Building Reflective Skills in Relational Psychodynamic Practice

Essential but largely untaught, well-developed reflective practice skills are the mark of an informed clinician and a powerful treatment tool. This class provides students theoretical and experiential material for building reflective practice muscles and setting a course for clinical work attuned to the therapeutic relationship. Psychodynamic practice requires us to pause in our work, play with ideas, and place ourselves in an available therapeutic stance. To practice this, we will investigate our emotional engagement and the reflective process which facilitates that role. We will look at how this impacts the process of case formulation, viewing enactments, and the examination of clinical impasses. Students will engage in small and large group discussion, develop process recordings, and explore the nonverbal, nonconscious communication in their field placement work.