This class has filled. To be added to the waitlist, please contact Don Schimmel. 

What does it mean to be empathically attuned to the psychological needs of your client? How do you recognize and work through a therapeutic impasse? How do you repair and recover from an “empathic failure”? How do you offer psychoanalytic interpretations without inducing shame in your client? What do you do when you feel chronically bored with a client? What does it mean, and how do you recognize when you are functioning as a "selfobject,” "mirror," or object of "idealization"? What is a vertical and horizontal split in Self Psychology? 

In this three-part seminar, the instructor will define the tenets of Self Psychology and discuss how therapists can respond to many challenging therapeutic situations, as outlined above. You will also learn how Self-Psychology has evolved since Heinz Kohut's original contributions. Before each seminar, participants will receive approximately 20 pages of optional reading via email. Participants will learn how the instructor applies self-psychological and Intersubjective concepts to his work with patients in psychotherapy and psychoanalysis. Participants will also have time to discuss case vignettes from their work with clients.  

Instructor: Don Schimmel is a clinical psychologist and psychoanalyst based in Mountlake Terrace, Washington. He has 50-years of clinical experience working with adults, children, adolescents, families, and couples. He is a senior faculty member at the Seattle Psychoanalytic Society and Institute, where he teaches seminars on Self-Psychology, Relational, and Intersubjectivity theory. He also teaches courses in child and adolescent development and technique, the history and legacy of Sigmund Freud, ego psychology, and Object Relations theory.  

Learning objectives:

• Participants will be able to list the central tenets of Self Psychology, as conceived originally by Kohut.
• Participants will be able to describe and distinguish Kohut’s views on the “bipolar self,” the “vertical and horizontal split,” and three narcissistic or “selfobject” transferences.
• Participants will be able to characterize Kohut’s view’s on: a) empathy; b) disruption and repair; c) optimal frustration and responsiveness; d) transmuting internalization and vicarious introspection.

Fees: $120 for Members and $150 for non-members.
Class Size: Class is limited to a maximum of 9 participants. (Registration closes on 9/9/22)
Refund Policy: Refunds less a $35 handling fee will be given up until one week before the first class.

This presentation has been approved for a total of 4.50 CE’s for licensed mental health counselors and associates, marriage and family therapists and social workers by the Washington State Society for Clinical Social Work.