Level 1: foundationS of Psychodynamic Psychotherapy
Psychodynamic psychotherapy, rooted in Freud, Winnicott, Kohut, Fairbairn and Masterson’s research and theories, the work explores the unconscious mind to uncover hidden motives and conflicts influencing thoughts and behaviors. The approach emphasizes a collaborative therapeutic relationship to bring unconscious processes into conscious awareness, fostering self-reflection and insight. Effective for various mental health issues, including depression and anxiety, it delves into early childhood experiences’ impact on personality and relationships. While newer therapies have emerged, psychodynamic psychotherapy's enduring relevance lies in its capacity to instigate lasting changes in thinking and behavior patterns. Though effectiveness varies, integration with other modalities is common. Overall, its focus on self-exploration and understanding contributes to profound personal growth and emotional well-being, making it a valuable therapeutic tool.
Level 1, Foundations of Psychodynamic Psychotherapy, is a 2-day workshop that will take you into the Attachment and Object Relations Theory and Practice, giving you an illuminating exploration into the intricate dynamics of interpersonal relationships. The workshop will delve into the framework proposed by Ronald Fairbairn, which will adeptly elucidate how individuals internalize and relate to others based on early childhood experiences. You will gain invaluable insights into the formation of internalized mental representations, or "objects," and how these impact emotions and behaviors in adulthood. The workshop skillfully blends theoretical concepts with practical applications, offering participants a nuanced understanding of how object relations theory can inform clinical practice. The training not only expands participants' theoretical knowledge but also provides practical tools for incorporating object relations principles into therapeutic work, making it a transformative experience for both novice and seasoned counsellors and mental health professionals alike.
Level 1 comprises of the following modues: -
MODULE 1: UNLOCKING HEALING THROUGH THE LENS OF ATTACHMENT
The study of attachment offers the foundational psychodynamic concepts and techniques to help practitioners think psychodynamically. This is a deep dive into Attachment Styles and the beginning of attachment, and how the lack of these stable, caring attachment relationships can prolong a person’s suffering. The module covers the following topics -
1. Foundations of Attachment Theory
- Explore the origins of attachment theory, including the pioneering work of John Bowlby and Mary Ainsworth.
- Understand the psychodynamic underpinnings of attachment theory and its relevance to therapeutic practice.
- Examine the biological, psychological, and relational factors that shape attachment from infancy.
2. Deep Dive into Attachment Styles
- Secure Attachment: Characteristics, development, and how it supports emotional regulation and resilience.
- Insecure Attachment:
- Anxious/Preoccupied: The impact of inconsistent caregiving and emotional dependency.
- Avoidant/Dismissive: Patterns of emotional suppression and fear of intimacy.
- Disorganized: The role of trauma and fear in creating chaotic relational dynamics.
- Recognize how these attachment styles manifest in adulthood and influence relationships, behavior, and emotional health.
3. The Beginnings of Attachment
- Understand the critical role of early caregiving relationships in shaping attachment security.
- Examine the significance of mirroring, attunement, and co-regulation in early relational development.
- Learn how disruptions in early attachment experiences—such as neglect, inconsistency, or trauma—impact the formation of internal working models and relational expectations.
4. The Role of Attachment in Psychopathology
- Explore how insecure and disorganized attachments contribute to chronic emotional suffering, relational difficulties, and psychological disorders.
- Understand the connection between attachment disruptions and conditions such as anxiety, depression, personality disorders, and trauma-related disorders.
5. Psychodynamic Techniques for Attachment Healing
- Learn to use the therapeutic relationship as a secure base for exploring and repairing attachment wounds.
- Address transference and countertransference dynamics rooted in clients’ attachment histories.
- Foster emotional regulation, self-compassion, and relational growth through psychodynamic interventions.
6. Attachment and Trauma
- Examine the intersection of attachment and trauma, focusing on how early relational trauma shapes the nervous system and emotional regulation.
- Explore techniques to help clients process and heal attachment-related trauma, including grounding, emotional containment, and relational repair.
MODULE 2: THE NEUROBIOLOGY BEHIND TRAUMA AND ATTACHMENT RELATIONSHIPS
The neurobiology of attachment delves into the intricate connections between brain function and our capacity for forming emotional bonds. Understanding the neuroscience behind trauma and attachment relationships is crucial in comprehending the lasting impact of adverse experiences on mental health. Childhood trauma, in particular, can render individuals more vulnerable to stress dysregulation, shaping their responses to future challenges. The intricate interplay between genetics and environment during early development plays a pivotal role in this vulnerability. Understanding the early attachments can help Counsellors and Psychotherapists build a trusting bond with your clients, in order to help bring healing.
