2016 PSPP Brunch Series
Psychoanalytic Practice in the Real World
Sunday, March 20, 2016
Kelly Bassett, M.Ed., Dan Livney, Psy.D., and Courtney L. Slater, Ph.D
This panel seeks to explore some of the challenges of practicing psychodynamic/psychoanalytic work in a society and time when deep and nuanced talk therapy is viewed as not evidenced-based or as an outmoded or ineffective style of psychotherapy. The panelists will address both strengths of psychodynamic work as well as real-life challenges encountered by practitioners. Additionally, the panel will describe how these clinicians speak to and explain to patients and to referring providers what it is that we do, why we do it, and how it is reparative and curative.
Sometimes patients come to us expecting a quick fix, a focus on behavior at the expense of emotions, a privileging of symptoms over root cause, and a way to quickly and easily quantify change—expectations perhaps set up by their referring providers, the health insurance companies, and our larger fast-paced and instant gratification culture. The reality that psychodynamic work is evidence-based, and effective, is often lost in the mix. Whether one works in private practice or is responsible for notes that strike a non-psychodynamic tone in a clinic or agency setting, we have to be aware of both societal expectations as well as the strengths and evidence-based rationalizations for our style of work; including the ways in which it differs—and doesn't—from other kinds of psychotherapies.
More info here.
