Treatment of the Fragile Patient
This program was presented on February 3, 2008 and may be offered again in the future.
Presenter: Jon Frederickson, MSW
Sunday, February 3, 2008 9:00 AM - 5:30 PM
Most psychotherapy training prepares us to work with relatively healthy patients. However, many of the people who come to us for help are severely disturbed. Their anxiety is so high that they can not benefit from the interventions we have been taught. First, we must help them regulate their anxiety so that we can form a therapeutic alliance. Even then, they may use projection so much that they can not form a collaborative relationship with a therapist. Thus, a therapist working with these patients must develop a keen knowledge of anxiety regulation and the handling of projection in order to be helpful.
In this presentation, we will analyze line by line a videotape presentation of an initial three hour session with a severely fragile patient who suffered from severe anxiety, severe chronic depression, severe self destructiveness, twenty years of drug abuse, and a borderline level of character structure. We will study the session in detail in order to show how to actively intervene with a severely dysregulated patient. Interventions will include: anxiety regulation, developing a capacity for self observation, identifying projection, deactivating projection, building ego capacity, melting resistance, developing a capacity for anxiety regulation, and developing a capacity for affect tolerance. We will also show how to assess the patient's ego capacity so that you can help her integrate traumatic affects without being overwhelmed.
Schedule
| 9:00 - 9:30 | Registration and continental breakfast |
| 9:30 - 10:30 | Anxiety assessment and ego adaptive capacity in the fragile patient |
| 10:30 - 10:45 | Break |
| 10:45 - 12:30 | Initial session Anxiety regulation Identifying projection Deactivating projection Helping the patient see the defense of self attack Helping the patient turn against self attack |
| 12:30 - 1:30 | Lunch |
| 1:30 - 3:00 | Initial session Building the therapeutic alliance Building capacity to bear feelings: breakthrough to feeling |
| 3:00 - 3:15 | Break |
| 3:15 - 5:00 | Second session Outcome----sharply reduced symptoms Origin of self attack as a defense: a trauma Further turning of the ego against the superego |
| 5:00 - 5:30 | Discussion |
Presenter
Jon Frederickson, MSW, is co-chair of the Intensive Short Term Dynamic Psychotherapy Training Program at the Washington School of Psychiatry in Washington, D.C. He has presented in Italy, Holland, England, Norway, and Denmark as well as throughout the United States. In the coming year he will present at St. John's College, Oxford University in England, in Warsaw to the Polish Psychological Association, and the University of Stavanger in Norway. He is the author of Psychodynamic Psychotherapy: Learning to Listen from Multiple Perspectives, numerous articles on psychoanalytic psychotherapy, and several articles on intensive short term dynamic psychotherapy.
Location
The Washington School of Psychiatry
5028 Wisconsin Avenue, N.W., Suite 400
Washington, DC, 20016
Directions
CEU/CME Award - 7
The Washington School of Psychiatry is approved by the American Psychological Association to provide continuing education for psychologists. The Washington School maintains responsibility for the program. The School is approved by the Social Work Board of the State of Maryland as a provider of continuing education for social workers. The School is approved by the Medical Society of Maryland (MEDCHI) for continuing education for psychiatrists.
Fee - $ 225
Registration
Please call the School at 202-237-2700 to register. You can also use the conference registration form to register for this seminar by faxing it to WSP at 202-237-2730, or mail the form to: Washington School of Psychiatry, 5028 Wisconsin Ave., NW, Ste. 400, Washington, DC 20016.
Cancellations and Refunds
Refunds will be made for cancellations received at the School office in writing prior to January 26 and are subject to a non-refundable administrative fee of $50.