The presentation will be given in English, with free simultaneous English interpretation for the audience questions in French during the question and answer period.

This conference is approved by the Ordre des Psychologues du Québec for 6 hours of continuing education units (CEU) in psychotherapy. No OPQ: RA01568-16.

The conference
One of the most important changes in contemporary analytic psychotherapy and psychoanalysis is its interest in and emphasis on the therapist’s subjectivity and imagination as they interact with his patient’s subjectivity. The therapist’s subjectivity includes everything that he brings to the work: his unique mental and emotional makeup as well as his history, memory, values, biases and perspectives. It also includes his particular theories, goals, and therapeutic strategies and interventions. The therapeutic imagination refers to the ways in which all of these factors interact in the therapist’s mind, creating unique images and associations that emerge in relation to the patient. This imagination functions both in session and in reflection outside of the clinical setting.

Whether quietly listening with attention and attunement, channeling the patient imaginatively, or expressing himself verbally, the therapist is a full interacting partner in the clinical setting. Although the therapeutic relationship is asymmetrical—that is, the patient’s needs are always primary—the therapist’s understandings of, imaginative vision for, and chosen interactions with the patient color the process and outcome of the work.

One consequence of Dr Weisel-Barth’s interest in therapists ubjectivity and imagination is that she presents her work through the lens of her own subjectivity and imagination. During the day, she will tell some of her own case stories—which are saturated with her subjectivity. She will try to describe how her emotional and imaginative responses to her patients inform the work and contribute to the changes that occur in both her patients and herself. She will also portray the difficulties in this kind of work: for example, how frequently we are blind to or miss aspects of our own subjectivity and, thereby, unconsciously disrupt the relationship or slip into confusing enactments.

Hopefully, much of our day with Dr Joye Weisel-Barth will involve using her clinical material to spark a lively conversation about the ways in which our subjectivity and imagination are alive and active in our therapeutic work.

The clinical workshop
The following day of Joye Weisel-Barth's conference, Sunday September 25th from 10.30 am to 1 pm, you are invited to attend a clinical workshop led by Joye with a small group of 20 participants. Maurice Carrier will present clinical material, and after an exchange between him and our invited speaker, the discussion will open to the group. To register, please go to the Clinical workshop page.

The presenter

Readings
At the Vendredis intersubjectifs (evenings of text study at the GEI) of this year, three of Joye Weisel-Barth's papers have been studied in preparation for her conference. They are available here (n.b. it is not required to read the papers to fully benefit from the conference):

• GEI members: The papers are available in the Section des membres menu, under Documentation, at the Textes de Joye Weisel-Barth page (it is necessary to log into your user account to access the Section des membres).
• Non-members : The papers are available at a cost of 10$ (for copyright fees) at this page : Trois articles de Joye Weisel-Barth en préparation à sa conférence.

Learning Objectives
At the conclusion of this presentation, the participant will be able to:
1. Describe the nature and functions of the therapist’s subjectivity;
2. Explain the nature and functions of the therapist’s imagination and the roles of memory, associations, desires and theories in the constitution of that imagination;
3. Illustrate some of the inherent difficulties related to the emotional engagement of the therapist;
4. Identify the role of time and imagined future vision in therapeutic action.

Schedule
20 minutes morning and afternoon breaks, snacks included (cookies and beverages)

  8:00 : Registration, continental breakfast included
  9:00 : Introduction of speaker
  9:15 : I- Sense of time, imagined future, and therapeutic process
11:00 : II- Confusions and hazards in relational therapeutic practice
12:30 : Lunch, at the hotel buffet restaurant
02:00 : III- The therapist’s feeling of envy in her work with a creative patient: 4 scenes
03:30 : Discussion with audience
04:30 : End

Free WiFi internet access
The connection informations will be displayed at the registration table.

Organizing committee
Marie Noël, psychologist, treasurer of the GEI
Jean-François Bernard, psychologist, administrator and webmaster at the GEI
Annette Richard, psychologist, president of the GEI