PRE-CORE i Örebro 16-18 mars 2023

Du är välkommen på en introduktionskurs (s.k. ”pre-core”) i ISTDP i Örebro den 16-18 mars . Kursen leds av leg. psykolog, leg. psykoterapeut, ISTDP certifierad terapeut/lärare/handledare Frida Salman Lisak och omfattar tre heldagar (kl 9-17). Den kommer innehålla både teoretiska och praktiska moment samt presentera videobaserade exempel på interventioner.

Frida Salman Lisak

Bland annat kommer du lära dig:

  • Metapsykologin bakom ISTDP
  • Att etablera medveten allians och upprätthålla ett intra-psykiskt fokus
  • Att fokusera på affekter
  • Att bedöma och reglera ångestnivå
  • Känna igen och arbeta med olika typer av försvar och motstånd

Kursavgift är 7000 kr för alla tre dagarna och antal deltagare är begränsat.
Det finns ett mindre antal platser för heltidsstudenter, som har viss
erfarenhet av terapeutiskt arbete (t.ex. läser sin sista termin på
psykologprogrammet) som kan gå kursen till reducerad kostnad (4000 kr).
Kursen ger grundläggande kunskaper och färdigheter för att kunna gå vidare med en core-utbildning för den som så önskar.

Plats: Centrala Örebro
Datum: 16-18 mars 2023
Tid: Kl 9-17 varje dag
Kostnad: 7000 kr (4000 kr för begränsat antal heltidsstudenter)
Anmälan: Frida Salman Lisak frida.lis.sal@gmail.com, 070-6892538,
Ange faktureringsadress.
Lärare: Frida Salman Lisak är leg. psykolog, leg psykoterapeut cert. ISTDP-terapeut, handledare/lärare. Hon har lång erfarenhet av kliniskt arbete med olika patientgrupper samt utbildning och handledning.

Flyer som PDF:

PRE-CORE i Göteborg 6-8 mars 2023

Du är välkommen på en introduktionskurs (s.k. ”pre-core”) i ISTDP i Göteborg i mars . Kursen leds av leg. psykolog, leg. psykoterapeut, ISTDP certifierad terapeut/lärare/handledare Frida Salman Lisak och omfattar tre heldagar (kl 9-17). Den kommer innehålla både teoretiska och praktiska moment samt presentera videobaserade exempel på interventioner.

Frida Salman Lisak

Bland annat kommer du lära dig:

  • Metapsykologin bakom ISTDP
  • Att etablera medveten allians och upprätthålla ett intra-psykiskt fokus
  • Att fokusera på affekter
  • Att bedöma och reglera ångestnivå
  • Känna igen och arbeta med olika typer av försvar och motstånd

Kursavgift är 7000 kr för alla tre dagarna och antal deltagare är begränsat.
Det finns ett mindre antal platser för heltidsstudenter, som har viss
erfarenhet av terapeutiskt arbete (t.ex. läser sin sista termin på
psykologprogrammet) som kan gå kursen till reducerad kostnad (4000 kr).
Kursen ger grundläggande kunskaper och färdigheter för att kunna gå vidare med en core-utbildning för den som så önskar.

Plats: Göteborg
Datum: 6-8 mars 2023
Tid: Kl 9-17 varje dag
Kostnad: 7000 kr (4000 kr för begränsat antal heltidsstudenter)
Anmälan: Frida Salman Lisak frida.lis.sal@gmail.com, 070-6892538,
Ange faktureringsadress.
Lärare: Frida Salman Lisak är leg. psykolog, leg psykoterapeut cert. ISTDP-terapeut, handledare/lärare. Hon har lång erfarenhet av kliniskt arbete med olika patientgrupper samt utbildning och handledning.

Flyer som PDF:

PRE-CORE UTBILDNING I ÖSTERSUND APRIL 2023

Välkommen till introduktionsutbildning i Intensive Short-term Dynamic Psychotherapy, (ISTDP) i Östersund den 21-23 april 2023. Kursen omfattar tre heldagar och ger en grundläggande introduktion till ISTDP. Följande moment ingår:

  • en introduktion till de grundläggande teoretiska principerna inom ISTDP
  • övning i att etablera en god arbetsallians och fokus på känslomässiga problem i behandlingen
  • övning i att bedöma patientens ångestnivå och ångestreglering
  • övning i att identifiera och arbeta med patientens försvar och motstånd

Undervisningen sker via teoretiska genomgångar, rollspel och visning av video från lärarens egna terapisessioner med patienter.

Deltagarantalet är begränsat till 10 personer. Den lilla gruppstorleken ger utrymme för varje deltagare att bli mött utifrån sin individuella kunskapsnivå. Kursen hålls i lokaler centralt i Östersund.

Introduktionskursen är en förberedelse för den treåriga fördjupningsutbildningen i ISTDP (sk. Core-utbildning).

Kursen leds av leg. psykolog Niklas Rasmussen, certifierad ISTDP-terapeut och ISTDP-handledare. Niklas har 15 års erfarenhet av psykologiskt behandlingsarbete och har undervisat i ISTDP de senaste fem åren, bland annat på Uppsala Universitet. Han samverkar med övriga ISTDP-handledare och lärare i ISTDP-institutet i Sverige.

Plats: Lokaler centralt i Östersund. Detaljer om lokal, adress etc. utannonseras senare!

Tid: 21-23 april 2023, samtliga dagar kl. 09.00 – 17:00.

Målgrupp: Kursen riktar sig till psykologer, psykoterapeuter och psykologstudenter samt annan vårdpersonal med grundläggande psykoterapeututbildning.

Kostnad: 7000 kr exklusive moms (heltidsstudenter betalar 4000 kr exkl. moms)

Anmälan: Skicka din anmälan med namn, fakturaadress, arbetsplats och yrkeskategori till rasmussenpsykoterapi@gmail.com. Sista anmälningsdag är 2023-03-15.

Mer information om Niklas Rasmussen finns på www.rasmussenpsykoterapi.se

Varmt välkommen med din anmälan!

Här finns denna information som utskriftsvänlig PDF:

Effective Management of Resistance in ISTDP, April 20-21st

We at the Malmö Center for ISTDP (MCI), together with the Swedish and Danish societies for ISTDP, are thrilled to host this 2-day workshop during spring 2023, focusing on managing resistance in ISTDP. This will be the third event in the event series Return to Davanloo that we’re organizing at the MCI.

Jonathan Entis

In the era of evidence-based medicine, despite great efforts, the health care system fails to help many depressed and anxious patients. A recurring research finding is that about two thirds of patients in psychiatric care and one third of patients in primary care get no relief from treatment, even when being offered the gold standard treatment alternatives currently available. From the perspective of Intensive Short-term Dynamic Psychotherapy (ISTDP), much of this nonresponse is caused by multiple unaddressed ways of avoiding and/or resisting emotional closeness in the therapy situation.

ISTDP was developed during the late 1970s and 1980s by Habib Davanloo in Montreal, Canada. Davanloo developed a number of novel strategies aimed at reaching the most highly defended patients, the ones who at the time were considered impossible to treat. Spending a lot of time watching his own recordings of therapy sessions, he tested and refined specific strategies of helping his patients see, understand and let go of highly entrenched defensive strategies, especially when those were linked to the patient’s identity (eg. highly syntonic).

With a growing evidence-base to support Davanloo’s findings, ISTDP has been successfully established in northern Europe in the last decade. More than 600 therapists have gone through the three-year ISTDP core training in the nordic countries alone in this brief period of time. Dr. Entis strives to revive certain parts of Davanloo’s teachings that are not emphasized in the branch of ISTDP currently taught in the nordic countries. He represents a slightly different flavour of ISTDP, with a similar but different way of approaching the resistance which includes a bigger emphasis on tactical defenses. Here you can read an interview with Jonathan that we did last year.

