Martha Stark I

Martha Stark, MD
Faculty, Harvard Medical School
A 2-Session Presentation:
Please feel free to sign up for both of the seminars or for either one of them. Both seminars will elaborate upon the 'Playbook' but will cover different aspects of it.

Seminar 1: Saturday 18 February 2023
Friday, February 17th, 2023 - 5pm to 7pm (EST - New York)

Seminar 2: Saturday 29 April 2023 (booking seperately)
Friday, April 28th, 2023 - 7pm to 9pm (EDT - New York)

A How-To Playbook for the Middle Game in Psychodynamic Psychotherapy - A 2-Session Presentation.

Participation available via Zoom Teleconferencing.

YOU WILL RECEIVE THE ZOOM LINK THE DAY BEFORE THE SEMINAR

Seminar Description:

A How-To 'Playbook' for the Middle Game in Psychodynamic Psychotherapy

Peter Giovacchini (1986) once wrote – “The poorest understood and two most enigmatic words in psychoanalysis are working through.” 

And Patricia Coughlin (2022) recently wrote – “Like the middle game in chess, there is no playbook to guide us.”

It took me 48 years to get here and a lot of encouragement from my students, but my presentation over the course of our two sessions will represent a rather bold effort on my part to conceptualize a broad strokes framework for this “middle game” in psychodynamic psychotherapy when deep and enduring characterological / structural change is the ultimate goal – in essence, a “how-to playbook” for how longstanding, deeply entrenched “defensive reactions” that impede growth can be progressively worked through and ultimately transformed into “adaptive responses” that promote growth.

The process of advancing from rigid defense to more flexible adaptation is never a straight-line progression. Rather, evolving from psychological rigidity to psychological flexibility will involve the therapist’s strategic provision of not just “support” but an artfully conceived combination of “challenge” and “support” – namely, “optimal stress.”

The ongoing therapeutic provision of this “optimal stress” will give rise to healing cycles of disruption (in reaction to the challenge) and repair (in response to the support) – and, eventually, progression from less-healthy defense to more-healthy adaptation.

Over the course of the two sessions, I will be exploring the use of three specific groups of interventions – growth-promoting interventions that (always with compassion and never judgment) either (1) “support” the rigid defense (to demonstrate empathic attunement), (2) “challenge” and then “support” the rigid defense (to generate destabilizing stress and incentivizing dissonance), or (3) “support” the more flexible adaptation (to celebrate and reinforce the new normal).

The strategic design of these “playbook interventions” is both an art (involving intuition) and a science (involving analytic finesse). Throughout both presentations, I will be sharing a number of vignettes that will demonstrate the application of these theoretical constructs to clinical practice.

Coughlin, P. 2022. Facilitating the process of working through in psychotherapy: Mastering the middle game. London and New York: Routledge (Taylor & Francis Group).

Giovacchini, P. 1986. Developmental disorders: The transitional space in mental breakdown and creative integration. Northvale, NJ: Jason Aronson.
 

About the Speaker:

Martha Stark, MD, a graduate of Harvard Medical School and the Boston Psychoanalytic Institute, is a Holistic Psychiatrist (Adult, Adolescent, and Child) and Integrative Psychoanalyst in private practice in Boston, Massachusetts (USA).

Martha is Faculty, Harvard Medical School; Co-Founder and Co-Director, Center for Psychoanalytic Studies, William James College; Faculty, Psychiatry Redefined; Faculty and Scientific Advisory Board, Academy of Comprehensive Integrative Medicine; Adjunct Faculty, Smith College School for Social Work; Editorial Board, Journal of Applied Neurosciences; Advisory Board, Sensorimotor Psychotherapy Institute.

For many years, Martha was also a Teaching Analyst at the Boston Psychoanalytic Institute and a Teaching / Supervising Analyst at the Massachusetts Institute for Psychoanalysis. Additionally, she has numerous teaching affiliations with local, regional, national, and international psychoanalytic / psychodynamic training programs.

Martha is an award-winning author of nine highly acclaimed books on psychoanalytic theory and technique – several of which have become “required reading” for candidates at various psychoanalytic training institutes across the United States and for students in various psychodynamic psychotherapy training programs in the United States, Europe, Asia, and Australia.

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. Additionally, she serves on the editorial / advisory boards of various holistic health publications. Periodically, she is called upon to offer expert witness testimony on various toxic environmental exposures (including pesticides, volatile organic compounds, and mold).
 

DATE:
18th February 2023