First Meetings in Analytic Therapy:  Poetics and Pragmatics with Eric Mendelssohn, Ph.D.

Fridays March 8, 15, 22, and 29, 2024 from 1:00-2:30

In this course we will consider first meetings in analytic therapy conceptually and procedurally.  Our focus will be on the hopes and dreads of both participants and on the opportunities to initiate relational traditions that will engender a meaningful analytic process.  We will combine discussions of several readings selected to be usefully challenging with discussions of clinical experiences by participants and the instructor.

Learning Objectives:

1.   Develop a conceptual and procedural roadmap for first meetings in analytic therapy.

2.   Delineate relational traditions that may be initiated in first meetings that can enhance the transformational potential of analytic therapy.

3.   Identify hopes and dreads felt and lived by both participants in first meetings.

Eric Mendelsohn, Ph.D. is Faculty and Supervisor at NIPTI and National Training Program, Westchester Center for the Study of Psychoanalysis and Psychotherapy, and Postgraduate Program in Psychoanalysis and Psychotherapy, Adelphi University.  Dr. Mendelsohn works with patients in individual analytic therapy and with couples.  He serves as a supervisor/consultant, and runs reading and consultation groups.  His papers and book chapters take up the patient-therapist relationship as well as the subjective experience of analytic therapists.