the practice of teletherapy.
- Give one example of analyzing unconscious communication projected onto the technology-mediated setting.
- Describe fully one defensive and one affective-expressive use of a displacement object shown on screen in online treatment.
March 28, 2025: CLASS 6
The Crocodile And The Clock: When Therapy Is Brief
Michael Stadter, PhD
- Describe 2 potential differences in the experience of short-term and long-term therapy for therapists and patients.
- Give at least 2 examples of a symptomatic and dynamic focus in brief therapy.
- Define and differentiate time-near experience and time-far experience.
April 18, 2025: CLASS 7
Me, Myself, And I: Therapist Self-Disclosures
Stephen Morris, PhD
- Name one rule for deciding whether a self-disclosure is appropriate.
- Provide one example of a therapist self-disclosure and explain how it might change the balance between the transference relationship, the real relationship, and the therapeutic alliance.
- Describe one way a therapist can prevent his or her emotional needs from leading to inappropriate self-disclosure.
May 2, 2025: CLASS 8
Finito, Yes or No: Termination Challenges
Michelle Kwintner, PhD, LCSW
- Provide one example of how the therapist’s definition of the therapeutic endeavor is central in assessing readiness for termination.
- Describe how the concepts of mourning, introjection, internalization, and transformation help the therapist assess readiness for termination.
- Identify two instances of countertransference or personal challenges that the therapist must recognize to move the therapeutic dyad towards a termination point in treatment
Continuing Education Credit Hours
Each eight-session seminar provides 16 hours CE credit.
Attendance Policy
The IPI’s unique Group Affective Model of teaching and learning includes group processing of the material on both the cognitive level and the affective level. This experience is impossible to replace with study alone. Group dynamics evolve in the context of a secure frame which includes the expectation that group membership is stable. For these reasons, attendance is a vital part of the learning experience.
The IPI is an APA-approved provider (sponsor) of continuing education (CE) credit that specifies standards by which CE credits can be awarded for learning activities. The APA only awards CE credit for actual instructional time, and variable credit for partial attendance may not be awarded. IPI expects 100% attendance for a student to receive CE credit. An enrolled student would not receive credit for the course or program unless the student were to attend all of the classes within that academic year. Attendance records are maintained by the faculty at each class. In the very rare instance when a student would have to miss a class, that student would be expected to complete a make-up assignment with specified learning objectives, as part of IPI’s adherence to APA standards for awarding credit. Missing more than one session or failing to do the homework for the 1 missed session may result in 0 CE credits being awarded.
Once the semester has started, registration is closed. Attendance is taken at each class.
Registration
Register for Spring 2025 videoconference: CLICK HERE
Registration will close Jan 9, 2025.
Tuition and Fees
Registration fee is $440.
Discounted registration for Full and Associate IPI Members $375.
Certificate Program students – make sure you are logged in before registering; your tuition already includes this module.
Application
To apply for the full Psychodynamic Psychotherapy Program, choose one of the following:
Academic Track Certificate Program Application
Clinical Track Certificate Program Application Clinical Program is currently full
Deadline to apply, Aug 1 for Fall semester start or Dec 1 for Spring semester start
Should you have any questions about the program or the application process, please feel free to contact:
Stephen Morris - ppp@theipi.org
Membership Benefits
Become a member of IPI at the “Associate Member PLUS”, or “Full Member PLUS” level and you will receive an IPI Zoom Pro account as one of your member benefits. Associate and Full Members also receive discounted registration fees for most of IPI’s events, a subscription to PEP Web, the online psychoanalytic library, and other benefits depending on membership level.
HIPAA compliant Zoom video accounts are provided for all IPI Associate Member Plus and Full Member Plus memberships. IPI has a HIPAA Business Associate Agreement with Zoom, which provides a HIPAA compliant platform for our accounts. HIPPA compliance is strongly recommended for all internet-mediated clinical work and clinical teaching. The “PLUS” add-on to the IPI membership gives the user the ability to host online meetings with multiple people at the same time. [Current members can upgrade to the “Plus” account and only pay the difference in price from your current membership level.]
Click for IPI Membership and Zoom Account information
Continuing Education Information
The International Psychotherapy Institute, IPI, is approved by The American Psychological Association to sponsor continuing education for psychologists. IPI maintains responsibility for the program and its content. The International Psychotherapy Institute has been approved by NBCC as an Approved Continuing Education Provider, ACEP No. 6017. Programs that do not qualify for NBCC credit are clearly identified. The International Psychotherapy Institute is responsible for all aspects of the programs. The International Psychotherapy Institute is authorized by the Board of Social Work Examiners in Maryland to sponsor social work continuing education learning activities and maintains full responsibility for this program. This training qualifies for Category I continuing education units. The International Psychotherapy Institute is recognized by the New York State Education Department’s State Board for Social Work as an approved provider of continuing education for licensed social workers #SW-0299.
Participants are responsible for verifying that IPI CE credit is accepted by the licensing boards in their own states.