We think this will be two great days of learning for both newcomers to ISTDP as well as the advanced ISTDP clinician. On Day One, Jonathan will present didactic presentations with audiovisual presentations of actual therapy sessions with patients across a range of psychodiagnosis. On Day Two, live supervision will be offered to attendees who wish to have their work supervised in front of the group.

Here’s what Jonathan wants to say about the workshop:

In developing ISTDP, Davanloo created a revolutionary system for gaining access into the unconscious and resolving psychological suffering. He advocated for a therapeutic focus on turning patients against their own avoidance mechanisms, or resistance, and towards an embrace of emotional honesty.

Dr. Davanloo’s system, although highly effective, is incredibly difficult to master. No aspect of the model is more arduous to learn than the effective management of resistance, which rests on the therapist’s ability to maintain a positive alliance while relentlessly addressing the patient’s defenses.

In my view, some current iterations of ISTDP underemphasize this work on resistance, which might lead to the student of ISTDP putting premature pressure on the patient to experience feelings that are not within conscious reach. This can cause iatrogenic anger, misalliance, and all too often, impasse. In this 2-day workshop, I will showcase how to work exhaustively with resistance while maintaining a strong alliance.

I will highlight many of the technical elements necessary to help patients overcome their resistance, including confronting the tactical organization of the resistance, determination of syntonicity levels and how to adapt the approach accordingly, and the use of head-on collisions—the most challenging of all interventions to integrate.

Bio

Jonathan Entis, Ph.D., is a licensed psychologist in private practice in Cambridge, Massachusetts. He is licensed in both Massachusetts and New York. He is on the faculty of Harvard Medical School, where for the past four years he has taught and supervised in ISTDP. He is an IEDTA-certified teacher in ISTDP and has presented both nationally and internationally. He co-leads an annual seminar on working with syntonic defenses in Davanloo’s ISTDP with John Rathauser, PhD. Jonathan leads four international monthly online training groups in Davanloo’s ISTDP, and will co-lead an advanced Core Training in Amsterdam with John Rathauser beginning in early 2023. He is also a co-author with John Rathauser and Mikkel Reher-Langberg on the upcoming book, Fundamentals of Davanloo’s Intensive Short-Term Dynamic Psychotherapy, Volume I. You can contact him at drjonathanentis@gmail.com.

Attendance

The workshop is open to licensed healthcare professionals and therapists in good standing, as well as students within these fields.

The supervision hours are offered on a first come, first served basis. If you’re interested, make sure to buy a ticket as soon as possible and specify in the form that you’re interested in receiving supervision.

Date and time

April 20: presentation day

April 21: supervision day

Times are roughly 9.00-17.00. At the end of the first day, there will drinks served at the Malmö Center for ISTDP.

LOCATION

The event will take place in central Malmö in southern Sweden. You can get to Malmö conveniently by flying to Copenhagen Airport, and then taking a 15 minute train from there. The venue will be confirmed at a later point.

Please note that online attendance is not possible for this event.

Malmö | Röda Korsets Ungdomsförbund
Malmö

Tickets

Early bird full ticket for both days (applicable before February 2023, $350)
Full ticket for both days ($400)
Day 1 only ticket ($200)
Day 2 only ticket ($200)

Members of the Swedish and Danish societies of ISTDP get a discount:
Early bird full ticket for both days (applicable before February 2023, $300)
Full ticket for both days ($350)
Day 1 only ticket ($175)
Day 2 only ticket ($175)

Registration

Please use this form to register: form. After filling out the form, we will contact you with information about how to proceed with the payment.

More info

At the end of the first day, there will be a reception with drinks.

This event is co-hosted by the Malmö Center for ISTDP, the Swedish Society for ISTDP and the Danish Society for ISTDP.

If you have questions, please email thomas.hesslow@gmail.com

Return to Davanloo

Return to Davanloo is a series of seminars at the Malmö Center for ISTDP emphasizing the roots of ISTDP in different ways. The first in the series was the Mikkel Reher-Langberg seminar in may 2022 on Davanloo’s development. The second seminar was the Allan Abbass seminar on Idealization and devaluation of ISTDP in november 2022. This will be the third seminar in the series.

We say return to Davanloo not in the sense of uncovering the true Davanloo, but rather in the sense of keeping Davanloo alive in the 21st century. Reading and drawing inspiration from Davanloo with the lens of the problems that we face as therapists today. We believe that for ISTDP to grow strong it needs a strong foundation in the Davanludian roots, at the same time as it allows for branches to unfold in many different directions.

Maury Joseph: “How much does our theory shape the patient’s experience?”

Maury Joseph is a licensed clinical psychologist and ISTDP clinician based in Pennsylvania. Before relocating his practice, he served as the faculty chair of the ISTDP program at the esteemed Washington School of Psychiatry. In recent years, Maury has been at the helm of two fascinating seminars, one focused on psychoanalytic listening and the other on interpersonal/relational psychoanalysis. In this interview, we explore the concept of a “relational turn” in ISTDP and what it could mean for the field. Please note that this is a long read.

Maury Joseph

Thomas: What are you excited about right now?

Maury: I am very excited about this chance you’ve given me to share some ideas that 11 years of study of ISTDP and psychoanalysis have impregnated my mind with. I haven’t put pen to paper on any of the ideas I’ve been working over in the past few years regarding a “relational turn in ISTDP”, so you’ve given me a great challenge and opportunity here. That said, I am also quite nervous about it.

Relational ideas are inherently critical, highlighting and interrogating our biases and preconceptions. If I look at the history of psychoanalysis as a reference, those who bring forth questions that challenge emotionally invested, mainstream ideas tend not to make many friends in the process.

So this is a challenging thing for me—on the one hand loving ISTDP, wishing to conserve and develop Davanloo’s contribution, loving my friends and teachers in this community, and, fundamentally, as a person, wanting more than anything to be liked; and on the other hand, having ideas that might press against and challenge what I conceive of as unexamined group-level assumptions, a practice that has not been known to generate only fond feelings. So I am excited to share these ideas, but also in prayer regarding their reception.

Relational psychoanalysis

For the past years, you’ve been leading a reading group focusing on relational psychoanalysis. For the reader who is not familiar with this branch of psychoanalysis, what are the central principles of relational psychoanalysis?
 
Relational psychoanalysis is a big tent with a long history, but I’ll summarize what stands out as important to me and what I think might be useful to ISTDP readers. It will inevitably be a biased sample! I recommend some study of authors within the interpersonal/relational tradition to all your readers so they can form their own impressions and see how they compare to mine. Anyone looking for an introductory syllabus, or who might like to hop into one of my reading groups, is welcome to contact me. 

For me, relationality is about recognizing and understanding how the therapist’s subjectivity, their history, unconscious biases, preconceptions, theories, neuroses etc., influence the therapeutic process; how the therapist’s mind is in concert with the patient’s mind in shaping the therapy, both the new, maturational experiences and the repetitive, stagnating ones. This is in contrast to other perspectives that see the therapist as more like an objective observer of, and non-participant in intrapsychically-mediated processes unfolding spontaneously and organically from the within patient, unimpacted by the therapist’s unique person. 

Relational thinkers give special attention to unconscious enactment—how the patient’s and therapist’s minds conspire to unconsciously live out interpersonal dynamics that turn out to have meaning to both of them. They suggest this is an inevitable, necessary, and ultimately helpful aspect of therapy, part of the therapeutic action.

A relationalist would not aspire to some kind of perfect technique, but would instead value and strive for reflection and conversation about the imperfect human mess that is happening, and for fastidious observation of their participation in it. For this reason, therapeutic success in a relational conception will usually require maturation and growth for both participants; both will become more conscious of their unconscious needs and patterns. This is in contrast to the notion of the therapist as ever-sane, mature, thoroughly analyzed, and able to see the patient’s gambits for interpersonal reenatctment without accidentally (unconsciously) falling into them.

