Saturday, October 26, 2024

Annual Psychoanalytic Couple Psychotherapy Lecture of 2024

Join PCPG for our Annual Psychoanalytic Couple Psychotherapy Lecture in-person at the Brower Center in Berkeley, CA, (available online as well), as we host James Poulton, Ph.D., and discussant Ortal Kirson-Trilling Psy.D.

In the history of psychoanalytic theory of couple relationships, numerous models have been advanced to describe the essential dynamics of healthy couples. In this paper, the core characteristics of a particular kind of healthy couple - which the author calls a “healing couple” - are explored. With emphasis on the healing couple’s “shared creativity,” grounded in intersubjective states in which the boundaries between self and other have become fluid, the author emphasizes the importance of the healing couple’s capacity to intuit previously unformed and unacknowledged elements of their relationship, and to utilize their discoveries in developing more meaningful, purposeful, and real foundations for their creative interactions. In the paper, the author uses extensive case material to illustrate not only the interactions that are characteristic of the healing couple, but also the transformations a couple must go through to reach such a stage, as well as the therapeutic techniques that can help them along the way.

James Poulton, Ph.D., is a psychoanalytic psychotherapist in private practice in Salt Lake City, Utah, an Adjunct Assistant Professor in Psychology at the University of Utah, an Emeritus national faculty member of the International Psychotherapy Institute (IPI), and one of three concurrent Editors-in-Chief of the journal, Couple and Family Psychoanalysis. He has written numerous articles and chapters on psychological treatment and theory, and is the author of Object Relations and Relationality in Couple Therapy: Exploring the Middle Ground (2012) and co-author of Suffering and Sacrifice in the Clinical Encounter (2020) and Internalization: The Origin and Construction of Internal Reality (2001). He has also co-authored two books on the history of art in the American West: LeConte Stewart: Masterworks (2012), and Painters of Grand Teton National Park (2015).

Dr. Ortal Kirson-Trilling is a psychologist and psychoanalyst trained at the Psychoanalytic Institute of Northern California (PINC). She is an editorial board member of the Journal of Couple and Family Psychoanalysis and is the director of the Psychoanalytic Couple Psychotherapy Group’s (PCPG) Intensive Study Program. Dr. Kirson-Trilling is a faculty member of PCPG and the San Francisco Centre for Psychoanalysis (SFCP). She teaches analytic couple theory and practice in the Bay Area, nationally and internationally. Dr. Kirson-Trilling maintains a private practice in Oakland, California.

PCPG is striving to embrace the principles of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) in teaching, mentoring, community building, and engagement. Moreover, PCPG is actively focusing on incorporating equity into policies, processes, and procedures and its organizational structure.

Learning Objectives:



Based on the content of this course, participants will be able to:

1. Compare and contrast two major models of creativity, one based in the works of Winnicott, the other in the works of Klein, Britton, and Morgan
2. Elaborate on the meaning of “omnipotent, narcissistic states" and evaluate their relevance to psychological dysfunction in a couple.
3. Describe and evaluate the validity of the concept of the “imaginative elaboration” of the unfolding self.
4. Discuss and assess the history of philosophic and psychoanalytic attempts to describe shared, intersubjective psychic states.
5. Assess the value of multiple therapeutic techniques designed to help a couple develop and engage with their creative capacities.

Registration / CE Information: 5 CE's are included with the cost of admission to the lecture.

We accept registrations for in-person attendance up through the same day as the event; however, to guarantee a catered lunch, you must register by October 17, 2024.

For virtual attendees, the registration deadline is 6PM (PST) on October 25, 2024.

PCPG is approved by the California Psychological Association to provide continuing professional education for psychologists. PCPG maintains responsibility for this program and its content.

Cancellation / Refund Policy:

Registrants who cancel prior to October 19, 2024, will receive a refund minus a $40 administrative charge. No refunds will be allowed after October 19, 2024.

Transfer of registrations is not allowed.