LORRAINE CAPUTO, LCSW, Director
In 1989, Manhattan Institute became one of the first postgraduate institutions to offer specialty training in trauma. The Institute now offers a two-year online program leading to a Certificate in Trauma Studies.
This two-year long sequence builds on the success of 35 years’ experience educating mental health professionals in the theory and practice of intensive, psychoanalytically-informed psychotherapy with adults who have a history of significant early-life developmental or interpersonal trauma. Readings and class discussion represent the interface of the fields of psychoanalysis and traumatology.
To learn more about the importance of in-depth trauma-specific psychotherapy, read this blog post by executive director Sandra L. Green, LCSW, SEP.
Here is another article by Sandra Green that illustrates how psychoanalytic thinking about trauma helps us to understand our responses to the events of 9/11.
Manhattan Institute for Psychoanalysis is recognized by the New York State Education Department’s State Board for Social Work and Psychology as an approved provider of continuing education for LCSW, LMSW, LCAT, LMHC and Licensed Psychologists.
Requirements for the Certificate:
Classes – Year One:
Students attend 30 hours of seminars imparting foundational knowledge about trauma and its treatment. Each of the ten, 3-hour seminars is devoted to a key topic. Students are assigned readings drawn from both contemporary psychoanalytic and traumatology literature. Each section is taught by a faculty member expert in the subject matter, affording students exposure to a diversity of clinical and theoretical perspectives.
Classes are held on Sundays on Zoom from 10:30 a.m. -1:30 p.m.
Classes – Year Two:
Building upon the groundwork of the first-year curriculum, a series of six five-hour seminars elaborates essential issues in-depth.
Classes are held on Sundays on Zoom from 10:30 a.m.-3:30 p.m.
Case Consultation Requirement:
Twenty-five hours of individual consultation are required in each of the two years. Students may choose from a list of approved consultants and arrange meetings at a time that is mutually convenient. Students should work with a different consultant each year.
In addition, there will be 5 ninety minute consultation groups. Dates and times TBA.
Eligibility:
Qualified applicants should have a clinical mental health degree (e.g. PhD/PsyD, LCSW, NP, LMHC, EdD, LP, etc.) and be fully licensed to practice independently. A minimum of 3 years postgraduate experience is preferred.
The training program consists of both individual and group case consultation. Students are expected to provide their own cases to fulfill the consultation component. If you are employed in an agency or institutional setting, please ensure that there are no privacy conflicts in presenting your cases in consultation..
Faculty:
Frances Sommer Anderson, PhD, Grant Brenner, MD, Valerie Bryant, PhD, Lorraine Caputo, LCSW, Veronica Csillag, LCSW, Phyllis Cohen, PhD, Heather Ferguson, LCSW, Richard B. Gartner, PhD, Sandra L. Green, LCSW, Elizabeth F. Howell, PhD, Sheldon Itzkowitz, PhD, Jonathan Kurfirst, PhD, Beth Lawrence, LCSW, Betty Teng, LCSW, Seth Warren, PhD, Eli Zal, LCSW, Stefan R. Zicht, PsyD.
Tuition: $2000.00 per year. Case consultation is $75 per session.
Deadline for annual tuition or establishing a payment plan is on or before 6.15.24. Students who withdraw from the program before the start of classes will receive a full tuition refund. Students who withdraw after 2 classes in year one or 1 seminar in year two will receive a 75% tuition refund. Tuition and fees are subject to change without notice pursuant to a resolution of the Board of Trustees.
Manhattan Institute is pleased to offer needs-based financial assistance and scholarships in each of our programs as well as designated scholarships for BIPOC candidates. Please indicate on your application if you would like to be considered for one of these scholarships.
Attendance Requirement:
Students are expected to attend the seminars for which they are registered in order to qualify for the Certificate. Missing more than two classes in the first year, and one class in the second year, will result in not receiving credit for that year. A Certificate cannot be conferred until missed classes are made up. The missed sessions can be made up in a subsequent year, but not after more than two subsequent years. (Students must request instructor’s permission to audit/make up missed classes.) All such make ups will be subject to an administrative fee.
Applications are now closed.
Application Process:
Eligible applicants must fill out an application, attach a current C.V., and copies of your license and malpractice insurance.
A non-refundable application fee of $75 is required. Please click here to make your payment before submitting your application.
Applications for the 2024-25 academic year open on 3.4.24 and must be submitted by 6.24.24.
Here is the link to the online application form.
Once your completed application is reviewed, you will be contacted by a member of the Admissions Committee.
CURRICULUM
Year One
Introduction to Trauma Treatment
Lorraine Caputo, LCSW
Through both readings and class discussion, students will learn to identify, recognize, define, and diagnose psychological trauma. Emphasis is placed on early relational/developmental trauma – usually referred to as complex trauma. Students will learn about the essential psychodynamic and developmental consequences of early life relational trauma. An introduction to a stage-oriented model of trauma therapy will be provided with additional elaboration on the essential elements of conducting trauma-focused psychotherapy.
