The IPI Blog

International Psychotherapy Institute blog, issues relating to psychodynamic psychotherapy, object relations theory and technique, psychoanalysis.

In Remembrance of Walt H. Ehrhardt

Dear IPI Community, On October 27th we lost a valued friend and colleague, Walt Ehrhardt, Ed.D., L.P.C (August 26, 1940–October 27, 2022). Walt was a founding faculty member of IPI National (1996) and a long-serving faculty member in the Couple, Child and Family Certificate Program. He established a minority scholarship fund that came to be …

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Thoughts on Psychoanalysis: Waiting and Fishing

     Over the last couple of years which have been dominated by the pandemic, we’ve all had to put many things on hold— and wait. Recently, when thinking about waiting, I remembered a short paper I had written in 2014 during my psychoanalytic training at IPI. Three times a year, we were asked to write …

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In remembrance, Paula Margetts Swaner

December 3, 2021   I am sad to inform you that the IPI community lost a friend and esteemed colleague. Dr. Paula Swaner (Nov. 23, 1927–Nov. 30, 2021) was a clinical psychologist, a founding faculty member of IPI National (1997) and Faculty Emeritus beginning 2007, and founder of the IPI Salt Lake City affiliate. Throughout …

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2021 Sigourney Award Recipients

November 23, 2021   Dear IPI Community, We are pleased to share the news that David E. Scharff, MD, FABP and Jill Savege Scharff, MD, FABP, MRC.Psych. are recipients of the 2021 Sigourney Award. The Sigourney Award is the highest distinction in the field of psychoanalysis. Founded by Mary Sigourney, the award honors innovative advancement …

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Your Child Is Struggling. Could Your Marriage Be to Blame?

David Scharff, MD The health of your partnership plays a major role in your child’s mental health. KEY POINTS Maintaining marital and personal satisfaction creates a huge benefit for the mental health of families and their children. Research shows a link between the parents’ relationship and their child’s social and academic outcome. Therapists should consider …

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Six Hard-Won Lessons: Teaching Psychoanalysis Online

David Scharff, MD Scharff, D. E. (2021). Six Hard-Won Lessons: Teaching Psychoanalysis Online. The American Psychoanalyst, 55(3), 29–30. The International Psychotherapy Institute (IPI) and its psychoanalytic training program, the International Institute for Psychoanalytic Training (IIPT), were founded as distance learning programs. So, the question of how to conduct effective teaching across geographical distance has always …

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Watching Afghanistan from Iran

August 16, 2021   I don’t know if you hear the news about Afghanistan or not. The government has fallen and their president fled. The whole country is now under the rule of Taliban and they are real hard liners. I have a few friends in Afghanistan who are authors, reporters and translators. I met …

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The Two Kinds of COVID Couples

The pandemic can draw couples closer—or push them apart. Here’s why. I’m a psychiatrist and psychoanalyst specializing in couples and family therapy. Like many people across the world, many of the couples I work with have been struggling through the hardest year of their lives. People who maintained their marriages by spending very little time …

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Returning to In-Person Treatment During COVID-19 – If, When, and How

Original August 4, 2020 Revised January 16, March 11, April 29, 2021   Dear Colleagues,   If you’re thinking about returning to in-person work, or have already done so, we hope you will find these ideas helpful. This is a long document, so here are the key areas:   Maintaining uncertainty Different practices & risk tolerances …

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For Some Psychotherapists, the Work Has Always Been Virtual

A therapist shares knowledge gained from two decades of teaching online. Familiarity with the experience of online therapy can help ameliorate stress, both on therapists and our patients. Online learning opportunities abound for mental health professionals, particularly in this era. The ongoing stressors of the pandemic will affect individuals, couples, and families differently. It has …

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