Afternoon Workshops

Workshop A: Domestic Violence—Still Behind Closed Doors?
Irene Gillman, Ph.D. (Bio)
This workshop will focus on the traumatic effects of domestic violence on
the abused, the family, and the perpetrator, as well on future generations.
Participants in this workshop will be able to recognize gross and subtle traumatic
effects of domestic violence and will develop therapeutic tools to enhance
treatment with families affected by emotional and physical abuse.

Workshop B: The Trauma of Aging
Herb Gingold, Ph.D. (Bio)
Many people find themselves fearful of the losses that may accompany aging. These losses can include physical, mental, social, and financial changes that dramatically affect our lives. By helping our patients deal with these losses and maintain their sense of purpose and agency, psychoanalytic psychotherapy can be of considerable help. The importance of an ongoing psychoanalytic relationship and monitoring of the transference-countertransference experience will be stressed. Participants in this workshop will learn to identify the factors that lead to trauma during the aging process and will be able to identify transference and countertransference dynamics that occur in working with older adults.

Workshop C: Traumatic Childhoods
Jill Bellinson, Ph.D. (Bio)
Children are subjected to many of the same traumas as the adults around them. They experience illness, poverty, natural disasters, and violence. They witness death, divorce, job loss, and abuse of those they love. In addition, they suffer physical, emotional, and sexual abuse, often at the hands of the very people they are dependent on. Clinical examples will focus on the ways children of different ages experience and respond to trauma. Participants will learn about treatment issues specific to traumatized children and will become aware of the similarities and differences between children's reactions and adults' reactions to trauma.

Workshop D: The Trauma of Divorce
Estelle R.G. Rapoport, Ph.D. (Bio) & Michael D. Zentman, Ph.D. (Bio)
Divorce changes everything: the past, the present, and the future. This workshop will focus on the traumatic aspects of divorce on all members of the family and on helping couples manage the effect of divorce on the lives of their children. Coaching divorced parents to adhere to specific guidelines in relation to children and adolescents can limit the collateral
damage of this disruptive event. Participants will learn therapeutic
interventions to use with divorcing couples to help reduce emotional
stresses that occur during the divorce process.

Workshop E: Spiritual Abuse Inherent in Sexual Abuse by a Clergyperson
Mary Gail Frawley-O'Dea, Ph.D. (Bio)
In many religious traditions, the priest, minister, or rabbi represents the Divine. Thus, when a member of the clergy sexually abuses a minor, spiritual devastation is often added to all the other sequelae of sexual abuse. Participants will learn to be attuned to the psychic fragmentation inherent in sexual abuse by the clergy and how this experience is an assault on the believer's faith. Implications for psychotherapy will also be discussed.