The majority of all psychotherapy patients do not benefit sufficiently from medications or psychotherapies, including manualized CBT or traditional psychoanalytic therapy. Such patients typically present with entrenched symptoms, relational difficulties and self-defeating behaviour patterns, which destroy their efforts to benefit from psychotherapy. This type of resistance to treatment is common, costly and frustrating to health care providers, and the patients we try to help.

To respond to the problem of resistance, Davanloo developed his technique of Intensive Short-Term Dynamic Psychotherapy (ISTDP). The method has a built-in assessment and intervention tool for evaluating and handling resistance of any degree. Eleven published studies, including the recent Halifax Treatment Resistant Depression Study, show that ISTDP can be a highly effective form of treatment for resistant patients.

This in-depth videotape based Immersion course, Dr Allan Abbass will illustrate the principles for working with resistance in ISTDP. A couple of case presentations will also be provided in Swedish by local ISTDP therapists and trainers. The immersion is open to mental health professionals and students. It can be a component of core-training, adds to supervision based training, and will cover the following areas:

• Overview of Davanloo’s Metapsychology of resistance
• Overview of the spectrum of suitable patients, with videotape illustrations
• Review of common causes of treatment resistance
• Psychodiagnostic assessment to determine degree and type of resistance
• Nature and timing of interventions, including pressure, challenge and head-on-collision with resistance
• Partial and Major Unlocking of the Unconscious

For more information, view the flyer.