Fundamental Aspects of Davanloo’s ISTDP: Facilitating the Emergence of the Unconscious
The American Psychological Association has approved this two-day conference for 12 CE credits.
This conference will offer an introduction to the fundamental elements of Davanloo’s approach and powerful system of interventions. Facilitating a rapid determination of the psychodiagnostic position, identification and removal of resistance, and strategies to facilitate the development of the therapeutic alliance will be covered. In addition, interventions to monitor and maintain the balance of challenge and acceptance in the process of therapeutic change, and strategies specifically designed to increase a patient’s capacity to tolerate progressively higher levels of anxiety and achieve multidimensional structural change will be presented.
Dr. Rathauser will focus on psychodiagnostic evaluation and regulation of anxiety with patients who evidence disruption of cognitive/perceptual functioning, with a clinical focus on restructuring of defenses to create higher affect tolerance. Increased anxiety tolerance is a prerequisite for building the capacity to withstand the impact of the unconscious, which Davanloo characterized as an “unlocking of the unconscious.” Dr. Rathauser will present two clinical cases that illustrate these difficulties and demonstrate how various strategies specific to ISTDP can heighten anxiety tolerance.
Over his career, Davanloo has challenged and extended the understanding of traditional psychoanalytic principles. He developed revolutionary techniques which allowed him to systematically demonstrate, in large case series research, that it is the actual experience of unconscious guilt toward ambivalently held genetic figures which stands as the key ingredient for freedom from neurotic suffering. Dr. Moore will use didactic and audio-visual material from the working through stage of treatment to explicate Davanloo’s formulation of the resistance and his approach to dealing with resistance, as well as his groundbreaking discoveries regarding the nature and role of unconscious guilt in driving a patient’s suffering.
On the afternoon of March 7, Dr. Moore and Dr. Rathauser will conduct training sessions with two volunteers, who will be asked to bring video of their work with a patient using an ISTDP framework. Some of the objectives of the conference are to learn about Davanloo’s Central Dynamic Sequence, his understanding of the discharge pathways of unconscious anxiety, what it means to work with a graded format to enhance tolerance for anxiety and painful affect, and what it means to crystallize defenses while working in the transference. Participants will also learn about some of the current developments developed by Dr. Davanloo in his New Metapsychology of the Unconscious.
The conference costs $100.00 for one day, $200.00 for both days, with a hosted lunch optionally available at $20.00 per day. It will be held at the Kenwood Golf and Country Club, 5601 River Road, Bethesda, MD 20816. Please contact Rosana Marzullo-Dove by email (marzullodove@yahoo.com) or phone (540-287-0116) to request a copy of the of the registration form/brochure. The full conference brochure can be viewed at DrLSMoore.com under the Conference and Training tab.