Denver Psychoanalytic Society

Based on the work of Bion, Avner Bergstein, MA, FIPA, will address violent emotions and violent retaliation against the mind to protect itself from overwhelming excitation, which may result from an inability to mentally formulate or adaptively contain painful excitation. Examples of unrecognized collusions between patients and analysts blindsiding themselves against recognition of massive emotional […]

Presented by Avgi Saketopoulou, PsyD. At this moment in time, conversations about gender are at the epicenter of heated debate and passionate conversation. At stake is gender's status as a concept (does gender matter, and if so, how?) and matters relating to gender development. Is gender an innate part of the self or one that […]

Guest Speaker: Mary Jo Peebles, PhD, ABPP, ABPH Achieving tangible, structural change isn't easy. Four skill areas, frequently missing from psychodynamic curricula, help change stick: Goal-setting, Right-Hemispheric processing, enhancing Absorption, and actively developing Internalization. This workshop describes and illustrates these four skill areas to psychotherapists of all experience levels and theoretical orientations, using lecture, slides, […]

During this conference, four presenters (one biodiversity scientist and three psychoanalysts) will each present their perspective on the complexity of humans’ relations to the natural world and how these multifaceted relations contribute to and might mitigate today’s climate catastrophe. Presenters: Lindsay L. Clarkson, MD; W. John Kress, PhD; Donald B. Moss, MD; Lynne Zeavin, PsyD

Many child clinicians are not trained in group work, yet they are often called upon to lead such groups. This program will offer a description of group work with children, summarizing curative factors and clinical applications. It will provide direct strategies for leading groups and understanding the clinical process. By detailing best practices, it will […]

This conference will explore the dynamic between psyche and soma, using the theoretical frame of the Paris Psychosomatic School to enhance skills. Both adult and child clinical cases of patients suffering from somatic illness will be presented along with some specific mental organization that requires technical changes in the analytic intervention to improve strategies.

Presenter: Therese Ragen, PhD This lecture will present the journey of a descendant of one of the leaders of the 1919 Chicago race riot in which dozens of people were killed, hundreds wounded and some thousand homes of Black people were burned down. The journey traced in the presentation is from the 1919 race riot […]

Presented by: Anne Alvarez, PhD, MACP We can sometimes be too preoccupied with removing defenses, which is helpful with many patients but can drain the already limited resources of those with weak egos and a kind of apathetic despair. This session will alert participants to the difference between resistance of a defensive nature and true […]

Presented by Jane S. Hall, LCSW, FIPA Too many of our current theories lead the clinician away from recognizing uniqueness and individuality. This program will explore how to connect to the client by recognizing their unique childhoods and the way they responded to key figures. My hope is to encourage the therapist to reevaluate certain […]

Presented by: Vera J. Camden & Valentino L. Zullo Psychoanalysis has from its origins been imbricated in culture, both high and low. Sigmund Freud defined and illustrated his pivotal discoveries through explications of folklore and fairy tales as well as the works of Sophocles, Shakespeare and other venerable texts. What is less known, however, is […]