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Presenter: Steven Shapiro, PhD Date: Saturday, September 20th, 2025 Time: 9:00am – 5:00pm Location: Virtual Online 6.25 CEs/CMEs Program Description: Can you relate to the common misconception of Experiential Dynamic Therapy as being harsh, confrontive and unrelenting? Do you tend to think of "experiential” as equivalent to “emotional?” Are you tempted to over emphasize feeling as if the goal is simply catharsis? It is natural to rely on overly simplified guidelines to help understand a process as unpredictable and complex as intensive psychotherapy. With good intentions, in the spirit of efficiency, have you had your share of (unnecessary) ruptures? I certainly have! Analyzing a case initially involving Severe & Persistent Mental Illness (SPMI) that progresses through various stages will give us the opportunity to emphasize “Phase-Specific treatment.” Primarily using video demonstration, we will examine ways to understand the intrapsychic and interpersonal action in the room (conceptual knowledge) to inform interventions (procedural knowledge) in a way that is not only attuned, but “contingent” in each moment. Alliance building is not just about avoiding ruptures; it is also about leveraging these challenging interpersonal moments into growth and capacity building experiences. Click Here for Full Conference Program and Agenda Click Here for Conference Learning Objectives and References Speaker Bio:
Registration closes Sep 19, 2025 at noon ET. Click here for Accreditation Statement and AMEDCO Continuing Education Certification. Click here for Cancellation and Refund Policy. |
The Other Significant Others: Rethinking Friendship’s Potential When the child finally finds a chum—somewhere between eight-and-a-half and ten—you will discover something very different in the relationship namely, the child begins to develop a real sensitivity to what matters to another person: Harry Stack Sullivan on the importance of friendship in human development. Presenter: Rhaina Cohen Date: Sunday, October 5th, 2025 Time: 11:00am – 1:00pm Location: Maggiano's Little Italy, 5333 Wisconsin Ave NW, Washington, DC No CEUs for this event Program Description: In this meeting, join NWSP colleagues at Maggiano's for brunch and a talk by author and NPR reporter, Rhiana Cohen elaborate on the importance of friendships and share insights from her recent book “The Other Significant Others: Rethinking Friendship’s Potential”. Based on years of reporting, Cohen tells the stories of people who have chosen friends as life partners — taking on roles typically reserved for romantic relationships, including co-homeownership, caregiving, and co-parenting. This talk will explore how these platonic partnerships can help us better understand the nature of intimacy, commitment, and family. By examining this alternative relationship model, we can gain fresh perspectives on what constitutes meaningful partnership. Cost: NWSP Members: $40; Non-members: $50, Students: $25 Speaker Bio: Rhaina Cohen is an award-winning journalist who tells deeply reported, intimate stories. She’s the author of the national bestseller The Other Significant Others and a producer and editor for NPR’s documentary podcast Embedded. Rhaina also contributed to a forthcoming anthology about shared living, A Home For Tomorrow (Beacon 2026). Her writing, which often focuses on social connection, has appeared in The Atlantic, The New York Times, The Washington Post and elsewhere. Seating is limited: Registration closes Sep 27, 2025 at noon ET. |
Center for the Study of Aging & Clinical Applications (CSACA)
The Critical Role of Place in the Aging Process Date: Sunday, October 19, 2025 Time: 10:00am – 5:00pm Location: Online via Zoom Co-Chairs: Jane Brewster, MSW & Annemarie Russell, EdD, MPH, MSW 5.25 CEs/CMEs Program Description: The place where we age plays a critical role in shaping the experience of aging for older adults. Often overlooked as an issue, this conference will ask many pertinent questions about the impact of place on the aging process: Where are older adults living as they move along their life course? How are they making decisions about aging in the ‘right place’? What is the impact of place on health, mental health and overall wellbeing for older adults? What are the essential supports that ensure their social, emotional, and physical needs are met? What are the pros and cons of the living situation options that are available to older adults in our nation today? How can we help people make timely, safe, and informed decisions about where they will live and age? And how can we support individuals and families as they navigate through the changes and challenges that this process inevitably creates? Our conference will explore these and other often undervalued issues of the impact of place on aging. We will review the landscape of living situation options, address specific clinical dilemmas and client case examples with our faculty panel, and engage in personal reflections in small and large group discussions. Schedule: 10:00 - 10:15 – Welcome: Summary of conference protocols and interview with keynote speaker (Rob Bamberger, MSW and Annemarie Russell, EdD, MPH, MSW) 10:15 - 11:20 – Keynote – Where Are Older Adults Choosing to Live? The Concept of Place (Russell) 11:20 - 11:30 – Break 11:30 - 12:00 – Clinical Dilemmas in Decisions about Place (Jane Brewster, MSW) 12:00 - 12:45 – Faculty presentations and discussion of cases addressing clinical dilemmas (Judy Peres, MSW and George Saiger, MD, facilitated by Brewster) 12:45 - 1:20 – Large group discussion of issues and concepts raised during the morning (Brewster) 1:20 – 2:00 – Lunch 2:00 – 2 :20 - Images of Aging and the Aged in American Popular Culture: “If I Had a Million” (1932) and “Make Way for Tomorrow” (1937) (Bamberger) 2:20 – 3:15 – Small group I - Envisioning Space and Place (Bamberger) 3:15 – 3:30 – Large group discussion of small group experience 3:30 – 3:45 – Break 3:45 – 4:00 – Large group - Choosing Place - Brewster 4:00 – 4:40 - Small group II – Choosing Place 4:40 – 5:00 – Large group discussion of small group experience/Closing Plenary Learning Objectives:
Registration closes October 17, 2025 at noon ET. Click here for Accreditation Statement and AMEDCO Continuing Education Certification. Click here for Cancellation and Refund Policy. |
Rupture and Repair: In Therapy Groups, Organizations and Society Date: Friday, October 24th - Saturday, 25th, 2025 Time: 8:30 AM - 4:30 PM on 10/24 & 8:30 AM - 5:15 PM on 10/25 Location: Friends Meeting House of Washington, 2111 Decatur Pl NW, Washington, DC 20008, In-Person Only Co-Chairs: Kavita Avula, PsyD, CGP & Haim Weinberg, PhD, CGP In-Person Only (10.5 CEs/CMEs) Program Description: Empathic ruptures between therapy group members, between leaders and members, and in the group-as-a-whole affect the therapeutic alliance and group cohesion. Without repair, they cause fractures and polarization. We will look at ruptures theoretically and clinically in groups, within organizations, and between co-facilitators with different intersectional identities, with a particular emphasis on how ruptures, often seen as the end of relationships, can be just the beginning of meaningful connection and growth. Learning Objectives 1. List two types of ruptures in group therapy 2. Evaluate how social dreaming impacts large group process 3. Compare the impact of facilitators with different intersectional identities on a group. 4. List 3 skills that facilitate repair in therapists and clients. 5. Describe strategies coleaders can employ to stay connected while holding different perspectives. 6. Identify barriers to repair. 7. Describe how letting go of pushing an agenda changes a conversation. 8. Describe how social dreaming evokes the social unconscious and analyze its impact on communal dignity 9. List five current challenges that emerge in psychotherapy groups that represent polarization Registration closes Oct 22, 2025 at noon ET. Click here for Accreditation Statement and AMEDCO Continuing Education Certification. Click here for Cancellation and Refund Policy. |