Relational theory is a field theory, in which every clinical event has conscious and, more importantly, unconscious inputs from each participant, such that we are challenged to think about the unconscious co-creation of clinical events like “resistance” or “projection”. We ask questions like, “In what ways is this therapist’s technique unconsciously contributing to the very resistance they’re seeking to reduce?” “Is it possible that the therapist’s approach to reducing this projection is unwittingly reinforcing it?” This is in contrast to an approach that see’s all the pathology and destructiveness in the relationship as coming from the patient’s neurosis, and all the therapist’s behavior as perfectly sound.

Relational thinking also challenges notions of objectivity in the therapist, suggesting that our biases and unconscious blindspots, in addition to the interpersonal pressures we encounter in the relationship, are so pervasive that we ought to approach any of our conclusions with skepticism, bearing in mind the multiple factors that shape them, and keep an open mind to alternative interpretations. This is in contrast to an approach that grants objectivity to the therapist, a capacity to “see things as they are”, without bias.

Following that, there is also a critique of our metapsychologies, our theories about the structures and constituents of the mind. Whereas a dogmatic Freudian might look at certain of Freud’s conclusions as ultimate Truths, a relationalist might look at them as plausible interpretations of data, plausible narratives constructed about the lived interpersonal experiences of one time- and culture-bound man, but not necessarily as universal, ultimate truths.

A relationalist might interrogate theoretical conclusions by thinking about the history, biases and preconceptions, and cultural surround of the theorist, and explore how the techniques he used could unintentionally shape his patient’s responses in a particular way, biasing the range of metapsychological conclusions he could reach. 

That is less than the tip of the iceberg, but perhaps good enough for our purposes. 

A relational critique of Istdp

What do you think the relational school can offer ISTDP?

One very difficult thing here is the issue that ISTDP is not a monolith, and that I have a deep wish not to let this devolve into a “straw dog” type conversation. Depending on who you’ve trained with, how long you’ve trained, what your training was before you came to ISTDP (including the training of being a child in your particular family), all ISTDP therapists will have different degrees of development of what you could call a “relational sensibility”.

So, I’ll say this: I think that any therapy benefits from increased willingness on the part of the therapist to interrogate their own assumptions. In fact, Jon Frederickson recently related to me a finding that metacognitive capacity in the therapist, our ability to think critically about our thinking, is a better predictor of effectiveness than their intelligence. I think relational ideas provide tools for self-critical thinking that, to me, enhance our integrity and trustworthiness as therapists.

Here are a few questions that relational thinkers might offer us if we wished to do some kind of relational inquiry into our own work as ISTDP therapists, teachers and supervisors:

Heinrich Racker
  1. Where do we locate pathology in the therapeutic interaction?

    Do we tend to see resistance as mainly a product of the patient’s pathology, history, trauma, or do we also take into consideration the ways our presence and technique might evoke, contribute to, or reinforce this thing we label “resistance”?

In a “one-person”, pre-relational psychology, we tend to locate the pathology in the ill, distorting patient, whereas the therapist is seen as sane and perceptive, unobstrusively facilitating the emergence of the patient’s inner life.

The relational perspective might be nicely summarized with some quotes by Heinrich Racker: “We are still babies and neurotics even when we are adults and analysts,” or, “The truth is that [the therapy] is an interaction between two personalities, in both of which the ego is under pressure from the id, the superego, and the external world; each personality has its internal and external dependencies, anxieties, and pathological defenses; each is also a child with his internal parents…” 

“We are still babies and neurotics even when we are adults and analysts”

Heinrich Racker

Do we, in resonance with Racker, consider our neurotic contributions to therapy stalemates? Is there room in our theory for the patient’s sanity and perceptiveness, and for the possibility that the phenomena we are coding as “resistance” might plausibly represent the patient’s efforts at self-protection from some unconscious countertransference on our part?

To what extent can we use the concept of “transference” as a defensive denial of our own contribution to the patient’s perceptions of us? Can we consider that some description of us that we wish to code as “projection” might also represent a plausible description of our behavior, but one that we’ve been unconscious of? 

I think, in general, we come out of ISTDP training with a highly advanced sensitivity to the ways patients show us their history through resistance and defenses. A relational critique would ask us to expand our theory and clinical thinking to include the ways the therapist’s history also unconsciously emerges in the therapy, and even to consider this a normal part of the therapy process, which can be turned to constructive use if we do not deny its presence. We might also ask how many of our misalliances are the result of such denial? 

  1. What is our theory of what triggers transference?

    My understanding is that the conventional belief among early analysts was that transference was a “spontaneous”, intrapsychically-driven response to the “ideal conditions” provided by the analysis: anonymity, neutrality, frame, supine position, etc. At least that’s the straw dog retelling of it.
Ida Macalpine

Later analysts, notably Ida Macalpine and then, later, Leo Stone instead suggested that the analytic situation had very specific contours, very salient valances that would stimulate very particular memory networks. They felt that conventional analytic technique “pulled” for specific rather than nonspecific developmental schemata to be transferred into the relationship. Stone felt, for instance, that because of the inherent separateness built into the situation, separation-related conflicts and memories would be the most likely to emerge in treatment. Interesting theory. 

I think that for the most part, in the ISTDP community, our theory of what triggers transference is that it is our “concern”, our “relentless efforts to attach”, our “offering of a secure relationahip”, and the way our interventions, which are both irritating and loving, “trigger mixed feelings that link to past attachments”.

Relational theorists would challenge us to think more deeply and in specific about the forms our “efforts to attach” take, so we can more consciously consider what kinds of patient responses we might prime. I think it would be useful to examine how our particular interventions might “pull” for particular types of responses from patients, prime particular developmental schema or associative and memory networks, resulting in the emergence of particular transferences from particular developmental levels or having to do with particular developmental conflicts.

Macalpine, Stone, and many others called into question the idea that must simply create the “ideal conditions” for the spontaneous unfolding of the patient’s repressed mental life, and they challenge us to carefully describe the unique conditions that we create, and to consider how those particular conditions might evoke selective rather than general aspects of the patient.

  1. Along those lines would be questions about our metapsychology.

    Insofar as any technique will prime particular associative networks, evoke particular interpersonal schema, etc., then the findings of our work are always somewhat biased or shaped by our approach to the patient. From those findings, we make extrapolations about the nature and constituents of the mind, our metapsychological claims.

In the ISTDP world there does seem to be strong consensus about the metapsychology of the unconscious, the “concentric circles” (see below), the cascade of feelings of warm bond, trauma to the bond, pain of trauma, reactive rage, guilt about the rage, and defenses against that. At conferences and presentations, our technique seems to confirm this by turning up this same pattern again and again, and I think we tend to assume that what we find through our technique represents a kind of bedrock of human psychology.

A relational critique would invite us to ask whether and to what extent our sense of the bedrock of human psychology could be an artifact of the way we approach the human subject, and whether a different approach might point to a different underlying structure of the mind, or of neurosis? We’d be invited to wonder whether our approach selectively evokes some reactions and not others, and whether this is shaping our conclusions about the nature and constituents of the mind in a biased way.   

The concentric circles. Figure from Davanloo, H. (1995d). Intensive Short-Term Dynamic Psychotherapy: Technique of Partial and Major Unlocking of the Unconscious with a Highly Resistant Patient – Part II. The Course of the Trial Therapy After Partial Unlocking. International Journal of Short-Term Psychotherapy, vol. 10.
  1. Finally, and very much following on #3, a relational critique might ask us questions about our relationship to our theory.

    To what extent does our theory—our ideas of how the mind works, what makes symptoms, what a mind needs to experience in order to have less symptoms, etc.—guide our relationship to the patient?

In what ways do our theory and preconceptions lead us to pursue some lines of inquiry and not others; to make certain inferences about the deeper meaning of what they’re saying and not others? How much does our theory shape the patient’s experience in their therapy? How much and in what ways should our knowledge and preconceptions drive their therapy process? Do we guard adequately against situations of submission and compliance, in which the patient conforms to the agenda that our theory presents to them? 

