Juxtaposing Challenge with Support to Incentivize Transformation: A Psychodynamic Approach to Deep Healing
Presented by Martha Stark, MD
Recorded on Friday, March 1st, 2024
Access provided upon registration on “My Courses” page
If deep and enduring psychodynamic change is the ultimate goal of treatment, then periodically juxtaposing seemingly contradictory “forces” (Hegel’s thesis and antithesis) will eventually jump-start the patient’s “adaptive recovery” by creating optimally stressful, growth-incentivizing “mismatch experiences.”
Dr. Stark will be proposing use of something to which she refers as a “conflict statement” – a clinically useful and almost universally applicable therapeutic intervention strategically designed to target the patient’s internal conflictedness between anxiety-provoking (but ultimately growth-promoting) forces pressing “yes” and anxiety-relieving (but growth-impeding) resistant counterforces defending “no.”
The stress and strain of the “destabilizing dissonance” thereby created will provide the “therapeutic leverage” needed for the patient gradually, over time, to relinquish the tenacity of her attachment to rigid defenses in favor of more flexible adaptations – “compromise positions” that will “reconcile common truths” (Hegel’s synthesis) and transform conflict into collaboration.
The strategic construction of conflict statements requires of the therapist that she be able both to support the patient’s defense by “being with the patient where she is” (Salman Akhtar’s (20212) “homeostatic attunement”) and to challenge the patient’s defense by “directing the patient’s attention to where the therapist would want her to go” (Salman Akhtar’s (2012) “disruptive attunement”).
Dr. Stark will be offering specific clinical examples to demonstrate these powerfully impactful, optimally stressful psychotherapeutic interventions that juxtapose anxiety-provoking challenge with anxiety-relieving support. After all, no pain, no gain…
Access provided upon registration on “My Courses” page
This program, when attended in its entirety, offers 2.0 CEs for Psychologists, 2.0 IL CEUS for Counselors and Social Workers, or 2.0 BBS California CEUs for LPCCs, LPSWs, and LMFTs.
If deep and enduring psychodynamic change is the ultimate goal of treatment, then periodically juxtaposing seemingly contradictory “forces” (Hegel’s thesis and antithesis) will eventually jump-start the patient’s “adaptive recovery” by creating optimally stressful, growth-incentivizing “mismatch experiences.”
Dr. Stark will be proposing use of something to which she refers as a “conflict statement” – a clinically useful and almost universally applicable therapeutic intervention strategically designed to target the patient’s internal conflictedness between anxiety-provoking (but ultimately growth-promoting) forces pressing “yes” and anxiety-relieving (but growth-impeding) resistant counterforces defending “no.”
The stress and strain of the “destabilizing dissonance” thereby created will provide the “therapeutic leverage” needed for the patient gradually, over time, to relinquish the tenacity of her attachment to rigid defenses in favor of more flexible adaptations – “compromise positions” that will “reconcile common truths” (Hegel’s synthesis) and transform conflict into collaboration.
The strategic construction of conflict statements requires of the therapist that she be able both to support the patient’s defense by “being with the patient where she is” (Salman Akhtar’s (20212) “homeostatic attunement”) and to challenge the patient’s defense by “directing the patient’s attention to where the therapist would want her to go” (Salman Akhtar’s (2012) “disruptive attunement”).
Dr. Stark will be offering specific clinical examples to demonstrate these powerfully impactful, optimally stressful psychotherapeutic interventions that juxtapose anxiety-provoking challenge with anxiety-relieving support. After all, no pain, no gain…
After attending this intermediate-level program, participants will be able to:
1. Elaborate upon the significance of generating optimally stressful, growth-incentivizing “mismatch experiences”
2. Describe the difference between “homeostatic attunement” and “disruptive attunement”
3. Discuss the importance of providing both “anxiety-provoking challenge” and “anxiety-assuaging support” of the defense
4. Explain the relationship between “rigid defense” and “more flexible adaptation”
This program meets APA’s continuing education STANDARD 1.3: Program content focuses on topics related to psychological practice, education, or research other than application of psychological assessment and/or intervention methods that are supported by contemporary scholarship grounded in established research procedures.
This program meets APA’s continuing education GOAL 1: Program is relevant to psychological practice, education, and/or science.
General Admission: $30
The Chicago School Faculty/Staff/Alumni: $20
Students: $15
(Please email [email protected] for coupon code)
Refund Policy: 100% of tuition is refundable up to 48 hours before the program. Within 48 hours of the program, and at any point in Homestudy format, tuition is nonrefundable.
