St. Louis Psychoanalytic Institute

Presented by Tina Marie Dale, LCSW. This course is intended for clinicians new to the therapeutic field or those with little to no exposure to the psychodynamic approach thus far in their professional careers. We will look at what the psychodynamic approach can offer to clinicians treating families, treating children, and/or working with parents. We […]

Presented by Stuart Ozar, MD and Juliana Varela, MSW. For clinicians or mental health students who are curious about what it is that psychodynamic therapists actually do, we offer a “window” into the process and a chance to connect an introduction to theory with actual clinical material. Each class will begin with a brief theoretical […]

Presented by Gary Hirshberg, LCSW. This two session workshop will challenge clinicians to look at our own deeply held beliefs about sex and coupling, specifically what is ‘perversion’ and what is ‘healthy’ coupling. Most of us have come of age and been trained to still consider kink as deviant and as deriving from early childhood […]

Presented by Harold Braswell, PhD, MSW. The word “radical” is generally understood to mean a break from tradition. But, etymologically, the term also connotes a return to one’s roots. A “radical” psychoanalysis would, in this sense, seem paradoxical—but perhaps, in the process, faithful to the nature of the unconscious itself. This course explores this paradoxical […]

Presented by Richard D. Harvey, PhD. The Oppression Monopoly experience is quickly becoming widely known as a fun, yet deeply impactful simulation of the dynamics of oppression. The overriding theme of the experience is that the lived experience of minorities is systemic and intersectional and requires systemic and intersectional solutions. The experience has many learning […]

Presented by Nikki Karalekas, PhD, MSW, LCSW and Harold Braswell, MSW, PhD. How do we write psychoanalytically? How does psychoanalysis inform and enhance our writing practice? What role does writing have in clinical work? What is the relationship between writing, revision, and free association? How might we develop a psychoanalytically-informed understanding of—and treatment for—“writer’s block?” […]

Presented by Huey Hawkins Jr., PhD, LCSW. Black men living in America have been designated as an “endangered species” for a variety of reasons, namely the targeting and violence done to young Black men by police. Such experiences leave the parents of young Black boys to worry on a constant basis about the safety of […]

Presented in partnership with Casa de Salud’s Mental Health Collaborative with Patricia Gherovici, PhD; Harold Braswell, MSW, PhD and Juliana Varela, LCSW. Patricia Gherovici will compare two films documenting actual cures that push the boundaries of traditional psychoanalysis with two maverick psychoanalysts: Jimmy P: Psychotherapy of a Plains Indian, a 2013 French film by Arnaud […]

Presented by Paula Christian Kliger, PhD. Taking the position that a road paved with truth, reconciliation, and reparation is the road less traveled in our racial and sociocultural healing and our search for human resonance, this presentation seeks to face our toxic history and asks the question “How do we heal?” It also asks the […]

Presented by Avgi Saketopoulou, Psy.D. Psychoanalytic thinking teaches us that trauma leaves the subject fractured, less agentic, more subject to iterative, stalled revisitations of the traumatic event. With the help of Jean Laplanche’s metapsychology, Saketopoulou will discuss how significant possibilities for psychic transformation and for contact with experience are courted when we make ourselves passible […]

Phoebe Cirio, MSW, LCSW: In a world where there is a high level of strife and anxiety, and seemingly endless conflict, including war, ethnic violence, sexism and gender attacks, open displays of hostility within the United States, and the rapidly changing climate, the question arises what should we do? How does one in the mental […]

Phoebe Cirio, MSW, LCSW: William Styron vividly recounts the experience of his suicidal depression while suffering a breakdown in mid-life, in his small book Darkness Visible: A Memoir of Madness. Styron’s material will be a large part of the narrative basis for the class, which will be augmented with psychoanalytic theoretical material on the precipitants […]

Edmund Sprunger, MSW, LCSW: Students sometimes seem to dismiss their teachers' best attempts to help them learn. They might ignore simple directions, roll their eyes, sigh, or mention that elephants are the only animal that cannot jump. Teachers can also feel disregarded by parents, who may attempt to discredit a teacher, fail to support their […]

For clinicians or mental health students who are curious about what it is that psychodynamic therapists actually do, we offer a “window” into the process and a chance to connect an introduction to theory with actual clinical material. Each class will begin with a brief theoretical description of a core clinical concept, followed by the […]

This is an introductory course on the evolution of the Independent Tradition (British in origin) applied to our work with children and adolescents. This tradition (or approach) is developmentally appropriate to our work with younger populations, as it moves from the more epistemological (knowing) approach, with its emphasis on interpretation and insight, to a more […]