ISTDP is, in my opinion, unique among the dynamic therapies in that it has the best-developed system for monitoring unconscious signals from the patient and detecting error-correcting feedback; ISTDP-trained therapists are, in my opinion, usually uniquely capable of staying close to the patient’s experience, letting the patient’s productions lead, learning from the patient as they go.

However, ISTDP also has – perhaps uniquely among the dynamic therapies – a highly schematized procedure with an avowed hierarchy of optimal outcomes. This creates a kind of identity conflict for the therapist: I am uniquely well-trained to follow the patient, but I also am uniquely filled up with ideas about where the patient ought to go.

So perhaps there is a unique need for us to examine our relationship to our theory, and to pay careful attention to the vicissitudes that occur in that relationship during sessions. This would be very much in the spirit of relational inquiry. 

To me, the perspective that the therapeutic reality is co-created by the analytic dyad is an attractive, sympathetic one. But there’s been quite a lot of critique that this perspective leads to relativism, and that relational psychoanalysis represents a postmodern dilution of psychoanalysis. One of the strengths of ISTDP is its assertive use of “concrete reality” when encouraging the patient to face reality and turn against defenses. Do you think a relational turn in ISTDP would risk losing some of this strength?

I think it is overreliance and inflexibility around a particular perspective, not the particular perspective itself, that can take away our strength. I can sin equally against the patient in the name of knowing or of not knowing reality.

Some therapists are more vulnerable to anxiety about knowing—do I dare have an opinion? Authority? They will characteristically have trouble asserting themselves, setting boundaries, making confrontations, and this, of course, will threaten alliances and weaken their work.

Others are more vulnerable to anxiety about not knowing, and will tend to defensively superimpose clarity on experiences that are probably still open to multiple interpretations. Perhaps they will tend to relate to the patient dogmatically, ritualistically. Therapy here will be weakened because the we will not be able to perceive and cope with the full complexity of the encounter, and patients will feel stuffed into a tiny preconception, or stretched on a bed of Procrustes.

I think what a real relational turn would ask is not a radical relativism, which has indeed been much critiqued, but instead a disciplined attention to our relationship to knowing, an intentional inquiry into how we experience vicissitudes in knowing during the clinical encounter, and an effort to make meaning out of that.

For example, I feel very sure of my perspective on reality right now—what does that mean? Could that be an artifact of forces in this relationship? Is that a position that I’m uniquely attracted to due to my own anxieties, or one that the patient uniquely longs for me to embody because of hers? Or, alternatively, Why am I so anxious about confronting this patient right now? Am I allowed to share my perspective on reality in this relationship? What about in other relationships? Does my hesitance have resonance with dynamics from the patient’s other relationships or early life? Mine?

A subjective sense of knowing or not knowing “concrete reality” can have a wide range of rich meanings, and I think attention to these meanings can only serve to strengthen our work. Without this analysis we can devolve into pseudo-omniscience, believing we know reality because we feel like we know reality, which would ultimately weaken us.

practicing ISTDP

In what ways has your own practice changed as a consequence of diving deeper into relational thought? 

I’d say I listen longer before I intervene and intervene more cautiously, and importantly, I have begun to take very seriously the observation of my own participation. I pay a great deal of attention to the pressures and anxieties I feel in the sessions and try to use those feelings to make sense of what’s happening, wondering what those feelings say about the patient, about me, about possible unconscious determinants of our interaction.

I try to listen to the words that are coming to my mind or out of my own mouth, and I try to think about the ways my thoughts and interventions might reflect or represent some heretofore unconscious (now becoming conscious) participation in an enacted relationship paradigm. 

I’ve also become quite a bit more forgiving of my humanness. It used to be that when I’d have some kind of enactment or misalliance, I’d run to supervision and hit the books looking for a way to perfect my technique so that I wouldn’t be in that embarrassingly normal situation ever again! I think that now I try to do my best with what does happen, learn from it, and try to make meaning out of it, rather than push myself or the patient to embody some image I have of what “should”happen.

I am striving to have fidelity to the patient’s unconscious signaling system more than anything else, even when that requires that I abandon any wish for fidelity to a particular technique or metapsychology. 

What are you struggling to learn as a therapist at this moment? 

I’ll take your question in a slightly different direction to what I’m struggling with as a teacher. One question I’m wrestling with a lot is how to teach ISTDP in a way that evades, to whatever degree possible, dogmatism, ritualism, and idealization. Some amount of all of this is inevitable because it depends in part on the psychology of the trainee. However, I am trying to figure out how I can teach in a way that ensures I am not feeding that tendency or am actively countering it. I’d be happy to go into more detail about that, but that’s probably another interview. 

As a therapist, the task for me right now, as always, is continuing to expand affect tolerance and continue to tolerate the shattering and death of ideals and preconceptions. They go hand in hand fortunately. I think my unconscious motivations for becoming a therapist, how I thought it would go, are more or less the opposite of how it actually has gone. I went to some Jon Frederickson presentations, saw these amazing sessions, and Jon would get a round of applause at the end, and at some level that is what I thought it would be.

The hard learning thus far for me is that therapy is actually painstaking work, with only occasional gratification and many injuries and insults along the way. This has been a difficult adjustment that has required much work. So that’s the big ever-struggle, the work on me. But I am lucky to be surrounded by family, friends, and colleagues who help me.

Where do you want to see ISTDP going in the coming years? 

I don’t know where ISTDP is going, but if I could have a wish granted I would love to see us have a domain-specific journal where controversies and conflicts could be hashed out. Without an ISTDP journal most new ideas are published in formats like this, or on social media platforms, where there is no peer review, no refereed platform for scholarly debate. I think that could weaken our field over time. I think there is much room for debate and controversy left in ISTDP, and many questions that we treat as settled could benefit from some reopening and interrogation. We can’t do that without a journal and editorial board. 

Another wish I’d love to have granted in the coming years would be the disappearance of the phrase, “It’s interesting,” or, “Maybe it’s therapy, but it’s not ISTDP”. I have been hearing it a whole bunch lately! To me it reflects a ritual-based conception of ISTDP, where ISTDP is about using some specific vernacular rather than what I think is, in my opinion, it’s essence—careful fidelity to the signaling system of the unconscious. I think we need an examination of exactly what is ISTDP, and if we had a journal it would be fun to hash this out.

To me, ISTDP is at least 2 things—an assessment system for determining the “position of the unconscious”, and, separately, a package of interventions. Lately I have encountered, much to my dismay, numerous people holding the opinion that if you are not using the package of interventions (pressure, challenge, and head-on-collision) in a way that at least partially uses the boiler-plate language of the founder, then what you’re doing is not ISTDP. I see it differently, and would love to have my perspective considered: 

My current working definition of ISTDP is any approach that works with resistance and transference and utilizes – what I think is Davanloo’s most important discovery – a signaling system of the unconscious. I aim for a kind of “optimized” (by attention to signaling) dynamic therapy.

For my purposes at this point, ISTDP is no longer defined by what I say to the patient, even if my words are occasionally modeled on words I learned from Davanloo, nor by specific events like unlocking, even if they do occur anyway, but instead by a careful attention to the manifestations of unconscious communication via the body and speech of the patient, and by a highly focused effort to make interventions that facilitate the continued emergence of such communications.

I understand that mine is a loose definition of ISTDP, but I also think it allows me a great deal of room for creativity, a creativity that I find very necessary in working through the thorny moments of clinical practice that no book or training could have prepared me for. I worry about what kinds of creativity are choked off, and what kinds of therapeutic processes and experiences are missed, when we limit our definition of ISTDP to a particular set of words and discrete processes, as opposed to an infinite set of interventions and processes that have a shared essence. 