Martha Stark, MD; Lecturer on Psychiatry (part-time), Harvard Medical School
Martha Stark, MD, a graduate of Harvard Medical School and the Boston Psychoanalytic Institute, is a holistic (adult and child) psychiatrist and integrative psychoanalyst in private practice in Boston, MA.
Martha is Lecturer on Psychiatry (part-time), Harvard Medical School; Co-Founder / Co-Director / Faculty, Center for Psychoanalytic Studies, William James College; Faculty, Psychiatry Redefined; Faculty, Academy of Comprehensive Integrative Medicine; Adjunct Faculty, Smith College School for Social Work; Former Faculty, Boston Psychoanalytic Institute and Massachusetts Institute for Psychoanalysis.
Martha is an award-winning author of nine highly acclaimed books (including Relentless Hope: The Refusal to Grieve) on the integration of psychodynamic theory with clinical practice – several of which have become “required reading” in psychoanalytic training institutes and psychodynamic psychotherapy training programs both in the US and abroad.
Martha is the Originator / Developer of the Psychodynamic Synergy Paradigm: A C.A.R.E.S. Approach to Deep Healing.
Board Certified by the American Association of Integrative Medicine, Martha also contributes chapters to integrative medicine textbooks and articles to peer-reviewed toxicology / environmental medicine journals. In addition, she serves on the editorial / advisory boards of various holistic health publications and sits on the Advisory Board of the Sensorimotor Psychotherapy Institute.
Akhtar, S. (2012). Psychoanalytic listening: Methods, limits, and innovations. Routledge (Taylor & Francis Group).
Busch, F. (2017). A model for integrating actual neurotic or unrepresented states and symbolized aspects of intrapsychic conflict. Psychoanal Q. Jan;86(1):75-108. doi: 10.1002/psaq.12127.
Chen, L., Liu, X., et al. (2023). The emotion regulation mechanism in neurotic individuals: The potential role of mindfulness and cognitive bias. Int J Environ Res Public Health. Jan 4;20(2):896. doi: 10.3390/ijerph20020896.
Favaretto, T.C., Both, L.M., et al. (2023). Relationship between psychodynamic functioning, defensive mechanisms and trauma in patients with PTSD?Trends Psychiatry Psychother. Apr 17. doi: 10.47626/2237-6089-2022-0546.
Izhar, L., Babiker, A., et al. (2022). Emotion self-regulation in neurotic students: A pilot mindfulness-based intervention to assess its effectiveness through brain signals and behavioral data. Sensors (Basel). Apr 1;22(7):2703. doi: 10.3390/s22072703.
Target Audience: Mental health professionals and psychology students.
Psychologists. This program, when attended in its entirety, is available for 2.0 continuing education credits. The Chicago School of Professional Psychology is committed to accessibility and non-discrimination in its continuing education activities. The Chicago School of Professional Psychology is also committed to conducting all activities in conformity with the American Psychological Association’s Ethical Principles for Psychologists. Participants are asked to be aware of the need for privacy and confidentiality throughout the program. If program content becomes stressful, participants are encouraged to process these feelings during discussion periods.
Counselors/Clinical Counselors. This program, when attended in its entirety, is available 2.0 hours of continuing education. The Chicago School of Professional Psychology is licensed by the Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation (IDFPR) to provide continuing education programming for counselors and clinical counselors. License Number: 197.000159
Social Workers. This program, when attended in its entirety, is available for 2.0 hours of continuing education. The Chicago School of Professional Psychology is licensed by the Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation (IDFPR) to provide continuing education programming for social workers. License Number: 159.001036
MFTs, LPCCs, and LCSWs. Course meets the qualifications for 2.0 hour of continuing education credit for MFTs, LPCCs, and/or LCSWs as required by the California Board of Behavioral Sciences. If you are licensed outside of California please check with your local licensing agency to to determine if they will accept these CEUs. The Chicago School of Professional Psychology is approved by the California Board of Behavioral Sciences (BBS) to offer continuing education programming for MFTs, LPCCs, LEPs, and/or LCSWs. The Chicago School of Professional Psychology is an accredited or approved postsecondary institution that meets the requirements set forth in Sections 4980.54(f)(1), 4989.34, 4996.22(d)(1), or 4999.76(d) of the Code.
Non Psychologists. Most licensing boards accept Continuing Education Credits sponsored by the American Psychological Association but non-psychologists are recommended to consult with their specific state-licensing board to ensure that APA-sponsored CE is acceptable.
*Participants must attend 100% of the program in order to obtain a Certificate of Attendance.
If participants have special needs, we will attempt to accommodate them. Please address questions, concerns and any complaints to [email protected]. There is no commercial support for this program nor are there any relationships between the CE Sponsor, presenting organization, presenter, program content, research, grants, or other funding that could reasonably be construed as conflicts of interest.