Dissociation I
Beth Lawrence, LCSW
Through readings, class discussion and case presentation, students will learn: how to define, identify, and work with people with dissociation resulting from trauma. A focus will be on the high incidence and significance of this condition; a historical review of the concept of dissociation; how childhood trauma, including both relational trauma and the sexual and physical abuse of children, results in dissociation; how unrecognized trauma may emerge during the process of psychotherapy and how to understand and work with this.
Dissociation II
Elizabeth F. Howell, PhD
Some basic information on dissociative process and dissociative structure are covered, including readings form the instructor’s book, The Dissociative Mind. Learning objectives: be able to describe three of the ways the word “dissociation” is used; be able to describe the concept of “splitting” in terms of attachment and dissociation; be able to articulate the dissociative aspect of projective identification; be able to discuss the concept of dissociative attunement; be able to apply the above concepts with positive clinical effect in practice with traumatized individuals.
Transference and Countertransference
Eli Zal, LCSW
Through both readings and class discussion, students will learn: how to define and identify common transference and countertransference configurations in working with traumatized adults; when to use transference and countertransference data implicitly versus explicitly with the patient; how to understand enactments and how to clinically utilize enacted material to help patients better understand and resolve their trauma histories.
Effects of Early Trauma on Attachment: Theory and Intervention
Phyllis Cohen, PhD
Research documenting the prediction of attachment at one-year from mother-infant interaction patterns at 4-months, and other work on developmental attachment theory will be briefly reviewed. Future cognitive and social development, and the ability to self-regulate, depends on the emotional availability of an adequate caregiver as the child makes meaning and feels known. How early life trauma is experienced and memory stored in the brain will be discussed. Through readings and case descriptions the impact of early neglect, maltreatment and abuse will be explored with a focus on the application of theory to practice.
Trauma and Attachment
Jonathan Kurfirst, PhD
This course will provide students with an overview of how Attachment Theory informs the relational psychoanalytic approach to the treatment of trauma. Through lecture and readings students will come to understand how one’s experience of their psychological self occurs within the attachment context and how dissociation connected to relational trauma impacts that development and further, how this shapes the work with our patients.
Betrayal Trauma: The Interpersonal Meaning of Sexual Abuse
Richard B. Gartner, PhD
This seminar will focus on the interpersonal aspects of intimate relationship trauma, using the specific example of men sexually abused as boys. The course will address the special issues boys and men face when processing childhood sexual abuse. Particular attention will be given to the topics of male gender socialization, sexual orientation worries, and myths that interfere with men being open about their histories or even recognizing their sexual betrayal. Treatment issues and transference/countertransference dilemmas will be addressed. Teaching methods will include didactic lecture, clinical examples from the instructor’s practice, and discussion of students’ clinical examples. By the end of the seminar, students will understand prevalence and meaning of boyhood sexual abuse; understand the relational impact of sexual betrayal on boys; understand how masculine gender socialization and concerns about sexual orientation intersect with processing boyhood sexual abuse; and be able to explore transference and countertransference reactions when working with male victims of childhood sexual abuse.
Identification with the Aggressor
Sandra L. Green, LCSW
Students will be able to discuss: the concept of identification with the aggressor, including its clinical manifestations; how it results from trauma and is related to other consequences of trauma; how it influences and restricts someone’s subjective experience and interpersonal relationships; how it manifests in the treatment situation, and can be addressed clinically.
Encountering States of Perpetration
Stefan R. Zicht, PsyD
Through both readings and intensive class discussion, students in this seminar will consider the psychology of those defined as “Perpetrators” of interpersonally-mediated traumatic events. The seminar will focus on gaining a better sense and understanding of the psychological organization of such persons, especially in terms of the role of dissociation, and will explore the clinical challenges inherent in working with them. In depth discussion of clinical examples will be utilized with an eye towards conceptualizing potential countertransference interferences and pitfalls in working with such individuals.
The Trauma of Racism
Betty Teng, LCSW
What is the trauma of racism? What are its roots, properties, and impacts? How is it manifested and transmitted intergenerationally? How does racialized harm collapse time for those who suffer from it, making experience, orientation and articulation for its survivors (as well as its perpetrators and witnesses) difficult, if not unavailable? Who suffers from racial trauma, and how do we, as clinicians, create the conditions for speaking and reflecting upon these collectively painful and even paralyzing social traumas with our patients? With a mix of lecture, clinical examples and discussion of readings, this seminar will open up these potent, yet essential questions.
Year Two
The Neurobiology of Trauma
Grant Brenner, MD
Students will be able to convey understanding of basic neurobiology as pertains to clinical work with trauma.Students will be able to educate patients about fundamental aspects of trauma neurobiology as appropriate to augment clinical engagement and response. Students will develop an understanding of the neurobiology of trauma that will enable them to pursue further study on their own or through additional training. Students will develop an understanding of several key frameworks for understanding neurobiology as pertains to trauma, and appreciate their clinical and practical significance.