Perhaps one final thing is that I’d love to see continued critical appraisal of Davanloo’s ideas. I think a major step in this direction is represented by Mikkel Reher-Langsborg’s recent lecture on YouTube, dismantling the notion of Davanloo as a monolithic, tracing an evolution and thinking critically about that evolution. Bravo, Mikkel!

Mikkel Reher-Langberg presenting at the Malmö Center for ISTDP in May 2022 on the theme of Davanloo’s development over time.

Like early Freudians we tend not to critique Davanloo. We take his findings as a final say. I think the style in which his articles are written has contributed to this. Only his interpretation of the events is given, and are often asserted with a certaintistic verbiage. Alternative perspectives are rarely given, and if they are given at all, are dismissed or even mocked. As an author he positions himself as beyond critique, beyond alternative explanations, and I think this has fostered some of the idealization of him. His writing style plays right into the ideal-seeking tendencies of many trainees, though it surely pushes others away. 

I think there is quite a lot from Davanloo that could bear some interrogation.

Psychoanalysts have had to sort out what aspects of Freud’s ideas were sociohistorical artifacts, or products of his own unconscious biases so that they can identify and conserve those aspects that show a more timeless power and relevance. We have had none of that in ISTDP, and I think that part of the conservation of Davanloo’s genius contribution will also require a critical appraisal. Right now there is none of that in the literature, so I think we tend more towards unthinking acceptance that inhibits creativity, exploration, and new discovery.

This is a terrible irony—Davanloo gave us very powerful tools for exploration and discovery, and yet we seem to only want to confirm again and again what he already found. So, I think that is, more than anything, what I’d like to see in ISTDP in the coming years—new discoveries.


If you liked this interview with Maury Joseph, you might like some of our other interviews that we’ve published previously. For example, you might appreciate this Patricia Coughlin interview on the limitations of ISTDP, or this interview with Johannes Kieding on the vulnerabilities of ISTDP to misalliance. Or have a look at this list of the last seven interviews (in different langagues):

ISTDP PRE-CORE: Introduktionsutbildning i Växjö, 19-21 april 2023

Intensiv dynamisk korttidsterapi (ISTDP) utvecklades under 1980- och
1990-talet i Kanada. Behandlingsmetoden är specifikt utvecklad för
komplexa och kroniska tillstånd där andra behandlingar inte haft önskad
effekt, men går även att anpassa till mildare former av psykologiska besvär.
Den här kursen lär under tre intensiva dagar ut de teoretiska och praktiska
grunderna i metoden.

Intensiv dynamisk korttidsterapi (ISTDP) är en modern psykodynamisk behandlingsmetod som betonar upplevelsebaserat arbete som fokuserar på känslor. Under 2010-talet har metoden etablerats i Sverige, och ISTDP har blivit ett allt vanligare inslag på landets psykolog- och psykoterapeutprogram. Vid Stockholms Universitet och Karolinska Institutet genomförs forskning på metoden som i nuläget erbjuds på ett femtiotal vårdmottagningar i Sverige.

Kursen

En PRE-CORE ger grundläggande kunskaper och färdigheter för att kunna gå vidare med CORE-utbildning (tre-årig utbildning till ISTDP-terapeut) för den som så önskar. En CORE-utbildning startar i Växjö så snart som vi har tillräckligt många deltagare.

Upplägg

Den 19-21 april 2023 är du välkommen på en introduktionskurs i ISTDP i Växjö. Kursen leds av leg psykolog Christina Aune och leg psykolog Christoffer Hallberg – som båda går handledar/lärar-utbildningen i ISTDP (Training of trainers) med Jon Frederickson.

Kursen omfattar tre heldagar (kl 9-17) och kommer att innehålla både teoretiska och praktiska moment såsom undervisning, rollspel och övningar, samt filmvisning från terapisessioner. Teorin varvas med upplevelsebaserade övningar för att förbättra inlärningen.

Du kommer att lära dig:

  • Meta-psykologin bakom ISTDP
  • Att etablera medveten allians och upprätthålla ett intrapsykiskt fokus
  • Att fokusera på affekter
  • Att bedöma och reglera ångestnivå
  • Känna igen och arbeta med olika typer av försvar och motstånd
  • Att använda dina egna responser på patienter som del av bedömning

Målgrupp

Kursen riktar sig till leg psykologer, leg psykoterapeuter, psykologstudenter som påbörjat utbildningens kliniska del samt andra yrkesgrupper med grundläggande psykoterapiutbildning.

Lärare

Christina Aune
Christina Aune

Christina Aune är legitimerad psykolog sedan 2003 och certifierad ISTDP-terapeut. Hon gick Core-utbildningen 2018-2021 med Nina Klarin, Peter Lilliengren och Tobias Nordqvist som lärare och har sedan dess haft kontinuerlig handledning med Peter Lilliengren och Thomas Hesslow. Sedan hösten 2020 har Christina gått Post-core för Thomas Hesslow. Christina arbetar privat vid Malmö ISTDP- mottagning och har sedan tidigare många års erfarenhet av arbete inom primärvården samt barn- och ungdomspsykiatri. Mellan 2022-2025 går hon Training of trainers med Jon Frederickson.

Christoffer Hallberg
Christoffer Hallberg

Christoffer Hallberg är legitimerad psykolog och certifierad ISTDP-terapeut. Han gick Core- utbildningen 2014-2017 med Tobias Nordqvist som lärare, och har haft kontinuerlig handledning med honom sedan dess. Arbetar vid egen privat mottagning i Borås och som konsult på Mini Maria (missbruksvård för ungdomar) i Borås – och har sedan tidigare erfarenhet av ungdomsmottagning, beroendepsykiatri och vuxenpsykiatri. Går training of trainers med Jon Frederickson 2022-2025.

Praktisk information

Plats: Centralt i Växjö. Kostnad: 4500 kr exkl. moms (heltidsstudenter betalar 3 500 kr exkl. moms).

Anmälan: Skicka din anmälan med namn, faktureringsadress, arbetsplats och yrkeskategori till christoffer@psykologhallberg.se . Anmälan är bindande från 30 dagar innan kurstillfället.

Frågor: christina.aune.psykolog@gmail.com, christoffer@psykologhallberg.se

Här kan du ladda ner informationen som utskriftsvänlig PDF:

ISTDP ACADEMY våren 2023


För fjärde terminen i rad kör vi ett samarbete med vår systerförening i Danmark (Dansk Selskab for ISTDP, www.istdp-danmark.dk) med syfte att anordna digitala kvällsföreläsningar om ISTDP. En uttalad ambition är att bjuda in presentatörer från Norden och andra delar av världen samt att visa på bredd i olika tillämpningar av ISTDP. Alla presentationer sker på engelska med undertexter på filmklippen. Föreläsningarna kommer ske via Zoom och ligger kvällstid kl 17.00-19.30

Vårens schema ser ut så här: 

1:a februari: Patricia Coughlin (US)
1:a mars: Brian Kok Ravn (DK)
5:e april: Jody Clarke (CA)
3:e maj: Tami Chelew (US)
7:e juni: Niklas Rasmussen (SE)

Kostnaden är 1200 kr för alla fem föreläsningarna för medlemmar i Svenska Föreningen för ISTDP. Är du ännu inte medlem i föreningen kan du bli det i samband med anmälan. Medlem i föreningen blir du här: https://registreringar.istdpsweden.se. Förutom medlemsskap krävs även att du genomgått den tre dagar långa introduktionsutbildningen precore, samt att du har legitimation eller är student i slutet av din utbildning på legitimationsgrundande utbildning.

Observera att dessa presentationer kommer att visa ISTDP på avancerad nivå, utan att redogöra för grunddragen i metoden. Bakom interventioner som kan se enkla ut finns alltid komplexa bedömningar som avgör hur det är lämpligt att agera i stunden. ISTDP är en omfattande metod som tar tid att lära sig. Därför är denna seminarieserie endast öppen för dem som redan har gått en introduktionskurs (så kallad precore). Därutöver behöver du ha legitimation eller vara i slutet av din legitimationsgrundande utbildning. Är du nyfiken på ISTDP och vill lära dig mer om grunderna i metoden så kan vi varmt rekommendera att läsa mer om utbildning på vår hemsida.

