The Relational Psychoanalytic Sensibility

Live Interactive Webinar

Instructor: Yvette Esprey, M.A., Ph.D.

Level: Intermediate

CEs: 3

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This interactive webinar offers an introduction and deepening discussion around the relational turn which has gained momentum in psychoanalytic thinking and practice over the last four decades. Unpacking the integrative theoretical origins of the paradigm, the workshop will focus on some of the key principles which inform and scaffold relational clinical practice and supervision. The workshop begins by tracing the origins of the relational tradition, highlighting its integrative foundations in which can be found the influences of object relations and interpersonal as well as sociological theories. The workshop will spotlight some of the core tenets of the relational frame. In particular, and drawing on clinical and supervisory vignettes, we will explore notions of co-construction in the therapeutic relationship, non-neutrality and the subjectivity of the therapist, thirdness, multiple self-states, social-constructionism and the significance of the social context against which the encounter unfolds. In discussing these central principles, the relevance of a relational sensibility to the field of clinical social work will be emphasized.

The workshop will close with a discussion of the potential of relational thinking and practice to contribute to social justice imperatives, linking relationality to feminist theory, queer theory, critical race theory and positing its potential activism role within the socio-political movements which define our contemporary times. The workshop will consider the contribution which relational psychoanalytic work can make to the social justice issues of our time, and how relationally-oriented therapists can participate in social activism through the clinical encounter.