For 2023-24, the Chicago Center for Psychoanalysis (CCP) proudly continues its program  of  small consultation groups, to be led by master clinicians from the CCP community.   These groups, offered at relatively affordable fees exclusively to CCP members, will focus on several broad areas of clinical practice – relational approaches to developmental issues in the work with adolescents and adults; psychodynamic listening in work with adults; work with severe disturbance; and work within the transference-countertransference matrix; and psychodynamic approaches in community-based agencies.

Group size will be highly limited to a maximum of 6 members in order to foster intimate and lively participation.  Members will commit to biweekly meetings through the end of April or May, 2024 (depending on the group), so that groups can offer consistent and cohesive connection around each other’s clinical material.  Each meeting will be at least 1-1/2 hours ( except for Dr. Sweet's group, which will last 2 hours, and end in April) and will operate virtually or in person at the discretion of the leader.

Fees for the 2023-24 groups will be graduated based on the member’s career stage.  For those who are not yet licensed, the fee is $350.  For those who have been licensed less than 5 years, the fee is $550.  For those who have been licensed 5 or more years, the fee is $750.  

We are excited to offer this special opportunity to CCP members, and to those who might want to avail themselves of this opportunity by joining CCP.  By joining CCP, you will not only be eligible for group membership, but will also enjoy other CCP benefits, such as free access to the acclaimed Friday night lecture series.

If you would like more information, please contact Dr. Paul Sanders at 847.302.7682, or prsanders1234@yahoo.com.

Please check out the group descriptions below.  If space is available, you can register and pay online easily by clicking the links on the right.          

Consultation Groups Registration (Registration buttons are at top right of this page)

(Please bear in mind that enrollment in these study groups is extremely limited)

GROUP SELECTION (Choose one):

• Diane Selinger, PhD.  Relational Approaches to Developmental Issues in Work with  Adolescents and Adults.
• Michelle Sweet, PhD.  The Work of Listening, Feeling, and Thinking Psychodynamically 
• Charles Turk, MD.  Working with Psychosis
• David Daskovsky, PhD.  Working with Projective Identification and Enactment 
• Tracy Vega, LCSW. Psychodynamic Approaches in Community-Based Agencies

FEE (Choose one):

• Not yet licensed - $350
• Licensed less than 5 years - $550
• Licensed 5 years or more - $750

More about the groups:

Group title:  Relational Approaches to Developmental Issues in Work with Adolescents and Adults.

Group leader:  Diane Selinger, PhD

Meeting dates: Alternate Wednesdays, beginning September 20, 2023

Meeting times:  7:15 – 8:45 p.m.(CST) via Zoom

Group description:

Therapeutic work with adolescents, emerging adults, and even older patients often requires an understanding of the complex relational and developmental issues involved. This biweekly, ongoing consultation group will provide an opportunity for participants to present their work with younger clients and adults from a relational/developmental point of view.  We will share the developmental challenges our clients face in this work, as well as the potentially illuminating internal experiences we sometimes encounter along the way. The emphasis will be on a safe, thoughtful, and enriching exchange that will promote better understanding of the clinical process with our clients, while deepening our understanding of our own experiences.  Concepts from various psychoanalytic perspectives will be included and discussed.

About the leader:

Diane Selinger, PhD is a clinical psychologist and psychoanalyst in private practice, who works with children, adolescents, and adults. She completed her training at the National Training Program of the National Institute of the Psychotherapies  (NIP). She is a faculty member of the Chicago Center for Psychoanalysis (CCP).

For many years, Dr. Selinger was the mental health consultant at Beth Osten and Associates, a multidisciplinary pediatric clinic. She continues to be the mental health consultant at Soaring Eagle Academy, a DIR® (Developmental, Individual-differences, Relationship-based) school for children with neurodevelopmental disorders and was instrumental in integrating a mental health component into both programs. She is senior faculty at Profectum Academy and was faculty at its DIR Institute predecessor. Diane’s teaching, presentations, webcasts, and publications have related to therapy with children and their parents.  They have spanned diverse topics, including autism and gender. Dr. Selinger most recently presented a paper this year at the Profectum Conference entitled “An Interdisciplinary Perspective on the Therapeutic Power of Symbolic Play.” Her Paper was entitled, “Creating Possibilities: The Intermingling of DIR and Psychodynamic therapies.” 