Här köper du biljett till vårens föreläsningar: Klicka här

VÅRENS FÖRELÄSNINGAR

1. februari: Patricia Coughlin: “handling resistance without contributing to it”

About Patricia: Patricia Coughlin, Ph.D., is a Clinical Psychologist with over 40 years of experience.  Having trained with Habib Davanloo, she developed a specialty in ISTDP and has been a prominent teacher and supervisor in the field since the 1990s.  In addition, she has written many articles, and four books, on theory and practice of ISTDP.

About Patricia’s presentation: In this webinar we will focus on the topic of “handling resistance without contributing to it”.  ISTDP is a method of psychotherapy based on the theory of unconscious conflicts.  All too often, therapists focus exclusively on defense and resistance and, in so doing, contribute to it. Davanloo taught us to identify and then intensify the patient’s conflict in such a way that they turn on and abandon their defenses in order to face their true feelings. This procedure is designed to create an intrapsychic crisis, which, when successful, unlocks the unconscious. Engaging in an interpersonal conflict with patients can lead to misalliances and drop outs. Learning to manage the twin forces of alliance and resistance, in order to facilitate an internal crisis and opening of the unconscious, is an essential skill to master.


1:a mars: Brian Kok Ravn: “The Stuck Electrician – Working with Syntonic Character Defenses”

About Brian: I have been in the field as a clinical psychologist since 2006 and got my initial training working with outpatient psychiatry specifically focusing on personality disorders. I finished my Core Training with Ph.d. Patricia Coughlin in 2012 and went on to participate in Jon Fredericksons “Training for Trainers”. I started out teaching my first core group in 2015 and has since then started a new core group each year. I’ve been in supervision with Dr. Allan Abbass since 2015 and has twice presented cases with both fragile and high resistant patients at the Copenhagen Immersion seminar taught by Dr. Allan Abbass. Currently I work solely as a private practitioner in Psykolog Kok Ravn ApS with a broad range of topics doing both Individual ISTDP Psychotherapy, ISTDP Informed Couples Therapy, Supervision, Training and Individual and Group Dynamic Coaching for Businesspeople.

About Brian’s presentation: Highly syntonic character defenses are quite a challenge for the therapist to work with. We will look into session fourteen in the fase of treatment where the patient through previous repeated clarification slowly begins to turn on his defenses and let feelings rise in the transference. It will be demonstrated how turning the patient against his own defenses with this kind of high resistance requires both pressure, clarification, challenge and head on collision in combination.

5:e april: Jody Clarke: ” Opening the Family Tomb: A Study of the Intergenerational Transmission of Psychopathology”

About Jody: Jody Clarke is certified as a Psychospiritual Therapist with the Canadian Association of Spiritual Care (CASC), he is also a Professor of Pastoral Theology, at Atlantic School of Theology in Halifax. Through a series of wonderful incidents he was invited to his first symposium in Intensive Short Term Dynamic Psychotherapy two decades ago. From there he was invited to join Dr. Davanloo’s Supervision Group. Then from 2007 – 2020 Jody became a member of Dr. Davanloo’s Montreal Closed-Circuit Video Workshop. He has written and co-authored several papers integrating ISTDP with literature and events in history.

About Jody’s presentation: Exploring the nature of the intergenerational transmission of psychopathology is fascinating on numerous fronts. The pathogenetic figure or figures contribute directly to the to the character of the resistance. Essentially, the family tomb does not want to be open. In this presentation we will watch the application of Davanloo’s ISTDP and the subsequent breakthrough into the family crypt. Davanloo’s theories are designed to free patients from the destructive forces in their lives, but his technique also offers liberation for ancestor’s long since buried.


3:e maj: Tami Chelew: “ISTDP Informed Couples Therapy”

About Tami: I am a licensed marriage and family therapist in private practice in San Diego, CA. I originally trained as a couple’s therapist. I am a certified Emotionally Focused Couple (EFT), Supervisor and Therapist, Dually Certified in Accelerated Experiential Dynamic Psychotherapy (AEDP) for Individuals and Couples, and IEDTA Certified in Intensive Short Term Dynamic Psychotherapy (ISTDP). My background in EFT for Couples, AEDP, and ISTDP have all served me well in shaping and expanding my clinical skills and developing my efficiency and art as a psychotherapist. I am passionate about teaching and training motivated therapists in helping them become more effective at what they do. I offer both individual supervision and an ISTDP Informed Couples Monthly Training. My colleague Matt Jarvinen and I co-created the ISTDP San Diego Community offering online training with master EDT trainers to therapists globally to help spread the love and efficacy of ISTDP. I am the president of the IEDTA and have served on the IEDTA Board for the past 4 years My husband and I have been married for 33 years. We have two grown, strong daughters and two precious grandsons. To learn more, visit me at www.tamichelew.com

About Tami’s presentation: Many ISTDP and EDT therapists who work with both individuals and couples are naturally interested in learning how to effectively apply their work to couples from an ISTDP framework. Most current couples’ models do not work from a theory of unconscious anxiety, nor explicitly identify defense patterns and their costs as explicitly as ISTDP. Dr. Davanloo’s contribution to defense work and understanding the pathways of unconscious anxiety is incredibly relevant in working with couples; especially when the stimulus (often their partner) is sitting next to them in the room. Equally important is increasing a couple’s capacity towards experiencing and expressing their mixed feelings openly and honestly with one another. This builds capacity on many levels in both partners toward less defensiveness, greater anxiety regulation and affect tolerance toward emotional closeness in being less guarded and distant, and more open-hearted and connected, which is often their shared longings for couples’ treatment. The focus of this presentation is based both on theory and technique; ISTDP metapsychology and the application of ISTDP clinical skills by closely monitoring the response to intervention in each couple member. This will include monitoring each partner’s triangle of conflict and triangle of persons to better understand how each of their intrapsychic conflicts and/or low ego capacity is unconsciously contributing to their interpersonal conflicts causing their current symptoms and suffering. When each partner can better understand both their own and their partner’s dynamics, it helps build empathy between them and is a motivator for healthy change. We will view case material demonstrating how to effectively work with a couple when both partners have different ego capacities. Many couples are highly motivated and yet feel stuck in relational defeating patterns and high anxiety during times of conflict. We will look at how to work with the complexities of detachment, projective processes, repression, and cognitive-perceptual disruption in the room and we will witness the change processes as they unfold. We will be underscoring the 5 parameters in Dr. Allan Abbass’s work that comes from Dr. Davanloo’s Central Dynamic Sequence which serves as a road map for working with both individuals and couples. These include assessing the ego capacity of each partner by restructuring defense patterns of relating, moving from syntonic to dystonic defense patterns, restructuring anxiety pathways as needed, detecting any anxiety thresholds that are too high, and inviting the de-repression of feelings, to bring breakthroughs into the unconscious. Working actively on the “front of the system” activates both partner’s resistance systems, Complex Transference Feelings, along with the Conscious Therapeutic Alliance (CTA) and the Unconscious Therapeutic Alliance (UTA), which is the healing force in each couple member and therapist. This way of working offers a comprehensive psychotherapeutic couples treatment course that is effective and short-term. This presentation will show that working in this focused way, in the here-and-now, by monitoring anxiety dysregulation and building affect tolerance helps both partners to have more capacity to deal, feel and relate to one another in good times and in hard times. Also, honoring the urge of expressing loving impulses to reach out and hold hands or offer a much-needed comforting hug is welcomed. These tender, loving moments are meaningful to the couple and lead to further gains of deeper, honest communication and character change that offer corrective emotional experiences together. Learning Objectives include: 1. How to assess and psycho-diagnose the ego capacity of each couple member. 2. When and how to use Graded ISTDP interventions when detecting anxiety thresholds so that each partner can feel safe in their body and in the room with us and with each other to build more ego and relational capacity. 3. Witnessing the restructuring efforts so that resistances drop, and Alliance can grow and overcome resistance for both partners to feel more in contact with their mixed feelings and with each other. 4. How to explicitly privilege the felt emotion of love and other positive feelings to increase and deepen their emotional intimacy and attachment bond. You will witness and feel their love in the room. Reaching the couple stuck underneath their resistances by understanding and healing their unconscious wounds transforms their love through healthier ways of relating which positively impacts their children, their grandchildren, and the generations to come. To me, this is sacred legacy work. Working effectively with couples from an ISTDP framework can be a significant factor in contributing to the greater collective conscious healing in the couple and family system, society, and the world at large.


