A Contemporary Self Psychological
Approach to Couple Therapy:
An Overview and Comparison with Gottman and
Emotionally Focused Couple Therapy (EFT) Models
Carla Leone, Ph.D.
9:00 am to 4:30 pm, Saturday, March 17, 2018
Shipley Auditorium, Newton Wellesley Hospital
2014 Washington Street, Newton, MA 02462
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This workshop is part of an ongoing series of PCFINE-sponsored programs exploring different models of couple therapy.
Contemporary self psychology offers a wealth of concepts that can be extremely useful when applied to the many challenges of couple therapy – especially work with particularly difficult, stuck, or high-conflict couples. This day-long workshop will begin with a brief overview of basic tenets of self psychology and then highlight their application to couple therapy. A paper by the presenter detailing these tenets and demonstrating their clinical usefulness will be e-mailed to registrants in advance of the program. A case illustration, including an audiotape, will also be used to illustrate key concepts. In the afternoon, the self psychological approach will be contrasted with two popular manualized models of couple treatment, the Gottman Method (e.g., Gottman, 2007), and Emotionally Focused Couple Therapy (EFT) (e.g., Johnson, 2004), with an emphasis on how these models might usefully inform each other. A second case will then be presented in which concepts borrowed from the two manualized models were usefully incorporated into the primarily self psychological treatment of a high-conflict couple. A detailed transcript of a session will be read aloud and discussed.
Carla Leone, Ph.D. is the director of a group private practice and on the faculty of the Institute for Clinical Social Work in Chicago, where she co-teaches a course on Psychoanalytic Couples Therapy. She is an elected member of the governing council of the International Association of Psychoanalytic Self Psychology (IAPSP), chair and co-founder of that organization’s Couples Therapy Interest Group, and recently co-chaired the 2017 IAPSP annual conference. She is the author of several published papers on self psychologically informed couples and family therapy, as well as a paper on the transference-countertransference dynamics that can emerge in individual treatment when discussing the patient’s “unseen spouse.”
PARTICIPANTS:
This program is open to all PCFINE members, other interested mental health professionals and students. It is intended for those with an intermediate or advanced level of knowledge and experience.
This program is open to all PCFINE members, other interested mental health professionals and students. It is intended for those with an intermediate or advanced level of knowledge and experience.
EDUCATIONAL OBJECTIVES:
At the conclusion of this program the participants will be able to:
1. List the basic tenets of contemporary self psychology.
2. Describe the major tenets of self psychologically informed couple therapy, including the model’s conceptual understanding of common couples’ complaints, its view of the overall goal of treatment, and several basic treatment principles.
3. List several major tenets of the Gottman Method and Emotionally Focused Couple Therapy (EFT).
4. List several similarities and differences between self psychological couple therapy and the Gottman Method.
5. List several similarities and differences between self psychological couple therapy and Emotionally Focused Couple Therapy (EFT).
6. Explain how the three models of treatment might mutually enhance each other.
