Managing Defiance/Compliance in Intensive Short-Term Dynamic Psychotherapy

If you are curious about Intensive Short-Term Dynamic Psychotherapy, or how to work dynamically with clients who present with compliance and defiance dynamics, please come join Jonathan Entis, PhD, for a seminar live in Helsinki, Finland. 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 unconscious and conscious resistance and dysregulated anxiety. Some of the most difficult resistance to work with is compliance/defiance.

ISTDP was developed from the 1970s through the early 2000s by Habib Davanloo in Montreal, Canada. He created 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). Later his work shifted to helping patients with fragile ego structure and overwhelming forms of anxiety.

Today, ISTDP is one of the most studied forms of psychodynamic psychotherapy, with 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 introduce ISTDP and how it can be applied ot a broad range of patient presentations, with a particular focus on how to work with compliance and defiance in the transference. He will use video from actual therapy sessions to showcase work on different aspects of managing resistance as well as building ego capacity 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.

– Working with defiance and compliance. Choosing either a 1 or 3 step process.

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

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 Rome, Italy. He maintains a virtual practice in Cambridge, Massachusetts and New York. He is on the faculty of Harvard Medical School, where he for many years he has taught and supervised. He is an IEDTA-certified supervisor and teacher in ISTDP and has presented both nationally and internationally. Jonathan leads a number of international training groups in Rome, Paris, and Copenhagen, and has lead groups in the past in Norway, Sweden, the US, and the Netherlands. 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

17 October, 2025 from 9am-5pm.

LOCATION

The event will take place at Hotel Lilla Roberts in Helsinki, Finland

Pieni Roobertinkatu 1, 00130 Helsinki, Finland

TICKETS

COST

265 Euros including lunch

235 Euros for members of the Finnish Society for Emotion Focused Psychodynamic Therapies

REFUND POLICY

Refunds given up to 7 days prior to event

MORE INFO

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