7:e juni: Niklas Rasmussen: “Undervalued functions of the head-on collision in ISTDP”

About Niklas: Niklas Rasmussen is a licensed psychologist, a certified ISTDP therapist, trainer and supervisor. He has 15 years experience of clinical work, mainly in outpatient psychiatric health care. Since 2019 he has a private practice in Stockholm offering ISTDP therapy, ISTDP-training and supervision. He also teaches ISTDP at Uppsala University and at Marie Cederschiölds högskola i Stockholm

About Niklas’ presentation: Head-on collision (HOC) is usually described as an effective intervention when the patient’s resistance is crystallized. It is defined by a therapeutic position of radical honesty about the prize of the resistance. In ISTDP-literature, the main goal with HOC is described as helping highly resistant patients towards emotional break-throughs. But the therapeutic stance associated with HOC can have multiple functions in the therapeutic process, such as: 1) assessing the patient’s suitability for ISTDP in trial therapy: 2) initiating termination of therapy when necessary. 3) establishing and reestablishing therapeutic borders in therapy. 4) a path to essential self-care for the therapist. 

In his presentation, Niklas will discuss these extended, and so far undervalued, functions of HOC based on his own experience as an ISTDP therapist, supervisor and supervisee. He will also talk about how HOC can be used at different stages of a therapist´s development and common countertransference reactions associated with the use of HOC.

ISTDP PRE-CORE: Introduktionsutbildning i Helsingborg februari 2023

Intensiv dynamisk korttidsterapi (ISTDP) utvecklades under 1980- och 1990-talet i Kanada. Behandlingsmetoden är specifikt utvecklad för komplexa och kroniska tillstånd där andra behandlingar inte haft önskad effekt, men går även att anpassa till mildare former av psykologiska besvär. Den här kursen lär under tre intensiva dagar ut de teoretiska och praktiska grunderna i metoden. 

Intensiv dynamisk korttidsterapi (ISTDP) är en modern psykodynamisk behandlingsmetod som betonar upplevelsebaserat arbete som fokuserar på känslor. Under 2010-talet har metoden etablerats i Sverige, och ISTDP har blivit ett allt vanligare inslag på landets psykolog- och psykoterapeutprogram. Vid Stockholms Universitet och Karolinska Institutet genomförs forskning på metoden som i nuläget erbjuds på ett femtiotal vårdmottagningar i Sverige. 


pre-core
Pre-core

OM KURSEN

Kursen omfattar tre heldagar och ger en grundläggande introduktion till ISTDP. Utöver en teoretisk bakgrund innehåller kursen videobaserad undervisning samt rollspelsövningar där du får möjlighet att utveckla specifika färdigheter i att observera patienter och intervenera utifrån ISTDP-principer. Följande moment ingår:  

  • en introduktion till de grundläggande teoretiska principerna inom ISTDP 
  • praktiska färdigheter för att etablera en god arbetsallians och ett emotionellt präglat fokus för behandlingen
  • praktiska färdigheter för att bedöma patientens ångestnivå och reglera denna
  • praktiska färdigheter för att identifiera och hantera försvar och motstånd

Introduktionskursen är ett behörighetskrav för att läsa den treåriga ISTDP-utbildningen Core, om du önskar göra detta senare. Flera coreutbildningar kommer att starta på olika platser i Sverige under 2023, och vi planerar för att starta minst en coreutbildning i Skåne under 2023. Mer information om utbildningar kan du hitta på www.istdpinstitutet.se

MÅLGRUPP

Kursen riktar sig till psykologer, läkare, socionomer, fysioterapeuter, psykoterapeuter och studenter inom dessa yrken, men vi välkomnar även annan vårdpersonal som kan ha nytta av ISTDP-färdigheter i sitt arbete.

TID OCH PLATS

Kursen kommer att hållas centralt i Helsingborg 8-10:e februari 2023. Tiderna är 09.00-16.30

LÄRARE

Thomas Hesslow

Kursen hålls av och Thomas Hesslow och Ulrika Engström. Thomas är leg. psykolog och ISTDP-terapeut/lärare/handledare, kliniskt verksam vid Malmö ISTDP-mottagning. Han är styrelsemedlem i den svenska föreningen för ISTDP och en av grundarna till det svenska ISTDP-institutet. Förutom att han håller coreutbildningar så undervisar han även vid Lunds Universitet och Linnéuniversitetet. Han gick coreutbildningen för Tobias Nordqvist och Jon Frederickson, och har regelbunden handledning med Peter Lilliengren, Ange Cooper och Jonathan Entis. Thomas har tidigare arbetat med personlighetsproblematik inom psykiatrin, först som DBT-terapeut och senare med Sveriges första ISTDP-team vid öppenvårdsmottagningen i Sundbyberg. 

Ulrika Engström

Ulrika Engström är leg. psykolog och ISTDP-terapeut under pågående utbildning som ISTDP-utbildare och -handledare. Hon har flerårig erfarenhet av att arbeta med ISTDP med psykiatripatienter. Hon arbetar för närvarande med ISTDP både inom vuxenpsykiatrin i Halland och på privat mottagning i Kungsbacka samt online. Ulrika gick coreutbildning med Tobias Nordqvist och Peter Lilliengren och har regelbunden handledning med Tobias Nordqvist. 

KOSTNAD

Kursen kostar 5000 SEK exkl. moms. Heltidsstudenter betalar 3500 SEK exkl. moms. Då ingår undervisning, kursmaterial och fika under de tre dagarna.

KURSARRANGÖR

Kursen arrangeras av Malmö Centrum för ISTDP i samarbete med ISTDP-institutet, ett nätverk för ISTDP-utbildning i Sverige (www.istdpinstitutet.se).

FRÅGOR

Kontakta Thomas Hesslow (thomas.hesslow@gmail.com) eller Ulrika Engström (kontakt@psykologulrika.se) om du har frågor.

ANMÄLAN

Skicka ett mail till Thomas Hesslow (thomas.hesslow@gmail.com) där du anger namn, fakturaadress, utbildning, arbetsplats samt eventuell specialkost.

Här är informationen som utskriftsvänlig PDF:

Coreutbildning i Stockholm 2023-2026

Hösten 2023 inleder ISTDP-institutet en ny omgång av den treåriga Coreutbildningen i Stockholm, med Sandra Ringarp och Glenn Kristoffersson som lärare. Kursgruppen träffas under tre dagar vid fyra tillfällen varje år med första träffen i oktober 2023. 

Målet med denna utbildning är att du ska lära dig att tillämpa ISTDP på ett sätt som främjar din individuella terapeutstil och ditt eget kritiska och kliniska tänkande i relation till metoden. Att du som blivande ISTDP-terapeut helt enkelt ska kunna tillämpa ISTDP på ett sätt som känns genuint och förankrat i just dig.

Styrkan i ISTDP är bland annat specifika principer som kan omsättas i form av interventioner som kan ha en enorm potential för patientens utveckling. Dessa interventioner är ofta inte det mest komplicerade i att lära sig ISTDP. Det handlar i stället ofta om de kliniska bedömningar vi gör sekund för sekund i samspel med patienten.