The module encompasses the following: -
1. Foundations of the Neurobiology of Attachment
- Explore how early attachment experiences shape the architecture of the developing brain.
- Understand the critical role of caregivers in co-regulating a child’s stress responses and emotional states.
- Examine the interplay between secure attachment and healthy neurodevelopment.
- Understand how insecure or disrupted attachments affect brain structures related to fear, safety, and connection.
2. The Impact of Trauma on the Developing Brain
- Learn how chronic stress and trauma dysregulate the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis.
- Understand the impact of cortisol dysregulation on the brain’s emotional centers, such as the amygdala, hippocampus, and prefrontal cortex.
- Explore the heightened sensitivity of the developing brain to both positive and adverse experiences.
- Understand how adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) affect attachment patterns and stress regulation systems.
- The Limbic System's Role in processing fear and threat in attachment disruptions.
4. Effects of Trauma on Attachment and Emotional Regulation
- Trauma and Attachment Styles:
- Explore how trauma reinforces insecure attachment patterns (anxious, avoidant, disorganized).
- Understand the behaviors and relational patterns associated with trauma-informed attachment styles.
5. Building Trust Through Neurobiological Awareness
- Creating a Safe Therapeutic Environment:
- Use knowledge of the neurobiology of safety to create a secure base for clients.
- Recognize signs of hyperarousal or dissociation and respond effectively.
- Understand how the therapist-client relationship can rewire attachment-related brain patterns.
MODULE 3: OBJECT RELATIONS AND THE DEVELOPING SELF
Unlocking Fairbairn and Masterson and Mahler's Development Model - The study of object relations theories examines how early relationships shape the developing self. Grounded in theories by Fairbairn and Masterson, it unlocks frameworks illuminating the impact of interpersonal dynamics on personality formation. Understanding these psychological templates enhances insight into individuals' relational patterns and fosters effective therapeutic interventions.
1. Foundations of Object Relations Theory
- Explore how early caregiving experiences shape internalized object representations and influence relational patterns.
- Understand Fairbairn’s concepts of splitting and internalized "bad objects" and their impact on emotional conflicts.
2. Developmental Arrest and Personality Disorders (Masterson)
- Learn how early attachment failures contribute to the development of the false self and abandonment depression.
- Explore Masterson’s insights into personality disorders, focusing on interventions to strengthen the true self.
3.Mahler’s Separation-Individuation Model
- Understand the stages of separation-individuation and how disruptions in these phases affect identity and autonomy.
- Apply Mahler’s model to help clients address unresolved developmental challenges.
4. The Role of Relational Trauma
- Examine how early relational trauma fragments the self and creates maladaptive relational patterns.
- Learn therapeutic strategies to integrate fragmented self-states and repair relational wounds
5. Therapeutic Applications and Integration
- Learn how to use the therapeutic relationship as a corrective experience to model secure attachment and foster emotional growth.
- Integrate concepts from Fairbairn, Masterson, and Mahler into practical interventions to promote healing and self-awareness.
MODULE 4: FUNDAMENTALS TO UNDERSTANDING PERSONALITY DISORDERS
Psychodynamic psychotherapy provides a nuanced framework for understanding personality disorders by exploring their roots in early relational experiences, unconscious processes, and intrapsychic conflicts. This perspective emphasizes the impact of early attachment patterns, developmental disruptions, and defense mechanisms on personality formation.
1. Personality Disorders as Relational and Developmental Constructs
- Explore how early caregiving experiences and relational dynamics shape personality development.
- Understand how inconsistent, neglectful, or overly controlling caregiving leads to the internalization of harmful relational templates ("bad objects").
- Learn how these internalized dynamics influence clients’ behaviors, emotional regulation, and relational struggles.
2. The Role of Unconscious Processes
- Delve into the unconscious origins of personality disorders, including repressed fears, unresolved developmental conflicts, and unmet relational needs.
- Recognize how rigid patterns of thinking, feeling, and behaving emerge as defenses against painful emotions, such as abandonment, rejection, or shame.
