Peter Reiner, PhD, LMFT

 March 12 & 13 , 2022

Dr. Reiner is Vice-President and Faculty of the Chicago Center for Psychoanalysis (CCP), Faculty at The Feinberg School of Medicine at Northwestern University, and was Coordinator of Clinical Training at the Family Institute of Chicago. Peter is an award-winning teacher who has led more than 50 graduate and post-graduate classes or seminars in systemically-oriented couple and family psychotherapy and psychodynamically-oriented psychotherapy.  Dr. Reiner has written at length about the training and supervision of psychodynamically-oriented couple and family therapists, including “Training psychodynamic family therapists,” (in Lebow, Chambers, & Breunlin [Eds.] Encyclopedia of Couple and Family Therapy, 2017) and “Systemic psychodynamic supervision,” (in Todd & Storm [Eds.], The Complete Systemic Supervisor:  Context, Philosophy, and Pragmatics [2nd ed.], 2014).  Dr. Reiner maintains a private practice in Chicago of psychoanalysis; psychoanalytic and systemic psychotherapy with individuals, couples, and families; and consultation.

Seminar Title: Enhanced Couple Therapy:  Integrating the Psychodynamic 

Course Description

This clinically-based course will provide a review of selected concepts and techniques of couple therapy, and will enhance participants’ theoretical and clinical skills through the introduction and application of key psychoanalytic contributions.  Drawn from the classical, object relations, self-psychology, and relational models, these psychoanalytic understandings will be used to inform a broad array of clinical work with couples, ranging from short-term, present-oriented approaches to long-term, in-depth, historically-oriented couple therapy.    

Selected Readings: Please read this book:

Nielsen, A. (2016).  A roadmap for couple therapy:  Integrating systemic, psychodynamic, and behavioral approaches.  NY:  Routledge

Required readings:

Catherall, D. (1992).  Working with projective identification in couples.  Family Process, 31, 355-367.  

Fairbairn, W.R.D. (1963).  Synopsis of an object-relations theory of personality.  International Journal of Psycho-Analysis, 44, 224-225.  (I would suggest reading Scharff [1996] first.)

Lansky, M.  (1986).  Marital therapy for narcissistic disorders.  In N. Jacobson & A. Gurman (Eds.), Clinical handbook of marital therapy (pp. 557-574).  NY:  Guilford.

Leone, C. (2008).  Couple therapy from the perspective of self psychology and intersubjectivity theory.  Psychoanalytic Psychology, 25(1), 79-98.

MacIntosh, H.  (2018).  From application to approach:  A systematic review of 50 years of psychoanalytic couple therapy.  Psychoanalytic Inquiry, 38(5), 331-358.

Pinsof, W.  Two 1-page handouts from integrative problem-centered therapy (“Matrices,” “Orientations.”)

Pinsof, W., et al. (2011).  Diagram on page 318.  The full reference is listed below in the optional readings section.

Pinsof, W.  Therapist operations.  (1988, Unpublished, pdf). 

Reiner, P. (2014). Systemic psychodynamic supervision. In T. Todd & C. Storm (Eds.), The complete systemic supervisor:  Context, philosophy, and pragmatics, 2^nd ed., (pp. 166-185). Chichester: Wiley.  (Please read:  pp. 166-170.) 

Reiner, P. (2017).  Training psychodynamic family therapists.  In J. Lebow, A. Chambers, & D. Breunlin (Eds.), Encyclopedia of couple and family therapy, (DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-15877-8_665-1).  Springer International Publishing AG.

Reiner, P.  Structural family therapy summary.  (Unpublished).

Ringstrom, P. (2018).  Relational psychoanalytic perspective on couples psychotherapy.  Psychoanalytic Inquiry, 38(5), 399-408.  

Scarf, M.  (1986a).  Intimate partners:  Patterns in love and marriage (Part 1).  Atlantic Monthly, Nov., 45-51, 91-93.  

