Penetrating Defenses to Overcome Character Disturbances
This program was presented on September 29, 2007
Presented by Susan Warshow, MSW
Saturday, September 29, 2007
- Videotape illustrations
- Interrupting defenses compassionately
- Tracking emotions and their somatic markers moment to moment
- Accelerated growth and healing
- How to build a sustaining therapeutic alliance
- Building capacity for secure attachment
Susan Warshow will show how she helps patients mobilize the will to overcome their defenses, face feelings, and develop compassion for the rejected parts of themselves. There will be a focus on restructuring shame and guilt related to character disturbance.
Videotaped vignettes will illustrate the process that helps patients develop affect tolerance, undo irrational shame and guilt, and experience new levels of freedom. By discouraging the punitive and encouraging the life-enhancing parts of the self, she helps patients experience emotional closeness, the ultimate goal, so the patient need no longer feel alone with forbidden feelings.
Schedule
| 8:45 | Registration and Continental Breakfast |
| 9:15 | Introduction by Jon Frederickson, MSW |
| 9:30 | An integrated style of depth, affect focused dynamic therapy. Video vignette: The therapist speaks to a resistant patient with the voice of her rejected anger. The patient begins to see the value in this warded off part of herself and turns against her defenses. Video vignette: Developing compassion for self, a crucial step in strengthening the therapeutic alliance. |
| 10:45-11 | Coffee break |
| 11-12 | Restructuring shame to deepen the therapeutic relationship, leading to character change. |
| Lunch | Free time for lunch in the neighborhood |
| 1-2:30 | The patient with no goals. How to overcome resistance against the therapy, i.e. the "T'ai chi of defense work." Videotape analysis. |
| 2:30-2:45 | Coffee break |
| 2:45-4 | Transforming a masochistic character through the healing power of processing complex feelings. Restructuring guilt. Change moments will be highlighted with video examples. |
| 4-4:15 | The challenges facing therapists engaging in emotionally intense therapy. Reducing therapist anxiety and strengthening the self of the therapist as key factors in maximizing effectiveness. |
| 4:15-4:45 | Discussion |
Sunday, September 30, 2007: Supervision day with Susan Warshow, MSW
Schedule
| 9-12 | Supervision |
| 12-1 | Lunch on site |
| 1-5 | Supervision |
Attendees will have the chance to observe Susan Warshow supervise advanced trainees on videotaped excerpts of psychotherapy sessions. This offers viewers a chance to see how her approach can be applied to a wide range of clinical patients and situations.
Presenter
Susan Warren Warshow, MSW and Board Certified Diplomate, is a licensed clinical social worker in private practice in Woodland Hills, California. A former student of Rob Neborsky and Patricia Coughlin, she has given videotape presentations of her work in the United State and at international conferences in Europe.
The psychotherapy researcher from the Tavistock Clinic in London, Dr. David Malan, MD, wrote: "I have seen Susan Warren Warshow's work on videotape and have been most impressed with her deeply insightful, sensitive, and fearless approach, leading to outstanding therapeutic results."
Location
The Washington School of Psychiatry
5028 Wisconsin Avenue, N.W., Suite 400
Washington, DC, 20016
Directions
CEU awards
Saturday = 6, Sunday = 7
Fee
Saturday $180, Sunday $200, both days $350
Registration
Registration is required. Please call the Washington School at 202-237-2700 or email lhead@wspdc.org to sign up as soon as possible.