Appalachian Psychoanalytic Society
a local chapter of the Division 39 of the American Psychological Association
presents a
Fall Conference
with
Robert Grossmark, PhD
on
The Unobtrusive Relational Analyst: Enactment, Trauma and Time
Saturday, October 25, 2025
8:30am - 3:15pm
Crowne Plaza Knoxville
401 W. Summit Hill Drive
Knoxville, TN 37902
Description of Program
Unrepresented and yet-to-be-suffered trauma and neglect announce themselves in the language of symptoms, absence and emergent enactments in the treatment field. This conference will address the challenges when working with patients whose trauma does not avail itself to symbolization and mentalization. Dr. Grossmark will outline how the analyst can unobtrusively create the safe and robust space within which the fullness of the patient’s internal world and trauma can be realized and companioned such that the patient can be known in the register of illusion, fragmentation and non-relatedness that are the signature of the residue of trauma and neglect.
The emphasis is on companioning and being-with the patient in their particular idiom and register rather than seeking to bring the patient into the analyst’s reality and understanding. This unique therapeutic relationship offers the space for the instantiation of time such that trauma can be located in memory and the past. This involves the un-telling and un-doing of prior “translations,” personality structures and relational patterns such that being and time can be re-assembled and re-integrated.
Presenter
Robert Grossmark, PhD, is a psychoanalyst in New York City. He works with individuals, groups and couples and conducts in-person and online psychoanalytic supervision and study groups. He is on the teaching and supervising faculty at the New York University Postdoctoral Program in Psychotherapy and Psychoanalysis, The National Institute for the Psychotherapies Program in Adult Psychoanalysis, The National Training Program in Psychoanalysis, National Faculty Member, the Florida Psychoanalytic Center and lectures at other psychoanalytic institutes and clinical psychology training programs nationally and internationally. He is an Associate Editor for Psychoanalytic Dialogues. He is the author of The Unobtrusive Relational Analyst: Explorations in Psychoanalytic Companioning and co-edited The One and the Many: Relational Approaches to Group Psychotherapy and Heterosexual Masculinities: Contemporary Perspectives from Psychoanalytic Gender Theory, all published by Routledge.
Schedule
8:30am Registration
8:55am Welcome and Introduction
9:00am The Unobtrusive Relational Analyst
10:30am Break
10:45am The Unobtrusive Relational Analyst in Practice
12:15pm Buffet lunch, with vegetarian options (included in registration fee)
1:00pm The Untelling Patient
2:00pm Break
2:15pm Discussion
3:15pmComplete Evaluations and Adjourn.
Learning Objectives
After attending this intermediate program in full, participants will be able to:
1. Describe three elements that comprise the concept of an unobtrusive yet relational analyst.
2. Describe two examples of how an analyst enters the patient’s world rather than bringing the patient into the reality of the analyst.
3. Describe specific examples of unworded phenomena expressed in mutual enactment.
4. Identify psychoanalytic enactments in presented clinical material.
5. Describe differences in treatment approach and experience when one is working with a non-reflective patient versus a reflective patient.
Participants
This program is open to all APS members and other interested mental health professionals who may not be 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 Fees and Policies
BY October 19, 2025:
Professional Members and Scholar Members: $125
Non-members: $145
Early-Career Professional Members: $75
Graduate Student Members: $30.
AFTER October 19, 2025:
Professional Members and Scholar Members: $150
Non-members: $165
Early-Career Professional Members: $100
Graduate Student Members: $50.
Registration will close on October 23, 2025.
Although walk-ins will be accepted, please register online at www.aps-tn.wildapricot.org in advance to assure adequate food and seating.
If you prefer to pay by check, please print the Program Registration form, and mail with your payment to:
Rebecca Skadberg, PhD
APS Treasurer
3400 Tupelo Way
Knoxville, TN 37912.
Refunds honored with written/electronic notice at least 48 hours before date of conference. Contact Rebecca Skadberg, PhD.
Contact the APS President Joyce Cartor, PhD to negotiate fees, if needed.
Facility is accessible to persons who are physically challenged. If participants have special needs, we will attempt to accommodate them. Please address requests, questions, concerns and any complaints to Joyce Cartor, PhD.
APS Membership
Eligible professionals can join APS or renew their membership for the 2025-2026 program year for $120. Scholars can join/renew for $80 and Early-Career Professionals can join/renew for $65. Graduate students may join or renew for $25.
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 5 continuing education credits. With full attendance (sign-in at start of program) and completion of a program Evaluation and Learning Assessment, a certificate will be issued. Psychologists will have their participation registered through Division 39. Partial credit is not available for partial attendance.
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
Grossmark, R. (2012) The Flow of Enactive Engagement, Contemporary Psychoanalysis, 48, 3, 287-300.
Grossmark, R. (2012). The Unobtrusive Relational Analyst, Psychoanalytic Dialogues, 22:629-646
Grossmark, R. (2016). Psychoanalytic Companioning, Psychoanalytic Dialogues, 26: 698-712.
Grossmark, R. (2024) The Untelling, Psychoanalytic Dialogues, 34 (1): 3-19
Grossmark, R. (2023). A child is being murdered: A contemporary psychoanalytic treatment of a compulsion to child pornography, Psychoanalytic Psychology, 40: 25-30
Karliner, R. (2025). Meeting in the in-between: Grief, immobility, and transformation, Psychoanalytic Dialogues, 35:4-18.
Markman, H. (2022). Creative Agreement in Psychoanalytic Practice. Routledge Press, London.
Contact
If participants have special needs, we will attempt to accommodate them. Please address requests, questions, concerns and any complaints to the APS President Joyce Cartor, PhD.
There is no commercial support for this program nor are there any relationships between Division 39, APS, presenters, 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.