Sunday, September 22, 2024
HVPA Presents - "Interpersonal Defense Theory: A Guide for Working with Difficult Psychotherapy Patients"
Presented by Michael A. Westerman, PhD
Date: Sunday, September 22, 2024
Time:
1:00 p.m. - 4:00 p.m. - CE Course
12:30
p.m. - 12:55 p.m. - HVPA members are invited to join for a brief update meeting starting 30 minutes before presentation time (12:30pm) and ending 5 minutes before the presentation.
NOTE: To facilitate discussion, registration will be limited to the first 35 people who would like to sign up for the webinar.
Location: This will be a Zoom presentation. (You will receive the Zoom login information following your registration.)
Program Summary
This webinar will make use of clinical material and opportunities for discussion to familiarize participants with Interpersonal Defense Theory. The theory provides an interpersonal reconceptualization of defense processes that has important implications for how to work with many, although not all, difficult patients. These implications extend to work with patients who would typically not be identified as difficult, but who actually present real challenges to therapists because they engage in the therapy relationship in ways marked by more subtle, recurring appearances of interpersonal defenses. Note that although the theory reflects the influence of psychoanalytic perspectives in some respects, it also departs from those perspectives in many notable ways. In fact, the theory has treatment implications for a broad range of therapy approaches.
Presenter: Michael A. Westerman, Ph.D.
Michael Westerman graduated from Harvard College with a concentration in philosophy, received his doctoral training in clinical psychology at the University of Southern California, and completed a postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Denver. In 1982, he joined the faculty of the Department of Psychology at New York University. He was part of the core faculty for the clinical psychology doctoral program and served as Director of Clinical Training for two periods of time. He retired from NYU in September, 2022. He is currently affiliated with the Derner School of Psychology at Adelphi University where he is collaborating on research with Chris Muran and Catherine Eubanks. In 1984, he joined the Taconic Counseling Group and has maintained a part-time private practice as a member of TCG since then. His main clinical, theoretical, and research interests concern interpersonal processes, especially in the context of the therapy relationship, and, philosophy, which is an interest he pursues in a way that is closely linked to his clinical, theoretical, and research activities related to interpersonal processes. His publications include numerous articles and several special journal issues that he edited. Currently, he serves on the editorial boards of Psychotherapy Research and the Journal of Theoretical and Philosophical Psychology.
Target Audience: All mental health professionals. NOTE: Only Doctoral Level NY State licensed Psychologists can receive CE credits.
Learning Objectives
Participants in the webinar will learn:
- How to recognize complex patterns in the ways many patients relate to their therapists, patterns that are important to identify because they derail productive exchange and because they can inform a therapist about crucial aspects of a given patient’s struggles on the more familiar molar, clinical level of the patient’s interpersonal hopes and fears.
- A novel way of thinking about the ways therapists relate to their patients, including how and why certain ways a therapist might respond to a given patient would serve to maintain that patient’s central problematic interpersonal action pattern and how and why particular ways of relating to a given patient would contribute to successful outcomes.
FEES:
FREE for HVPA Members
$60.00 for Non-HVPA Members
JOIN HVPA for a first-year $50 fee ($75 for subsequent renewals) and receive all CE courses provided by HVPA for FREE. For networking, listserv, and other benefits, please go to the Membership page and sign up!
CE INFORMATION
Statement of Sponsorship: Hudson Valley Psychological Association (HVPA) is recognized by the New York State Education Department's State Board for Psychology as an approved provider of continuing education for licensed psychologists #PSY-0200.
CE Credits: 3 CE credits for NYS Psychologists (only) are provided upon course's completion. HVPA is authorized to provide CE credits ONLY to NYS Psychologists.
To receive continuing education (CE) credit, you need to attend the program in its entirety. CE certificates will be provided for all NYS psychologists who attend this program in full and who complete/return an online program evaluation. Please indicate your license type and license number on your registration form.
FOR ONLINE COURSES: We verify your online attendance at the beginning & end of the program and by your completion of the evaluation form and post-test.
HVPA is authorized to provide CE credits ONLY to NYS Psychologists. If you have questions, contact ContinuingEd@hvpa.org.