Course Title:  Attachment and Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy (12 CE credits)

Instructor:  David Daskovsky, PhD
Meeting dates (2018):  Nov. 6, Nov. 13, Nov. 20, Nov. 27, Dec. 4, Dec. 11
Meeting time: Tuesdays, 7:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m.
Location:  1560 Sherman Avenue, Evanston

Course Description:

This course will focus on the clinical application of attachment theory and research. Key concepts from the attachment literature will be used as a developmental framework for better understanding character development, the adaptive nature of defense mechanisms, attitudes toward emotion and self-regulatory styles, the connections between attachment and self-esteem and self-efficacy, and how treatment can facilitate earned secure attachment. Participants will learn to use the attachment model as a powerful tool in case formulation and treatment planning.

The course will highlight the relationship between a person’s early attachment style and various character and interpersonal manifestations, as well as its implications for treatment. Class format will be lecture and discussion, with an emphasis on applying the attachment model to real life treatment issues. The text for this course will be David Wallin’s Attachment and Psychotherapy.

Biographical Information:

David Daskovsky, PhD is Visiting Faculty at the Chicago Center for Psychoanalysis (CCP).  He earned his Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology from Northwestern University’s School of Medicine in 1988. From 1989 to 1998, he was a staff psychologist at NMH’s Extended Partial Hospitalization Program, which offered intensive, long term treatment for adults with severe mental illnesses, including many who had suffered chronic trauma. In 1998, he became Director of Psycho-Social Rehabilitation at Trilogy, Inc.; from 2003 to 2009 he served as that agency’s Clinical Director. While at Trilogy, Dr. Daskovsky 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 the present, he has been staff at Yellowbrick, first as Senior Psychologist and more recently as Director of Training.  He is Assistant Professor in the Division of Psychology at Northwestern’s Feinberg School of Medicine.  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.