Emphasizing the Transference in ISTDP Theory and Practice - Dr. Jody Clarke

We are thrilled that for our next ISTDP San Diego training we'll be hosting Rev. Canon Dr. Jody Clarke. Jody trained with Dr. Davanloo for 20 years, and attended his Montreal closed circuit trainings for over a decade at the end of Dr. Davanloo’s teaching career. This training will focus on Dr. Davanloo’s later developments to his theory and technique, with special attention to his final decade of teaching and training.

First, Jody will focus on the the centrality of working directly in the transference. He will discuss why working in the transference is so important, and share insights from Dr. Davanloo about how the safest and best place to work is in the transference. Jody will highlight how to focus on transference feelings, mobilize unconscious resistance, and overcome resistance to gain access to the family tomb, so that intergenerational transmission of trauma can be healed.

Second, Jody will offer a special focus on highly resistant patients. He will show how these patients form a barrier to closeness with the therapist, and why working in the transference is especially important with this population. You will see Jody focus on the centrality of intimacy and closeness in the work, including how his personal invitation to connect with the patient mobilizes the unconscious.

Finally, Jody has a passion for therapists' emotional fluidity and health. Towards this aim, he will offer participants of this training a truly unique gift: a chance to experience a taste of the Montreal closed circuit training experience. He will lead 2 volunteers in a “Montreal experience," where one serves as the "interviewer" and one the "interviewee." Jody will guide the process in the Montreal style: the interaction will be recorded and then reviewed live with the audience all together. Jody will then lead a discussion with the volunteers and highlight key learning moments for the group.

We hope you can join us for this unique event!

This training is exclusively for licensed mental health and registered health professionals, including Psychiatrists, Psychologists, Social Workers, MFTs, Counselors, as well as Physicians, Nurses, Physical Therapists, etc. If you are not a mental health or health professional, you may not attend due to the protection of patient confidentiality. Students and trainees pursuing licensure or registration as a mental health or health professional under supervision are welcome. The course content level is Intermediate level.

13 Continuing Education credits are available for this event for an additional $50 (plus eventbrite transaction fees). Failure to log in/out or attend the course in its entirety will result in forfeiture of credit for the entire course. No exceptions will be made. Partial credit is not available. There is no conflict of interest or commercial support for this program.

CE Certificates are only available for those who pay the additional CE add-on fee through Eventbrite.

Once the course is completed and attendance confirmed, an evaluation will be sent to you via email from Karen Newell at newell@sonic.net. Please contact her with any questions about CEs.

CUE Management Solutions, LLC is approved by the American Psychological Association to sponsor continuing education for psychologists. CUE Management Solutions, LLC maintains responsibility for this program and its content.

CUE Management Solutions, LLC is recognized by the New York State Education Department’s State Board for Psychology as an approved provider of continuing education for licensed psychologists #PSY-0242.

Please Note: Licensing Boards change regulations often and while we attempt to stay abreast of their most recent changes, if you have questions or concerns about this course meeting your specific board’s approval, we recommend you contact your board directly to obtain a ruling.

Participants will be able to:

1. Identify differences in ISTDP technique in later developments in Davanloo's work.

2. Describe examples of focusing on the transference

3. Demonstrate ways of working in the transference.

4. Identify clinical manifestations of highly resistant patients.

5. Demonstrate the application of working with the tranference with highly resistant patients.

6. Demonstrate interventions with highly resistant patients, such as pressure, clarification/challenge, and head on collision.

7. Identify when the patient's resistance is "tilting" into the transference.

8. Identify a crystallized transference resistance.

9. Identify the importance of inviting closeness/intimacy with highly resistant patients.

10. Describe the learning model of the Montreal Closed Circuit Program

11. Identify roadblocks to therapists' emotional fluidity.

12. Demonstrate how the technique of the Montreal Program can enhance therapists' emotional fluidity.

Sample Schedule (in PST, add 3 hours for EST):

Day 1: The Importance of the Transference in Theory and Practice

7:00-8:30 Didactic Presentation: Why is working with the transference so important?

8:30-8:45 Morning Break

8:45-10:15 Video Presentation I: Working in the Transference

10:15-11:15 Lunch Break

11:15-12:45 Video Presentation II: It is all about Intimacy and Closeness

12:45-1 Afternoon Break

1:00-2:30 Didactic Presentation: Insights from Montreal

2:30-3 Debrief, questions, reflections.

Day 2: Working with Highly Resistant Patients

7:00-8:30 Video Presentation I: Following the Resistance into the Transference

8:30-8:45 Morning Break

8:45-10:15 Video Presentation II: Working with a Highly Resistant Patient (Punitive Super Ego Pathology, resistance to closeness and highly intellectual.)

10:15-11:15 Lunch Break

11:15-12:45 Video Presentation III: The family vault, unlocking the intergenerational pattern of pathology. Yes, history can be changed.

12:45-1 Afternoon Break

1:00-2:30 Facilitating Therapists' Emotional Fluidity: A Sampling of a Montreal Closed Circuit-Style Experience.

2:30-3 Debrief, questions, reflections.

If you have any questions or concerns, please contact us at istdpsandiego@gmail.com. A limited number of financial hardship discounts are available upon request.

About our presenter:

Dr. Jody Clarke is a Professor of Pastoral Theology at Atlantic School of Theology (AST) in Halifax, Nova Scotia. He is also certified as a clinical educator and specialist with the Canadian Association of Spiritual Care. Steeped in Object Relations Theory and Self Psychology, Jody realized that patients responded well to a robust engagement with their therapists. In 2001, Jody worked with several practitioners of Intensive Short Term Dynamic Psychotherapy who sought to bring Dr. Habib Davanloo to Halifax for a symposium. It was shortly after this gathering (hosted on the Campus of AST) that Jody was brought into supervision under Dr. Davanloo. Then in 2008, Dr. Davanloo invited Jody to join the Montreal Closed Circuit Training Workshop. Workshop members gathered four or five times a year for a week of intense training and learning. In addition to advancing Dr. Davanloo's understanding of the unconscious, a further objective of the workshops was that of removing resistances in the therapists. Jody attended these workshops for over a decade, until 2020.

Jody has published numerous articles in which he blends the work of Dr. Davanloo with characters from literature. Recently, he worked with Dr. Angela Schmitt in the English translation of her insightful work Fusion and Defusion: Davanloo's Psychotherapeutic Techniques, Notes from Montreal (2024). Currently, Jody is working on the ways in which Dr. Davanloo's theories resonate with Dante's The Divine Comedy.