Helsinki Conference: Managing Resistance and Alliance in Davanloo's ISTDP

If you are curious about how to address defense mechanisms in dynamic psychotherapy, please come join Jonathan Entis, PhD, for a seminar live in Helsinki, Finland on how to effectively manage resistance using principles from Intensive Short-Term Dynamic Psychotherapy (ISTDP). This seminar is open to therapists from all backgrounds, including those who have no prior knowledge of ISTDP.

In the era of evidence-based medicine, despite great efforts, the health care system fails to help many depressed and anxious patients. A recurring research finding is that about two thirds of patients in psychiatric care and one third of patients in primary care get no relief from treatment, even when being offered the gold standard treatment alternatives currently available. From the perspective of ISTDP, much of this nonresponse is caused by multiple unaddressed ways of avoiding and/or resisting emotional closeness in the therapy situation.

ISTDP was developed from the 1970s through the early 2000s by Habib Davanloo in Montreal, Canada. He invented a number of novel strategies aimed at reaching the most highly defended patients, the ones who at the time were considered impossible to treat. Spending a lot of time watching his own recordings of therapy sessions, he tested and refined specific strategies of helping his patients see, understand and let go of highly entrenched defenses, especially when those were linked to the patient’s identity (eg. highly syntonic).

Today, ISTDP is one of the most studied forms of psychodynamic psychotherapy, with 38 randomized controlled trials published thus far (81 if you include studies using the broader EDT term). ISTDP has empirical support for treating depressive disorders, somatic symptom disorders, personality disorders and anxiety disorders. ISTDP does well when compared to other treatments, and there is some evidence that ISTDP and similar models are more effective than comparison therapies in the treatment of functional somatic disorders (i.e. fibromyalgia, pain, IBS etc.)

In this conference, Jonathan Entis will showcase work on different aspects of managing resistance within the ISTDP model. Emphasis will be put on the following aspects of resistance work:

– The conscious therapeutic alliance. Keeping the work transparent and explicit.

– Therapeutic flexibility. Calibrating interventions, timing and stances across the spectra from moderate resistance to severe fragility.

– The Pillars of Resistance. Identifying and confronting the resistance against feelings and impulses, against emotional closeness, against will and superego resistance.

– Mapping of the resistance. Systematically exploring, clarifying and exhausting resistance.
– Handling fragility. Feeding the alliance, managing projections and anxiety, and maintaining optimal pressure to defense.

During the seminar, the focus will be on watching videos from real cases.

BIO

Jonathan Entis

Jonathan Entis, Ph.D., is a licensed psychologist in private practice in Cambridge, Massachusetts. He is on the faculty of Harvard Medical School, where for the past five years he has taught and supervised in ISTDP. He is an IEDTA-certified teacher in ISTDP and has presented both nationally and internationally. Jonathan leads a number of international online training groups in Davanloo’s ISTDP, and is co-leading an advanced Core Training in Amsterdam with John Rathauser. He also presents annually in Norway and Sweden. He is a co-author with John Rathauser and Mikkel Reher-Langberg on the upcoming book, Fundamentals of Davanloo’s Intensive Short-Term Dynamic Psychotherapy, Volume I. You can contact him at drjonathanentis@gmail.com. Here you can read an interview with Jonathan. Here you can watch an interview with Jonathan on YouTube.

ATTENDANCE

The workshop is open to licensed healthcare professionals and therapists in good standing, as well as students within these fields.

DATE AND TIME

4 June, 2024 from 9am-5pm.

LOCATION

The event will take place at the Hotel Lilla Roberts in Helsinki.

Please note that online attendance is not possible for this event.

TICKETS

COST

Early bird (ends February 1, 2024)

$250 USD (including lunch)

$200 USD for current core trainees (including lunch)

General Admission (after February 1, 2024)

$275 USD (including lunch)

$225 USD for current core trainees (including lunch)

MORE INFO

If you have questions, please email Jonathan: drjonathanentis@gmail.com