Group title:  The therapeutic conversation: the art of listening, feeling, and thinking therapeutically

Group leader:  Michelle Sweet, PhD

Meeting dates:  Alternate Saturdays, starting September 23, 2023

Meeting time:  1:00 – 3:00p.m. 

Group description:

This ongoing consultation is a nurturing context, where we present and think about each case presentation from a psychodynamic perspective.  The goal is to create usable psychotherapeutic understandings and interventions that enrich and deepen our clinical work. Concepts from developmental theory, object-relations, self psychology and relational psychoanalysis will be introduced and discussed as they relate to and illuminate the clinical process.  

About the leader:

Michelle Sweet, PhD is on the faculty at the Chicago Center for Psychoanalysis (CCP) and the Institute for Clinical Social Work (ICSW).  She earned a MA at University of Chicago (SSA), and a PhD at ICSW, grounded in human development, play therapy and self psychology.  Influenced by Stephen Mitchell and Jessica Benjamin, she became an early member of the International Association of Relational Psychoanalysis and Psychotherapy (IARPP) and completed a certificate in psychoanalysis from the National Training Program in Contemporary Psychoanalysis at the National Institute of the Psychotherapies (NIP).  In addition to her private psychotherapy practice with individuals and couples, Dr. Sweet has supervised clinical staff at a child psychiatric hospital, provided ongoing individual and group consultation, and taught doctoral classes on infant development, qualitative research and contemporary psychoanalysis.

CANCELLED

Group title:  Consultation/study group on the psychoanalytic treatment of psychosis

Group leader:  Charles Turk, MD

Meeting dates:  Alternate Saturdays, beginning September 9, 2023

Meeting time:  10:00 – 11:30 a.m.

Group description:

Those of you who have attempted the difficult and demanding work of treating very disturbed people are invited to join a study group on the treatment of psychosis. Over the years psychoanalytic treatment has been deemed by many to be contraindicated for psychotic individuals.   Nevertheless, there is a rich tradition, beginning with Freud, of efforts to work psychoanalytically with psychotic patients.  Of the many who have devoted themselves to this, a group of Lacanian analysts developed a successful treatment program for psychotic young adults in Quebec City.  It is known as “388,” the street address of a beautiful mansion that houses the treatment program, and around 60% of those treated there psychoanalytically have resolved their delusions; they no longer live in terms of them and have obtained satisfying places in society.  Dr. Turk will weave the principles developed at 388 into discussions of cases that he and group members bring to investigate and share in this stimulating context.

About the leader:

Charles Turk, MD  is a practicing psychiatrist/psychoanalyst and a faculty and board member of CCP.  He received psychoanalytic training at the Center for Psychoanalytic Studies in Chicago and is also a psychoanalyst of GIFRIC (Interdisciplinary Freudian Group for Research into Clinical and Cultural Intervention) in Quebec City, where he has attended yearly seminars since 1996.  He is responsible for the Chicago Psychoanalytic Circle of GIFRIC’s Ecole Freudienne du Quebec.  

Dr. Turk has had a longstanding interest in the psychoanalytic treatment of severely disturbed individuals, in both office practice and in the public sector.  He served as psychiatric consultant to a partial hospitalization program at the Kenneth Young Center in Elk Grove Village for 12 years.  In 2012 he became a member of the board that founded the Kedzie Center – the first taxpayer funded community mental health center in Chicago.  There he has made presentations on the psychoanalytic treatment of psychosis, and similar presentations to Turning Point and through CCP.  He now serves on the Kedzie Center board and volunteers there doing direct clinical service, consultation, and a biweekly continuous case conference. 

Group title: Working with enactment and projective identification in psychodynamic treatment

Group leader: David Daskovsky, PhD

Meeting dates:  Alternate Tuesdays, beginning September 19, 2023

Meeting times:  7:00 - 8:30 on Google Meet

Group Description:  

In this ongoing consultation group, members will share their work with challenging clients, while exploring the ways that difficult experiences can be evoked in the therapist and played out in the treatment relationship.  One major focus will be on the transference-countertransference matrix, with particular attention to projective identifications and enactments, which can illuminate what is happening in the treatment relationship and how this might relate to the patient’s presenting problems and character issues. 