3. Attachment and the Formation of the Self
- Understand the critical role of early attachment relationships in developing a stable sense of self.
- Examine how disruptions in attachment (e.g., emotional neglect, inconsistent caregiving) lead to self-fragmentation, identity confusion, and emotional instability.
- Learn to identify the relational dynamics that hinder clients’ emotional growth and relational health.
4. Defense Mechanisms and Maladaptive Patterns
- Study how personality disorders are characterized by primitive defense mechanisms, including splitting, projection, and denial.
- Explore how these defenses develop to protect the self in early life but become maladaptive in adulthood, perpetuating cycles of interpersonal and emotional dysfunction.
- Practice recognizing these patterns in clinical settings and working with clients to address and modify them.
5. Therapeutic Applications: Relational Dynamics in Therapy
- Learn to use the therapeutic relationship to uncover clients’ relational patterns and unconscious conflicts.
- Understand transference and countertransference as tools for gaining insight into the client’s internal world.
- Develop strategies to offer corrective emotional experiences, fostering self-awareness, emotional growth, and relational healing.
By examining personality disorders through a psychodynamic lens, therapists can address the underlying relational wounds and intrapsychic conflicts that perpetuate maladaptive patterns, fostering healing and integration for the client.
MODULE 5: PSYCHODYNAMIC CASE CONCEPTUALIZATION - RETHINKING TREATMENT OF A BORDELINE PERSONALITY DIS
Object relations theory and practice offers a nuanced approach toward treatment of Borderline Personality Disorder. Rooted in understanding how early relationships shape one's sense of self, this therapy explores and transforms maladaptive patterns, and helps you to create breakthroughs, techniques, and tools to handle and work with this difficult client group, where you are able to provide them emotional regulation and improved interpersonal functioning.
1. Foundations of Object Relations in Borderline Personality Disorder
- Case studies - unpacking a real case, illustrating a psychodynamic analysis of the case.
- Understand the origins of BPD through the lens of object relations theory, focusing on how early relational disruptions and attachment failures shape the client’s sense of self.
- Examine the internalization of maladaptive object relationships and their role in emotional dysregulation, impulsivity, and unstable interpersonal connections.
- Explore how the fragmented self develops in response to inconsistent caregiving or early relational trauma.
2. Key Features of BPD and the Therapeutic Challenges
- Review the diagnostic criteria for BPD, emphasizing the emotional, relational, and identity struggles that define the disorder.
- Discuss the challenges therapists face, including managing intense transference and countertransference dynamics, boundary-setting, and emotional reactivity.
- Develop strategies for creating a safe therapeutic environment for clients prone to instability and emotional crises.
3. Transforming Maladaptive Patterns
- Learn to identify and address clients’ unconscious relational templates that perpetuate maladaptive patterns, such as splitting, fear of abandonment, and idealization-devaluation cycles.
- Understand the role of defense mechanisms in BPD and explore interventions that help clients integrate fragmented self-states.
- Use therapeutic techniques to foster self-awareness, insight, and emotional resilience.
4. Therapeutic Tools and Techniques
- Emotional Regulation Strategies:
- Learn how to manage client's intense emotions in therapy, toward building a therapeutic relationship as a corrective emotional experience, modeling trust, consistency and stability for the BPD client.
- Help clients recognize and navigate triggers that lead to dysregulated emotional states.
- Facilitating breakthroughs in therapy through utilizing the transference and countertransference as tools for understanding clients’ internal worlds and relational dynamics.
- Guide clients toward greater self-integration and a more cohesive sense of identity.
LEARNING OUTCOMES
At the end of the training, participants will:
- Gain a deeper understanding of the internal world of our clients through the lens of object relations theory.
- Identify the early relational disruptions and maladaptive patterns underlying clients’ symptoms.
- Develop practical tools and strategies for fostering emotional regulation and relational stability.
- Learn to navigate the challenges of working with clients with BPD, including managing transference and countertransference.
- Build confidence in facilitating breakthroughs that promote self-awareness, emotional growth, and improved interpersonal functioning.
- Analyze real-life scenarios through case studies, to deepen understanding of psychodynamic theories and its clinical applications in therapy
This training program empowers practitioners with the knowledge and skills to navigate the complexities of psychodynamic therapy, addressing the deep-seated relational wounds and emotional struggles that shape their clients' lives.