Appalachian Psychoanalytic Society
(a local chapter of Division 39 of the American Psychological Association)
presents an
Online Saturday Morning Seminar
with
Ortal Kirson-Trilling, PsyD
on
The Binds that Bond:
Disavowed Vulnerability
in Traumatized Couples
April 10, 2021
Online Via Zoom
Please click here for instructions on using Zoom.
Program Description
This intermediate presentation will focus on the impact of early relational trauma on the capacity to experience vulnerability in the couple relationship. While the members of couples who share early relational trauma have found one another, the experience of love, of being known and seen, is lost to them. Through disavowal of vulnerability, these couples unconsciously embolden protective internal objects to ensure foreclosure of love. Instead of open hearted receptivity to the vicissitudes of love, such couples, at their worst, are caught in a repetition compulsion characterized by a powerful unconscious need to defend against love, paradoxically leaving them doomed to repeat the profound rejection they experienced in the hands of their first lost love, their primary object. Together, we will explore the challenges of working with such couples.
Presenter
Ortal Kirson-Trilling, PsyD, is a psychoanalyst from the Psychoanalytic Institute of Northern California. She is on the board of PCPG (Psychoanalytic Couple Psychotherapy Group) and the board of Section VIII, Couple and Family Psychoanalysis, Division 39 of the APA. Dr. Kirson-Trilling teaches analytic couple theory and practice at California Pacific Medical Center and the International Psychotherapy Institute. She recently published, What If We’re Not that Bad: On Learning to Metabolize the Dead Mother/Dead Self, in Fort da, 2020. Dr. Kirson-Trilling maintains a private practice in Oakland, California where she works with individuals and couples.
Schedule
11:00am Welcome and Introduction
11:10am Introduction to Psychoanalytic Couple Therapy and Tavistock Model
11:50am Discussion
12:00am Break
12:10pm Paper Presentation
12:50pm Discussion and Questions/Answers.
1:20pm Complete Evaluations and Adjourn.
Learning Objectives
After attending this intermediate seminar in full, participants will be able to:
1. Describe the ways in which couples with early relational trauma co-create a specific form of defense to block relatedness.
2. Explain the bind that couples with early relational trauma are faced with when working with a couple therapist and what is needed to relinquish an attachment to the bad object.
Participants
This program is open to all APS members. It is not limited to individuals practicing in a predominately psychoanalytic mode. The material will be appropriate for clinicians with intermediate levels of experience and knowledge.
Registration
Professional and Scholar Members:
Free. Please register online by April 9, 2021.
Early-Career Professional Members:
Free. Please register online by April 9, 2021.
Graduate Student Members:
Free. Please register online by April 9, 2021.
Non-members:
Please join APS in order to participate in 2020-2021 programming.
APS Membership
Eligible professionals can join APS or renew their membership for the 2020-2021 program year for $40. Scholars and Early-Career Professionals can also join/renew for $40. Graduate students may join or renew for $10.
American Psychological Association Approval Statement
Division 39 is approved by the American Psychological Association to sponsor continuing education for psychologists. Division 39 maintains responsibility for this program and its content.
Continuing Education
This program, when attended in its entirety, is available for 2.0 continuing education credits. With full attendance and completion of an online program Evaluation and Learning Assessment, a certificate will be issued by email. Psychologists will have their participation registered through Division 39.
To be eligible for CE credit, please:
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Make sure your Zoom name (first and last) is identifiable. Use the Chat Box to inform program hosts if more than one person is watching via a single Zoom account.
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Be present for the entire program.
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A link to the program evaluation will be shared with participants via the Chat Box at the end of the presentation while the speaker is answering final questions. Participants will enter their names and email addresses on the evaluation so that APS can distribute certificates via email.
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Please complete the evaluation by 2pm on the day of the program.
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CE certificates will be emailed within a week after the program.
APS and Division 39 are committed to conducting all activities in conformity with the American Psychological Association’s Ethical Principles for Psychologists. APS and Division 39 are also committed to accessibility and non-discrimination in continuing education activities. Participants are asked to be aware of the need for privacy and confidentiality throughout the program. If program content becomes stressful, participants are encouraged to process these feelings during discussion periods.
Selected References/Recommended Reading
Bion W (1979). Making the best of a bad job. In: Clinical seminars and other works, 321–31. London: Karnac, 1994.
Britton, R. (2010). Developmental Uncertainty versus Paranoid Regression. Psychoanalytic Review, 97 (2), 195-206.
Britton, R. and Steiner, J. (1994). Interpretation: Selected Fact or Overvalued Idea?. International Journal of Psychoanalysis , 75, 1069-1078.
Freud, S. (1930). Civilization and its Discontents. The Standard Edition of the Complete Psychological Works of Sigmund Freud, Volume XXI (1927-1931): The Future of an Illusion, Civilization and its Discontents, and Other Works, 57-146
Grotstein, J. (2010). Orphans of O; The Negative Therapeutic Reaction and the longing for a childhood that never was. In Primitive States, Chapter 1. Routledge.
Morgan, M. (2018) A Couple State of Mind. Psychoanalysis of Couples and the Tavistock Model. London, Routledge.
Morgan, M. (2016). What Does Ending Mean in Couple Psychotherapy?*. Cpl. Fam. Psychoanalsis, 6 (1):44-58.
Nathans, S. (2016). Whose Disgust Is It Anyway?: Projection and Projective Identification in the Couple Relationship. Psychoanalytic Dialogues, 26 (4):437-443
Nathans, S., Schaefer, M. (2017). Couples on the Couch: Psychoanalytic Couple Therapy and the Tavistock Model. New York, Routledge.
Ruszczynski, S. (2014). Couples on the Couch: Working Psychoanalytically with Couple Relationships. Fort da: Journal of the Northern Californian Society for Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy, 20 (2):8-25.
Contact
If participants have special needs, we will attempt to accommodate them. Please address requests, questions, concerns and any complaints to APS President Bill MacGillivray, PhD.
There is no commercial support for this program nor are there any relationships between Division 39, APS, presenter, program content, research, grants or other funding sources that could reasonably be construed as conflicts of interest. During the program, the validity/utility of the content and risks/limitations of the approaches discussed will be addressed, as applicable.