Scarf, M.  (1986b).  Intimate partners:  Patterns in love and marriage (Part 2).  Atlantic Monthly, Dec., 66-76.

Scharff, D. (1996).  The major trends in object relations theory and practice.  In D. Scharff (Selected and integrated) Object relations theory and practice:  An introduction (pp. 1-23).  Northvale, NJ:  J. Aronson.  

Scharff, D., & de Varela, Y.  (2006).  A clinical introduction to couple therapy.  In J. Scharff & D. Scharff (Eds.), New paradigms for treating relationships, (pp. 43-50).  Lanham, MD:  J. Aronson

Wachtel, E. F. (2017).  The heart of couple therapy:  Knowing what to do and how to do it.  NY:  Guilford.  (Ch. 1: “Introduction:  Dilemmas and choices in couples therapy,” [Choice Points:  pp. 8-16].)

Optional readings:

Fairbairn, W.R.D. (1946).  Object-relations and dynamic structure.  International Journal of Psycho-Analysis, 27, 30-37.

Goldklank, S. (2009).  “The shoop shoop song” A guide to psychoanalytic-systemic couple therapy.  Contemporary Psychoanalysis, 45(1), 3-25.

Leone, C. (2021).  The application of contemporary self psychology to couple psychotherapy.  Couple and Family Psychoanalysis, 11(2), 170-186.

Middelberg, Carol (2001).  Projective identification in common couple dances.  Journal of Marital and Family Therapy, 27(3), 341-352.

Mitchell, V. (2016).  Couples therapy with same-sex and gender-variant (LGBT) couples:  

Sociocultural problems and intrapsychic and relational consequences.  In E. Lawrence 

& K. Sullivan (Eds.), The Oxford handbook of relationship science and couple interventions, (pp. 241-259).  Oxford University Press.

Nelson, T. (and students).  Major marriage and family therapy models.  (Unpublished).

Nielsen, A. (2017).  Psychodynamic couple therapy:  A practical synthesis.  Journal of Marriage and Family Therapy, 43(4), 685-699.

Pinsof, W., Breunlin, D., Russell, W., & Lebow, J.  (2011).  Integrative problem-centered metaframeworks therapy:  Planning, conversing, and reading feedback.  Family Process, 50(3), 314-335.

Reiner, P.  EFT summary.  (Unpublished).  

Reiner, P.  Bowenian Therapy summary.  (Unpublished). 

Sevier, M., Brew, L., & Yi, J. (2016). Cultural considerations in evidence-based couples therapy.  In E. Lawrence & K. Sullivan (Eds.), The Oxford handbook of relationship science and couple interventions, (pp. 225-240).  Oxford University Press.

Zinner, J.  (2009).  Psychodynamic couples therapy:  An object relations approach.  In G. Gabbard (Ed.), Textbook of psychotherapeutic treatments (pp. 581-601).  Washington, DC:  American Psychiatric Publishing.  

Additional optional readings:

Gurman, A., Lebow, J., & Snyder, D. (Eds.) (2015).  Clinical handbook of couple therapy (5^th ed.).  NY:  Guilford.

Lawrence, E. & Sullivan, K. (Eds.) (2016).  The Oxford handbook of relationship science and couple interventions.  Oxford University Press.

Scharff, J. (1992).  Projective and introjective identification and the use of the therapist’s self.  Jason Aronson:  Northvale, NJ.  

Scharff, D. & Scharff, J. (1991).   Object relations couple therapy.  Jason Aronson: Northvale, NJ.

Scharff, D. & Scharff, J. (Eds.) (2014).  Psychoanalytic couple therapy.  London:  Karnac.

Spillius, E. & O’Shaughnessy, E. (Eds.) (2012). Projective identification:  The fate of a concept. Oxon:  Routledge.

Wachtel, E. F. (2017).  The heart of couple therapy:  Knowing what to do and how to do it.  NY:  Guilford.