Att kunna göra dessa bedömningar är en förutsättning för att kunna avgöra vilka principer och interventioner som kan ha potential i ett givet ögonblick. De ger oss också möjlighet att utvärdera vårt arbete i varje ögonblick. Det här är ett givande och – tycker vi – roligt sätt att arbeta på!

COREUTBILDNINGEN

Coreutbildningen är utvecklad av Jon Frederickson vid Washington School of Psychiatry. Utbildningsgruppen träffas vid fyra intensiva tredagarsmoduler per år under tre års tid, alltså sammanlagt 36 heldagar som tillsammans innehåller cirka 250 undervisningstimmar. Varje modul har ett unikt tema och innehåller teori, teknik, videoobservation, färdighetsträning/rollspelande och handledning utifrån kursdeltagarens egna terapivideofilmer. Eftersom många av utbildningsinslagen är upplevelsebaserade så läggs stor tonvikt vid att skapa ett gott, medkännande samarbetsklimat i gruppen. Gruppen kommer bestå av åtta eller nio personer. 

Mellan varje tredagarsmodul förväntas varje kursdeltagare arbeta med psykoterapeutiska arbetsuppgifter och förbereda sig inför kommande modul genom att läsa kurslitteratur. Deltagarna tar även enskild ISTDP-handledning om minst en timme mellan varje modul (face-to-face eller via videolänk). 

Under det första året är utbildningens fokus att etablera ett effektivt terapeutiskt samarbete med olika typer av patienter. Under det andra året är fokus att utveckla färdigheter och känslomässig kapacitet för att arbeta med det “graderade formatet” av ISTDP, dvs. de tekniker som används vid arbete med patienter med högre ångestnivå och lägre affekttolerans. Under det tredje och sista året ligger fokus på att lära sig aktivt arbete med patienter med högt motstånd i terapirummet.

LÄRARNA

Sandra Ringarp

Sandra Ringarp är leg psykolog och certifierad ISTDP-terapeut samt lärare och handledare vid ISTDP-institutet. Sandra har arbetat med ISTDP sedan 2013 inom vuxenpsykiatrin, smärtvården och nu i privat regi på ISTDP-mottagningen i Stockholm. Hon är också upphandlad som handledare inom flera regioner. Efter att ha avslutat sin coreutbildning 2016 har Sandra fortlöpande specialiserat sig inom ISTDP genom utbildningar och avancerad handledning, med bland annat Allan Abbass och Reiko Ikemoto-Joseph. Sandra är ordförande för Svenska föreningen för ISTDP. Sandra har HBTQI-kompetens och särskild kompetens inom långvarig smärta och utmattningssyndrom. Hon är även aktuell med boken ”Ångest för alla” på Natur & Kultur förlag.

Glenn Kristoffersson

Glenn Kristoffersson är leg psykolog och arbetar med terapi och handledning på ISTDP-mottagningen i Stockholm. Han undervisar på ISTDP-institutets treåriga coreutbildning i Stockholm och Budapest. Från hösten 2023 är han involverad som behandlare i ett forskningsprojekt vid Stockholms universitet.

Både Sandra och Glenn tar examen från Jon Fredericksons 3,5-åriga lärar- och handledarutbildning Training of Trainers under hösten 2023.

PRAKTISK INFORMATION

Kostnad: 7800 kr per modul exkl moms. Detta inkluderar priset för modulen, 6500 kr, samt priset för en handledningstimme, 1300 kr, före nästa modul. Priset för sista modulen är 6500 kr exkl moms då ingen handledning ingår. Sammanlagd kostnad för hela utbildningen 92.300 kr exkl moms.

Plats: ISTDP-mottagningen på Timmermansgatan 9 i Stockholm.

Förkunskapskrav: Psykologlegitimation (i undantagsfall kan även PTP-psykolog antas på utbildningen). 

Utbildningen är ackrediterad som tre fördjupningskurser inom inriktningen psykologisk behandling/psykoterapi av Psykologförbundet. Utbildningen kan även ackrediteras som en eller flera breddkurser inom annan specialisering beroende på den enskilde STP-psykologens övriga kurser. Psykologförbundet gör en bedömning av den enskilde STP-psykologens övriga meriter. 

Övriga behörighetskrav är genomgången introduktionsutbildning inom ISTDP (pre-core).

Kurstillfällen under första året: Modul 1: 16-18 oktober 2023, Modul 2: 15-17 november 2023, Modul 3: februari 2024, Modul 4: maj 2024.

Anmälan: Skicka din anmälan med namn, fakturaadress, arbetsplats och yrkeskategori till glenn.kristoffersson@gmail.com. Anmälan är bindande från och med två månader före den första kursdagen. Man förbinder sig till det första årets moduler med ambitionen att fullfölja hela utbildningen. Inför fjärde tillfället förbinder man sig till de resterande två åren.

Frågor: Om du har frågor kan du vända dig till glenn.kristoffersson@gmail.com eller kontakt@ringarppsykologi.com.

SAMLAD KURSINFORMATION

Här kan du ladda ner fullständig kursinformation:

HANDLEDNINGSRETREAT ISTDP

Den 2-3:e mars 2023 är du som ISTDP-terapeut välkommen till Länkas oas i skogen strax utanför Göteborg för en två dagars handledningsretreat!

Liv Raissi

Vad är det? Under två dagar får deltagarna en timmes handledning var inom valfritt område. Det kan vara på ett patientfall, men det kan också vara på ett personligt eller professionellt område, för att få hjälp att komma vidare från något som fastnat. Utöver handledning ingår upplevelsebaserade övningar eller meditationer i syfte att öka närvaron i dig själv och i gruppen. Det finns också tid till diskussioner kring valfria relevanta ämnen, t.ex. din utveckling som ISTDP-terapeut, vilken plats din personlighet får i ISTDP-rollen, vilka normer det finns inom terapi-världen, hur integrerade dina terapeutiska interventionerna är dig själv…. osv. Syftet med hela handledningsretreatet är att ge dig som ISTDP-terapeut andrum och en paus från det ständiga flödet som arbets- och privatlivet vanligtvis innebär. Du inbjuds att lägga ditt ego och din prestation åt sidan för en stund, för att tillsammans med dig själv och andra öppna upp för de mer sårbara och ärliga sidorna i dig själv.

Var är det? I Länkas retreathus i Floda, ca 30 min utanför Göteborg.
När? Den 2-3 mars 2023, kl 9:00-17:00
För vem? Du som går eller har gått klart core-utbildningen. Max 8 st deltagare. Pris? 4250 kr exkl moms. I priset ingår fika och lunch från Nääs fabriker

Logi? Om du behöver övernattning rekommenderar vi Nääs fabriker hotell (www.naasfabriker.se/bo/). Mycket trevligt hotell vid Säveån där du kan bada både i ån som i bubbelpool.

Arrangör: Länka drivs av Liv Raissi och Shahir Mansouri sedan 2022. Med Liv som behandlingsansvarig och Shahir som praktisk ansvarig tar de emot för terapier, retreatgäster samt utbildningar. Liv Raissi är leg psykolog och certifierad ISTDP-terapeut och ISTDP-handledare. Hon är en av grundarna till det svenska ISTDP-institutet. Utöver terapier och utbildningar i egen regi undervisar Liv på Högskolan Sapu. Liv har tidigare jobbat utifrån KBT-modeller, framförallt traumafokuserad KBT (prolonged exposure) på en PTSD-mottagning. För närvarande går hon en utbildning i psykedelisk assisterad
terapi som avslutas i november 2022. Hennes utgångspunkt som terapeut är att utifrån ett öppet hjärta och följsam hållning bidra med specifika interventioner anpassade efter varje patient. Shahir är designer på Koppla AB men har även flerårig erfarenhet som behandlingsassistent.

Amälan: liv.raissi@affekta.se.

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