Talking Bodies: An Embodied Psychoanalytic Revisioning of Theory

This clinical seminar, kindly organised by Confer UK, is free for Professional Members of the Stillpoint Community. Please, find here details about it and join us (we offer a two-week free trial): https://stillpoint.org/index/membership

In this theoretical and experiential workshop, Doris Brothers and Jon Sletvold will present the body-based perspective they are developing in their forthcoming book A New Vision of Psychoanalytic Theory, Practice and Supervision: Talking Bodies to re-explore some of the most enduring aspects of psychoanalytic theory.

Doris Brothers and Jon Sletvold will attempt to demonstrate how changes in conceptualization of the therapeutic process, and the discourse in which this is described, result in transformations in the therapeutic relationship as well as in the supervisory process. A central theme that runs through their work is that mind, from birth onwards, involves the creation of narratives based on embodied memories. They will demonstrate this with exercises throughout the seminar and provide opportunities for embodied supervision with participants.

SPEAKERS

Doris Brothers, PhD, is a co-founder of the Training and Research in Intersubjective Self Psychology Foundation (TRISP). She was co-editor of Psychoanalysis, Self and Context from 2015 to 2019. She is an associate editor of Psychoanalytic Inquiry and chief editor of eForum, the online newsletter of the International Association of Psychoanalytic Self Psychology (IAPSP). She serves on the advisory board and council of IAPSP.

She has published numerous papers and three books: Toward a Psychology of Uncertainty: Trauma-Centered Psychoanalysis (2008), Falling Backwards: An Exploration of Trust and Self-Experience (1995), and, with Richard Ulman, The Shattered Self: A Psychoanalytic Study of Trauma (1988). She has presented her work throughout the United States and in many other countries. She is in private practice in Manhattan, New York, USA.

In recent years she has been presenting workshops and supervision/study groups with Jon Sletvold on the embodiment of traumatic experience.

Jon Sletvold, Psy.D. , is a licensed specialist in clinical psychology and psychotherapy. He is Faculty, Training and Supervising Analyst at the Norwegian Character Analytic Institute. He has published articles particularly on the role of the body in psychotherapy and psychoanalysis. He is the editor of three books, the author of The Embodied Analyst: From Freud and Reich to Relationality, winner of the Gradiva Award, 2015, and with Per Harbitz the author of Fra muskelpanser til kropper i dialog [From Muscular Armor to Bodies in Dialogue], 2019. He co-leads several online supervision/study groups on embodiment and trauma with Doris Brothers.

FORMAT

DATE: Friday 15 July 2022

TIME: 2:00 pm - 6:00 pm BST, 3.00 pm - 7:00 CEST, 9:00 am - 1:00 pm EDT

FEES

Stillpoint Professional Members: free (join us at https://stillpoint.org/index/membership)

Confer Members: £56

General Admission: £70

Bookings close at 9:00 am BST Tuesday 12 July

Includes a recording of the event.

CPD

Certificates of attendance for 3.5 hours will be provided

VENUE

Live webinar: Zoom

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FULL PROGRAMME (Time zone BST)

2:00 pm BST

Introductions

2:10 pm BST

A New Language For Psychoanalysis

In the hope of foregrounding the emotional bases of therapeutic communication, Doris and Jon will suggest that we replace concept-based words or phrases with body-based language that allows therapists to feel the meaning of what is communicated between bodies. They will explain how using the words I, you, we and world changes psychoanalytic descriptive communication. Optimally, we would shift fluidly, effortlessly, and without conscious awareness from one aspect of the overlapping complexity of I, you, we, and world to another. This would allow us to fully experience embodied wholeness, However, because we all live in a traumatised and traumatising world, we tend to emphasise one or another of these foci of attention at the expense of the others. They will elaborate with theory and examples.

2:45 pm BST

Q&A

3:00 pm BST

Break

3:15 pm BST

A Body-Based View of Transference

Ever since Freud’s earliest efforts to develop his theory of transference, memory has played a key role. Narratives, and the embodied non-verbal memories on which they are based, are central to a new understanding of transference. When viewed from the perspective of the ever-changing memories of both patient and therapist, transference is seen as a slowing or freezing of the flow of I, you, we and world. Brothers and Sletvold propose that it is only in the context of trauma that transferences become rigidified.

4:00 pm BST

Q&A

4:15 pm BST

Break

4:30 pm BST

A Body-Based View of Resistance

What makes therapeutic change so difficult? Brothers and Sletvold propose that the freedom to change can be terrifying. When trauma is viewed from a body-based perspective it becomes clear that what has been called resistance often involves fear of losing one’s connections to all that is needed for one’s psychological well-being. When efforts are made to deepen the embodied we-connectedness of patient and therapist, the fear of change is reduced for both therapeutic partners. Illustrative clinical examples will be presented. The Sletvold-Brothers model of embodied supervision is introduced which makes use of I, you, we, and world. Our speakers will describe this supervision process and give some examples from supervision groups that they have run.

5:15 pm BST

Q&A

6:00 pm BST

End

Disclaimer

Please note that the views, opinions, and values expressed by presenters, participants, or any other individuals in relation to this event are not necessarily those of Stillpoint. Our aim is to provide a respectful space for open dialogue between our presenters, facilitators, workshop leaders and those who attend. If you would like to ask questions or provide feedback, please contact us at hello@stillpoint.org.