Course: Trauma, Truth and Care: Opportunities for Psychoanalysis – a Three-Part series
Presenter: Betty Teng, LCSW, MFA
As psychotherapists, a central tenet of our practice is to meet the traumas of our patients with truth and care. In three 90-minute lecture and discussion sessions, we will consider the concepts of Trauma, Truth and Care, which sit at the intersection of the psychological and the sociopolitical in the U.S.
During these stressed and polarized times, our familiarity with these concepts, as well as our fluency with the basic tools of talk therapy — such as prioritization of reflection over acting out；articulation of what is harbored in silence; and consideration of what lies under the surface of behavior — can be particularly useful in making psychological sense of what can seem like sociopolitical nonsense. This helps us engage with our patients’ fears and frustrations in response the ongoing pandemic; racial injustice, climate change and mass shootings. By bearing witness to these anxieties, we perhaps even prevent a kind of trauma metastasis.
Yet can we do more? Is it possible to use our skills of regard, inquiry and listening to locate the roots of the current dysregulation in our sociopolitical climate, so that we can not only help our patients, but our communities, our politicians and ourselves — think? As therapists and citizens, can we illuminate the psychological mechanisms by which Trauma, Truth and Care operate so that we can better understand how profoundly they impact the sociopolitical in the US?
This series invites mental health professionals to reflect upon how a psycho-sociopolitical understanding of Trauma, Truth and Care can highlight their power as lenses which reveal some of the drivers of harm, ignorance and negligence that threaten our society, our political discourse, and our status as a democracy. Considering them in this way can offer a useful framework through which to consider not only how to be an engaged therapist in such stressed sociopolitical times, but how to be a thoughtful citizen in a reactive world.
Dates: May 7, 14, 21 2022 from 11:30-1:00 EST
Location: Zoom
Cost:$180 and candidates $135 (Proof of Institute affiliation required.) CE: 4.5
Manhattan Institute for Psychoanalysis is recognized by the New York State Education Department as an approved provider of continuing education for LCSW, LMSW, LCAT, LMHC and Licensed Psychologists.
Betty P. Teng, LCSW, MFA, is a psychoanalyst and trauma therapist who has worked with survivors of sexual assault, domestic violence and childhood molestation at Mount Sinai Beth Israel’s Victims Services Program in Manhattan. She is co-founder and co-host of the psycho-political podcast Mind of State, a project which emerged out of her collaborations as a co-author of the New York Times bestseller, The Dangerous Case of Donald Trump. Betty has spoken and written on trauma and its social, political and psychological impacts for various conferences and media outlets, including Slate and Vox. She is a contributing essayist in Adam Phillips’ recenf book, The Cure for Psychoanalysis and currently sees patients in her private practice.