Description:  This 16-session course is the first part of a yearlong sequence aimed at helping the psychoanalytic therapist conceptualize an intense therapeutic relationship that is at the core of the psychoanalytic process. As a process aimed at freeing the patient’s inner life, psychoanalysis and psychoanalytic psychotherapy are distinguished by the principle that has been termed the analytic attitude. This principle differentiates psychoanalytic treatments from those therapies in which the focus is generally limited to symptom relief and behavioral change.
This course is intended to deepen the student’s capacity to conceptualize, listen, and intervene in an analytic fashion-both in exploratory interventions and in supportive ones. Class readings and discussion will explore the conditions under which the therapist and patient meet, each bringing their own needs and expectations, some of which naturally foster an exploratory process.
Attention will be paid to the practical considerations required for facilitating a holding environment, as well as to the patient’s strengths, limitations, and needs for attachment, safety, and mastery. We will explore the creation of an atmosphere of non-intrusive curiosity and non-judgmental acceptance, how to help the patient engage in treatment, the use of transference and counter-transference, how to address resistances, and the promotion of free association. Classes will include discussion of the instructor’s and participant’s clinical material.

Target Audience:  This course is intended for clinicians at beginning to intermediate levels.

Continuing Education Credit :  At the end of the course, participants must complete the evaluation form to receive continuing education credit. The instructor(s) has signed a financial disclosure form and has no commercial support that represents a conflict of interest.

Format:  This class will combine lecture and seminar formats; student participation is encouraged. All the PCC courses are small group discussions which require participants to read and synthesize the materials presented. PCC faculty ensure that gaps in knowledge are addressed. Classes will include discussion of clinical material of both the instructors and the participants.

About the Instructors:
Michael Macklin, MD is a practicing psychoanalyst in Chapel Hill. He has a particular interest in the widening scope of practice of psychotherapy and psychoanalysis, as well as in the broadest theoretical perspectives in psychoanalytic theory. He graduated from the UNC-Duke Psychoanalytic Education Program, now a component of the Psychoanalytic Center of the Carolinas (PCC). He taught many classes in the UNC-Duke Psychoanalytic Education Program, including Object Relations Theory, Self Psychology, and Widening Scope. He was co-chair for many years of theory section of the psychoanalytic curriculum committee, and he is a member of the faculty of the PCC.

Margaret E. Wilner, LCSW has a private practice in Chapel Hill, NC. She received her MSW at Columbia University School of Social Work and completed two post graduate training programs through the PPSC, the former educational organization of the Psychoanalytic Center of the Carolinas (PCC) – Advanced Curriculum Program and The Intermediate Course in Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy with Children and Adolescents. Her interests include depression, anxiety, developmental trauma, relational and life transition issues, and Body Focused Repetitive Disorders such as Trichotillomania. She has over 30 years of experience working with persons from various ethnic, cultural, and socioeconomic backgrounds. She is a member of the Inner Critic Study Group and Mind the Body/Embody the Mind Study Group. She was the Chairperson of the PPSC Advanced Curriculum Steering Committee and is formerly the Chairperson of the PCC Admissions Committee, a member of the Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy Track (PPT) Steering Committee and the Training and Education Committee.