Amsterdam, October 1 – 2, 2019
Master Class taught by Eve Caligor MD
This master class will provide an overview of Transference-Focused Psychotherapy – Extended (TFP-E), a flexible, trans-diagnostic psychodynamic treatment model for pathology of self and interpersonal functioning based on TFP principles. The treatment builds on a convergence between the psychodynamic, object relations theory model of personality pathology and recent developments in the empirical study of personality disorders reflected in the Alternative Model for Personality Disorders in the DSM5. Both models emphasize the centrality of self and interpersonal functioning in personality health and pathology across a range of severity, and improvement in these domains of functioning emerges as a central goal in treatment. The course will introduce participants to the general clinical principles and specific techniques that define TFP-E. We will highlight how this general treatment model is systematically modified according to severity of personality pathology, as techniques are differentially applied to meet the needs of the individual patient.
The course will emphasize the following aspects of clinical work: 1) thorough assessment and sharing one’s diagnostic impressions with the patient as a prelude to treatment, 2) establishing a treatment frame and treatment goals while understanding their functions in clinical process and outcome, 3) utilizing a systematic approach to identifying a focus of intervention, 4) anticipating and managing transference and countertransference developments in patients at different levels of severity of pathology, 5) reconceptualizing the functions of the interpretive process, 6) maintaining a position between the patient’s internal world and external reality in dynamic therapy 7) exploring an integrated model of mechanisms of change in psychodynamic treatment focusing on reflective processes and structural change. We will consider how the treatment model represents a modification of conventional models of analytic psychotherapy with an eye towards optimizing outcome.
Sponsored by the International Society of Transference-Focused Psychotherapy (ISTFP)