Beginning early October the International Psychotherapy Institute will present a 12-session course designed for graduate students in a mental health discipline, recently graduated mental health professionals, and beginning psychotherapists who want to know more about the psychoanalytic perspective and its relevance to psychotherapy, daily life, and relationships.

Psychoanalytic psychotherapy, an effective and empirically validated treatment modality for a broad range of psychological complaints and disorders, is a well-developed system of theory and technique that focuses on the role unconscious processes play in the generation of problematic behaviors, thoughts, and emotions.

This course, which will include lectures, discussions of readings, and clinical case presentations, will be delivered in everyday language, and will utilize everyday situations to illustrate the utility of thinking in terms of such foundational analytic concepts as the unconscious, defense mechanisms, transference and countertransference, and the role trauma plays in the formation of the mind.

The course revolves around Hannah Curtis’s book, Everyday life and the unconscious mind (2015), which was written with the express purpose of providing a non-technical journey through the basics of the psychodynamic view of human beings and their relations with each other. Readings will be assigned and completed before each class.

This seminar can help participants improve their professional and personal lives by enhancing their understanding of unconscious processes and psychodynamics in many contexts.

Participants can join the live Zoom classes from their computer, laptop, tablet or smartphone. Classes take place on Wednesday evenings from 8:00 – 9:00 p.m. Eastern Time.