As group members take turns presenting case material, we will be able to discuss ways to recognize these phenomena, and how to address them directly in the treatment.  In some instances, we will see how enactments can play a role in treatment impasses and what can be done in those circumstances.  For those participants who care for patients in the context of an agency or treatment team, we will have an opportunity to see how enactments can play out among team members, and how this might be addressed helpfully.  

Case presentations will be informal and follow a format that helps to highlight the above issues, among others.  This will involve describing sessions in some detail, including what it feels like to be in the room with this person (aka, your countertransference), and what difficulties are arising in the treatment.  The emphasis will be on a safe, thoughtful, and enriching exchange, as group members share their work.

About the leader:

David Daskovsky, PhD is Visiting Faculty at the Chicago Center for Psychoanalysis and Assistant Professor in the Division of Psychology at the Feinberg School of Medicine at Northwestern University. He earned his PhD in clinical psychology from Northwestern University's School of Medicine in 1988.  From 1989 to 1998, he was staff psychologist at NMH’s Extended Partial Hospitalization Program, which offered intensive, long term treatment for adults with severe mental illnesses.

In 1998, Dr. Daskovsky become Director of Psycho-Social Rehabilitation at Trilogy, Inc., and from 2003 to 2009 he served as that agency’s Clinical Director.  While at Trilogy, he was instrumental in the development of a highly respected practicum training program and has long been committed to teaching and training mental health professionals about the treatment of mental illness in community settings.

From 2009 until 2019, he was staff at Yellowbrick, where he served as Senior Psychologist and Director of Training.  Dr. Daskovsky has taught and presented widely on issues related to the treatment of serious mental illness, attachment and psychotherapy, and therapist transparency in psychodynamic treatment.

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CANCELLED

Group Title:  Psychodynamic approaches in community-based agencies

Group leader:  Tracy Vega, LCSW

Meeting dates:  Alternate Thursdays, beginning September 14, 2023

Meeting times:  7:30 – 9:00 p.m. (Central) 

Group Description:

Working in a community-based organization (CBO) such as a non-profit hospital, government run therapy clinic, or school can be rewarding, given the nature of the work, but can also be challenging, given the lack of clinical focus and support.  It is rare to find a community-based agency that emphasizes reflective practice, supervision, and psychodynamic approaches.  Administrative priorities such as documentation, billing, and caseload quotas often compromise clinical support and supervision.  These organizations are fast paced, with high demands for seeing as many people as possible.

This group is a protected space for clinicians who work in such agencies to slow down to process their clinical work with a psychodynamic lens.  The group will focus both on the individual case level (e.g., direct service with clients and transference/countertransference issues), and on the systemic level (e.g., organizational transference and countertransference, and how to protect yourself and your work).  This group will provide a sense of community where you are held, heard, and seen.  We will help each other strengthen our self-awareness and clinical decision-making skills.

About the leader:

Tracy Vega, LCSW, is a clinical associate faculty member of CCP, an adjunct faculty member at Erikson Institute Graduate School, and a supervisor at Youth and Family Services in Marin County, California. She earned her B.A, from Loyola University of Chicago, and her MSW from the Erikson Institute as a Harris Excellence Scholar, focusing on child development and psychotherapy with 0-5 and middle school-aged youth.  Tracy has had a long relationship with CCP, where she has earned the Certificate in Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy.

After providing treatment to a wide range of adults with severe co-occurring disorders at Association House in Humboldt Park, Tracy moved to Marin County in 2017, working as an emergency response social worker in Child Welfare and as a bilingual licensed mental health practitioner.  Currently, Tracy is a clinical supervisor, providing intensive case management to therapists who provide therapy for all Marin County children, adolescents, and caregivers with severe mental health issues, complex trauma, and difficult social circumstances.  In addition, since 2019 Tracy has been a board vice-president of Multicultural Center of Marin, a non-profit that supports the immigrant and indigenous populations in the county.  

As the child of parents who immigrated from Mexico, Tracy brings a deep appreciation of the enormous difficulties facing those living with poverty, community violence, addiction, and trauma. Years of work in community-based agencies have also reinforced Tracy’s special interest in the many impediments to careful, reflective treatment where time and resources are limited – a problem that many committed therapists face, but which is rarely addressed.