Article archive / November 1, 2012
Originally published: . Volume 4, No. 3. Source pages: 15, 16.
December 7, 2012 Louisiana Group Psychotherapy Winter Institute
The Louisiana Group Psychotherapy Society will hold the 2012 Winter Institute On December 7 and 8, at the Sheraton New Orleans Hotel, 500 Canal Street in New Orleans.
Dr. Nancy McWilliams, psychologist, psycho- analyst, teacher and author will be the featured guest speaker.
“Psychoanalytic Sensibility: Understanding Personality, Enhancing Empathy, & Preserving Our Humanity as psychotherapists,” will be the theme of this years presentation.
Dr. McWilliams will conduct the two-day workshop, “Assessment of Personality and Overall Mental Health for Treatment Purposes.”
The Times spoke with Dr. Chris Garner, Past- President of LGPS and Advisor to the Board. He said, “Attendees will be acquainted or reacquainted with the mentality that psychotherapy is not simply about treating discrete symptoms for specific disorders. Psychotherapy is more developmentally oriented and aspires toward psychological and emotional growth and health. Dr. McWilliams has some perspective on some of the problems of the current status of our craft and society.”
Dr. McWilliams currently teaches at the Graduate School of Applied & Professional Psychology at Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey. She is the author of Psychoanalytic Diagnosis: Understanding Personality Structure in the Clinical Process, Psychoanalytic Case Formulation (1999), Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy: A Practitioner’s Guide, and is Associate Editor of the Psychodynamic Diagnostic Manual. She is Past President of the Division of Psychoanalysis (39) of the American Psychological Association, Consulting Editor of the Psychoanalytic Review, and on the editorial board of Psychoanalytic Psychology.
“Dr. McWilliams will offer a way to understand personality dynamics that is actually useful in guiding therapy and helping patients lead more productive lives,” Dr. Garner said to the Times. “Although DSM-IV/V diagnostic labels may have some uses they fall gravely short of inspiring empathy in therapists, much less giving them therapist a useful clinical stance,” he said.
“Participants will have an opportunity to view one of Dr. McWilliams’s therapy sessions. APA basically re-made the ‘Gloria Tapes,’ but this time with Nancy McWilliams, Judith Beck, and Leslie Greenberg instead of Albert Ellis, Fritz Perls, and Carl Rogers,” Garner said. “The audience will view a session with Nancy while she lets the audience in on her clinical thinking and invites the audience to join her in discussing the complexity of the clinical encounter.”
The Louisiana Group Psychotherapy Society is an affiliate of the American Group Psychotherapy Association. The state organization information notes that its goals include providing an exchange of information and experience in group psychotherapy, including intensive discussion, training opportunities, and to foster research contributions in the field.
Dr. David Hayes, Clinical Psychologist and private practice group therapist in Baton Rouge, said, “Like everyone, psychologists and helping professionals spend their lives in groups. Families, professional reference groups, communities of friends – we live in these groups daily. Psychologists are often drawn to this profession because we are social animals,” he explained. “We have the same needs in groups as our patients, but unfortunately helping professionals learn early on to put self care on the back burner. Participating in the experiential groups via LGPS this December is an exciting opportunity for psychotherapists to rejoin the self-care game and get the best out of the profession in service of their own emotional health.”
Dr. Garner reminded that there will be experiential groups. “During these sessions,” he said, “participants will have an interpersonal process experience with other participants. Themes from the conference will come up in these sessions. Dr. McWilliams will be huddling with the small group leaders.”
“Historically, these experiential elements have been rated very highly by our attendees despite initial hesitancy regarding the idea. Attendees tend to feel rejuvenated after our conferences,” Dr. Garner said.
Dr. McWilliams specializes in psychoanalytic psychotherapy and supervision; the relationship between psychodiagnosis and treatment; alternatives to DSM-IV diagnostic conventions; integration of feminist theory and psychoanalytic knowledge; the application of psychoanalytic understanding to the problems of diverse clinical populations; altruism; narcissism; structural diagnosis; dissociation and dissociative disorders.
The society’s website is http://www.lgpsonline.org/index.html Louisiana Group Psychotherapy Society’s goals include advancing knowledge, research, and training in group psychotherapy.
The Society is multi-disciplinary with psychologists, clinical social workers, psychiatrists, counselors, students, and other mental health professionals.
Dr. Nancy McWilliams, psychologist, psychoanalyst, and author, will conduct a two-day workshop at the Winter Institute of the LA Group Psychotherapy Society. Dr. McWilliams specializes in psychoanalytic psychotherapy and alternatives to DSM-IV diagnostic conventions. (Courtesy photo) Dr. Chris Garner, Past- President of LGPS and Advisor to the Board. (Courtesy photo)
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