Working with Somatic/Implicit/Nonverbal Aspects of Trauma
Frances Sommer Anderson, PhD, SEP
Through reading, silent guided experiential processes, and discussion of clinical material, students will learn: Wilma Bucci’s Multiple Code Theory as a theoretical model for understanding the somatic/implicit/nonverbal impact of emotional and physical trauma; how to apply Multiple Code Theory in discussing clinical material; how to track somatic responses to clinical case material, thereby enhancing their ability to identify and engage nonverbal aspects in the treatment of trauma.
Dissociative Disorders: Advanced Seminar
Sheldon Itzkowitz, PhD
Some key papers on dissociative process and dissociative structure are covered, including readings from classical psychoanalytic and contemporary relational authors (Ferenczi, Bromberg), involving the phenomena of dissociated self-states. Two chapters from the instructor’s book, Understanding and Treating Dissociative Identity Disorder – one on types of dissociative parts in Dissociative Identity Disorder, and one on dissociative psychodynamics – are also taught. Students will know the difference between dissociation and repression; be able to explain the differences between dissociative process and dissociative structure; be able to explain what Bromberg means by dissociated self-states; be able to explain multiplicity, dissociation, and dissociative multiplicity; increase their capacity for applying the above concepts in clinical practice.
The Intergenerational and Socio-Cultural Transmission of Trauma
Valerie Bryant, PhD
Through class readings, discussion, and clinical examples, students will learn about individual and collective trans-generational trauma under the rubric of attachment theory, a conspiracy of silence, and internalized psychic structures. The material will be considered within a socio-cultural context with an emphasis on mentalization, soma-empathy, unresolved mourning, and multiple internalized identifications as focal points of trauma-informed therapy.
Beyond Impasse: Working with Shame and Narcissistic States
Seth Warren, PhD
This clinical seminar will address narcissistic states, including shame, and the defenses erected against them, that arise in the aftermath of complex trauma. Unattended, these processes may lead to an acute or chronic intrapsychic and interpersonal downward spiral. In treatment, the narcissistic bastion may seem impenetrable and can easily result in impasse and enactment. The concepts of negative therapeutic reaction and malignant narcissism will be introduced and defined. This seminar will provide participants with guidance in addressing the challenging transference/countertransference matrix of such entrenchment, and will present ways of getting beyond these negative constellations.
Open Forum
Beth Lawrence, LCSW; Jonathan Kurfirst, PhD
In the Open Forum setting, advanced candidates will be provided with the context to react to clinical material thereby demonstrating what they have learned over the course of the program.
Using case material that will be provided by the instructors, or at times, using their own experiences, they will be asked to demonstrate how their assessing, formulating and intervening has been informed by their 2 year exposure to the relational model of working with trauma.
2024-25 Class schedule
All classes are held on Zoom on Sundays from 10:30am-1:30PM
First Year Schedule
9/29/24 – Intro to Trauma Treatment: Lorraine Caputo, LCSW
10/20/24- Dissociation I: Beth Lawrence, LCSW
11/17/24- Transference/CT: Eli Zal, LCSW
12/1/24- Dissociation II – Elizabeth Howell, PhD
12/15/24- Effects of Trauma on Early Attachment—Phyliss Cohen, PhD
1/19/25- Betrayal Trauma: The Interpersonal Meaning of Trauma: Richard Gartner, PhD
2/23/25- Trauma and Attachment – Jon Kurfirst, PhD
3/9/25- Identification with the Aggressor: Sandra Green, LCSW
4/27/25- Encountering States of Perpetration, Stefan Zicht, PhD
5/18/25- The Trauma of Racism: Betty Teng, LCSW
Second Year Schedule
All classes are held on Zoom on Sundays from 10:30am – 3:30pm
10/20/24-The Neurobiology of Trauma: Grant Brenner, MD
11/10/24-Working with Somatic/Implicit/Nonverbal Aspects of Trauma Fran Sommer Anderson, PhD
1/5/25 – Dissociation: Advanced Seminar -Sheldon Itzkowitz, PhD
2/2/25- Transgenerational and Socio-Cultural Transmission of Trauma Valerie Bryant, PhD, LCSW
3/2/25: Beyond Impasse: Working with Shame and Narcissistic States, Seth Warren, PhD
4/6/25: Final Seminar: Beth Lawrence, LCSW & Jon Kurfirst, PhD
Consultation Group schedule:
First Year Students
Eli Zal, LCSWSundays 10:30-Noon
10/6
11/3
12/8
1/12
2/2
2nd Year Students
Sheldon Itzkowitz, PhD
Fridays. 9:30-11:00
10/25
12/6
11/24
2/7
3/21