The Treasure of Ordinary Psychotherapy (TOPS) Part II: What Really Matters

A Five-Session Virtual Series presented by Five Well-Practiced Psychotherapists
1 Continuing Education Credit awarded for each session
Wednesdays: February 4 & 18, March 4 & 18, April 1, 12:00pm-1:00pm ET
$50 Series Fee — Registration Below 

This special program presented by five unique individuals – each experienced in the field of psychotherapy – will underscore critical common factors linked to positive outcomes. The five-session series will involve the presentation of didactic information, in the format of personal experiences on both sides of the therapeutic relationship.

Professional Development is Personal

Jon Allen, PhD, Clinical Professor, Voluntary Faculty, Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Baylor College of Medicine
The field of psychotherapy has developed an overwhelming number of therapies while largely sidelining the development of therapists. Extensive research shows substantial individual differences among therapists in effectiveness as well as the predominant influence of the quality of the patient-therapist relationship. We focus on therapists’ competence in mastering theories and methods to the relative neglect of their relational skills. Carl Rogers was right to foreground the therapist’s empathy, positive regard, and genuineness. We now have decades of subsequent research that bears on the quality of therapeutic relationships. From attachment and relational psychoanalytic perspectives, this session advocates attention to the therapist’s history of personal relationships as the foundation on which professional learning is superimposed—over the course of the therapist’s lifetime.

Educational Objective
As a result of participating in this activity, you should be able to:
Define a framework for integrating personal and professional perspectives as they bear on their therapeutic competence.
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Coming to Realize that We Can’t Assume What’s in Another’s Mind

Robin Kissell, MD, Associate Professor of Psychiatry, UCLA David Geffen School of Medicine, Director of The Mentalizing Initiative
This talk will address the idea that we really don’t know what is in another person’s mind. In traditional forms of psychotherapy and psychoanalysis a reliance on theory often leads to interpretations that are presented as fact. Some patients will feel seen, understood, perhaps enlightened but such interpretations, and if not, they may challenge and engage in an effort to reach resolve with the therapist. Others however, particularly those with personality disorders or issues of neurodivergence, will feel, and will in fact be misunderstood by interpretations embedded in theory.

Educational Objective
As a result of participating in this activity, you should be able to:
Explain the clinical stance of “not-knowing” and discuss how minds can be very different and bring revelation to a patient’s experience of relationships and the world.
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Holding: The Meeting Place between Our Psychic Selves and Social Beings

Ross Ellenhorn, PhD, Chief Executive Officer, Ellenhorn
In this talk and discussion, we contemplate the relationship between psychological models of selfhood and modern sociological concerns, and how the concept of holding not only bridges the two fields intellectually, but—far more important—how that bridge is always there in the experiences of our clients, as well as our own experiences. A self needs a sense of caring continuity, cohesiveness and belonging to emerge in its truly creative form. So do societies. That is not a coincidence. And if we focus our compassion only on what is bound within the skulls of our clients, we lose the chance to see their struggle—again, shared with us—of living in an increasingly customless world.

Educational Objective
As a result of participating in this activity, you should be able to:
Examine clients’ struggles with selfhood as both an event that carries their own personality, and one in which this personality confronts modern dilemmas.
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The Fragile Bridge: Building Self-Trust and Trustworthiness in Precarious Therapeutic Contexts

Michael Groat, PhD, MSc, President and CEO, Lindner Center of HOPE
This presentation and discussion will explore the evolving nature of trust within the therapeutic relationship—particularly when trustworthiness is neither assumed or easily granted and may be fleeting. Through the lens of lived clinical experience and Dr. Groat’s own development as a psychotherapist, we will examine how he has come to understand and embrace trustworthiness as a therapist, and the parallel process of cultivating self-trust in moments of uncertainty, scrutiny, and doubt. This presentation will consider the ethical, relational, and personal dimensions of trust: how it is earned, how it is tested, and how it becomes a foundation for healing when the therapist’s integrity is on the line. This discussion invites reflection on the vulnerability inherent in both therapist and client, and the transformative potential of trust as a shared, dynamic process rather than a static trait.

Educational Objective
As a result of participating in this activity, you should be able to:
Describe the significance of trust in influencing others and in fostering learning.
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What I Would Not Part With – Critical Components of Extraordinarily Ordinary Psychotherapy

Jeff Katzman, MD, Director the Silver Hill Academy for Research and Education
Through the proliferation of hundreds of evidenced based therapies, perhaps what has become more important is the question – how do we develop as therapists? Through a self-reflection of key moments in personal development, Dr. Katzman will reflect upon his own development as a therapist through the lens of Thomas Ogden’s ideas of “what I would not part with” in delivering any psychotherapy, and how doing so may be helpful or harmful to our clients.

Educational Objective
As a result of participating in this activity, you should be able to:
Describe the critical components of a trusting psychotherapy relationship through personal reflections.
Register Now for the Series ››

Each 60-Minute Session includes:

• 30-minute presentation
• Group discussion
• Q&A
• 1.0 hour CE Credit earned

Target Audience includes:

• Psychiatrists
• Psychologists
• Social Workers
• Therapists
• Primary Care Physicians
• Nurses
• Anyone training or practicing in the field of mental health

Registration:
For full benefit, attendance is encouraged (but not required) at all sessions. The cost of the series is $50 regardless of the number of sessions attended. Please register below.

Note: Video recordings of all sessions will be available to TOPS series participants. CE credit is not awarded for viewing the video recording. 

Accreditation Statement:

Silver Hill Hospital is accredited by the Massachusetts Medical Society to provide continuing medical education for physicians.

Designation Statement:

Silver Hill Hospital designates each live activity for a maximum of 1.0 AMA PRA Category 1 Credit™. Physicians should claim only the credit commensurate with the extent of their participation in the activity.

NASW/Connecticut Statement:

This program series has been approved for 1.0 Continuing Education Credit Hour for each live session by the National Association of Social Workers, CT and meets the continuing education criteria for CT Social Work Licensure renewal. Approval also meets the continuing education criteria for CT LMFTs, LPCs, and licensed psychologists. NASW/CT approvals are valid in MA, RI, and VT.

New York Social Worker Statement: 

Silver Hill Hospital is recognized by the New York State Education Department’s State Board for Social Work as an approved provider of continuing education for licensed social workers #SW-0728. Each program is approved for 1.0 contact hour. 

New York Psychologist Statement:

Silver Hill Hospital is recognized by the New York State Education Department’s State Board for Psychology as an approved provider of continuing education for licensed psychologists #PSY-0227. Each program is approved for 1.0 contact hour.

For any questions, please contact our Silver Hill Hospital Events Team at events@silverhillhospital.org