The Therapeutic Relationship in Contemporary Psychodynamic Practice

Social workers are committed to social justice and to helping the most vulnerable members of society. Successful clinical work with socially vulnerable patients requires a creative and integrative approach that addresses individual dynamic issues while recognizing the importance of environment, systems, and systemic oppression. This course looks to provide such an approach through relational theory, which highlights the potential of relationships, including the therapeutic relationship, to harm and to heal. This course will also examine how the fields of attachment theory, trauma research, and neuroscience contribute to a way of working with patients that is flexible, creative, humanistic, and scientific. The course will be roughly half lecture and half case presentation and discussion. Students will be expected to discuss course concepts as they relate to their clinical practicum experience.