65th Annual Conference

Thursday, February 21

Afternoon Workshops

2:45-6:00 P.M.

Master Workshop 36

Shadow Families: Transference and Countertransference Reactions When Issues of Adoption Are Present

Open to participants with more than ten years of group psychotherapy experience

Chairs:         

Miriam L. Iosupovici, M.S.W., Private Practice, Imperial Beach, CA
Maurine Kelber Kelly, Ph.D., Faculty, Adv Psychotherapy Training Program, Washington School of Psychiatry, Washington, DC
Mary Jago Krueger, M.S.Ed., LCPC, CGP, Senior Clinician, Youth & Family Counseling, IL Field Supervisor CAPFS, Northwestern University, IL
 

Personally and professionally we have experienced the powerful impact of adoption. A disproportionate patient subgroup of adoptees, birth and adoptive parents, sibs and intergenerational relatives seek treatment. This workshop, appropriate for therapists with and without adoption histories, will explore impacts of adoption themes, transferences and counter-transferences in group psychotherapy.
Sharing of work experiences-didactic-experiential-demonstration
 

Learning Objectives:

The attendee will be able to:
1. Describe the implications of social policy on adoption & their effect on the clinical milieu.
2. Identify & examine common myths & misconceptions connected to adoption roles.
3. Acquire tools to distinguish between counter-transference phenomena triggered by therapist’s own history and/or client material.
4. Distinguish when therapist is utilizing facilitative or disruptive self-disclosure.

Course References:

1. Javier, R.A., Baden, A.L., Biafora, F.A, & Camacho-Gingerich, A. (2007). Handbook of Adoption: Implications for Researcher, Practitioners, and Families. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.
2. Krueger-Jago, M.J. & Hanna, F.J. (1997) Why Adoptees Search: An Existential Treatment Perspective. Journal of Counseling and Development., 75, 195–202.
3. Quinodoz, D. (1996) An Adopted Analyst’s Transference of a ‘Hole-Object’. International Journal of Psychoanalysis, 77, 323-336