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CE: Life in the Upside Down: Working with Borderline States – Dr. Helscher
May 12, 2018 @ 9:00 am - 1:00 pm PDT
Sponsored by
The WILA Alumni Association
Program Description
Working with borderline states is extremely challenging because we often feel invaded, overwhelmed, and helpless to make sense of what is happening with the patient. Language, both ours and the patient’s, seems inadequate to capture the experience in the room. In this workshop, I will use Bion’s notion of the failure of the contact barrier to describe these states of mind and explore ways of helping our patients and ourselves find firmer ground.
Learning Objectives
Upon completion of the program participants should be able to:
- Understand how the contact barrier divides conscious from unconscious process in the mind, and how deficits in it manifest in the clinical setting
- Understand how to detect projective identifications and how to work with them in the session
- Describe and interpret the borderline experience of being in the ‘upside down’
- Be able to help their borderline patients begin to ‘mentalize’ their unrepresented emotional experience
- Understand how trauma damages the contact barrier and the patient’s ability to emotionally digest their experience
Presenter
THOMAS P. HELSCHER, PH.D., FIPA is a Training and Supervising Analyst at LAISPS and a faculty member at WILA. He is a member of the University of California Interdisciplinary Psychoanalytic Consortium and of the Lacanian Forum, and teaches in the UC Veterans Writing Workshop. He is in private practice in Santa Monica.
CE Information
- 4.0 CE credits
- WILA is approved by the California Psychological Association so CEs may only be granted to California licensed clinicians
- To receive CE credit you must attend the entire event
- This CE is at the intermediate level
Wright Institute Los Angeles is approved by the California Psychological Association, which is recognized by the California Board of Psychology (BOP) and the California Board of Behavioral Sciences (BBS) to sponsor continuing education for Psychologists, Licensed Marriage & Family Therapists, and Licensed Clinical Social Workers. Wright Institute Los Angeles maintains responsibility for this program and its contents. Full attendance in addition to the completion of the appropriate evaluation form are required in order to receive CE credits. CPA OPD provider number WLA001.
Registration Fees
- WILA Alumni Association Members – $120
- General – $130
- Students/Pre-licensed – $70